Spawn #297
Image Comics
Written by Todd McFarlane
Art by Jason Shawn Alexander
Letters by Tom Orzechowski
Colors by FCO Plascencia
The Rundown: Cogliostro continues his epic tale of Al Simmons to a disbelieving Redeemer and other representatives of Heaven’s Army.
He explains to those gathered that every side of this battle has underestimated Al Simmons at every turn. Every thing they have done to break or control him has only made him stronger physically and mentally. They have unleashed their worst nightmare and none of them knew they were the ones designing it with every attack on Al Simmons psyically and psychologically.
Cog tries to tell those gathered that Al is playing a whole new game. One whose rules he learned when the forces of Heaven and Hell had him at his lowest. Rules he is using to his advantage in a game whose stakes could shatter heaven and hell forever.
The Story: Todd McFarlane does a brilliant job of building up both the tension and menace of this story as the character speeds towards a milestone. This is brilliant use of the history of Al Simmons to show the reader that the character has grown and evolved over time. Al has become more interesting as his plans unfold and Cog lays out a history of the character that not many would realize until this issue.
The Art: Jason Shawn Alexander does brilliant and beautiful work with the art. It’s a slick move to make most of the pages into splash pages and all of them work to showcase the broad and entertaining history of the character.