Oliver Davis reviews Spawn #232…
32 STRAIGHT ISSUES WITH SAME ART TEAM, declares the book’s front cover. It reads like the “3 days without an accident” board in The Simpsons. They are Spawn’s creator/writer Todd MacFarlane and Szymon Kudranski on pencils and inking. Hooray for consistency.
Having never read Spawn, and starting at part four of its current arc, the issue isn’t as confusing as you’d think. Jim Downing is the first man never to have died before becoming a Spawn host. His soul has traveled to Hell, Heaven and Earth, which potentially makes him the most powerful being in the Universe. Also, the living, sentient necroplasm-based symbiote suit, called K7-Leetha (thanks Wikipedia), is slowly taking over his subconscious. This is unprecedented in Spawn hosts. Okay…maybe it is as confusing as you’d think.
But that’s not the book’s fault. It’d be frustrating to have everything explained to readers every month. That it’s possible to understand this much from one issue is to MacFarlane and Kudranski’s credit. They’ve been working together on 32 straight issues, you know.
Both the writing and art are fittingly gruesome throughout. Some panels recall the scratched pencils of Dave McKean on Batman: Arkham Asylum. One character, Doctor Joseph Kerr (“My friends call me Joe. Get it? Joe Kerr.”) has his face drawn in silhouette, the only prominent features being his filed teeth and glowing red eyes. He talks fascinatingly of the defence mechanism God (“your boss”) built into His angels. If they lose their wings, they go insane. So he visits a mental asylum to interrogate an old foe.
More striking is the framing of certain scenes. In an earlier sequence, a two-page spread is divided into over 30 panels, the majority with very little difference between them besides minute actions. It gives the impression of scrolling through old film cells, placing considerable emphasis on subtle movements and makes for a deliberately paced, tension building read.
32 straight issues is no mean feat. They’ve certainly picked up another reader for No.33.
Oliver Davis (@olidavis)
Originally published June 5, 2013. Updated November 28, 2022.
