Written by Guest Contributor: Jordan North Spawn #238 takes a respite from its conventional plotting and the trials and tribulations of Jim Downing to offer the Spawn universes a unique (and pretty damn fatalistic) take on the creationism mythos, taking us through a wild and damn meticulous trip through the ages and schooling us on the history of good vs. evil.
It could`ve gone so wrong but McFarlane and team end up crafting a story that I don’t think Spawn readers will soon forget. It all started with Sin we are told. In the beginning Mother Nature created all of everything and beget two sons: god and the devil, over the ages they’ve both been neck and neck vying for ways to get human beings to kill one another in larger and larger amounts so as to accumulate more souls for their respective sides for the upcoming war for all of eternity. It’s pretty cool stuff, and a celestial meaning behind everything from the invention of spears and swords to the cold war makes it all feel really well thought out.
I did have to laugh a little bit at the idea that in Spawn’s fiction there are two sides, one good and one evil, but at the end of the day both of them really just want to commit genocide on the human race. I’m not a religious man but this kind of “oh come on” inducing cynicism in McFarlane`s writing has stopped me from enjoying his work as much in the past. On top of that there are several places where the writing fumbles over itself and simply doesn’t make sense that makes lines here and there feel a bit sloppy. Mostly though it’s cool business.
It’s really Szymon Kudranski that sells this thing though, this narrative being perfect for him to really let loose and go hog-wild with abstract interpretations of various historical events, most of them military based. There are some pages in here that would make Banksy proud.
McFarlane and team take a big leap creatively, and what results is one of the most interesting and telling Spawn issues to date.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Todd McFarlane Artist: Szymon Kudranski Publisher: Image Comics Price: $2.99 Release Date: 12/4/13