Questions, Part 2 (Spawn #2) ★★★☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Questions, Part 2
Series: Spawn #2
Author: Todd McFarlane
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comic
Pages: 32
Words: 1K

Synopsis:

From Imagecomics.fandom.com

A clown stands in an alley discussing all the gruesome ways he can kill someone to a regular alley cat. The clown claims to be the Violator to the cat and that he would be going after Spawn later that night.

Spawn is drawn to the top of a church cross for the second time. He begins wondering how he'll find his wife and how she'll accept him now that he's been disfigured. He curses at the devil for betraying him in his deal to come back and knows that he's messing with him. He knows he's controlling when he gets these visions and thinks it's a sick twisted game to him. His thoughts are interrupted when he spots a strange clown waving at him from the shadows of a nearby rooftop. The clown disappears into the shadows.

Later that night at the Dawncorp Building, mobsters are attacked and have their hearts ripped from their chest. The Violator stands over a bloody mess.

The news channels report on more "heart surgeon" killings. Another channel reports on Wanda Blake opening a new care clinic for disabled children.

On top of the church, Spawn attempts to use his magic to transform his skin back to the way it was before he died. He's shocked to find out that he turns himself into a white man when he knows he should be African American.

Sam Burke and Twitch Williams discuss the paperwork piling up on their desk. They now have six cases from the heart surgeon and no leads.

The violator takes out a mob boss named Gino. He shudders when Gino mutters the name, "Jesus" over and over again and rips out his heart.

Spawn receives a flashback of Jason Wynn, who had taught him to fight. He recalls getting into more fights and disagreeing with Wynn's ideals. He found that Wynn was slowly becoming evil. Spawn becomes faint from the shock and exhaustion. He falls into a nearby alley.

Upon waking up, he finds the clown and recognizes him from the rooftop. The clown tells him the he is the Spawn and a hellspawn sent back to earth. Shaking it off, Spawn dismisses the clown and walks away. Upon turning his back, the clown reveals his true form of being the Violator and asks him to not turn away and to, "have a heart!"

My Thoughts:

So, first revelation is that it is NOT Spawn who has been killing off the mobsters, but some sort of demon who calls itself the Violator, a gruesome looking killing machine of a monster. He also seems to be, at the same time, a short fat crass crude clown. A very peculiar juxtoposition.

Spawn is having his memories trickle back and realizes part of his deal with the demon involved magic. He tries to heal himself from the burnt husk that his body is and turns into a blond haired, blue eyed white man. We learn he's supposed to be a black man. At the same time we see a little counter go down from 9.9.9.9 to some lower number, so it is apparent that when Spawn uses magic, it's not a limitless resource.

The Violator is yanking Spawn's chain in some verbal abuse when the comic ends. I was looking at the digital file I have and it's only 25 pages long. Not because the comic is missing 7 pages of story but because it's missing 7 pages of ads. When I tried to review my Silver Sable comics almost 3 years ago I really noticed the ads in the paper copies I had. Thankfully, those ads were not included in these digital Spawn comics but just realizing they took up almost 25% of the book is eye opening.

★★★☆☆

• All of My “Spawn” Reviews

Questions, Part 1 (Spawn #1) ★★★☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Questions, Part 1
Series: Spawn #1
Author: Todd McFarlane
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comic
Pages: 32
Words: 1K

Synopsis:

From Imagecomics.fandom.com

Spawn (Al Simmons) stands on top of a building in New York City. He died and has returned but he can't recall why he's there. He remembers being tricked and how this wasn't the deal he expected.

Five years ago in 1987, news flash reports discussed the recent death of American hero, Albert Simmons, who had saved the president's life previously working in the CIA. Some channels reported on how his wife, Wanda Blake, appeared with another man at the wake, Martin Alexander.

Spawn recalls being a part of the CIA, Jason Wynn, and his death. He wanted to return to someone, someone he loved. When he sees a vision of his wife, he recalls making a deal with a demon to return. He curses the demon as it was his terms and now he can't recall his past life. Spawn feels his new power surging through him and decides to find his wife. Once he gets some answers, he'll track down the demon who screwed him on the deal.

At a crime scene elsewhere, Sam Burke asks Twitch Williams about a mobster murder. Twitch explains several times to Burke that while he was thrown through a window, he died of his heart being removed from his chest and being shoved into his mouth. Burke shows little remorse as several other major crime syndicate members had been killed recently in a similar manner.

At a nearby rooftop, Spawn spots several men sexually attacking a woman. He easily disposes of them and uses part of his necroplasm to bomb them.

As the men flee, Spawn experiences another flashback, even stronger than before, and he feels he MUST find Wanda.

Upon returning to his senses, he finds he wept in the woman he saved arms as she holds him and feels his pain.

News reporters report on today's news of 1992 that a fourth gangland murder has been committed. There are also reports of the spotting of Spawn.

As Spawn wanders through the streets, he angrily pulls down his glove and realizes his body is charred and physically disfigured.

Twitch and Sam can't believe the physical damage Spawn caused to several of the gang members with his necroplasm bomb.

Elsewhere, Malebolgia watches over Simmons and says outloud to himself that he will have so many more problems coming his way as he breaks into a maniacal laughter.

My Thoughts:

Last month Paul did a review of a comic called Spawn Universe. Spawn is a comic book character from the 90's and has been successful enough that he's still around and inspiring his own multiverse. It made me feel rather old. I was getting into comics the same time that Spawn was just hitting the comic book stores and wowing all the teenagers with its edgy, dark, “mature” content that Marvel and DC weren't willing to provide to teenagers. Since I stopped being a teenager just a year or two ago I figured it was time to check out this iconic character that really helped make Indie Comics viable.

First off, the Fandom page provides so many answers to things that I had questions about which were not possible to know without having read much further, that I'm hesitant to visit there again. I will of course, because writing my own synopsis for a 32page comic book is a total downer and not what I signed up for when I was born.

It would appear that Spawn was a Special Forces military guy who died, made a deal with a demon to return to life so he could be with his wife. Only the demon, surprise surprise, had some additional clauses that he didn't tell Spawn about. Like not remembering his former life. So Spawn figures out he's back to hook up with his wife, but he doesn't know who she is or anything. During this period he's killing off crimelords, for no reason that I can tell. And he's doing it extremely violently and making a big splash doing it.

He has a costume, which we know nothing about. I figure we'll learn why it's so “cape'y” later on. There are also many references to Youngblood, another superhero team produced by Image Studios, the same studio that produced Spawn. We also see the demon that made the Faustian bargain with Spawn, which means they are real and not just a delusion of his. Which leads me to wonder, are there going to be angels or other supernatural forces for Good?

A lot of questions. Which I'm sure is exactly what McFarlane had in mind in crafting this. Nothing keeps people coming back and buying your comic like unanswered questions that they want the answers to.

★★★☆☆