Spawn #187 - Image

We're still in the pretty early stages of this story-line here, so . . it's a little difficult to tell you how I felt about the book. I'm just not sure what the plan is here. Yet! It seems to all be unraveling, but . . I think it's going to be a few issues until we know for sure how it's all going to play out. Right now, it appears that Spawn . . at least the Al Simmons Spawn, is dead. He blew off his head in the alley. Which immediately garnered the attention of both Heaven and Hell. The Clown shows up shortly afterwords, and he's thrilled to death. And then, a little while later, we find out an angel is interested also. We're not really sure if it's because of Al's demise, or because of the dead-spot that he's created where his body lies. Anyways, at the same time of his death, this coma patient wakes up miraculously. Him name is Jim Downing, but . . he doesn't remember anything. They've been calling him patient #47 because he's been there for so long. This issue we find out that someone has sent a mercenary, or maybe he's some kind of super-villain . . we're not really sure . . . anyways, they've sent him into the hospital to retrieve patient #47. It's supposed to be a simple snatch & grab but . . things get a little out of control and there's a couple of explosions in the hospital. Obviously this gets the attention of the police and fire dept. and the local media. We have a new character introduced this issue. He's a up-and-comer reporter from the Clarion by the name of Marc Rosen. Well, he's not really a reporter, but . . he wants to be. Anyways, he's the only one available when the call comes in about the hospital so he takes the story. But I think he's going to get a lot more than he bargained for on this one. The guy that was sent after Jim decides he's going to rough him up a little bit . . because he's not coming along quietly. But he's under strict orders not to engage him. We don't really see what happens, but . . it looks as if Jim is going to turn into some type of hell-spawn. Something happens, instinctively, and he ends up killing the guy that's after him. When he's coming out of the hospital you can only see him through the smoke. But, you can see his figure is kind of in the shape of Spawn. But, by the time he gets into the clear . . . he's back to normal. Personally, I enjoy the way the Todd McFarlane is rolling out this story. Yes we don't know everything that's going on right now, or why, but . . so what? If we had all the answers right off the bat, why would we keep buying the book? Brian Holguin is still helping him though. And now that Whilce Portacio is on the pencils . . man the book looks good. I have a feeling it's going to be at least 6 or 8 issues until we really know what's going on. But I think the whole team is doing a fantastic job rolling out this new direction. I can't wait to see more.