Cassie Hack, the main hero in the Hack/Slash comic, was designed by creator Tim Seeley to be a horror victim who chose to get revenge on horror villains. Seeley introduced her in Hack/Slash: Euthanized #1 (April 2004) from Devil’s Due Publishing. Cassie was raised by an overprotective mother who was a cook at her school where Cassie was bullied by classmates for being plain looking, poor, timid, and not having stylish clothes. In retaliation for the bullying, Cassie’s mom killed all the kids who tormented her daughter and served them as lunch.

When Cassie discovered what her mom was doing, she called the police, saving the last victim, then she witnessed her mother’s suicide. Now in foster care, Cassie started learning martial arts and other fighting techniques to protect herself. Two years later children started disappearing again, and the evidence pointed to her mother as the killer. Cassie learned that her mother had returned as a horror villain known as a “slasher” and Cassie stopped her mother by shooting her.

Feeling guilty, but also now determined to stop other slashers, Cassie decided to hit the road and hunt the hunters. She headed to Chicago to track the Meatman, a killer who was targeting teenagers. When Cassie found the Meatman, she learned that he wasn’t actually the murderer, just an oddly shaped man named Vlad. They worked together and discovered that the real murderer was an assassin connected to the mafia. Once they stopped the killer, Vlad started traveling with Cassie to help on her mission.

Their work took them to Indiana where they saved a veterinarian named Lisa from a slasher who was accidentally killed by her boyfriend. Then they went to a beach resort where a crazy Catholic girl was controlling an undead preacher and using him to kill.

When the undead killer Evil Ernie joined Devil’s Due Publishing, he went on a killing spree in Hack/Slash, murdering six women in New Jersey. Cassie and Vlad tracked Evil Ernie to a saw mill, where he quickly fell in love with Cassie. Ernie tried to kidnap Cassie, but unintentionally sent himself to Hell instead.

They learned about a slasher named Ashley who was killing people in their dreams like Freddy Krueger. Lisa helped Cassie by knocking her out with sleeping gas so that she could fight Ashley. Cassie pulled from her own nightmares, bringing her mother into the dream to kill the dream slasher. From there, Cassie continued hunting slashers, going up against the Acid Angel, teaming up with Chucky, the possessed doll, and even being transported to another dimension by a slasher.