Introduction

In this first installment of the TwitchGuru comics column, Travis looks at the recent devastating change to the "Spawn" mythos, a Punisher with a sense of humor, and a little girl who kicks ass. Also his picks for the week.

The cover of Spawn #164

For the inaugural flight of this column, I want to jump right in to the comics instead of spending a lot of time talking about the genesis or the name of the column itself. The short of it is this will be a weekly recurring column about comics and the comics industry (as well as a look at the release list), and my wife thought of the name. Now, let's move on.

A shocking revelation occurred in the most recent issue of "Spawn" (#164). Actually, the last year of "Spawn" has been pretty interesting with the thirteen part Armageddon arc written by David Hine and drawn by Philip Tan that started with issue #150. At the conclusion, Spawn finds himself as the agent of the world's destruction having completed an apotheosis. The entity known as Mother has banished God and the Devil to another dimension where their eternal squabbling will no longer affect Earth, and Spawn, after first destroying all life on Earth, recreates it in an almost utopian image (its inhabitants remembering some of the events of the end of creation). That takes the story through issue #163, and #164 is an epilogue of sorts. The interesting thing about that issue is that it tells a story that, for me, fundamentally changes Spawn as a character. I started reading "Spawn" when #1 was released in 1992, but I got off it somewhere around issue #84. When I read the press release last year that the book was taking a whole new direction with issue #150, I started buying it again. After this revelation about Al Simmons (the man who becomes Spawn) in issue #164, I'm not sure I can root for him anymore. I suppose you can divide Spawn's life into two parts: Al Simmons and Spawn. The Al Simmons character was always dark (he was an assassin for the US government) with shades of evil which is what attracted Malebolgia (the demon that gives Spawn his powers) to him in the first place. I get that Spawn is repenting for the sins of Al Simmons, but his actions in #164 might make the character as a whole irredeemable. Instead of thinking, "Man, this poor guy can't catch a break," when something bad happens to him, I may lean more towards, "This guy deserves everything that happens to him." By saying that I don't like this revelation doesn't mean that I don't appreciate violent changes being made to this character. Too many comic characters are stuck in a perpetual second act where they, more or less, remain the same through every story. It's nice to see Image doing something with Spawn. From the editorial message at the end of issue #164, it sounds like they are treating Spawn's destruction of the world like an Ultimate universe (the popular Marvel line of books that re-imagines characters with updated settings and origins) reboot. There was talk of seeing new versions of old villains and the like, so perhaps an Ultimate take on Spawn is in order and this is just part of his Ultimate origin. I'll keep buying the book for now, but the character has definitely changed in my eyes.

Frank Castle - the biggest Pantera fan ever.

I want to talk about some other books that I'm really enjoying lately. I've never been a big Punisher fan, but I really like the new "Punisher: War Journal" ongoing series written by Matt Fraction with art by Ariel Olivetti. Matt Fraction's take on the Punisher is less dour and much more amusing. Don't think that the Punisher is all one-liners and puns now, though. He did kill two villains who were negotiating with Captain America right in the middle of the meeting (and received a very serious beatdown for his trouble). The first three issues were a Civil War tie in, so we'll see where the story goes from here (with new artist Mike Deodato taking over pencils in issue #4). From the cover it looks like some of Marvel's biggest villains come out for Stilt Man's funeral where, I hope, hilarity ensues. It sounds bad, but the Punisher killing Stilt Man was one of the funniest scenes in a comic in recent memory. I never thought a Punisher comic would be consistently funny, but there you have it.

X23 ponders how to get that much blood out of suede.

One of the other books I'm always looking forward to these days is "X-23: Target X". When I first read about X-23, I thought the character was going to be a huge disaster. I was thinking, "So..., she's from the 'X-Men Evolution' cartoon, and she's a teenage female clone of Wolverine?" I like Wolverine, but he's becoming a tad over-used these days, and what we don't need is another Wolverine running around the Marvel universe joining all the teams. However, the first X-23 mini "X-23: Innocence Lost" was a really fantastic read, and portrayed her as being in the shadow of Wolverine, but with much of her own character as well. "Innocent Lost" lays out the origin story of X-23, and details a few of her early assassination assignments. The story is quite somber, but with lots of action, and is almost a companion piece to the Barry Windsor Smith "Weapon X" story that revealed the origin of Wolverine so long ago. "X-23: Target X" is a direct sequel to "Innocence Lost" (both written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost) and picks up where the previous story left off, with X-23 escaped from the facility but now being interrogated by Captain America and Matt Murdock (Daredevil). I'm very interested in where the story is headed, and the fact that X-23 can be unleashed on anyone without her control leads to some fantastic story beats. It's almost the model of a werewolf character. The art in "Target X" is top notch, although I think the older male characters suffer a bit at the hands of artist Michael Choi. Both Cap and Matt Murdock look like they're about 14 years old and the way Kingpin was drawn in issue #3 was almost comical. It's just a style choice, and one I can live with. The panel design and action scenes are all excellent, and for a Marvel book I find it to be exceptionally violent.

At the end of every column, I'll look at the release list for the week and pick out the comics that I'm considering along with a quick summation of why. These come from my own personal preference, so you may see some trends emerge from this list. Here are the comics I'm looking for this week and some brief thoughts on each:

DC

"52" #42 - Getting close to the end of this whole mess.
"Superman" #659 - Superman as an angel, huh. OK.
"Wonder Woman" #4 - More "is she or isn't she" for our favorite Amazon.
"Helmet of Fate: Black Alice" #1 - Goth chick finds Fate's hat and written by Gail Simone.

Dynamite Entertainment

"Battlestar Galactica" #6 - It's BSG in comic form. That's all you need to know.

Image Comics

"Battle Pope" #13 - Absolutely hysterical and extraordinarily offensive.
"Girls" #22 - Killer naked women and The Luna Brothers.
"Invincible" #39 -I'm told this is the best comic ever.

Marvel

"Amazing Spider-Man" #538 - Civil War tie in.
"Civil War" #7 - It ends, hopefully with a huge fight and some death.
"Immortal Iron Fist" #3 - Fraction and Brubaker with a dash of karate.
"New Avengers Illuminati" #2 - Maybe Namor will punch more people.
"Powers" #23 - Bendis doing the comics equivalent of a police procedural.
"Punisher War Journal" #4 - It's the Punisher cracking wise and wearing his smooth white gloves.
"Silent War" #2 - Inhumans attack the Earth. What's not to like?
"Ultimate Fantastic Four" #39 - After the whole Ultimate Thanos thing, I'm ready for something smaller.

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