Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash - Issue 1

By: Merin
Date: Saturday, January 05, 2008

Freddy VS Jason VS Ash – Issue 1
Story: Jeff Katz; Writer: James Anthony Kuhoric ; Artist: Jason Craig
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Roll Call: Ashley Williams, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, assorted soon-to-be corpses

One Sentence Synopsis: Continuing from the Freddy vs. Jason movie, this time with the Chosen One wielding his chainsaw at Crystal Lake.
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The Meat: Word of warning – this would have had to have been pretty horrible for me to not have liked it. I buy all the Jason, Freddy and Ash comics that come out.

Ash is narrating the issue from the start, so we get his smarmy view of things. So much fun! We get a brief intro to who Jason and Freddy are, and what Crystal Lake (now renamed Forest Green) is. We also learn the town is trying to redo its image, including a brand new Super Mega S-Mart! Guess who's been hired for Housewares?

The beginning of the story sees Laurie and Will, the survivors of the film, driving back. Apparently Laurie needs to be “sure”' Jason and Freddy are both dead and gone. Ash, our narrator, lets us know exactly how stupid this is. Will doesn't want to go back, but he loves Laurie and won't let her do it alone.

While this plays out exactly how you expect it to over the next several pages, Ash analyzes for the reader what must go through the mind of someone who survives this kind of experience. Will disappears and as Laurie tracks him to a house where his body is hung already quite dead, we are told that if you manage to win where so many others lose you begin to wonder if there must not be a reason why you lived and so many others died. Laurie proceeds to kick the crap out of Jason with a power saw (hey, that's someone else's move!) Ash tells us that such survivors think they have a purpose, that they are “chosen” to fight the darkness. Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, as you probably guessed, Jason kills Laurie just as Ash tells us that there's only 1 Chosen One. Him. Despite him not wanting the job.

We get some pages of “character introduction” of the losers who work at S-Mart. You know, parading the future victims before you so you can get to know them before they pass on. Eh.

Then we get to see Jason dragging the bodies to his little shack, where the heads of his mother and Freddy are displayed. He then gets pulled into a dream where he sees the camp he went to as a kid. Kids mock some other kid (Jason, maybe?), some counselors are doing in it broad daylight, and Jason heads to a cabin where Freddy is screwing his mom. Mrs. Voorhees and Freddy instruct Jason that he needs to get Freddy a book – the Necronomicon, of course!

Aside – where would horror fiction be if someone held the copyright to that book after Lovecraft dreamed it up? See how much fun Public Domain is, Disney? Oh, wait, you made half your empire off of Public Domain material (Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Lion King, Mulan, Hercules, Sword in the Stone, Cinderella, Snow White, etc., etc.)

The last page of the book Ash finished narrating as he drives up in his Death Coaster (ok, it's just a sedan right now) to start his first day at S-Mart in Forest Green. He gives us the spiel (obviously relating the tale from a time later on) that he had no idea he was being drawn to this place as part of the evil book's plans.

All in all, a fun read. Graphic, for certain, so don't go showing it to your kids or younger siblings. But anyone who's a fan of any of these franchises should get a kick out of the book. I certainly did. The story structure for a first issue is even well done, never dragging, never getting bogged down (like many modern horror comics) in endless pages of gore.
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Favorite Line: “But all that is ancient history, just like the Romans and their pyramids.”

Favorite Moment: Laurie slashing away at Jason with the saw.

Favorite Image: . . . ok, the machete splitting Laurie's skull. I make no apologies.
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Overall Grade: B
- A good start to such a possibly unwieldy story. The art and pacing work for me, though I do have to say I don't know how we kept seeing shots of Laurie's thong. Also, I could probably have done without seeing Freddy in bed with Jason's mom. I asked for horror though. If you like this kind of thing (horror that is as much comedy at this point as anything) I recommend giving it a shot. If you are NOT a fan of those movies, especially Army of Darkness, AVOID!