Bigger Than Capes

Script/Plot: Sean Lewis (King Spawn)
Additional Dialogue: Todd McFarlane
Back-Up Stories: Todd McFarlane
Artists: Javi Fernandas, Stephen Segovia, Marcio Takara, Philip Tan & Brett Booth
Inkers: Adelso Corona & Daniel Henriques
Colourists: FCO Plascencia, Andrew Dalhouse, Marcelo Maiolo, Peter Steigerwald & Dave McCaig
Lettering: Andworld Design & Tom Orzechowski

I made a terrible decision when I said I’d read King Spawn #1. I wasn’t expecting much advance on Spawn #320 in terms of quality. My expectations were met.

The story begins with what appears to be a suicide bombing of a children’s bible class. Subtle. Looks like this series is continuing the ‘Spawn as Batman’ thing as he’s playing violent detective. As ever in Spawn comics this is all about the war between heaven and hell. Metatron is even casually blowing up people’s heads prior to being dismembered. As with all current Spawn stories, someone is trying to ‘lure him out’ and it turns out this kid killing death cult want to refer to him as King Spawn, hence the title.

I was already bored mere pages into the main story, but wait, there’s more. Four backup stories in fact, at least one of which seems to be a preview for yet another Spawn comic. There’s is absolutely no merit in any of them unless you’re obsessed with the Spawn universe.

Spawn comics look good. We know this. The art is always good. It’s just been a very long time since they’ve had a story worth reading.

Like Marvel and DC do with their star characters, this is a second ongoing series to squeeze cash out of the fans. And like all such spin-offs, this offers nothing new, original or interesting.

Image make some excellent comics. This is not one of them.