Spawn Origins, Volume 22

Spawn Origins Collection

by Todd McFarlane (Writer/Illustrator), Brian Holguin (Writer), Angel Medina (Illustrator)

A grizzly murder in Rat City puts NYC Cops Sam and Twitch at odds with Al Simmons. But unbeknownst to them is that Clown is running around in the possessed body of...Jason Wynn!!

Collects SPAWN #129-134

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 7, 2022

About the author

Todd McFarlane is a Canadian comic book artist, writer, toy manufacturer/designer, and media entrepreneur who is best known as the creator of the epic occult fantasy series Spawn.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McFarlane became a comic book superstar due to his work on Marvel Comics' Spider-Man franchise. In 1992, he helped form Image Comics, pulling the occult anti-hero character Spawn from his high school portfolio and updating him for the 1990s. Spawn was one of America's most popular heroes in the 1990's and encouraged a trend in creator-owned comic book properties.

In recent years, McFarlane has illustrated comic books less often, focusing on entrepreneurial efforts, such as McFarlane Toys and Todd McFarlane Entertainment, a film and animation studio.

In September, 2006, it was announced that McFarlane will be the Art Director of the newly formed 38 Studios, formerly Green Monster Games, founded by Curt Schilling.

McFarlane used to be co-owner of National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers but sold his shares to Daryl Katz. He's also a high-profile collector of history-making baseballs.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B) 74% | More than Satisfactory
Notes: It starts okay though veers astray, a lot of words for filler, middling plots are fine in spots, the art's an eyesight-killer.

*Progress updates: Preamble ◦ Issues #129-131 ◦ Issues #132-134

[The Wintermute System · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not that impressed with Al’s girlfriend/lover/whatever Nyx is to him, or with the general storyline since Wanda and Terry and Cyan moved away in relation to Spawn redefining his humanity: they were his anchors and it feels like he’s adrift since that narrative decision.

I’m not as fond of the new artist as I was of McFarlane and Capullo, but he’s not bad, so I only knocked off a half star for each of those. At least Spawn isn’t stagnating, I guess.

There is a lot of exciting things going on with hell making more moves via Jason Wynn, and Violator so there was that and it’s fun seeing what’s happening with them mixed in with the grim violence that is counterbalanced by Spawn’s conscience and him trying to do the right thing.

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twitch tracks down Al and accuses him of destroying his life. Al shares his own experiences about life and death. Both are convincing, so they reach a consesus. Then Al offers to save the soul of Twitch's son Max. They find him soon enough, but his soul and seven others are linked to a house. One of the souls offers Twitch to join them, but to do that she fatally shoots Twitch. Spawn opens a portal to hell to get rid of the ghosts, then he heals Twitch who reunites with his family.

The Clown takes full control of Wynn and has him kill several women who look like Wanda. This draws the attention of the police, but Spawn takes him down. Wynn falls to his eath, but his body is then free for the Clown to take over once more. He gathers allies from the people he possesses and draws Spawn into a trap.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanda and Terry have moved away to parts unknown and I hope they never come back. Wynn is possessed by the Violator and starts murdering Wanda look-alikes while Spawn helps Twitch save his vampire son who is trapped in a haunted house. Nyx is still around and not doing much except probably repeatedly dying her hair to keep that striped look going.

As far as Angel Medina goes, just when you think his art is looking better, multiple pages look like ass. Action sequences are just mass chaos where you can't tell what the hell is happening.