By T.W. Worn — My birthday just passed, marking me at a primed, yet refined, [redacted] years old. While having a birthday so close to the holidays can be disappointing at best, and overwhelming at worst, this year ended up being a good one. The best gift I received was a crushing and brutal distortion pedal for my guitar. My love for all things heavy and metal have been coming back into my life, from my renewed interest in playing music, to running a game of Mork Börg, a blackened doom metal tabletop role-playing game. 

Of all of the sub-genres of metal, my favorite has to be Doom. The long, droning ambient fuzz that riff into oblivion as you exhale a fat rip from a dog-foot sized nug of Northern Lights is one of the best ways to spend a morning. You may be asking yourself, "T.W., what does this have to do with The Scorched #1? I don't understand." And to that I answer, calm yourself, my sweet babboo. I will get to it soon, but in the meantime throw on Ahab and follow along. Doom Metal is a genre about taking your time, allowing yourself to get soaked into the dismal abyss of death and reefer smoke.  It is a meditation on all and nothing. A blackened nirvana, hiding within the mind stream of a skeleton Buddha.

But in a world of Conan, Weedeater, Sleep and Fudge Tunnel, The Scorched #1 is Danzig. 

Written by Sean Lewis (Thumbs, Bliss), The Scorched #1 is his second title in the Spawn Universe, the first being King Spawn, which I reviewed a few months back. The Scorched #1 is the christening of a new team-up title consisting of She-Spawn, Spawn, Redeemer, Medieval Spawn, and Gunslinger Spawn (whose solo title I also reviewed), doing what Spawn characters do best: KILL. 

For some readers, this is probably all they want from a Spawn title. People in skin-tight black outfits slicing, dicing, and shooting up the bad guys with little to no motivation beyond the good/bad dichotomy. That's fine, there is a place for that in comics (a pretty large one). Unfortunately, that place happens to be in almost all of the Spawn titles, which is disappointing when compared to King Spawn, an honest attempt at a familiar yet new direction for Spawn. It's even more disappointing when you remember that Lewis wrote both of these titles. Todd McFarlane (Spawn) has a dialogue credit in this issue, and it is painfully obvious which lines are his. In my comparison before, I can't help but point out that McFarlane has become the comic book Danzig; a game changer for his time, but is now a little outdated, even when publishing something new. 

Now let's move onto the art. Stephen Segovia (King Spawn) has some fantastic artwork. I have been a fan of Segovia’s stuff for years now, and it is always nice seeing the work lean into the black-cladded carnage that is Spawn. Dynamic and clean character drawing accompanied by buckets and buckets of blood. The additional art by Paulo Siqueira (Morbius, Spider-Woman) also fits perfectly into the Spawn Universe. Both of these artists bring their A Game, as always. 

The art is elevated even more by Ulises Arreola, one of my favorite colorists from a number of Valiant Comics titles. Paired with Nikos Koutsis, the colors in The Scorched #1 are some of the best I have seen in a Spawn comic in a while. Tones and hues that fight against the traditional blues, grays, and purples that are found here, giving a noticeable warmth to the series. Glimpses at something slightly different is always welcomed, in my eyes, when it comes to anything Spawn. 

I understand that many of the appealing aspects of the Spawn Universe is its dark edge. I, too, love dark and edgy. But the line of what is dark and edgy shifts with the time. What was "cool and anti-authority" in the ‘90s has become mainstream. Demons, violence, and black clothes can be found in almost every corner of your FLG&CS (Friendly Local Games and Comics shop), and Spawn no longer has anything that makes it worth standing out from the rest of the bunch, at least not beyond "We did it first." 

I will give it a few more years before we get "SPAWN SINGS ELVIS." 

Overall: The Scorched #1 is unapologetically a Spawn Universe comic, but its attempt at being a rewarding team-up title on its own merits falls somewhat flat. Luckily, as always, the high-quality art is there to save the day. 6/10

REVIEW: The Scorched #1

The Scorched #1
Writer: Sean Lewis 
Additional Writer: Todd McFarlane
Artist: Stephen Segovia
Additional Artist: Paulo Siqueira
Colorist: Ulises Arreola
Additional Colorist: Nikos Koutsis
Letterer: Andworld Design
Publisher: Image Comics 

The first ALL-NEW issue of TODD McFARLANE’s superhero team book!
There’s a threat so big that no single hero can stop it, and the formation of this new supergroup is the only thing standing in its way. Members will include SPAWN, REDEEMER, GUNSLINGER, MEDIEVAL SPAWN, and SHE-SPAWN, with many more heroes waiting in the wings!
Join the battle in this FIRST ISSUE extravaganza as the forces of Heaven, Hell, and Earth collide!
Price: $5.99
Read Recent Spawn Comics: Spawn Vengeance TP

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I'm T.W. Worn (@twworn) and death to all but metal.