The second volume of the Hack/Slash series benefitted from my reduced expectations almost as well as as the first suffered by my heightened ones. Where the first one revolved around the origin story and growth as a team of the lead characters, Death by Sequel settles into a more episodic format that seems to better suit the genre they are taking on. And yet, during the two related stories that comprise the volume, it is clear to see Cassie and Vlad’s friendship deepening beyond their working relationship. It’s not the kind of story where they might eventually have a romance, which for my money makes the attention to their closeness all the more impressive.

Also, as you might expect, they wander about trying to kill evil murdering things in the night, so you don’t have to die. And they do so in inappropriate clothing whilst spattering about as much gore as is feasible. So that’s good of them. Still, the best part of the book was the scattering of 3-4 page trailers for “upcoming” storylines. Pitch-perfect parodies of the kind of movie that the actual written stories are based on; I’m not sure whether the stories try to achieve the same level of parody and fall short, or if the authors understand that it wouldn’t be sustainable over the comic’s potential long run. Either way, as lightly enjoyable as the stories are, the trailers were hilarious.