Spawn #163

Released: December 27, 2006

Publisher: Image

Writer: David Hine

Pencils: Philip Tan & Rodel Noora

Inks: Danny Miki, Allen Martinez, Ryan Winn, & Crime Lab Studios

Colors: Brian Haberlin & Andy Troy

Letterer: Tom Orzechowski

Cover: Greg Capullo

 

Todd McFarlane may be crazy, but I can’t deny he’s gutsy. Gutsy and bold to completely waste our time for fifty issues building up a villain, Mammon, only to turn around and deliver an Armageddon storyline that finalizes the dualist mythology he’d created since the beginning. He’s shown us the wizard behind the curtain and whether he intended to or not, completely removed any intrigue from the world he’d created.

 

So Armageddon takes place, Spawn becomes a god, and then creates a new world with God and Lucifer left to duke it out for eternity on the original Earth that is now a blasted wasteland since EVERYONE was killed. So this new Earth is devoid of angels, demons, magic, or gods and THEN Spawn gives up his godhood to become Al Simmons (again) so that he can go win Wanda back, right.

 

At least we’re consistent on that point, which was Spawn’s goal all along. But this book is a mess, and the kind of reboot we just witnessed might be a last ditch effort to save it. Cog’s betrayal and sub-plot were forgotten, Mammon’s growing plot was dropped, and even Armageddon was rushed. Everything about what made this comic ‘Spawn’ has been gone for years now. I liked the idea of a truly evolving superhero but McFarlane lost sight of the big picture along the way. An evolving superhero epic needs to be extra tight on continuity, tying up loose ends, and not building up fifty issues for nothing.

 

Spawn himself has undergone some heavy character fluctuations that also seem to have no clear rhyme or reason. Sometimes he hated humanity and its depravity, and then he loved humanity. He was fighting to control humanity at first, and now he’s fighting to keep it from being controlled. I’m curious to see where they plan on taking this, if they don’t just cancel the damn thing. But my curiosity can only sustain me so long, this book is not a fun read at all.

 

Rating - 3