Reviewer: Paul Sebert
Written by: Brian Pulido
Penciled by: Mike Wolfer
Inked by: Mike Wolfer
Editor: William Christensen
Publisher: Avatar
Sure he may not have the special effects of Freddy Krueger, the haunting mystery of Michael Myers, the twisted family dynamic of Leatherface, or the snaky in-joke humor of that guy from Scream… but let’s face it. America loves Jason Voorhees. With ten films in the Friday the 13th series, plus Freddy vs. Jason it looks like the hockey mask wearing undead menace will never truly die. Ok, ok I know Jason wasn’t even in the first Friday the 13th, that he didn’t get his hockey mask until part III, was replaced by an Imposter in part V, and in Jason Goes to Hell he inexplicably became a killer worm beast. But even a rocky start and a few missteps in franchise history go to show just how indestructible Jason really is.
Now into the 25th anniversary of the franchise Avatar press has decided to put out a new comics one-shot as a prelude to an ongoing series about everyone’s favorite ginsu-wielding goalie. Being the creator of such similarly indestructible evil creations as Evil Ernie, and Lady Death (who’s killed off at least two publishers) Brian Pulido is an obvious fan of the slasher genre and certainly seems to be natural choice for a book about the franchise.
The plot for this book is rather simple. The daughter of the man who owned Camp Crystal Lake wants to build some luxury resort cabins along where the long-abandoned summer camp lies, and this obviously doesn’t sit well with Jason. Annoying teenagers are bad enough, but really the last thing Voorhees needs is some day-tripping yuppies in orange fishing vests and power boats cruising around on his lake. As it’s kind of hard to sell condos with an undead serial killer around, a group of heavily armed mercenaries has been hired to investigate any strange goings-on at the Lake. Meanwhile an obligatory pair of horny teenagers has decided to sneak off into the woods. Really you think the kids would know better than that by now.
The setup pairing off the monster with worthy adversaries a good idea, but alas for this one-shot story falls flat because Pulido fails to make the mercenaries seem like legitimate threats. They seem to be every bit as dumb and easy to kill as the kids that normally inhabits his movies. Imagine what the first Predator movie would have been like without Arnold or even Jesse Ventura among the cast and well you get the idea.
On the few occasions the mercs manage to get a few shots off on him, Voorhees seems even more invulnerable than any movie incarnation. I mean yeah Jason’s unkillable, but one would think having a large chunk blasted at him would at least slow him down. Perhaps things would have been scarier if Jason for once found himself in a situation where he was the underdog?
Mike Wolfer’s grim lurid art style fit’s the horror icon well but the book’s panel lay-out is rather messy at times as is the Wolfer’s sense of anatomy. During one sequence Jason somehow manages to disembowel a man simply by pulling a gun free from his hands. During another a poor sap gets his heart ripped with surprising ease, perhaps because Wolfer forgot to draw him with a proper ribcage.
There’s couple of dark laughs, and plenty of cartoonish gore to be found for fans of the franchise, but not much more substance for the rest of us.
Then again perhaps it’s somewhat unreasonable to expect much more from a Friday the 13th comic.
