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Spawn #204 – Advanced Review

Being swarmed by the press and paparazzi, Jim finds out information about having a possible wife! When Jim hears that Sara is in danger and being followed by paparazzi a man harassing her, he teleports to her to see the man get into a near fatal bus accident. The man who was harassing Sara and soon found out that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, with begging Jim to heal the man – will our hero save the mans soul from eternal damnation? All this and more in another exciting issue of Spawn! Written by Will Carlton and artwork by Szymon Kudranski.

Jim Downing has a choice on his hands. Either save the man that was harassing Sara, or let him die. Being begged by Sara to heal the man,Jim makes his choice and heals the man of his injuries. Having been around the press and paparazzi during the healing act, Jim was called the “savior of mankind.” Having a clear view of Jim's actions, a vampire sits watching his display of abilities. Knowing that Jim had to get away from the crowd, he took Sara by the hand and he teleported to her apartment. Sara had many questions to ask Jim about his abilities and also other random things about him, but Jim only knew a little about himself as everyone else did. He leaves Sara with more questions before so he can meet up with the vampirse that were watching him.

The vampire gave Jim advice that he shouldn’t be using Spawns amazing gifts, while being Jim Downing! It could lead to people believing that Spawn is a monster that needs to be destroyed. And eventually that hell would try and seek a way to control him again, while heaven has a different plan for Jim and his alter ego. Having known that the vampire was right, Jim had to be more careful now than ever. Or else Jim Downing would cease to exist and only Spawn would remain! Heaven and hell weren’t the only ones who wanted Spawn/Jim, vampires were sent after Spawn so that they can study him and also try to convert him into a minion of the Vampires. At the end the news media published a story on Jim Downing and his "amazing gifts."

Spawn is spawn, no matter who writes the story. While it is really up to a talented writer to take on Spawn as a challenge in his or her career, writer Will Carlton has done a good job. Spawn is more than meets the eye. He can be the damned soul that is bonded with a tormenting and brutal entity, or he can be as heroic as any other superhero in the community. Carlton conveys Spawn to be both, the hero and the villain. Trying to get each reader pleased, Carlton has done an outstanding job on the series. He makes Jim want to be liked by the human race, but when you add Spawn to the mix things get a little crazy. Having the powers of Spawn and also the many enemies from hell and elsewhere, his life isn’t as black-and-white as most people seem to think. Carlton makes Spawn loveable and also hated by any reader, when you think you know a certain event is going to happen (i.e. Jim healing the man like in this issue), another reader could’ve wanted Jim to not heal the man to keep his secret safe. Carlton does this in his writing a lot and usually goes with the more patriotic of terms.

Szymon Kudranski is a talented artist. His noir style of artwork seems right for Spawn. He did an issue for DC Comics in the “Road Home” story arc, and it seemed all right, but the tone didn’t flow with the story. In Spawn this is very different. Spawn is a dark character, as most people know. He will do things that most people won’t decide to take action in and also kill certain people that need death. With Szymon Kudranski’s artwork and the colors used, it made Spawn look cool and slick while he was wrapped in darkness with his eyes glowing a bright green.

Spawn #204 is a good jumping on point for new and old readers. It has a recap done by Todd McFarlane (Spawn’s creator) and also some good action for those who like dark anti-heroes. The artwork and writing are clean, I have no complaints at all, and also Spawn is just really awesome! You can’t pass this one by folks!

Overall Score – 9.5

Rating
9.5

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