Spawn #356 // Review
Lyra was only a girl when she came home to find he father spattered in blood and horribly mangling someone with a large, bloody dagger that as big enough to be a sword. He’d explain to her that he and her mother were opposite sides of a war between heaven and hell. Life hasn’t been the same for her since. Quite a bit more is revealed about her and her life in Spawn #356. Writer Rory McConville crafts the next chapter in the long and winding fantasy horror saga with artist Brett Booth, inker Adelso Corona and colorist Robert Nugent.
Lyra’s dad let her know that he had no intention of drawing her into the war between heaven and hell...always wanted to keep her away from it. She had no intention of being anywhere near it either, so she ran away from home and went to the authorities, who promised her a safe foster home. She couldn’t have know that there were angels and demons everywhere and allowing herself into the custody of the authorities was only going to make matters worse for her. Thankfully, her father knew exactly where to find her. She was safe again when he showed-up, but things were about to get a lot more complicated for her.
McConville takes the series solidly away from the title character in an issue that focusses entirely on Lyra. It’s actually not a bad story. There’s real emotional depth to it that feels suitably complex on a whole bunch of different levels that the Spawn universe doesn’t always engage in. The story might feel solidly grounded in the Spawn universe, but it’s A LOT more complicated than much of what series creator Todd McFarlane and company so often manage with the setting. It’s nice when the series can overcome the limitations of its creator and find something a bit more deep.
So often the heavy details of an artist like Booth can overpower the intensity of what’s going on in a sea of rendering that hopelessly dilutes everything. Under the power of Corona’s meticulously detailed inking and depth brought to the page by Nugent’s colors, there’s a great deal of intensity that’s brought to the page. The heavy rendering style that became so popular in the early 1990s so early hits the page with a coherent stride. Booth, Corona and Nugent manage something really, really impressive with the dramatic nuance and detail in the 356th issue of the series.
Lyra seems interesting enough that she could really branch out into her own series after this. She’s a hell of a lot more interesting than the title character of Spawn has managed to be for much of the past couple of decades. It's Very strange seeing a character like this shine her way out of a largely tedious parade of blood and violence like the Spawn series. Very impressive to see something like this in a largely one-note series. The emotional intensity that McConville manages is quite admirable.
Grade: A
