SPAWN project 2-4 Questions Completed

And the SPAWN re-read rolls on!  Once I started the initial QUESTIONS arc I found myself reading along at a rapid pace.  What stands out is that I remember this extremely well over the last few decades (seriously 24 years!) and that it holds up pretty well. Though honestly, I'm now a bit hungry to get to what I did not read. 
In a nutshell, the initial 4 issues of Spawn is one huge information dump and gets really dialog and expository text heavy in some spots, but McFarlane's artwork is energetic and he manages to make the most out of several scenes that are basically standing around and talking about what is happening.

To recap, in the first Spawn story we get, almost literally, the entire set up of the Spawn universe, and a new reader can almost jump in ANYWHERE from here, and that makes it feel wonderfully unique when put side by side by most any of the bigger mainstream books. Sure there is a bit of mystery, but before we hit #5 there is a great panel where the writer McFarlane actually stops and has Al Simmons ponder "WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY and HOW!" during a fight sequence.  As a reader, I found myself appreciating this simply because those are actually great things to ponder that somehow end up being shoved into giant arcs. Writer McFarlane gives himself very little wiggle room in the concept, but tons of leeway in the art, which remains really solid.  The Clown / Violator are introduced to the readers, and make a suitably entertaining foil to Spawn's brooding anger. Because hey, if you died, made a deal with a creature called Malebolgia that keeps popping up and even settles the first big battle with a slap on the wrist for the combatants, and realized you left your wife behind and when you tried to see her you had been racially swapped (Simmons is a black man, brought back when he tries to shape shift out of Mr. Toasty into a blonde white surfer dude) and that she is married to your buddy and has kids. Oh yeah, Simmons was spermatically challenged too!  He is in one bad fucking mood at this point.

Hard to take SPAWN and say it's start was a masterwork of sequential superisms or anything of that nature, but it also doesn't need me to make any excuses for it either.  Solid story, perhaps a bit over told but McFarlane's art doesn't feel like it is sacrificed to the word bubbles.  If you like his work in the 90s (I do) then you'll enjoy a trip down memory lane, Spawn always looked more substantial in figure than his Spidey (ok, totally different kind of character, I admit)...it's his strongest work of the time I think.  On to the next... I recall that the next story was something that really rubbed some people the wrong way, it's been a long time...onwards!!

Roger Corman In The Comics- BLACK SCORPION

I enjoyed the Corman produced BLACK SCORPION films starring Joan Severance and saw several episodes of the short lived TV series, but had never encountered the comic books from Bluewater Comics until a trawl through some bins made me do a double take!  Bluewater had several titles that were intriguing, but I've read a grand total of ZERO to date.  Lets change that, and where better to start?

The first 4 issues of BLACK SCORPION are written by Paul J. Salamoff and feature a variety of cover styles all wrapping around art by Daniel Cuchacovich.  It's an interesting story and seems to take elements from BLACK SCORPION and BLACK SCORPION 2 - AFTERSHOCK and squish them down into a few issues.  Darcy Walker is the daughter of a cop, and now an officer herself. But as you can imagine, she's of the "I don't play by the rules" variety and gets herself into trouble for excessive force and lets just call it vigorous displays of law enforcement zeal.  Her father can only help so much, but when he is killed, well...it's time for the secret origin to unfurl and the ring of the Black Scorpion to be unleashed in pulpy style.  Donning a costume that is different from the movies (since it makes about zero sense as an actual outfit but is perfectly good in paper form), it's time to get Batwomany and trick out a car and fight an armored version of the man that killed her father!  I have to say that the big bad BREATHTAKER is a cool villain that is much easier to pull of in comics than low budget film!

The art is not stylish, but quite functional and Cuchacovich does a good job at handling the action scenes when they appear.  Likenesses to the film aren't used and this feels like a nice jumping on point that does not require anyone to see the film it was based on. However, it also engages in lots of talky sequences that feel more cinematic in the B movie sense of saving budget by expanded dialog, where the comics probably did not need it.  Several times I found myself tempted to zip ahead to the next action since I wouldn't be missing anything particularly unique.  It's one of the tricky parts of an adaptation I'd think, the concept behind Black Scorpion by Corman's production crew wasn't meant to be more than a sexy Bat clone, and the films exhibit a bit more humor than this dead on comic book adaptation.  You would get just as much entertainment, maybe more, from the 3 hours of film (and 22 TV episodes) than reading the comics, but if you like lady vigilantes in your comics... it's worth a look. 

SPAWN project 1 - QUESTIONS

Time for something new from the TOMB IT MAY CONCERN sequential sarcophagus.  I recently decided to start checking out SPAWN when Erik Larsen joined up with Spawn's creator, Todd McFarlane for a new arc that brought a returning from crucified exile Al Simmons, the original Spawn, back to the forefront of the comics.  Frankly, I missed a lot. And I mean a LOT.  Larsen brought me back and it was uncanny how easy it was to pick up in the 250s of a book, when most current big 2 titles are utterly confusing at #3!  That got me thinking... a lapsed Spawn reader no more!  Thanks to a long box full of old trades and later digital issues, I can revisit the whole saga, and even pop up reviews of the book as it unfolds. Some of it familiar, but much of it not.  In the trade waiting age, looking at a book one at a time feels like a really interesting task.  And the question is, will my SPAWN POWER COUNTER actually be able to go from 260 (as of now) to 0 before I drop dead?  We shall see... 
The context behind Spawn one is well known, and if you need me to explain, there are plentiful resources (search IMAGE COMICS FORMATION) and you'll see why this book in particular was a BIG DEAL.  Does it hold up?  TO THE SPAWN ECTOMOBILE!

SPAWN #1 (1992)
Art and Story: Todd McFarlane
Letters: Tom Orzechowski
Color: Steve Oliff
Cover paints by Ken Steacy

After the disappointment of McFarlane's SPIDER-MAN #1 (also known as DOOMDOOMDOOM the book), I was intrigued to see how he tackled creating a NEW character, and to be honest, it holds up as a very well constructed first issue with no meandering, though events do jump around a little bit as the mysterious caped and confused Spawn lands back on earth, slowly recalling just who he was and how he ended up a demolished demonic dude in an alley with nowhere to go and no clear mission.  Using a neat structure which appears to this day, a series of news reporters give us sanitized CNN style reports, a more conspiracy laden second reporter and...a gossip and style report!  It's clever because in ways all of their information is true and McFarlane was careful to place Spawn in a greater Image context by mentioning that his cape was very out of style compared to the characters in Rob Liefeld's YOUNGBLOOD book.  Also introduced are the detectives that would later go on to have their own really solid book (penned by now Overlord Of Marvel, Brian Michael Bendis), Sam and Twitch. It's gruff chubby donut loving tough guy and skinny cerebral detective banter galore as a vigilante is taking out local mob bosses.  But wait (and yes, it just keeps hurling details at us)... Spawn realizes in the first issue that he is an deceased Mercenary / Special Forces soldier named Al Simmons, and his wife being at his funeral prompted him to make a deal with...something. And that something has obviously tricked him...  A big evil pops up on the last page to let us know that he is right, and the fun has just begun.

It's a solid book that holds up even more than ever in the age of overtalk and expanded storytelling. SPAWN #1 would take 3 to 6 issues in today's world, I'm convinced, but any reader can check this out and know EXACTLY what drives Spawn, a good bit of who he is, the world he inhabits and also drops some subplots in.  While I can't say the dialog qualifies as GREAT comics writing, structurally, it's a good issue and it makes me want to read more. What more can you want? 

The artwork is vintage McFarlane and he is lucky to have Oliff on colors and the great and so very Spawn letttering of Orzechowski which really stands out in the presentation of Spawns personality and resolving confusion. MANY years have passed and McFarlane's work becomes more detail oriented as we go, but there is not one unclear or overproduced panel in the book.  Really, this is a fine example of how a first issue should go.  I want more. Only 259 to go...  The Spawn Power Counter is also introduced in this issue, but is obviously counting down FAR TO QUICKLY for the book to have run even a fraction of it's now thousands of pages. I'm looking forward to seeing how that is removed down the line very much. 

Of interest is the fact that the Image Firsts re-issue is the issue minus the Steacy paints.  I love Ken Steacy art, but this re-release is pure cool.