When the rich and famous — particularly in Hollywood — do messed up things and find themselves in compromising positions, they call on a fixer to mitigate the damage and make things go away. But what about when it’s Hollywood After Dark and it’s the things that go bump in the night that need things fixed for them? That’s the premise of Freddie The Fix from writer Garth Ennis and artist Mike Perkins and while the premise is intriguing and the idea of werewolves, vampires, zombies and more getting in over their heads in a decidedly debauched Hollywood is fascinating, this one shot manages to miss the mark as a horror offering and weave a tale that is more wandering than it is complex.
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Freddie The Fix opens up with our fixer, Freddie, explaining in narration what exactly his job is as he’s on his way to something he has to fix: Lou the Werewolf has gone a little too far with a male sex worker leading to a pretty gruesome death. It’s just another day at the office for Freddie who counsels his client on how to deal with the situation while also offering some sage advice on things he shouldn’t be doing generally even though he admits to himself it’s not going to stick and he’ll be back to dealing with Lou again at some point. He next finds himself called to the office of a movie mogul where he’s given news of something much bigger that he needs to deal with: the Boogeyman has died and it’s something that needs to be dealt with ASAP.
The Boogeyman is made out to be a real evil and his death being an overall win, but Freddie reluctantly signs on to help clean up the death — specifically to make sure that the death goes largely unnoticed. As Freddie starts to investigate and work on tying up loose ends, however, he finds himself dealing with a larger conspiracy and finds out that the Boogeyman’s death may not be exactly as it seems. Just another day at work for the fixer. Generally, it’s an interesting premise. Freddie’s work takes him on pretty much a tour of just about every sort of supernatural or horror creature you can imagine. We’re also taken on a bit of a side tour when Freddie is himself threatened as he continues his work, revealing that sometimes Freddie’s work means that he’s helping the evil get away with things, making him largely a morally grey figure.
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But while the story is full of horrific creatures and things that traditionally are at home on the pages of horror stories, Freddie The Fix never really rises to a horror story. Instead, the whole issue feels like a long, rambling slice of life for Freddie that barely scratches the surface of the sort of dark things he encounters. Instead, the story leans too hard on shock value and sexual perversion to be edgy. Nearly every creature we encounter in the story has some sort of kink and most of the encounters Freddie has with various creatures and characters throughout the story comes with either a sexual sight gag or some direct reference to sex, usually in some sort of attempt at humor — particularly there’s a dildo joke that just feels played out and unnecessary.
As for the actual tension and mystery of the issue — the circumstances around the Boogeyman’s death — that almost feels like a bit of an aside. The issue tries very hard to interconnect the various creatures Freddie encounters as part of this big shocking death, but the ties seem superficial at best and when the issue does reveal what really went on with the Boogeyman, it’s not only something that the reader could have easily guessed, but the connections the issue tried to thread just don’t work. And, given that this is a one-shot issue and therefore a complete story, the resolution feels too easy and too clean, especially when things end by going full circle back to the mess from the beginning. Just another day at the office for Freddie.
While the story aspect of Freddie The Fix leaves quite a bit to be desired, however, the art is actually pretty solid. The art in the issue has something of a 70s vibe to it and the horror creatures are particularly well-crafted. Even the dinosaurs (yes, there are dinosaurs in this) are pretty great. In terms of colors, the issue does a great job of setting tone and mood using color, which is great considering how dense the actual writing is. The result is art that actual goes a lot further in telling the story than the writing on the page does. The only real weakness there is that some of the renderings of faces seems to change from page to page, but fortunately the character count is low enough that it’s easy to keep everyone straight.
Ultimately, Freddie The Fix has an interesting premise that it largely wastes on trying to be edgy, sacrificing shock value for actual story, and overstuffing the pages with a lot of writing that doesn’t necessarily get the job done. While the story is set as the debut offering for the creator-owned and driven horror showcase Ninth Circle, it really serves as sort of a weak introduction. The story, instead of functioning as something with horror and scares, feels more like elaborate world building. The reader is left with the feeling that there should be so much more to this story. We just unfortunately don’t get it.
Published by: Image Comics
On: December 18, 2024
Written by: Garth Ennis
Art by: Mike Perkins
Colors by: Mike Spicery and Andy Troy
Letters by: Rob Steen
