Spawn-taeneous Combustion (Spawn #300 Review)
SPAWN #300
Writers: Todd McFarlane & Scott Snyder
Artists: Todd McFarlane, Greg Capullo, Jason Shawn Alexander, J. Scott Campbell and Jerome Opeña
Colorists: Fco Plascencia, Brian Haberlin, Peter Steigerwald, and Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Publisher: Image Comics
Rating: 10/10 ripped-out hearts
Song I listened to while reading: The Boogeyman by Tech N9ne
WE DID IT GUYS! If you guys have been following along with me on the Road to 300, then to you I say congratulations! Whether you’ve been a spawn fan since the Spawn Power Meter was at 9:9:9:9 in the 90’s or hopped in just recently, welcome to the history making 300th issue of creator-owned Spawn. Todd McFarlane pulls out all the stops and recruits all-star heavy hitters to aid in his achieving his victory lap. Hell and Heaven are now focused on a common enemy and are coming at Al Simmons in in Biblical full-force. In true McFarlane fashion, this book is big, outrageous, and all-around good fun in the form of a 72-page monster of a comic book with almost as many variant covers. The kind of fun you got out of the 90’s comics, but it’s 2019, and Al Simmons’ coup d’état is global and violent in a way that could only be described as Hell Raising.
Since the Spawn 300 team consist of multiple creators contributing and the issue itself is split into 5 chapters, I’ll be doing the same and breaking down each chapter in a spoiler-free 5-part review.
So. Here. We. Go.
Chapter 1
The issue kicks off in Kearney, Nebraska, at a family reunion. Nothing threatening. Nothing ominous. That is until you realize why McFarlane has brought us here. He sets the tone by shining a light on what’s going on outside of the cities where Spawn’s plan to unclasp Heaven and Hell’s grip on the world’s socioeconomic structure is ground zero. Instead, he’s showing us it’s bloody effects to even the most peaceful and normal of settings. Those images are brought to you by Greg Capullo, who’s has only sharpened and become more refined as an artist since their last romp together with the Hellspawn. Speaking of the hellspawn, after a brief yelling session with Marc Rosen, Spawn teleports himself to a hidden base in Albania. Obviously a trap, Spawn has his suspicions confirmed when he learns that both Heaven and Hell are in cahoots against him. This chapter ends with a revelation of true power.
Chapter 2
We’re taken back only a few hours from this issues real-time, to what happened in between the end of issue 299 and the argument Spawn is having with Marc Rosen at the beginning of issue 300. When Spawn and the Redeemer disappear in to the “Void” after their fight in the interrogators room. It’s a short chapter written by Scott Snyder and drawn by the Toddfather, where we see their fight continue in the blackness of the Void, a space between realities where Spawn travels through to teleport wherever he needs to be. Their fight is more like a conversation, or rather, an intervention. The Redeemer,s faith in Heaven is put to the test as Spawn tries to convince him to reclaim his lost humanity and join in him in his War. Looks like Al is on a recruitment mission.
Chapter 3
In this chapter, we’re blessed with that drip-drop oil paint stylings of Jason Shawn Alexander and rightfully so. I can see no one else drawing Spawn’s Pets. The reanimated bodies of Cy-Gor, Kurse, and Overtkill led by Freak seems to come even more alive and more horrifying under Alexander’s creative eye. The Pets lay dormant no longer as Spawn’s crescendo begins, and they themselves won’t end this issue without their own brand of carnage to leave behind. And in the wake of their bloodbath, their true master is revealed.
Chapter 4
As fate would have it, a beloved Spawn character was given the axe in issue 299, but that character did in fact have a contingency plan: Jessica Priest. Fans from the 90’s will revel in the flashbacks of Jessica and all the ass-kickery her presence brings. She’s been on the hunt for Al Simmons pretty much the entirety of Spawn’s 27 year-long tenure and now she finally knows the man she is hunting and with a little bit bit of help from her slain friend and some green magic, she’s fully prepared for the battle to come.
Chapter 5
I'm not even gonna lie. I don’t know what’s happening here. The chapter itself is only 8 panels long and it shows the end of someone’s travels. The person is climbing up the stairs into a mouth of some remote mountain. What this means, I’m not sure. But the fact that I don’t know who it is makes it even more exciting. Who is this guy? what is this place? Why is that mountain talking?
This comic was exactly what I was expecting. Not story-wise, because quite a few things happened in this issue that was completely out of left field for me. Did that have to do with me jumping back in at issue 289? Maybe. More then likely, yes. But that fact just makes it more reason the be excited. I don’t know what’s going to happen, who else going to play a part in the Spawn coup de grâce, and how will this effect Spawn lore going forward. There are things in play within the shadows that i am not prepared for, but one thing is for certain: I can not wait for that Spawn Meter to hit 0:0:0:0. It took 27 years, but it’s finally happening and from the looks of it, Todd only has bigger and more outrageous things in store for us.