Is It Good? Spread #2 Review

Last month Image produced yet another original story with Spread, a story about a man and a baby trying to survive some kind of teeth/tentacle-monster thingy in a very snowy and cold place. Frankly I wasn’t impressed with the first issue, but dammit, I gotta give this another shot. Is it good?

Spread #2 (Image Comics)

Last issue our hero, No, saved a baby from being murdered and discovered the baby’s tears can kill the monsters that now roam and hunt humans. These red-tentacled eating machines not only kill directly, but can take over human bodies to do their bidding. It’s nasty stuff and not a single human has ever killed one, either. The baby has some magical powers with those tears, so it behooves No to grab him and keep the sucker alive. Aside from that, and a mysterious evil looking dude following them, not much is known about this series…until now!

This won’t end well.

This issue does a few things right that should increase the interest of anyone who was let down last issue. First off the world expands a bit, with the introduction of a group of human outsiders who don’t take kindly to people like No. They are lead by a blonde haired egomaniac who seems to be very good at fighting. The issue then cuts back to No and we get a heaping helping of plot development. Be forewarned, there is tons of gore in this comic (as well as some naked breasts if you’re concerned about that). Yes, once again, we get a lot of No vs. monster action. It’s good fun and keeps the action quotient high. Writer Justin Jordan cuts down on the narration of the baby in this issue and uses it more as reactionary color than exposition. That helps keep the pace up and the showing, not telling, high.

Artist Kyle Strahm continues to do what he does best when it comes to monsters: make some hideous globs of gross look and act awesomely. I can’t say the baby has been improved at all though. Once again he draws the baby like a doll and it looks annoyingly fake throughout. It’s too round or something…I’m not even sure what it is, but even its expressions are unbelievable. This means scenes that are tense and dramatic are ruined by a funny looking baby.

There’s a panel or two, especially the last one, that confused me. There were no words, so the art had to do the talking, but the expressions on No in this specific example seemed off. Why is he so damn happy? It’s a weird thing.

Bit full of himself isn’t he?

Is It Good?

This is an improvement on the last issue as the world is expanded and the action remains epic and exciting. Can they please draw the baby more realistically though?