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Spawn (US) #4
Spawn, tome 4 : Surenchère
Having lost everything, Spawn stumbles into a place where his memories have a life of their own and here is reunited with the one true love of his life. She is the woman he came back from the grave for, but he finds himself caught in a honeyed trap where he faces his own destruction.
Paperback
First published June 1, 1997
75 people want to read
About the author
Grant Morrison
1,795 books4,556 followersGrant Morrison has been working with DC Comics for twenty five years, after beginning their American comics career with acclaimed runs on ANIMAL MAN and DOOM PATROL. Since then they have written such best-selling series as JLA, BATMAN and New X-Men, as well as such creator-owned works as THE INVISIBLES, SEAGUY, THE FILTH, WE3 and JOE THE BARBARIAN. In addition to expanding the DC Universe through titles ranging from the Eisner Award-winning SEVEN SOLDIERS and ALL-STAR SUPERMAN to the reality-shattering epic of FINAL CRISIS, they have also reinvented the worlds of the Dark Knight Detective in BATMAN AND ROBIN and BATMAN, INCORPORATED and the Man of Steel in The New 52 ACTION COMICS.
In their secret identity, Morrison is a "counterculture" spokesperson, a musician, an award-winning playwright and a chaos magician. They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods, a groundbreaking psycho-historic mapping of the superhero as a cultural organism. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Scotland.
In their secret identity, Morrison is a "counterculture" spokesperson, a musician, an award-winning playwright and a chaos magician. They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods, a groundbreaking psycho-historic mapping of the superhero as a cultural organism. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Scotland.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 19, 2018
I wanted to give this collection a much better review than what follows. I really did. After Book Three, I was hyped up to read Book Four, expecting more of the same high quality that preceded it. Unfortunately things did not pan out so well. To put it simply, Spawn is at its best when it keeps its focus on the main narrative; deviations do not serve this comic series well, and boy was this just one big detour.
Issues 16-18 were written by guest writer Grant Morrison, an accomplished comic book writer whose stint here was not in keeping with his normal quality of work. Morrison expands the Spawn lore by introducing a new villain named Anti-Spawn. Chosen by the warriors of Heaven, Anti-Spawn was dispatched to finish the job that Angela (of Book Two) could not. What makes this villain stupid is that the man chosen to become Anti-Spawn is Jason Wynn, the guy that ordered Al Simmons' assassination. Why convolute his character with yet another layer of antagonism towards Spawn? Can't he be a significant enough villain to Simmons by virtue of having ordered his execution? Does Wynn really need to also become this ridiculous Anti-Spawn character on top of all that? Though this revelation isn't revealed to Spawn during their fight, it is puzzling for readers to consider. Why even choose this guy in the first place? He's not a good person – definitely not someone Heaven would normally accept into their ranks or trust to complete a job as important as this. This decision felt like a gimmick meant to make people go "oh wow look who just so happen to be chosen to fight Spawn! How profound!" But a more realistic response would be more along the lines of "Oh wow that's pretty goddamn stupid." Anyways, Spawn quickly finds that he is outmatched by this new opponent and nearly succumbs to defeat until his homeless friends come to his rescue. I liked the camaraderie displayed here by the bums because it proves that Spawn isn't as alone as he makes himself out to be, and he does, indeed, have a sort-of "family" to protect and care for.
Morrison's story also delves deeper into Spawn's emotional suffering as he is forced to come face-to-face with bastardized forms of his old memories thanks to a deal between Hell and the military. Through a hellish substance called Psychoplasm, Spawn's memories materialize between the gateway to Hell and Earth. A tormented Spawn confronts his stolen memories and destroys them in a metaphorical display which conveys the reality that Al Simmons is dead and only Spawn is left. In between all the action, we also get to see Spawn dig up his grave and learn that he is not inhabiting his own body, for his earthly body lies rotting in a coffin. Morrison should have focused mostly on character development and kept the action to a minimum, which would have made his three-issue stint more significant and entertaining to the main narrative of Spawn. Instead, we got a sorely lacking, mostly insignificant story that barely improves Spawn's character or builds upon the main narrative of the comic series.
After a lackluster Morrison run, we get punished with issues 19 and 20, two of the most convoluted and boring Spawn comics I've had the misfortune of reading thus far. Do you know what Houdini, atomic bombs, magic, Ukrainian/Russian terrorists, and demons have in common? They're all reasons why I hate whoever wrote issues 19 and 20 of Spawn. This whole debacle was forgettable and ridiculous; I can't believe these issues ever came to print. And talk about overusing narration text! I felt like I was reading a goddamn novel half the time – being bombarded by page upon page of pointless exposition and dry narration. A great comic – hell, even just a decent comic – should not have to rely on so much text to get across its story. If that's the case, then you're not telling the story properly or the story sucks and shouldn't be told in comic form in the first place. This is a comic book, after all – not a textbook – and the focal point of your story telling mechanic should be based around the artwork and dialogue between characters, not narration text boxes filling page after page. Spawn issues 19 and 20 are prime examples on how NOT to write comic books. Oh, and the story in these issues is garbage.
The errors in the last two issues of Spawn Book Four: Escalation make this whole collection a hairsbreadth away from being wholly irredeemable, for it contains almost nothing of worth. If I am being lenient, I can say that Grant Morrison did a somewhat decent job with a few of his ideas, but I can't be as forgiving to the rest of the collection because it devolves into utter trash. Were it not for the last two issues, I'd say this collection would be passable for nothing more than revealing some minor details about Spawn's past, but that's where the compliments end. As it stands, it is pretty much worth skipping entirely unless you're a completionist whose goal is to read every single issue – good or bad.
Issues 16-18 were written by guest writer Grant Morrison, an accomplished comic book writer whose stint here was not in keeping with his normal quality of work. Morrison expands the Spawn lore by introducing a new villain named Anti-Spawn. Chosen by the warriors of Heaven, Anti-Spawn was dispatched to finish the job that Angela (of Book Two) could not. What makes this villain stupid is that the man chosen to become Anti-Spawn is Jason Wynn, the guy that ordered Al Simmons' assassination. Why convolute his character with yet another layer of antagonism towards Spawn? Can't he be a significant enough villain to Simmons by virtue of having ordered his execution? Does Wynn really need to also become this ridiculous Anti-Spawn character on top of all that? Though this revelation isn't revealed to Spawn during their fight, it is puzzling for readers to consider. Why even choose this guy in the first place? He's not a good person – definitely not someone Heaven would normally accept into their ranks or trust to complete a job as important as this. This decision felt like a gimmick meant to make people go "oh wow look who just so happen to be chosen to fight Spawn! How profound!" But a more realistic response would be more along the lines of "Oh wow that's pretty goddamn stupid." Anyways, Spawn quickly finds that he is outmatched by this new opponent and nearly succumbs to defeat until his homeless friends come to his rescue. I liked the camaraderie displayed here by the bums because it proves that Spawn isn't as alone as he makes himself out to be, and he does, indeed, have a sort-of "family" to protect and care for.
Morrison's story also delves deeper into Spawn's emotional suffering as he is forced to come face-to-face with bastardized forms of his old memories thanks to a deal between Hell and the military. Through a hellish substance called Psychoplasm, Spawn's memories materialize between the gateway to Hell and Earth. A tormented Spawn confronts his stolen memories and destroys them in a metaphorical display which conveys the reality that Al Simmons is dead and only Spawn is left. In between all the action, we also get to see Spawn dig up his grave and learn that he is not inhabiting his own body, for his earthly body lies rotting in a coffin. Morrison should have focused mostly on character development and kept the action to a minimum, which would have made his three-issue stint more significant and entertaining to the main narrative of Spawn. Instead, we got a sorely lacking, mostly insignificant story that barely improves Spawn's character or builds upon the main narrative of the comic series.
After a lackluster Morrison run, we get punished with issues 19 and 20, two of the most convoluted and boring Spawn comics I've had the misfortune of reading thus far. Do you know what Houdini, atomic bombs, magic, Ukrainian/Russian terrorists, and demons have in common? They're all reasons why I hate whoever wrote issues 19 and 20 of Spawn. This whole debacle was forgettable and ridiculous; I can't believe these issues ever came to print. And talk about overusing narration text! I felt like I was reading a goddamn novel half the time – being bombarded by page upon page of pointless exposition and dry narration. A great comic – hell, even just a decent comic – should not have to rely on so much text to get across its story. If that's the case, then you're not telling the story properly or the story sucks and shouldn't be told in comic form in the first place. This is a comic book, after all – not a textbook – and the focal point of your story telling mechanic should be based around the artwork and dialogue between characters, not narration text boxes filling page after page. Spawn issues 19 and 20 are prime examples on how NOT to write comic books. Oh, and the story in these issues is garbage.
The errors in the last two issues of Spawn Book Four: Escalation make this whole collection a hairsbreadth away from being wholly irredeemable, for it contains almost nothing of worth. If I am being lenient, I can say that Grant Morrison did a somewhat decent job with a few of his ideas, but I can't be as forgiving to the rest of the collection because it devolves into utter trash. Were it not for the last two issues, I'd say this collection would be passable for nothing more than revealing some minor details about Spawn's past, but that's where the compliments end. As it stands, it is pretty much worth skipping entirely unless you're a completionist whose goal is to read every single issue – good or bad.
October 21, 2022
Book 4, featuring two stories of the Hellspawn vigilante.
In the first Spawn finds himself confronted by Anti-Spawn, an old enemy who has been imbued with Heavenly fire and sent to destroy him. The second sees Spawn encountering the interdimensional magician Harry Houdini and attempting to avert a nuclear disaster.
This is very much a book of two halves, with one being infinitely better than the other.
See if you can guess if the better half was the one written by comics legend Grant Morrison or if it was the half written by two guys whose names I've literally never encountered before...
Whilst Morrison's contribution to this book is far from his best work, it's a perfectly satisfying example of a hero having to fight his equal/opposite. I also particularly liked the fact that Spawn's habit of protecting the homeless and destitute comes back to save him at a critical moment.
The second half of the book, by Orzechowksi and Grossberg, is a rambling, nonsensical mess in which interdimensional scientists want to experiment by blowing up Spawn with a nuclear weapon, Houdini is an actual sorcerer and for some reason, despite it being written in the mid-90s, the Cold War is still a thing.
It's garbage, really, and the whole book is spoiled by it.
* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *
In the first Spawn finds himself confronted by Anti-Spawn, an old enemy who has been imbued with Heavenly fire and sent to destroy him. The second sees Spawn encountering the interdimensional magician Harry Houdini and attempting to avert a nuclear disaster.
This is very much a book of two halves, with one being infinitely better than the other.
See if you can guess if the better half was the one written by comics legend Grant Morrison or if it was the half written by two guys whose names I've literally never encountered before...
Whilst Morrison's contribution to this book is far from his best work, it's a perfectly satisfying example of a hero having to fight his equal/opposite. I also particularly liked the fact that Spawn's habit of protecting the homeless and destitute comes back to save him at a critical moment.
The second half of the book, by Orzechowksi and Grossberg, is a rambling, nonsensical mess in which interdimensional scientists want to experiment by blowing up Spawn with a nuclear weapon, Houdini is an actual sorcerer and for some reason, despite it being written in the mid-90s, the Cold War is still a thing.
It's garbage, really, and the whole book is spoiled by it.
* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *
July 6, 2019
Spawn has never been a good comic, in my opinion. Other than a few brief flourishes in it's almost 300 issue run (In Heaven, this Run, Endgame).
In three short issues, Grant adds a little more depth and complexity to the kiddie pool. There was a time where the comics industry could have gone two ways--the purple prose of Vertigo or the bloodcurdlingly masculinity of Image comics. This seemed to be a fusion of the two. Mildly smart action comics.
Its funny--this was comic issues #16-18. It looks like Grant's Anti-Spawn characteer is going to be a large plotpoint in the upcoming Spawn #298-301 arc.
In three short issues, Grant adds a little more depth and complexity to the kiddie pool. There was a time where the comics industry could have gone two ways--the purple prose of Vertigo or the bloodcurdlingly masculinity of Image comics. This seemed to be a fusion of the two. Mildly smart action comics.
Its funny--this was comic issues #16-18. It looks like Grant's Anti-Spawn characteer is going to be a large plotpoint in the upcoming Spawn #298-301 arc.
January 3, 2019
Enjoyed the first story by Grant Morrison. But why is Spawn playing driving Miss Daisy for Houdini in the second story???
June 8, 2014
Read it for the morrison stories, and there were elements that were cool, especially the psychoplasm. It's still pretty uneven and just seems to be bombastic or trying to be edgy without really building fear or suspense. I will probably read another one, but i won't really want to haha
December 8, 2008
The first seven of these kind of lump together in my brain; my review is in Spawn, Book 1.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews