SPAWN #200

Go find somebody that has never heard of Spawn, make them read #1 and then ask them to predict how long the series ran for. I bet some will say six, twelve, twenty-five, maybe fifty issues. I really doubt anyone would think that it would still be running at issue #200. Why? The premise doesn't lend itself to longevity. And really: who wants to read a book about a tortured soul and Hell and demons for almost twenty years? I enjoyed the book early on because Todd McFarlane, my all-time favorite artist drew it. He quit early and never came back. I read a few issues recently when they killed off the main character and Whilce Portatio started drawing it, but I've never been a big fan and I still have no idea what happened between #25 and #185 except that Spawn killed The Devil in #100 but he comes back in this issue. This book has 53 pages of art at $3.99, which is a steal, but it's also an unreadable mess, one of the worst written comic books I have ever read. The problem is perhaps that five people drew it and three people wrote it, making it an all-over-the-map disaster. The plot is basically a fight between Freak, Spawn, Clown, The Violator, Malebolgia, and an Omega-Spawn. There's also a conversation between the old Spawn and the new Spawn that doesn't make any comprehensible sense. The saddest thing in all of this is that McFarlane draws a handful of pages here and it looks as fresh, as exciting, and as detailed as ever. If I only ask for one thing in life it's for Todd McFarlane to come back and draw a monthly book. He's the best ever and it's a shame that he's still working in comics and not drawing anymore. I feel sorry for the kids out there that missed out on his work. *