The Scorched #19 // Review
Senator Terminus kills five people outside of Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. One might ask him what he does for an encore, but this is really more of a pre-show warm-up. He’s got to go address a whole bunch of his constituents. This is the beginning of The Scorched #19. Writer Sean Lewis and additional scriptwriter Todd McFarlane continue a stroll through the darkness with the aid of artist Stephen Segovia. Color stains the page under the auspices of Ulises Arreola. The action-horror continues to hold some appeal, though it lacks the kind of thematic complexity that would make for a more compelling narrative.
Spawn and Medieval are having an argument in a small home in rural Oregon. It’s the childhood home of She-Spawn. She’s dead. There’s a lot of frustration over this. Meanwhile back in Kansas City, Terminus is consolidating his power. Those who failed him have been killed. Someone questions him, and...he’s killed too. Divine punishment is coming to humanity in the form of the blood that it has spilled. And while there’s no question that She-Spawn is dead, there’s some question as to what comes next for the Scorched.
“If he’s a saint, why does he keep doing things like this?” It’s the voice of one of Senator Terminus’s supporters. He says this as he’s mopping up blood from the Senator’s multiple homicide. There’s remarkably vivid political satire in this moment, but Lewis and McFarlane wash it away in surface-level interpersonal aggression between the heroes and their antagonists. A U.S. Senator is literally a homicidal demon, but Lewis decides it would be cooler to have heroes arguing and villains taking control of mindless mobs in search of a fight. There’s great potential in the premise. Lewis is doing a good job of avoiding it.
Segovia shows some talent for pushing around the demonic muscle on the page. It looks good. The backgrounds look particularly nice as well, whether they’re at a major NFL stadium or in the middle of the woods or in the snow as Spawn and company look for the corpse of a fallen co-worker. The monster made of blood looks a LOT less silly than it could have. Arreola does a particularly good job with blood on the page, whether it’s in animated demonic form or...just a stain in the background. The colorist’s sense of depth and drama is a perfect match for Segovia’s. Given the right angles, the blood beast could actually look pretty cool when it comes into contact with the Scorched in the near future. It’s just too bad that there isn’t more behind the visuals.
There’s real potential in the premise behind the Scorched. The overall premise echoes some admirable reflections of Chris Claremont and H.P. Lovecraft and a few other really influential writers. The visuals have an undeniable power that shoots across the page. All of the right elements are clearly there. They just aren’t on the page in a way that feels at all interesting.
