Intersection Credits: Todd McFarlane (story), Greg Capullo (pencils), Todd McFarlane & Chance Wolf (inks), Tom Orzechowski (copy editor & letters), Brian Haberlin & Dan Kemp (colors)
Summary: Mr. Byrd, the husband of Sam and Twitch’s eccentric client, is murdered. Mrs. Byrd blames aliens. Cogliostro gives the detectives info on their case and informs them that Spawn needs help. Meanwhile, the bums learn that Spawn has been shot by Johnny’s crew. They prepare for a fight, but Boots refuses to join in. Johnny contacts his leader, the Freak, and gives him a paper bag filled with Spawn’s necroplasm. The deranged Freak stabs his follower in the eye.
Spawntinuity: According to Cogliostro, Spawn has “ventured into a section of alleyway that is controlled by a power far greater than his. There he is weak. Vulnerable.”
The Big Names: As reported by this issue’s hype page, Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo is a big Spawn fan.
Spawn Stuff: You can now own Spawn: the Movie action figure playsets, and something called Spawn: the Movieplay. I have no idea what this thing is (at first I thought it was a CD-Rom, but the specs say it measures 9.5 x 8.5 inches), but Todd McFarlane assures us it’s “an essential addition to any Spawn collection.”
Production Note: This issue runs twenty pages instead of the standard twenty-two.
Review: I’m hoping at least that Spawn’s fainting spell from last issue and this issue’s (I can’t believe I’m writing this) wardrobe malfunction are related. With this book, you never know.
And, what do you know? They weren’t. Spawn’s costume is dormant, apparently because he’s wandered into an enchanted area of the alleys, which has nothing to do with Spawn passing out in #66. That incident was, judging by the intimations of that issue’s narrative captions, just a hangover from all of the “feeding on evil” binges with his precious worms. And, boy, did I just type quite a sentence. If McFarlane’s finally setting up an end to that worm stupidity, fine, but this means that two issues in a row had Spawn unexpectedly knocked out by mysterious forces. So, McFarlane’s creating a new arc around Spawn’s costume shorting out before he bothered to explain fully why Spawn’s body essentially did the same thing an issue earlier, which brings us the McFarlane Double-Scoop of poor issue-to-issue continuity and recycled scenes.
We also have another entry in the Unrelated Portrait Cover Hall of Fame. Not only is it not snowing in this issue, but Spawn doesn’t have a head when we see his body on the final splash page. I can’t blame McFarlane for normally favoring a dramatic pose over a story-related cover, but Spawn’s appearance in this issue really is striking! You can run Spawn standing over a generically “spooky” background any time you want…why miss out on the opportunity for a headless Spawn cover?
I looked up Spawn: The Movieplay and only found a couple blurbs about it:
ReplyDelete"Tied to the release of the Hollywood feature film, this 196 page science-fiction graphic novel about an anti-hero who is called upon to defend the world from a sentient evil force incorporates still photographs from the film, along with edited extracts from the screenplay. "
"Spawn - The Movieplay features Digiframes taken directly from the motion picture - not film stills - to make the narrative flow properly".
So I'm guessing somebody took screen caps of the movie and threw on some word balloons to make a comic?