Chris Campana Cover B Variant
Spawn #377
Writer: Matthew Rosenberg
Artist: Stephen Segovia
Cover Artists: Mirko Colak & Chris Campana
Colorist: Robert Nugent
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
As a new jumping-on point, Spawn #377 does its job. You don’t need prior knowledge of 30 years of Spawn lore to be able to follow what’s going on. In some ways, it even goes back to its roots by using Spawn sporadically throughout the issue, treating him as a looming, omnipresent figure.
The problem, however, lies in how uninteresting most of these newly introduced characters are. They seem to serve no greater purpose than being run-of-the-mill gangsters.
An Offer You Can’t Refuse
Heaven and Hell, as we know them, have abandoned Earth. This has exposed humanity to the fact that they were never merely concepts that existed in people's imaginations. They are real and have been watching us this entire time. Following the seismic shift caused by these two entities’ leaving, Spawn is believed to be dead as a result. Or... is he?
Fast forward nine months, and a Korean mob boss by the name of Mr. Oh has muscled his way into Manhattan to organize a meeting to assemble a crime syndicate. With neither Heaven nor Hell overseeing Earth, an arms race has emerged to determine who can rise to the top of organized crime the fastest.
Mr. Oh has coerced a butcher by the name of Mr. Jones into using his shop as the location for this meeting. An imposing brute by the name of Bonehead recites a Latin saying to Mingus, a boy who works at Mr. Jones' butcher shop. Mingus has been asked to guard the door and ask for the secret password from anyone who wants to enter the meeting. Why a mob boss would trust a kid to monitor who comes in and out of his top-secret meeting is beyond me, but hey, stranger things have happened in Spawn.
Bonehead Rises Above the Pact
I love a good meeting of mobsters. The Sopranos were the masters of it. More than a handful of the show's best scenes took place around a dinner table. This, however, is not one of those occasions.
There are ten characters introduced during this meeting, and it feels overwhelming to follow. Most of the conversation is split between Mr. Oh and Achille Costa, a Spanish mobster who isn't necessarily interested in working with everyone to gain world power; he'd rather have it all to himself. But there's just nothing particularly noteworthy to take away from the meeting itself, outside of the group's plans for world domination.
The action scenes we do get with Bonehead help break up the monotony of the meeting panels. Bonehead has a very simple yet effective character design, and he stands head and shoulders above every other character introduced in this issue. That might be because he's allowed to do things compared to the other criminals, such as going on a rampage throughout Manhattan, pummeling cops to a bloody pulp, throwing cars around, and having bullets ricochet off him. I'm hoping we get to see more of him as a character and that he becomes a key part of Matthew Rosenberg's long-term plan to revamp the Spawn universe.
Shadows of the Underworld
From an architectural standpoint, Stephen Segovia does a very good job of illustrating a gritty, grimy New York that you'd think twice about leasing an apartment in. I just wish we had gotten more panels showcasing the city and allowing Segovia to draw more visually interesting environments instead of spending so much time in a meeting that takes place in the back of a butcher shop.
He doesn't get to draw Spawn very much, despite working on a Spawn book, but the few times he does, he absolutely nails it. To draw a great Spawn, he must be big, menacing, with glowing green eyes, a cape flowing majestically in the air, and more chains and spikes than you can count. Segovia has all those ingredients down to an exact science, and I'm looking forward to seeing him flex his artistic muscles even more in the upcoming issues.
The coloring, provided by Robert Nugent, is very muted. As I mentioned earlier, most of this issue takes place in a gray room, which becomes a little bland to look at after a while. There aren't any big, neon colors to be found here, and while a Spawn comic doesn't necessarily need them, a little more color here and there wouldn't hurt.
Trust the Process
Spawn #377 is not the home run I was hoping for. There's a lot of exposition to get through, along with several characters who simply don't stick the landing. Even so, I came away with the impression that Matthew Rosenberg has a genuine appreciation for the sandbox Todd McFarlane has spent three decades building into one of the most recognizable independent comic book franchises of all time. I'm optimistic that Rosenberg has a clear blueprint for where he wants to take the series and that he'll continue building toward that vision with each new issue.
Rating: 6/10
Recommended (for the potential)