Written by: Todd McFarlane & Scott Snyder (Chapter 2).
Pencils by: Greg Capullo (Chapter 1), Todd McFarlane (Chapter 2), J. Scott Campbell (Chapter 3), Jason Shawn Alexander (Chapter 4) and Jerome Opena (Chapter 5).
Inked by: Todd McFarlane.
Spawn issue 300 starts out in a country town by the name of Kearney, Nebraska where there is a Johnston family reunion taking place. The beginning of the story sets the tone of unexplained violent acts taking place throughout the world.
In this particular scene, the entire Johnston family meets their death at the hands of a little girl by the name of Lisa who gets “knife happy” and decides to “slice and dice” the entire family to death as the result of some unexplained erratic behavior that is happening to thousands of people all throughout the world.
In this issue, Spawn sets out to investigate and defeat his enemies who’re behind the erratic behavior of people around the world and who’re out to take Spawn’s costume from him, because of the powers and abilities that it has. He faces two enemies, both of which have played common roles in the Spawn universe throughout the years, but for the first time we see each one with a completely new look. Who’re those characters? The Violator and Redeemer aka Anti-Spawn.
We’re also introduced to a completely new Spawn character in this issue, which was drawn by an industry giant, J. Scott Campbell. And if anyone knows Campbell’s art style and what he’s become famous for in the world of comics in this modern era, one can at least guess the gender of this character. So, this is to be considered a first appearance (if I’m not mistaken) and the issue ends with the introduction of that character, as well as a cliff hanger on the final two pages.
All in all, I give Spawn 300 “B -“ rating. The artwork for the most part was very good, especially with a return and rare appearance by Spawn creator, Todd McFarlane himself, as well as Greg Capullo and J. Scott Campbell who hasn’t done interior artwork in a very long time, as he’s become most commonly known for his cover art for Marvel Comics. The writing was solid, as I continued to find myself anxiously reading and wanting to know what happens next.
This issue does a good job of what Spawn has been lacking in recent years, and that’s the introduction of new characters. The creation of new characters keeps Spawn fresh and interesting and Todd McFarlane does a good job of both in this historic 300th issue.
