Gunslinger Spawn #37 // Review
The big, orange pumpkin spice-looking demon has used this particular technique before. He’s a big guy with huge hands. SO when he grabs someone, he crushes them until they think that they’re going to die. THAT’S when he asks the questions. Not exactly a U.N.-sanctioned way of treating a p prisoner, but the big orange guy isn’t exactly from around here. He’s big. He’s mean. And he’s looking for the title character in Gunslinger Spawn #37. Writer Todd McFarlane tries his best to tell a story that is brought to the page with requisite brutality by artist Carlo Barberi. Color comes to the page courtesy of Ivan Nunes.
Not surprisingly, the questioning isn’t going very well. The giant orange hulking venom-looking thing keeps asking questions. All he’s getting in return are further questions...even when he specifically tells his captive who is asking the questions and who should be answering them. You would think that the captive in question might be a bitdistracted by his captors glowing green eyes or massive fangs or tank-like stature. It’s like the guy never saw a demon before or something. If the big orange guy is going to find out more about what’s going on, he might have to look elsewhere for answers.
To be here, McFarlane is actually holding together multi layered plot with some degree of competency. There's a hell of a lot of Law & Order-style stuff that doesn't hit the page in a very compelling fashion. The search for one man in particular rests at the heart of this particular issue and it is actually pretty interesting. The contrast between this giant orange demon and the guy who is helping him out. It's kind of a fun contrast between someone who is very earthbound and someone who is not. If the author could have focused a little bit more on that, it probably would have crosses on much more interesting issue on the whole. However, McFarland does have to continue on what he's established earlier even if it's not terribly interesting.
Barberi has a solid handle on both courtroom drama and fantastic Spawn-based horror/action. The fact that the legal stuff doesn't seem to be all that interesting he's not really the fault of the artist. The mood and tone is handled quite well and given quite a bit of radiance and depth by.Nunes’ colors. That being said, it's kind of hard to find a unique tack for the style of visuals that the Spawn Universe have been running on for so many years now. Thankfully, this is an issue that modulates a little bit between all of the action and some of the drama. However, the visual footprint of this particular issue really look all that different from so many other far less accomplished issues that may have come before it.
Every now and again a spawn title hits on something that really would work well on its own as a completely different series. This particular manhunt would work really well as a matched pair trying to make their way through a world that is infested with the spawn of hell. Would be really fun to see that two of them continue on in some fashion. However, so many ideas ricochet around the Spawn Universe and so little of it meets the center of the page the way that it should.
