Spread #3
It's spreading and it's not just the titular monstrosity at play here anymore.
Writing: Justin Jordan
Artist: Kyle Strahm
Publisher: Image
Brutal. Wretched. Cold. Disgusting. Spread.
This issue of Justin Jordan and Kyle Strahm's disgustingly addictive future book is more hit than miss unlike issue 2.
No, Molly, and Hope arrive in one of the last bastions of humanity, a hobbled together steel enforced camp of sorts that houses more unsavory characters than redeemable ones. For the first time really in Spread, we're seeing what is left of "humanity" and it's not pretty. Less pretty, it seems, than the spread itself. After some haggling, No quickly gets himself into a tight spot involving a very unsavory and frighteningly large and in charge cook. Also, there's a really disgusting and mysterious, semi-confusing thing taking place between a helpless man and a monstrous...woman-thing.
No continues to be an attempt at an iconic character under Jordan's penmanship and I just cant bring myself to see it as anything but overly dramatic. However, he does a decent job of opening the character up a little in this issue and, balanced out by Hope's narration, the characterization here hits more high notes than the preceding two issues. Jordan continues to lay on the mystery, grossness, and cliffhangers per usual so far with Spread and I can't say that I either enjoy it or dislike it mostly because I don't feel like the story is really going anywhere yet. Each issue is interesting and harrowing but also doesn't exactly progess anything but the world building. Thankfully, it's an interesting and harsh world otherwise there would be NO HOPE (get it?) for the story aspects.
Strahm's art is...something else. At times it hits all the perfect notes and at others it's completely lost on me simply because it lacks humanity or any genuine, recognizable, elements. The world is cold, harsh and brutal like it should be. The monsters, especially the spread, are terrifying and bloody. But, the humans themselves are like characterizations of a person, lacking authenticity. Hope is especially bad. In my previous review I said she looked like a doll and questioned if Strahm had ever seen a human baby but in some of these panels I have to wonder if he's ever seen anything cute or innocent at all. Frankly, she looks like an alien. Not a cute baby alien either, a bald, terrifying baby doll alien. The world is beautifully dark and gruesome but the people don't do a good job of balancing it out thus far.
We're breaking through Spread's icy exterior but it still isn't warming up. It's definitely an above average book if you're a fan of postapocalyptic brutality but it isn't going to be much more than that if some things don't start happening soon.
Writing: Justin Jordan
Artist: Kyle Strahm
Publisher: Image
Brutal. Wretched. Cold. Disgusting. Spread.
This issue of Justin Jordan and Kyle Strahm's disgustingly addictive future book is more hit than miss unlike issue 2.
No, Molly, and Hope arrive in one of the last bastions of humanity, a hobbled together steel enforced camp of sorts that houses more unsavory characters than redeemable ones. For the first time really in Spread, we're seeing what is left of "humanity" and it's not pretty. Less pretty, it seems, than the spread itself. After some haggling, No quickly gets himself into a tight spot involving a very unsavory and frighteningly large and in charge cook. Also, there's a really disgusting and mysterious, semi-confusing thing taking place between a helpless man and a monstrous...woman-thing.
No continues to be an attempt at an iconic character under Jordan's penmanship and I just cant bring myself to see it as anything but overly dramatic. However, he does a decent job of opening the character up a little in this issue and, balanced out by Hope's narration, the characterization here hits more high notes than the preceding two issues. Jordan continues to lay on the mystery, grossness, and cliffhangers per usual so far with Spread and I can't say that I either enjoy it or dislike it mostly because I don't feel like the story is really going anywhere yet. Each issue is interesting and harrowing but also doesn't exactly progess anything but the world building. Thankfully, it's an interesting and harsh world otherwise there would be NO HOPE (get it?) for the story aspects.
Strahm's art is...something else. At times it hits all the perfect notes and at others it's completely lost on me simply because it lacks humanity or any genuine, recognizable, elements. The world is cold, harsh and brutal like it should be. The monsters, especially the spread, are terrifying and bloody. But, the humans themselves are like characterizations of a person, lacking authenticity. Hope is especially bad. In my previous review I said she looked like a doll and questioned if Strahm had ever seen a human baby but in some of these panels I have to wonder if he's ever seen anything cute or innocent at all. Frankly, she looks like an alien. Not a cute baby alien either, a bald, terrifying baby doll alien. The world is beautifully dark and gruesome but the people don't do a good job of balancing it out thus far.
We're breaking through Spread's icy exterior but it still isn't warming up. It's definitely an above average book if you're a fan of postapocalyptic brutality but it isn't going to be much more than that if some things don't start happening soon.
A Look Inside
