By Dustin Cabeal
It has been a long while since I have read a Spawn comic book. I find it infinitely interesting that it is still being published monthly, probably as one of the most consistently published monthly books from Image in general but also from a founder of image. That sheer fact alone makes it an anomaly in comic books as every other creator that founded Image or has moved on from the publisher or is almost incapable of producing a monthly comic book. Eric Larsen is possibly the only other person, but even then, the irregularities of the scheduling of Savage Dragon and its spin-offs makes Spawn a standout and now in 2024. It seems Spawn is expanding its universe; it is becoming More than just Spawn and a few miniseries. I have noticed increasingly that I am seeing different titles related to Spawn, but Rat City caught my attention more than the others.
Cybernetic Spawn is not anything new to the Spawn Universe. I think it actually exists in some form in the action figures first and foremost, but it is relatively new to have an ongoing series about a cybernetic-esque Spawn. Rat City is just a catchy, grungy futuristic name. I mean, no one thinks of rats and goes, that's pleasant. Rat City gives you this futuristic Judge Dread-esque, grimy city to deal with which is a perfect fitting for Spawn and a Spawn spin-off book.
The story, however, begins a bit average. A bit formulaic and especially in the Spawn Universe. Injured Soldier, probably turned on by their government. We see an overjealous kill machine on a Black Ops hit team shooting and killing civilians, and anyone else in the way. As they look for their target, a supposed villain/weapons dealer. The target knows why they are there and reiterates to them that they are a businessman, your government's lying to you, but it does not matter. He is shot in the head and disposed of. Upon exiting their caravan is blown up by someone who knew they were there, even though the mission was clean and completed. Two of the soldiers wake up in a medical bay being told that they are going to be given prosthetics and nano injections to make them improved and more useful to their governments. We follow our main character, Peter Cairn, as he goes through the program. Eventually he washes out because he is not making the benchmarks that they want to see. He is not a big enough super soldier for the project, so they wash him and others out of the program.
Now, he is a city plumber. I guess. I don't know. He's just in a giant hole dealing with doo-doo looking water and referring to himself in the third person but using his terrible call name introduced during the first mission. An event that happened in Spawn that I am completely unaware of having not read the issue, has affected/lapsed into this this universe. Whether it is somewhere in the future or on the same timeline, even a parallel Earth, I do not know. It is not super relevant to the story. It is just an origin point for our character. We are teased with the coming origin of this new Spawn who lives in Rat City. We are teased with the potential of the government portrayal that created him and possibly intentionally so he would be fed into the system that creates cybernetic super soldiers.
There is not a lot that you have not read before in terms of the story, but it is okay. It is competent enough. It is enjoyable enough and in a strange way it is refreshing to have a thoroughly well put, consistent comic book like this. It is nice. No, it is not going to get five stars on the rating because it is just not that groundbreaking or anything like that. But it is a solid comic book, and it is a book that I would gladly pick up monthly. That and I’m not giving everything I read a rating anymore.
A lot of that has to do with the issues art, the art is good and has a dynamic look overall. There’s good action and violence. It has this grimy futuristic used feel to it. I am curious to see if they can do solid world building and build the city into a character. I mean, it is called Rat City. So, you would hope and think that the city itself is going to play into being a character and that is going to be the only thing that could potentially sink the art. I remember the first time I read an issue of Spawn, the alleyway really came across as a larger than life set piece and hopefully, they can accomplish the same in Rat City.
Otherwise, the art is what you would expect from not only just a Spawn comic or an action military comic book. It has ripped dudes with lots of muscles with Cybernetic muscles that have muscles somehow. And it just presents itself in a nice package. I was concerned when I saw that it had three different colorists, but it was so consistent between the three of them that I never noticed the change, even though there was a very stark line of this colorist ends on this page this colorist begins on that page. It flowed nicely and overall looked great. There is a sense of style and personality to the art and again it fits with that Spawn universe. It is not Spawn from the 90s. It is not Spawn from the early 2000s, but it just has this very Spawn feel to it. I think that, is important if you are going to do a shared Spawn Universe, it must look like a consistent artist house style in a way or at least have the same sensation since we do not really do that in comics anymore.
Overall, the art was stronger than the story. Maybe even hindered by it a little bit at times but again it is a consistent solid first outing. I would be curious to see how this plays out in future issues or as the series grows and develops in the writing. The writing and art team grow and develop with each other. I think so often that is forgotten and that a first issue is just a hard intro. Everyone is getting their footing. You want to make your best presentation to get more readers, but it is that growth, it is that stride that hit somewhere after issue six that it just kind of kicks in and you can really see the art and the craft grow and develop together. Sometimes the first issue just needs to show that potential for me as a reader to get me to that next stage. I will stick around to that next stage and see what happens. For that reason, I am very curious to read more Rat City. I think for a first issue it is a solid outing. It makes me want to read more. It gets me interested in reading more Spawn comic books. Whether it be the long-running ongoing series that has somehow stayed afloat, this entire time, or some of these other spin-offs that I have been seeing, and that alone is a success for first issue to entice me with the rest of the universe/brand.
Rat City #1
Script/Plot: Erica Schultz
Art: Zé Carlos
Colors: Jay David Ramos, FCO Plascencia, Marcello Iozolli
Lettering: Erica Schultz
Publisher: Image Comics