Rat City Volume 1

by Erica Schultz, Carlos Ze (artist)

Award-winning writer ERICA SCHULTZ (Moon Black, White & Blood) teams up with artist ZÉ CARLOS to send readers on a visually stunning ride through a dystopian futurescape in the new Spawn Universe series RAT CITY.In a post-war future, PETER CAIRN stands as a unique individual, bearing the weight of his past as an ex-soldier and an amputee, becomes a Hellspawn thanks to nanites in his prosthetic legs influenced by AL SIMMONS’ necroplasmic detonation causing a ripple effect not only across space but also through time. Labeled a “DEVIANT“ by the corporation that created him, Peter confronts his creators as his powers grow, making himself a prime target.
Collects RAT CITY #1-6

160 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2025

About the author

Erica Schultz is an American comic book writer, letterer, and editor. She is the first woman to write a Spawn comic, and is best known for her writing work at Marvel on titles like Daredevil, X-23, and Hallows' Eve.

Reviews

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Erica Schultz and Zé Carlos take the concept of Spawn into the future with the first volume of their series Rat City. Former black ops soldier Peter Cairn lost his legs during a fateful mission overseas. A veteran, Cairn was placed in a government-sponsored research tank where he and fellow amputees received cybernetic upgrades. Unable to achieve the levels needed to stay in the program, he was cast out into the streets of New York and forgotten. Scraping up street repair jobs to get by, Cairn’s life is altered by the devastating necroplasm explosion from Al Simmons; his nanotechnology has been imbued with the energy necessary to transform him into a new kind of protector. Hunted by the scientists who created him and branded a traitor by the easily-influenced media, Cairn is learning what it means to take on the Hellspawn title. Erica Schultz does a fine job balancing the introductory set-up, spending her time focusing on character development as opposed to a quick jump into heroics. While some may argue that there needed to be more backstory to Cairn, her focus on some of the allies and enemies should pay off bigger dividends down the road. Zé Carlos has an active style that bodes week for free-flowing sequences and unique character designs; he is limited here on the full costume appearances due to plotting concerns, but has a good grasp of the book’s tonality. Rat City may borrow elements from the 2099 or Beyond concepts from the Big Two companies, but looks to finding its own unique groove within the Spawn family of books.

[Frank Jarome · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting idea, and the first Spawn book I’ve read in at least a decade. Not fully baked, though. There’s a lot of promise here, but it’s so far from using more than a fraction of it that I don’t see myself continuing on with it. Just didn’t do enough to grab me

[Sarospice · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Spawn meets Blade Runner and that's an interesting set-up but the writer doesn't go any further. Secret corporations try to create super soldiers... O.k. what else? Need to give us more.