Tuesday, March 30, 2010

SPAWN #15 - November 1993

Myths- Part Two

Credits: Todd McFarlane (story, pencils, & inks), Tom Orzechowski (letters and editor), Steve Oliff, Reuben Rude, & Olyoptics (colors)

Summary: Violator concludes his story, revealing that Medieval Spawn teleported out of his armor to avoid the fire. Medieval Spawn defeated Violator in battle and beheaded him. However, the maiden ran away in horror after seeing Medieval Spawn’s deformed body. She repeated the story of the incident, and as the details were altered, the myth of dragons was created. Malebolgia contacted Violator, congratulating him on turning the maiden against Medieval Spawn. In the present, Spawn defends himself against a violent restaurant employee who objects to him sleeping near their dumpster. Elsewhere, government agents continue to harass Terry Fitzgerald.

Spawntinuity: Violator reads a newspaper article that attributes his gangland murders to Spawn. He declares that he’s going to set the record straight with Tony Twist, which is a lead-in to the Violator miniseries. Why Violator is suddenly upset with Spawn for getting “credit” for his work makes no sense, as it’s reinforced on the very first page of this issue that he always intended to frame Spawn for the murders.

Review: The flashback story peters out, as predictably we learn that Medieval Spawn teleported away before Violator could burn him. Revealing that Violator became the inspiration for dragons also wasn’t hard to see coming, once he suddenly developed fire-breathing powers in the last issue. This could’ve worked as a one-issue story, since the basic setup is pretty sound and the ending works well (Violator is able to show Medieval Spawn he’s unlovable after the maiden abandons him, which is all Malebolgia wanted). There’s no way it should’ve stretched into two issues, a fact McFarlane apparently realized since he ends the storyline with page sixteen. The rest of the issue mainly consists of Spawn (who isn’t even wearing his cape and costume; he’s just dressed like a bum) having a pointless street brawl with a testy restaurant employee. I know McFarlane was in the awkward position of having almost a third of the issue to fill, but it’s hard to believe he settled on such a mundane action sequence. I bet Testy Restaurant Employee didn’t even get his own trading card or McFarlane action figure.

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