Who is the Hidden Villain in the Batman: Arkham Asylum Graphic Novel?

 

Grant Morrison & Dave McKean's classic Arkham Asylum graphic novel introduced a new villain, but readers will have difficulty finding them. I examine this obscurity this week at CBR.

SPAWN #18 - February 1994

Reflections- Part Three

Credits: Grant Morrison (story), Greg Capullo (pencils), Art Thibert & Dan Panosian (inks), Tom Orzechowski (letters and editor), Steve Oliff & Olyoptics (colors)

Summary: Spawn’s alley friends distract Anti-Spawn, preventing him from delivering the killing blow and allowing Spawn time to recover. Spawn uses magic to bring Anti-Spawn to his knees before punching a hole in his face. The angels retrieve Anti-Spawn, leaving Spawn free to return to Simmonsville. There, he encounters Major Vale. Spawn kills him in retaliation for one of Vale’s military cover-ups. After destroying the town, Spawn reshapes the memory of the day he proposed to Wanda into a spark. That night, he hides outside of her window and releases the spark into her mind.

Spawntinuity: A mysterious man in the alley gives Spawn a blank card, telling him he’ll know when to use it. He claims that he belongs to the same group as Cagliostro, and that there are other powers outside of Heaven and Hell. When "Cog"’s origin is later revealed, I don’t believe it’s ever reconciled with this scene (although the card shows up later).

Creative Differences: The next issue blurb claims that McFarlane will return with a story about the Freak. Not only does this not happen, but a series of behind-the-scenes events will prevent issue #19 from being released until the latter half of 1994. The Freak won’t show up until late 1995, in an issue guest-scripted by Alan Moore.

Spawn Stuff: A fifty-dollar Spawn satin jacket is advertised.

Review: When I reread these issues a few years ago, it dawned on me what Morrison was doing with this run -- he was giving McFarlane Spawn: The Movie. Starting with the opening issue, you have a major plot point tied to the character’s origin (Al Simmons’ death creating Simmonsville), the villain from the hero’s origin becoming a costumed threat (Jason Wynn’s transformation into Anti-Spawn), a clarification of the hero’s status quo (Spawn’s discovery at his grave, which actually is in the live-action movie), and a touching ending that ties back to the hero’s secret identity (Spawn releasing the memory to Wanda). The final splash page of Spawn, jumping towards the camera in the rain, declaring, “Darkness is my home now”…how could that not be the final scene of a Spawn movie?

Was Morrison literally doing this as a movie pitch? Probably not, but it does seem like he’s intentionally playing off the structure of a traditional action film, or the 1989 Batman movie at least. The story isn’t helped by a few of these elements, such as the unexplained selection of Jason Wynn as the Anti-Spawn, or the professional wrestling-worthy spontaneous second wind that allows Spawn to suddenly defeat Anti-Spawn. However, there’s no shortage of intriguing ideas throughout the arc, and I think the final moment between Spawn and Wanda is legitimately touching. This is a good example of a story that wouldn’t work with the later interpretation of Spawn; the cipher who’s really just a ghost on the edges of the stories.

SPAWN #17 - January 1994

Reflections- Part Two

Credits: Grant Morrison (story), Greg Capullo (pencils), Mark Pennington (inks), Tom Orzechowski (letters and editor), Steve Oliff & Olyoptics (colors)

Summary: Spawn hears Malebolgia’s voice at his grave, mocking him. He’s suddenly transported to Simmonsville. There, he’s attacked by the Anti-Spawn. Outclassed, Spawn teleports back to the alleys to regroup, but Anti-Spawn follows him. After repeatedly blasting Spawn, Anti-Spawn prepares for the kill.

Spawntinuity: Malebolgia reveals that Spawn’s body is made out of psychoplasm and can change its shape.

Review: It’s the action-heavy middle chapter, so this isn’t exactly a densely packed plot. Morrison didn’t conform too much to the Image style in the first chapter, but now he’s delivering an issue-long fight scene filled with giant panels and gratuitous splash pages. At the very least, Greg Capullo seems to be having fun with this. There are a few Morrison touches, such as Spawn’s description of teleportation (“A shotgun blast through un-space at the speed of light. Stressed molecules shrieking with shock.” When did Spawn ever speak like this?), and a few creative uses of the characters’ powers. The climax comes when the cross design on Anti-Spawn’s face shoots out a fiery blast, which is an imaginative way to incorporate his elaborate design into the actual story.

SPAWN #16 - December 1993

Reflections- Part One

Credits: Grant Morrison (story), Greg Capullo (pencils), Dan Panosian & Art Thibert (inks), Tom Orzechowski (letters and editor), Steve Oliff & Olyoptics (colors)

Summary: Jason Wynn shows off a town made out of Al Simmons’ memories, “Simmonsville,” to a colleague, Major Vale. The town rests above a portal to Hell and has demon residents. Meanwhile, Spawn travels to his grave to see what’s buried inside. He’s anguished to see his human body is inside the coffin. The agents of Heaven receive word to create an “Anti-Spawn” to destroy the current Spawn, who has been deemed special. They select Jason Wynn as the human receptacle.

Spawntinuity: Jason Wynn reveals that an A-bomb test in Nevada inadvertently opened a portal to Hell years ago. The site is now Simmonsville. Simmonsville is made out of psychoplasm, the substance of Hell. It was created by the memories stolen from Al Simmons after he died. The previous issues had Wynn arranging Simmons’ death because he was asking too many questions, but it’s now revealed that Wynn traded Simmons (who was “growing soft”) to Hell in exchange for psychoplasm. Later, McFarlane will rename psychoplasm “necroplasm.”

Review: Grant Morrison wasn’t quite GRANT MORRISON yet, but he had earned a reputation for his work on Animal Man and Doom Patrol. McFarlane obviously had a taste for the British style that would soon become Vertigo, so it’s not surprising that Morrison was hired as a fill-in writer. Morrison immediately introduces a string of ideas and only wastes a few pages on Spawn hanging around the alley, which was already getting old (in this issue, Spawn stops two punks from burning a bum alive, which is virtually identical to a scene in the upcoming Spawn/Batman crossover). Spawn moves on to investigate his grave, which he’s shocked to discover isn’t empty. I wonder if McFarlane suggested this scene to Morrison, since issue #10 already hinted at what Spawn would find inside his grave. This scene is later recreated in the Spawn HBO series and live-action movie (the cartoon had a particularly creepy spin on it, as the corpse talks back to Spawn and taunts him).

Spawn’s discovery at the grave has little to do with the main story, which is mostly carried by Jason Wynn. Wynn explains the concepts of Simmonsville and psychoplasm, which probably wouldn’t have been dreamed up by McFarlane, but do fit in with the established universe. Simmonsville, a town made up entirely of Al Simmons’ memories from his previous life, is a particularly great idea. McFarlane has put some effort into humanizing Simmons, but this leads the door open for numerous stories that could shed light on his character. Later, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, Wynn is transformed into the Anti-Spawn. An “Anti-Spawn” is one of those ideas that’s obvious and clever at the same time. How exactly he’s created, by a laser sent by angels who’ve stolen the bodies of astronauts at a space station, shows more imagination than Spawn normally delivered in this era.

McFarlane wasn’t the only Image founder who needed fill-ins early on, but he seemed to have stricter quality control. Many of the early Image comics were written by friends or relatives of the creators who wanted to work in comics. McFarlane hired people like Alan Moore. He had the money, so why not? Aside from entertaining the readers who actually did care about the story, the guest writers opened up numerous story possibilities that McFarlane could’ve followed in the future. It’s possible that bringing in “name” writers could’ve trivialized McFarlane’s own efforts (which is definitely the case here, as the previous two issues were some of McFarlane’s weakest), but McFarlane seemed unfazed. The same attitude extended to the art, as this issue sees the debut of Greg Capullo. McFarlane recognized Capullo as one of the strongest artists at Marvel and snatched him away, while most of the Image founders were still building studios of no-name clones. Capullo is a superior artist to McFarlane who, at this point, is still drawing in his own style. Capullo moved away from the ‘80s Marvel look as the Image style became popular, but still maintained a grounding in plausible anatomy and solid construction. As Capullo moves on from guest artist to co-artist to artist, his art mutates into an odd combination of his old look and McFarlane’s cartooniness, but here he’s more restrained. This doesn’t read or look exactly like a standard issue of Spawn, but it’s not a wild departure, and I think the kids who only wanted McFarlane/McFarlane/McFarlane could still find an enjoyable comic.