It has been ages since I read Spawn comics. I started from the beginning when Spawn was released in Finland. It had interesting premise but it turned quite boring when it was just Spawn fighting one enemy after another with such interesting enemies like Anti-Spawn. The movie was interesting but other than than I didn’t care too much about Spawn. Until I found Jason Shawn Alexander’s art and learned he had run in Spawn comics. Spawn: Dark Horror starts the run.
After being away from Spawn for about 250 issues I wasn’t too interested about it. But Spawn collections and issues were on sale and I wanted to see more of Jason Shawn Alexander’s work. Previous collection Hell on Earth would probably have been better starting point but I don’t read Spawn for the story. Hell on Earth starts new chapter in Spawn comics. Spawn has closed doors to heaven and hell. Doing so he has lost some of his powers. Some of angels and demons are stranded on Earth.
Dark Horror isn’t the best starting point after skipping about 250 issues. It is not the worst either. Spawn’s ex-wife’s daughter Cyan comes to Japan to be safe from angels and demons. Because this is dark superhero comic it doesn’t work as well as Spawn and Cyan hoped for. Dark Horror contains Japan story arc and transitional issue between it and next story arc. Name Dark Horror describes the collection well. Story gets really dark and have all sorts of horror themes. There are times when it gets too dark just to be really dark.
Story reminded me why I stopped reading Spawn all those years ago. Spawn is more like unstoppable horror monster than hero you fear for. You know Spawn will survive and it doesn’t get to One Punch Man territory where you fear if others will survive until One Punch Man comes to save the day. It tries to be little like that and make it feel like Spawn is in danger. But it won’t work. Spawn and enemies have weird powers I wasn’t sure what their limits and capabilities were. It was just nightmarish flow which left Spawns enemies dead.
Jason Shawn Alexander’s art is the reason to pick this book. His style suits this dream like story. I wish story was on same level as the art. Story is there to have all this nightmarish imagery. Transitional issue doesn’t work as well because it doesn’t have same dream like qualities as the Japan story arc. Based on Goodreads’ reviews this was the good collection. After transitional issue I could see why. Cyan and Japan lifted the story to be more than just Spawn killing his enemies. I can see how Spawn being back in United States and without Cyan could result less interesting stories.