SPAWN #62 - June 1997

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Credits: Todd McFarlane (story), Greg Capullo (pencils), Todd McFarlane & Chance Wolf (inks), Tom Orzechowski (copy editor & letters), Brian Haberlin & Dan Kemp (colors)

Summary: Spawn confronts Jason Wynn in his home, only to learn that Wynn has ordered Terry and Wanda killed if anything ever happens to him. Spawn spares his life, but demands that Wynn leave Terry and Wanda alone. Meanwhile, Terry discovers his neighbors are petitioning him to move. In Rat City, Angela suddenly materializes. She asks for Spawn’s help before being abruptly taken away by a bright light. After Spawn stops a mugging, he realizes that his contact with the light has revived his original face.

Spawntinuity: This story allegedly takes place at the same time as Curse of the Spawn #10, although it’s impossible for the details to be worked out. The Curse story ends with Spawn joining Angela on her mission, which is ignored by the next issue. Angela describes the events of the Curse storyline: “A breach has formed within the Eternal Triumverate (sic). A cybernetic soul-eater called the Argus is the catalyst, in conjunction with Limbo.” I hope that helped everyone out.

Spawn Stuff: The McFarlane Toys line of KISS action figures is announced. The Spawn: The Movie toy line is also previewed. You can now own the plastic likeness of Martin Sheen, complete with an oxygen mask, a chest monitor that opens to reveal his heart (an actual plot point in the movie), and a rocket launcher.

Production Note: As of this issue, Brent Ashe is handling the design of the inside front cover and some of the ads. The simple graphics of the earlier issues are replaced with an image from the Spawn movie, along with a few ‘90s Vertigo-esque design elements.

Review: So, around thirty issues after Spawn realized that Jason Wynn ordered his murder, the subplot reaches some form of conclusion. The story’s had to twist in about a dozen different directions in order to justify why Spawn doesn’t just show up and snap the guy’s neck, and finally McFarlane’s decided to go with an obvious copout. If McFarlane has a real reason for keeping Wynn around, I can’t really fault him for this, but McFarlane rarely takes advantage of any of his characters, and the readers shouldn’t have waited two years to get this anti-climax. I suppose this scene also ends the “Terry and Wanda investigate Jason Wynn” subplot, since Wynn and Spawn seem to be at a stalemate, and while I’m glad it’s finally over, it’s another letdown. So, that leaves Sam and Twitch’s investigation into Wynn’s conspiracies, and Violator’s partnership with Wynn to be explored. I’m totally confident that these ideas will reach a logical conclusion within the next couple of issues, aren’t you?

The confrontation with Wynn only takes up less than a third of the issue, so McFarlane has some pages to kill. Angela’s appearance was supposed to tie in with the Curse of the Spawn series, but it instead serves as another example of the lax continuity that’s always existed between the Spawn spinoffs. Curse of the Spawn #10 presents a slightly different conversation between Angela and Spawn, although the general thrust is the same. However, Curse #10 ends with Spawn and Angela teaming up to fight the horribly vague threat from that impenetrable storyline, while this issue has Angela disappearing in a flash of light before Spawn can do anything but squint menacingly at her. He then stops a mugging, (The homeless are always getting mugged in these alleys. It’s a real problem. Someone should write the mayor.) before sitting on his throne and humoring one of his followers’ baseball talk. Finally, it’s time for the cliffhanger. The final page reveals that Spawn has Al Simmons’ face once again, which leads into the storyline McFarlane decided to run as the Spawn movie hit theatres. The circumstances don’t make any real sense, but I have to admit this is one of the few decent cliffhangers the series has presented so far.