It's 12:53 a.m. A man is running from a ridiculous-looking hunter. There's blood spattered on his face. A bullet shoots through his right leg. The hunter glares at him with glowing green eyes demanding to know where McCarver is. The only thing is: the guy doesn't even know who the Hell that is. It's going to be a rough trip between the covers in Spawn #344. Writer Rory McConville and artist Carlo Barberi continue creator/co-writer Todd McFarlane's long-running action/horror series with another journey into the kind of gritty darkness that the series has become known for over the decades. 

The hunter in question is Gunslinger Spawn. He's right in the middle of his...questioning of the gentleman in question when non-Gunslinger Spawn shows up to tell him that he's heading into Hell. He needs a team to come with him. He's asking Gunslinger to go with him. There's a real danger in running into the fire and brimstone...even for someone of Spawn's power. He will need all the help he can get, especially with things being what they are. Anybody would have to be crazy to enter Hell during a war with Heaven. Still...Spawn HAS to try to get a team together if he's going to stand any chance. 

The "getting the team together" chapter can be done with style and poise. It can deliver a whole lot of characterization to the page in a way that will echo into the adventure itself. This is particularly true of characters with a long history together like Spawn is gathering throughout the issue. Spawn #344 has a feeling of exhaustion about it, though. Everyone seems to know that they're going to have to go with this guy. No one seems to want to. It's not exactly a dynamic and energetic assembly that McConville is bringing to the page.

Barberi is asked to draw a hell of a lot of dramatic pressure between McFarlanian masked superhumans. To his credit, he DOES draw the tension to the page with extreme precision. She-Spawn Jessica Priest looks suitably cool and in charge of the few panels she's in. The action itself is about as intelligible as anything McFarlane ever drew for the series, but it DOES lend some weight to the drama that's being attempted. The dramatic atmosphere would feel sluggish and lethargic were it not for the fact that there IS some crazy, brutal aggression slinging itself around the page.

Indeed, everything seems in place for a compelling and cosmic war drama. It's just assembled on the page in a way that doesn't feel like it can really articulate the dangers and threats and things they are clearly playing with. It's just a lot of Musilli people jumping around and shooting at each other. There isn't enough thought about how things are staged or the beats in the drama to bring across anything terribly coherent. It's not really clear what's happening. Which is too bad because it actually looks kind of fantastic while it happens.

Grade: B-