For the first time in decades Medieval Spawn and Witchblade team up, so says the back matter for the collection to “Medieval Spawn and Witchblade.”
Written by Brian Haberlin and Brian Holguin
Illustrated by Brian Haberlin
Colored by Geirrod VanDyke
Lettered by Francis TakenagaSPAWN AND WITCHBLADE TOGETHER AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DECADES! An ancient evil sweeps the world, destroying and corrupting everything in its path. When a knight SPAWNs from out of the shadows to save all, he is touted as their benevolent king of old, miraculously returned. But is he their savior, or their destroyer? With an evil queen, a knight in search of his past, and a young girl with an ancient weapon that could destroy them all, the world is in more danger than ever. NOTE: Augmented reality covers and interiors for both iOS and Android devices. Collects MEDIEVAL SPAWN / WITCHBLADE #1-4
That is a bit of a stretch since neither this Medieval Hellspawn or wielder of the Witchblade are the same characters from the 1996 original miniseries. That break however creates a space for the core creative team of Brian Haberlin and Brian Holguin to make this new pairing an example of some of the generic qualities that make up “Spawn,” and to a lesser degree “Witchblade,” narratives. That generic kernel is at the heart of this larger summer binge and will be explored in further detail in Brian Holguin’s other Spawn comic “The Dark Ages.” Emphasizing genre is a good way to think through this 4-issue miniseries. The creative team assemble a medieval adjacent fantasy adventure that is infused with elements from the larger “Spawn” and “Witchblade” properties, it’s that straightforward. There is also another use and meaning for generic, that is something that is common but nonspecific. As a comic “Medieval Spawn and Witchblade” is largely fine with character and pacing issues, but it isn’t egregious or poorly produced. The character drama of our new Hellspawn, a man who perhaps once walked the mortal plane as King Valon, never manages to move beyond the basic building blocks of a Hellspawn narrative. Haberlin and Holguin’s novelty and value come from the books pedagogical potential due to a augmented reality (AR) companion app for iOS and Android produced by Haberlin’s Anomaly Productions. This use of AR gives readers a completer and more functional example of the stages and methods of comics productions compared to the backmatter found in most collections.
Over the past 28 years Todd McFarlane has proven something over and over: Spawn is replicable and merchandisable. Just google or look for any gallery of all the different versions of Hellspawn his toy company have come up with. The design is cool but there has to be something more to it to get that kind of buy in, otherwise you wouldn’t grow long term fans just the churn of primarily teenage boys who like big guns and hypermasculinity. “Medieval Spawn & Witchblade” illustrates the basic concepts of that make up a “Spawn” story as our medieval Hellspawn searches for his identity and a little redemption. Redemption is at the center of Spawn narrative. These are all bad men, they went to Hell after all, who made a deal with a devil got screwed and now try to do something good with what new time they have left. That was at the center of original Medieval Spawn Sir John of York. Al Simmons became the protector of the homeless and eventually an adoptive daughter. And so to does this latest rendition.
Medieval Spawn’s search for identity and redemption are intertwined, which makes the eventual revelation that he is not King Valon, but his traitorous best friend Leith potentially interesting. The comic doesn’t have enough time to really chew on or work through that process. Question of identity run throughout these kinds of narrative as Spawn, much like Swamp Thing depending on the writer, accepts or rejects the identity of Al Simmons throughout. Because Medieval Spawn was Leith in a previous is that still him in the present as a Hellspawn? It is here that the generic limits of “Medieval Spawn & Witchblade” show as the creative team are unable to really push to the next step. The book ends on the promise of a new adventure, but the process to get to that point is underdeveloped. Despite having all the appearances of an interesting character arc like Lord Covenant, this comic goes through the motions instead of reckoning with the motions.
Continued belowAt least the use of elements from the larger “Spawn” series of books play a central role to the narrative. The new Medieval Witchblade, Starling – who might also be another character created by Holguin named Kildare from the “Aria” series – similarly has interesting potential that is not developed despite copious page time. She gets to be an energetic street urchin who is thrown into adventure with a power she does not fully understand. The creative team rightly position the Witchblade as a sign of female empowerment and tool to fight misogyny with, thankfully without any ludicrous chain mail bikini business. Outside of positioning Witchblade the weapon and character in that space they do not meaningfully follow through on character development.
The thin character work is puzzling and frustrating as Haberlin and Holguin throw them right into an adventure plot that should reveal it in more satisfying fashion. There are hints of interesting ideas throughout, about the power of stories and the way these kinds of demigod like characters interact with normal folk. Those are all ideas you would explore through the plot, instead the book with its brisk pace is all plot. The plot to the book is fine as our characters go on a quest to save the land from an evil Queen. Plot isn’t a reason to read a comic book, it certainly isn’t worth discussing.
Despite these shortcomings Haberlin and Holguin’s I wouldn’t call it bad, generic qualities aside. It serves as an interesting example of how pace can effect how a story is digested. By the fourth chapter it feels like it is barreling towards a finale that is both rushed and underdeveloped, despite having 34 pages an issue to work with. This issue of pace creates an uncanny feeling as a reader that the comic either does not have enough space to dramatize their story in a fulfilling manner or lacks enough developed drama to fill the pages. The mixed conclusions these feelings elicit about the book are not as conclusive as they would seem. If you break things down structurally and divorce them from the comic itself, “Medieval Spawn & Witchblade” hits the marks. The character work is a little thin or unoriginal, but it is there.
This reveals something potentially more threatening to the comic as it pushes “Spawn & Witchblade” into the worst kind of territory: boring. On an individual panel level the work by Haberlin, Gierrod VanDyke, and their various 3D assistants, is good to even great in spots. It is on the macro level of Haberlin’s page design that makes the comic into a breezy bore. There is not much variety to his page designs, they are primarily made up of the same arrangement of page length horizontal panels with a vertical reading line. The only distinguishing featuring being if the page contains 4 or 5 panels. These pages are clear and easy to read, but their repetitive construction creates a indistinguishable sameness that is unengaging to read and consider. The book creates a rote reading orientation that slowly gathers momentum and quickens the pace in ways the creative team may not have considered.
“Spawn & Witchblade” repetitive page designs might make more sense when considering the AR application Haberlin’s company developed. Through the use of augmented reality, the application allows the reader to see the script, inks, and unlettered colored pages, nearly simultaneously. Due to the way the various screens the app uses to display pages these repetitive designs make it easier to read a panel description and see the corresponding inks and colors.
The ability to display this information goes a long way in demystifying the process of comics, something that tends to be treated as easy and unremarkable or Alan Moore-esque sorcery that is only a few are worthy to. Obviously neither is true and the companion app goes a long way in creating a productive knowledge space in the way other tutorials do not. I can think of many good books about teaching or reading comics (Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and Experiencing Comics by Rachele Cruz), writing comics (Words for Pictures by Brian Bendis) and how to draw (How to Draw Manga by Katy Coope). These books however tend to treat everything individually when the medium is about the interplay of words and pictures, to creating something beyond their individual signifiers.
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The application makes use of the readers phone camera to recognize individual pages of “Medieval Spawn & Witchblade.” Readers do not need a physical copy of the comic, the camera deciphered images on both my iPad and computer monitor without a problem. After selecting the issue and that it is looking for story pages, covers unlock minigames, three sliders will appear at the top of the screen. The left slider when pulled down reveals the script for that page – perhaps featuring some thumbnailing by the writing team. The other two sliders are for revealing the inked and colored pages. There is a hierarchy to how the sliders work the script page cannot be on top of the inks or colors, but with a bit of finesse you can see segments of all three at once. Access and the simultaneity of this information, the various stages of production, is this comics strongest feature. It gives readers an inside look at what this comic looked like as it was made.
Access to every script page is another big feature. Script pages are a somewhat common backmatter feature in collections, but rarely the entire script. More importantly the AR application allows the reader to see the script page directly juxtaposed against the final page in reality and its various stages of development. Preforming that kind of juxtaposition and comparison with backmatter features either involves reduced page images or frequently flipping back and forth in a friction filled exchange. This sort of comparative environment is instructive on what makes comics work. I don’t think a lot of these pages are engaging and where I an industrious artist looking to fill out their portfolio, I could take the script and give it a new spin. The use of augmented reality creates a productive space that allows for material interaction and growth by readers and makers.
The user experience of the application isn’t without fault. For some reason the it only runs in landscape which runs counter to the general UX of Android and iOS. This orientation does not affect how the camera works or where the sliders appear, always at the top of the page. It does however mean any screengrabs taken are in landscape mode and will need to be flipped.
“Medieval Spawn & Witchblade” reminds me of Avatar, both media products told well known generic stories but achieved recognition through technical innovation. The storytelling isn’t as good, or long, as Avatar but it feels like a successful tech demo. The kind of proof of concept, much like the basics of our Hellspawn’s story, that shows potential to be used in even bigger and more complex ways by more people.
