Dex's Comic Awareness

Spawn #148
written by Brian Holguin
pencils by Angel Medina
cover by Greg Capullo

The story of comics: Medina finally is beginning to draw a story that is understandable and clear, and he's leaving in two issues.

Yes, the current creative team is out after issue number 150. Medina had been drawing a million panels a page where you could barely make out a single thing that happened, and Spawn always looked emaciated for some reason. A Chris Bachalo fight was easier to understand than anything in the Spawn comics under Medina. But slowly, ever so slowly, he had been doing better and better. His spawn now looks great and beefy. His panels are large and his layouts are clear. You really get a sense for the action in this issue. And in two issues, he's leaving.

The sporadic release of Spawn has only been contained some what in the past year. We are getting a new Spawn book every month, which is an improvement over the bi-monthly release that they SWORE was not bi-monthly. But we rarely know when in the month it will come out. McFarlane does see the writing on the wall though with the book's sales. Hence the creative team change and new direction for the book with more action and adventure.

This issue begins that transformation to that new style as we actually see Spawn and Al working together towards a common goal. They are searching for the thing that is leaving them clues all over Chicago. Al follows the clues to their source to find the Heap and the Greenworld waiting for him. After issues of aimless wandering and pointless quests we come to what appears to be a big pointless battle. But hey, I'll take some Heap vs. Spawn action any day.

Enough praise in the world couldn't give you an accurate picture of how much I like Greg Capullo's covers. Just brilliant work. As stated above, Medina’s work here is much improved. But he still has the tendency to draw Spawn with no head. His Spawn will contort himself so much in mid-action so as to leave him completely headless. I’m exaggerating a little but it’s still true that Medina’s choice of panels leads one to have to search for where Spawn’s head SHOULD be.

To everyone out there who dropped Spawn ages ago I say, "Check it out in two issues." The book is supposed to get back to its roots and maybe now we'll actually get more stories with Spawn in them. I'd like to see Spawn go kick the crap out of Clown, Mammon and Cog for their collective dumping on him.

Rating - Good