I have a hard time believing this is the same creative team that is delivering the fantastic horror comic 30 Days of Night, because Hellspawn continues to be an unclear and uninteresting mess of a book. This is the first part of a new story, which I thought would be accessible, but I've read the whole thing and it didn't make a lick of sense to me. The generalities of the story, a demoness tempting Spawn to become ruler of Hell (or Hell on Earth?), are clear in the dialogue, but the artwork is far more concerned with atmosphere than storytelling. I'm not predisposed to like the character in the first place, and Hellspawn was the first Bendis book I met that I didn't like, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised; it seems that Hellspawn, no matter how strong the talent on board, is just Not For Me.
The concepts of the story here are something that wouldn't be out of place in a Vertigo book. An unwilling soldier of Hell gets the chance to become the ruler of Hell, and is tempted by the chance to use a spot of evil to do good. Unfortunately, the actual nature of the characters and the offer made muddies the story too much, and the basic power of the idea is lost. Who is the demon tempting Spawn? We have no idea. Who is Spawn? If you haven't read the book before, you have no idea. Is she offering him control of Hell or planning an invasion of Hell onto Earth? Both are implied, but the offers have considerably different meanings, and it's impossible to tell which is offered.
Templesmith's art isn't of much help in this regard, and if I have occasional difficulty with his storytelling in 30 Days of Night, I have almost complete difficulty with it in Hellspawn. Monotonous color and unclear, surreal artwork combine to create imagery that suggests mood but little else. The work has images that could be haunting and beautiful, but as part of a sequential storytelling experience, it is a failure, and it relies on Niles to far too great a degree to tell the story.
It doesn't help, of course, that the characters are total ciphers. Spawn has never been an altogether well developed character, and even more than ten years later, I still don't have much of a feel for the character beyond his being a brooding cliche. He barely speaks in this issue, and since the thrust of the story is whether or not he'll give in to temptation, it would be nice if I got the sense that he cared one way or the other. Spawn's situation is one that has room for plenty of melodrama and torment, but it has rarely been used for that.
Niles and Templesmith are talented creators, and I thought that perhaps their talent and my appreciation for their work elsewhere might overcome my disinterest in the lead character of this book. Unfortunately, a weak storytelling style and even weaker characters make Hellspawn a dreary and unpleasant experience for me, and it seems that no creative team can overcome that.
