I remember awhile back when many Infuze readers were up in arms about the book (and later movie) The Da Vinci Code. There was a good debate about whether or not it was blasphemous or simply a work of enjoyable fiction. Before that many Christians had strong issues with the “witchcraft” aspect of the Harry Potter series. Considering history here, let me preface this review by simply saying that The Armageddon Collection Part, 2 makes both seem like word for word accounts of a classic gospel. If either made you nervous or offended you this story is not for you in any way, shape, or form, even if you are a Spawn fan.
This graphic novel style collection includes Spawn issues 156 through 164. For the most part it follows the immediate buildup to Armageddon as well as the battle itself. These are the final issues with David Hine (Civil War) and Philip Tan (X-Men) at the helm, and to say the go out with a bang would be the understatement of the year. If you need proof to back that up, then consider the fact that this is the only way to get these now sold-out issues of one of the most important comic titles in history.
Many things happen here, and with each new revelation the situation gets
far more intense. Near the end, you start wondering how much more
intense it could possibly get before the writers lose control!
Throughout this run Spawn learns a lot about himself. For example he
learns that, in fact, he is not himself but that he is a collection of
6,000 different souls, which in turn reveals why Hell was never able to
control him – he’s not simply Al Simmons.
While this whole run is absolutely fascinating from start to finish,
the revelation that Wanda’s (Al’s widowed wife) twins are actually God
and the Devil reborn (as the story here goes, they are actually
brothers who were given this world and they created humans to fight as
their armies. Oh, and they are both bad guys). After both
return to their thrones Spawn endures a series of trials set up by the
twins' mother (the actual creator of the universe). This helps him
understand better who he is and how to end the final battle. He digs
deep in order to find a way to end this all without the annihilation of
the human race, because after all, this is simply sibling rivalry. As
you may have guessed, it becomes unavoidable, and Spawn becomes a god
without truly becoming one, destroying the forces of both Heaven and
Hell.
I love the new writers and story arc for this title but catching up on
these back issues has given me a lot of perspective into the current
goings on. Again, this is going to be hard for some Infuze readers –
remember in this story, God is not the creator of the universe, both
realms have equal power, both are basically evil, and only Spawn and
the mother figure actually care about the human race. If you are
willing to suspend your disbelief and treat this as the fictional story
that it is however then you will quickly find that this is easily one
of the best written story arcs in the history of comics.
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