The Beast Credits: Todd McFarlane (story), Greg Capullo (pencils), Todd McFarlane w/Danny Miki, Jason Gorder, & Chance Wolf (inks), Tom Orzechowski (copy editor & letters), Brian Haberlin & Dan Kemp (colors)
Summary: Cy-Gor ambushes Spawn in Rat City, and is only subdued when Spawn unleashes a dark army of worms and bats. When Cy-Gor speaks his name, Major Forsberg recognizes it as the codename of one of Jason Wynn’s secret projects. He reveals that an operative who threatened to reveal Wynn’s connection to Al Simmons’ murder was abducted and used in Project: Simian. Spawn realizes that Cy-Gor is what remains of his friend, Mike Konieczny. Confused, Cy-Gor sought the person indirectly responsible for his condition, Al Simmons. Meanwhile, Wanda questions Terry about his new partner.
Spawn Stuff: The promotion for the HBO series has begun. This issue reprints some of Greg Capullo’s character designs (which are cleaner, slightly simplified versions of the comic book models), and details the writing process. Alan McElroy was hired to write the series based on his Spawn movie script, which McFarlane says was written when only twelve issues of the series were completed.
Review: A brief history of Cy-Gor: Spawn #38 - Cy-Gor debuts. He’s apparently been living in a castle for years after killing his creator. Spawn #40 - Cy-Gor prowls the countryside and is mistaken for Bigfoot. Spawn #41 - Hunters chase Cy-Gor again. Spawn #42 - Cy-Gor heads for New York. Spawn #49 - After disappearing for six issues, Cy-Gor arrives in New York, searching for Al Simmons. Spawn #56 - He’s still looking for Spawn. Last issue, he does manage to locate Spawn’s home in Rat City, but he happened to arrive during one of the rare occasions Spawn actually left his alleys. And now, almost twenty issues after the subplot was introduced, Cy-Gor finally faces Spawn. Can you imagine if these various subplot scenes were pieced together into one comic? Page after page of either Cy-Gor being chased by hunters, or aimlessly searching New York for Spawn?
Cy-Gor’s a silly concept to begin with, but knowing that even his creator couldn’t be bothered to check on the subplot for two separate six-issue breaks just emphasizes what a waste of trees this entire affair has been. And when his origin is finally revealed, after months and months of pointless filler, it’s in a rushed one-page exposition dump. That’s what you waited twenty issues for, kids. Cy-Gor is a gorilla with the brain of one of Spawn’s old friends, and he wants to kill Spawn because his thinking’s a little hazy after that wacky “swapped his brain with a primate” business. And God forbid you kids draw any entertainment from such a ludicrous concept. As all of these gothic narrative captions have informed us, Cy-Gor is a deadly serious cyborg gorilla with a human brain. Spawn’s battle with Cy-Gor is a dark, solemn affair. Don’t expect a wink to the audience. Don’t look for any acknowledgment of the inherent absurdity. Don’t you dare laugh at Cy-Gor…he’s hardcore, man. And if you think anyone involved with this storyline is embarrassed by its shoddy delivery and dimwitted premise, think again. You haven’t seen the last of Cy-Gor…
A year or so before Cy-Gor came around Erik Larsen created Brainiape in the Savage Dragon. Brainiape was also a genetically altered killer gorilla only with a fishbowl growing out of his head. Cy-Gor had Al Simmons' friend's brain while Brainiape had Hitler's!
ReplyDeleteClearly Brainiape is a far better character,
I'd loved Brainiape. Shame that he is dead.
ReplyDeleteBut I guess both are predated by Mignolas Kriegaffe from the pages of Hellboy (and BPRD)