Oliver Davis reviews Spawn #233…
“Jim is at odds with his powers as he and the K7-Leetha fight for control. Can Jim harness the dark powers within? Or will the suit overwhelm his human soul, making him a true Hellspawn?“
Jim Lee, one of the founding fathers of Image Comics, was on Kevin Smith’s Fatman on Batman podcast recently. He spoke about the company’s history, what made them stand out from the Big Two, and how they ultimately revolutionised an art form. Give it a listen.
That context makes reading Spawn much richer. Jim Lee has since left Image to become the co-publisher of DC Comics. Todd MacFarlane, Spawn’s creator and writer, however, remains faithful to the Image style. Spawn #233 embraces it whole-heartedly.
Each page of this issue is without edges, with panels so large they seem to seep into reality. The first full-page splash comes almost immediately after you’ve opened the comic. Several more follow, with a couple of double-page spreads thrown in for good measure. Unlike #232, this issue truly is an image comic.
It’s refreshing. Dialogue (or ‘monologue’ as it is in one bad-guy-riffing segment) is kept to a minimum. The pictures do the talking, the words just fill in gaps. It’s the sort of stuff that would give Brian Michael Bendis nightmares.
As a newcomer to Spawn, what exactly’s going on is still a little tricky to decipher. But that didn’t stop the big reveal of K7-Leetha’s plan for Jim Downing being any less momentous. The final few pages in particular are masterly paced, the penultimate having three panels of the same blank stare, with only the last one becoming defiant. “You’re wrong,” proclaims Downing, before bursting into another glorious double page spread.
Image indeed.
Oliver Davis is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors. You can follow him on Twitter @OliDavis.
Originally published July 6, 2013. Updated November 28, 2022.
