Hate You HELLSPAWN marks the return of Spawn; the guns blazing, take-no-prisoners warrior. This next step in the evolution of Todd McFarlane's hell-born creation featured the creative minds of industry greats BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, STEVE NILES, ASHLEY WOOD and BEN TEMPLESMITH, who redefined the mythos of the Hellspawn.
A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.
Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.
Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.
Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.
Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.
Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.
He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.
This issue starts off by tying in with the first issue, dealing with the suicide of a young girl and then goes on to the scummy preacher, now relaxing after his talk show appearance and having a go at his assistant because the show brought up an unsavoury connection to his church.
He is confronted by Hellspawn and is taken on a journey, showing first hand the suffering of jews, homosexuals and POC.
This was dark, dark, dark and whilst I loved how Hellspawn gave the preacher a taste of what his sort meted out to others it was disturbing and creepy.
I'm not sure what to think about the chat room dialogue, again it hints at something to come but what is anybodys guess.
It's not clear where this is going but I'm happy to go with it, especially as the art is so amazing. Honestly, some of the panels were just breathtaking and it's this that'll keep me coming back for more.