SPAWN #75 - August 1998

Sacred Ground

Credits: Todd McFarlane & Brian Holguin (story), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki w/Scott Kobayashi (inks), Tom Orzechowski (copy editor & letters), Brian Haberlin, Dan Kemp, & Tyson Wengler (colors)

Summary: Spawn finds himself powerless in the Greenworld. He’s restrained by thorny vines and confronted by the Keeper, the Emerald Parliament’s representative. The Keeper explains that the Earth is the third force in the battle between Heaven and Hell, a war that will destroy the planet, unless someone forges peace. Spawn sees a vision of himself with angel wings, flying in-between God and Malebolgia. In Rat City, Boots channels energy through Spawn’s sigil, which brings him back home. An army of angels arrives and arrests Boots for interfering with human affairs and aiding a Hellspawn.

Spawntinuity: As the angels take Boots away, he asks Spawn: “The deal you made with Malebolgia -- how do you know you really made it?” He then says that a child will come, which Spawn must “look to.” Meanwhile, Cyan snaps out of her seizure when Spawn returns to Earth.

Production Note: The book is back to twenty-two pages, and even includes a five-page preview of the Harry Houdini limited series, Great Escapes.

Review: It’s an anniversary issue, and although the book isn’t double-sized (a stunt McFarlane rarely likes to pull), the creators still seem aware that it should be significant in some way. They accomplish this by, of course, vaguely hinting about future events and making cryptic revelations about the “real” story behind Spawn’s origin. Essentially, it’s the past twenty issues of this book, compressed into a one-issue story.

I’m sure McFarlane and/or Holguin thought the revelation that the Earth itself doesn’t want a war between Heaven and Hell was clever, and I suppose it is a justifiable take on the standard End Times theology. But, just as the previous issue intimated that God can’t create souls, I suppose we’re also supposed to believe that God couldn’t create another Earth after the war. Obviously, McFarlane isn’t bound to a strict Judeo-Christian interpretation of the afterlife when creating his comic, but he’s very casually recasting the role of God without dealing with any of the consequences. Is this God the universe’s ultimate moral authority? Does the God of the Spawnverse answer prayer? Is He or She responsible for the creation of existence? If not, who or what is? I’m not saying that all of these questions should’ve been answered by this point, but the subjects should’ve been broached. Mark Gruenwald wouldn’t have pussyfooted around like this.

Now, as for Spawn himself, we’re given the shocking revelation that he’s the one destined to bring peace between Heaven and Hell. Oddly enough, his death is also supposed to trigger their war during Armageddon. He’s so special! Certainly, he won’t be replaced with a different character within the next hundred issues. (How exactly his death is supposed to start the war isn’t clear, by the way. Does this mean that with Spawn dead on Earth, his soul returns to Hell, where he’ll fight alongside Malebolgia’s army? Or does his mere existence prevent the two sides from ever fighting the final battle?) Since Spawn is the lead, it’s understandable that the creators want him to fulfill some grand destiny and be “special” in a way the previous Hellspawns weren’t. Fine, but why does he have two separate prophesies attached to him? It’s overkill.

Finally, as Boots is hauled way in chains (a plot thread that actually did have something of a resolution), it’s revealed that maybe Spawn never made the famous deal from his origin, and that a mystery child is the key to everything. Obviously. We’ve already discovered that Spawn’s memories are fake, and that Wanda was Hell’s target all along, so why not undermine the rest of the character’s well-established origin story? And, gee, could that exceptional child be Cyan? Actually, I have no idea how this played out. Did anyone read Spawn long enough to know if any of these cryptic references were paid off? Looking through Wikipedia, I know that Cogliostro replaced Malebolgia in Hell, Angela died, and Al Simmons has become the villainous Omega Spawn…but what about the revelations from the end of McFarlane’s original stint as writer? Did we learn more about Hell’s interest in Wanda? Was the magic child revealed? Did the Earth make another attempt at stopping Armageddon? I’m genuinely curious…do Spawn fans have a strict stance on continuity, and has the series lived up to it in the years following McFarlane’s departure?

SPAWN #74 - July 1998

The Void

Credits: Todd McFarlane & Brian Holguin (story), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), Tom Orzechowski (copy editor & letters), Brian Haberlin & Dan Kemp (colors)

Summary: After discovering Spawn’s secret identity, Sam and Twitch are determined to learn his connection to Jason Wynn. Meanwhile, Spawn fights the Heap, but is soon consumed within his body. Boots discovers a Spawn sigil left behind in the alleys. Within Heap, Spawn speaks to Eddie Beckett, who now serves as a conduit for the “Emerald Parliament.” Spawn floats out of the black void into a tunnel, where he sees another Spawn sigil.

Spawntinuity: Cyan instinctively knows when Spawn has disappeared inside Heap. According to Boots, he can’t allow Spawn to die because this will trigger Armageddon. He claims that Malebolgia has harvested too many souls and that Heaven isn’t ready to fight. Apparently, God’s unable to create souls in the Spawn theology.

The Big Names: The real life Terry Fitzgerald has photos from the 1998 Tibetan Freedom Concert, and the first US date of Pearl Jam’s ’98 tour. He hints at a future collaboration with the band, which will turn out to be their “Do the Evolution” video.

Production Note: What has two staples and only twenty pages of story? Any issue of Spawn from this era.

Review: You know the issue isn’t off to a promising start when it opens with more of Sam and Twitch’s bumbling detective work. They do at least know that Spawn is Al Simmons now, but the four-page sequence is marred with the grim “we’re bringing him in” cliffhanger. This is, what, the fifth time Sam’s rushed into action, pledging to bring Spawn in? Where do any of these investigations go? Also, he’s not a cop anymore, so where is he bringing him? The story does acknowledge that the detectives lost their jobs while investigating Chief Banks, but that bit of info is essentially ignored just a page later to make room for the dramatic closing line. This goes in the Sloppy Spawn Continuity Hall of Fame.

After the shoddy opening, the issue redeems itself a bit. Spawn has his first real fight scene in months against the Heap, and while it doesn’t last long, Capullo brings a lot of energy to the action. The all-black void within the Heap, contrasted against Spawn’s elaborate costume and the assorted garbage he’s dragged along with him, is another strong visual. I’m sure Boots’ vague talk about Armageddon is going to be more cryptic horse manure that doesn’t amount to anything, but the script is fairly successful in selling the idea. I’m even more convinced that the division of labor at this point is McFarlane plotting and Holguin scripting, since this doesn’t read like a terrible comic; the aimlessness and repetitiveness are only obvious if you know the book’s track record.

SPAWN #73 - June 1998

The Heap

Credits: Todd McFarlane & Brian Holguin (story), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki w/Todd McFarlane & Chance Wolf (inks), Tom Orzechowski (copy editor & letters), Brian Haberlin & Dan Kemp (colors)

Summary: Unimpressed with Sam and Twitch’s progress so far, Cogliostro leaves them with a file on Al Simmons. Later, he warns Boots that a third force is approaching. Elsewhere, Eddie Beckett is harassed by a mob enforcer who’s heard rumors that Eddie is hoarding “something special.” He leaves Eddie for dead, yet the necroplasm oozes out of Eddie's paper bag and revives him. Eddie is reborn as the Heap. Representing the spirit of the Earth, he soon targets Spawn.

Spawntinuity: The Heap is a long-standing character that goes back to the Golden Age. McFarlane attained the rights after his purchase of Eclipse Comics’ intellectual property. Of course, the character he really wanted to use was Miracleman, but we all know how that turned out.

Production Note: Yes, twenty pages again.

Review: The story opens with the return of that old Todd chestnut…the manila file folder. Yes, Cogliostro, the proper way to deal with two detectives who haven’t gotten around to actually investigating anything in the past five years is to just give them a file with the info you want them to have. Just put the rest of us out of our misery. Maybe one day McFarlane can release a trade paperback of all of the storylines in this book that turn on manila file folders. If you’re facing a genetically engineered mob enforcer, a corrupt bureaucrat, or the KKK, nothing amps up the excitement like a manila file folder.

I will say that this issue doesn’t read as if two separate comics were pasted together into one, so it’s an improvement over the previous two installments. Not surprisingly, the book’s just back to more cryptic references and vague hints about the future. This time, the concept of some “final battle” that Spawn is destined to have a role in is revived. Apparently, the creation of the Heap ties into this, making this one of the few times a mysterious hint about the future actually connects to the main story. And, the Heap’s creation even pays off a subplot from the previous issue, making this the fastest McFarlane has ever gotten around to really doing anything. It is a little odd that McFarlane’s chosen to include a monster he bought from another comics company in this title before introducing the new characters created for his toy line, but maybe he feels as if he needs to get his money’s worth out of the character.

SPAWN #72 - May 1998

Bloodless

Credits: Todd McFarlane & Brian Holguin (story), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki w/Todd McFarlane & Chance Wolf (inks), Tom Orzechowski (copy editor & letters), Brian Haberlin & Dan Kemp (colors)

Summary: Boots stops the fight and sends the vampire, Wolfram, away. Boots is taken into custody by the police investigating the disturbance, and allowed to give a message to Sam and Twitch. He tells them that Spawn will need them soon, which reignites their interest in his case. Meanwhile, a wino named Eddie Beckett finds the bag of necroplasm in the alleys, as Spawn suddenly goes into action. He rescues a child from strange men, unaware the child has the brand of Heaven on his stomach.

Spawntinuity: The “brand of heaven” is a white-on-black inverse of the Spawn insignia. Apparently, the men turn into vampires when Spawn kills them, but if that’s so, why are they targeting another agent of Heaven? Also, it’s odd that the uniform police officer allows Boots to visit Sam and Twitch’s office. It’s been established repeatedly (and as recently as last issue) that the police force considers Sam and Twitch a joke, so why is this guy going out of his way to allow a bum to personally give them a message? According to the next issue's recap, Sam and Twitch were at their office in the police station. These characters haven't been police officers for around thirty issues!

Todd Talk: McFarlane informs a reader that while his early stories are lacking, he feels that his writing today holds up to his contemporaries and is no longer a “deficit to the book.”

Production Note: Twenty pages, again.

Review: Didn’t this book just run a portrait cover that looks exactly like this one? Cogliostro isn’t even in this issue, and if anyone thinks he’s getting a lot of Spawn gunplay inside, he’s going to be disappointed. I’m convinced that this title is going through some sort of behind-the-scenes chaos, and the inaccurate covers are just one clue. Like the last issue, we have another story that has a slow build for the first half of the issue, before abruptly shifting gears into a totally different story in the second half. I suspected that the second half of the previous issue was plotted some time after the first was finished, and I have some confirmation that this is exactly what happened to this issue.

On the hype page, Terry Fitzgerald gives Greg Capullo credit for penciling eleven pages in under three days, as Todd handed him the plot for the final twelve pages on a Thursday. From this we can infer that a) Capullo is one of the fastest artists in comics, and could’ve taken on a second book during this era if he wanted, b) a twelfth page didn’t need to be drawn, confirming that the newscaster pages are just pulled from previous issues, and c) the first half of the book was finished and ready to go, while the second half was put on hold for an unknown reason. And guess what, it’s painfully obvious when you sit down to read it.

The issue opens with Boots, Wolfram, Sam, and Twitch leisurely recapping the story thus far, following the aftermath of Spawn and Wolfram’s pointless fight. On page ten, we have a subplot scene that places the paper bag of necroplasm in the hands of a new homeless character. Fair enough. Two pages on this scene even seems justifiable. Then, the book abruptly jumps to a two-page spread of Spawn leaping heroically into action, oversized ‘90s guns in tow. For absolutely no reason, he knows that a little boy has been kidnapped, and he’s taking down his captors. He spends a few pages killing them, the boy’s safe, and because nothing can ever have a clean ending in this book, he laughs manically and reveals his “reverse Spawn” symbol after Spawn leaves. Finally, there’s one more page to fill, so there’s a recycled page of the talking heads repeating the details of the previous gang war storyline.

It’s like they’re daring you to keep buying this book at this point. Out of the twenty pages of content, nine of them are dedicated to exposition. The eleven pages of actual story consist of a subplot setup and a vague fight scene that feels like it belongs in the second half of a different issue. If McFarlane was so hard up for time, why didn’t he hire other people to do the book? Couldn’t he have Tom Orzechowski write a backup story and get someone like Rick Leonardi to draw it? Yes, he now has a co-writer, but I suspect that Holguin is only scripting over McFarlane’s plots at this point. The issues he writes solo that I've read are actually coherent, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. While the book does need better scripting, it’s the actual stories that are the problem, and it’s unbelievable that McFarlane hasn’t realized that yet.

SPAWN #71 - April 1998

Apparitions

Credits: Todd McFarlane & Brian Holguin (story), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki & Todd McFarlane (inks), Tom Orzechowski (copy editor & letters), Brian Haberlin & Dan Kemp (colors)

Summary: Cogliostro warns Spawn that his presence in the alleys has consequences, but he refuses to listen. Meanwhile, Wanda is angry with Terry for not taking Cyan’s behavior seriously. Sam takes Twitch to a strip club to relax, only to discover a vampire killer inside. The vampire soon locates Spawn, attacking him in Heaven’s “dead zone.” Boots stops the vampire from killing Spawn, confirming the creature is an agent of Heaven.

Todd Talk: Todd McFarlane is dismayed by the current trend of variant covers, citing them as a poor way to keep new readers. He says his strategy is to produce a quality product for a reasonable price, and boasts that Spawn has maintained the same cover price since the beginning. He neglects to mention that the book has only run twenty pages of story for several months now. The shorter stories are making room for more Spawn-related hype pages, instead of outside ads, so perhaps he feels justified that he’s still giving people their money’s worth. And I actually did read all of the hype material, even long after I stopped buying the merchandise.

Creative Differences: In case you haven’t noticed, Spawn inexplicably has a bat’s head on the cover. He also doesn’t kill a priest in the story, nor does one even appear.

The Big Names: The real-life Terry Fitzgerald spent time with Korn while they recorded their new album, and has photos of himself with several skinny white males with dreadlocks to prove it.

Production Note: As I alluded to above, this is another issue with twenty pages of story.

Review: Todd McFarlane’s co-writer, Brian Holguin from KISS Psycho Circus, begins his run without any fanfare. A few pages don’t seem to have McFarlane’s scripting style, so I’m assuming Holguin scripted a few pages that had already been penciled. I certainly hope he wasn’t involved with the plotting of this issue, because it’s among the worst so far. The story opens with Cogliostro giving Spawn the same lecture he gives in almost every other issue, as Spawn offers his typical “Shuddup and leave me alone, old man” response. We then check in on Terry and Wanda, who are now abruptly having marital problems. If only the two of them hadn’t magically forgotten their war against Jason Wynn, maybe they would have something to do together. Finally, Sam and Twitch recap the past few issues before Sam drags Twitch to a strip club. At this point we’re ten pages into the story, which means a solid half of the issue is dedicated to exposition and recycled scenes.

Now, if the issue was another slow-burner that recapped what we already knew while setting the stage for the next arc, it would still be terrible, but it would be typical Spawn. This issue makes the leap into sheer ineptitude on page eleven, as Sam and Twitch enter a strip club that’s inexplicably gone mad. An unnamed vampire, who resembles a high school shop teacher, has somehow inspired lunacy in the club and escaped with a stripper. Sam and Twitch find her body in the garbage two pages later. Now, there’s something to be said for picking up the pace, but abruptly changing the entire direction of the story with the sudden appearance of a new villain is just shoddy. This is Spawn. New villains don’t just show up on page eleven of a previously unrelated story. They’re teased, sometimes for several pages, sometimes for months, before they go anywhere near Spawn. This nondescript vampire just shows up, with no build-up, no exposition, and no real motivation, finds Spawn and fights him for a few pages.

The delivery is so clumsy, it’s appalling even by the low standards this book has already set. And the “shocking” revelation that Heaven has mean ol’ vampires working for it…seriously? Is this supposed to be scandalous in a book that already has the nihilistic point of view that Heaven and Hell treat the selection of souls like the NBA Draft? This really is a new level of awful. You could certainly argue that McFarlane has been overly sluggish in moving in any direction, but the unexpected swerve into Liefeld-style ADD is just bad in a different way.