Spread #10: The Children’s Crusade Reaches a Bloody Boiling Point [Review]

by | Oct 3, 2015

From Image Comics creative team writer Justin Jordan and artists Kyle Strahm and Felipe Sobreiro comes the post-apocalyptic horror series Spread. Check out my review of issue 10!

Ten years ago, we dug too deep and unleashed something we couldn’t control. Something that twisted and warped every living thing in its path. Something that remade the world in its own image. The Spread. One man has found a child who could save the world, but he has to fight monsters, raiders, cannibals, religious fanatics, and one cranky baby to do it.

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The third chapter in Justin Jordan’s latest arc: The Children’s Crusade reaches a boiling point in issue #10. Jack has struck a bargain with an old friend and the slaver gang so it looks like he’s about to completely screw over No and the warrior kids. The big bearded cannibal has sort of taken over the Spread comic at this point while No recovers from his wounds out in the forest.

Speaking of the forest, artist Kyle Strahm has drawn so many woodland creatures getting murdered in this series that he must have to look twice whenever he sees a deer in the wilderness to make sure a giant red spiked mutant isn’t exploding out of it’s stomach or face. The two page ‘spread’ (hehe, see what I had to do there?) of the deer getting decimated is horrific. Issue #11 is going to be super fucked up I’m sure after what concludes this latest book…

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There’s a great campfire sequence where Molly quickly has a one-panel flashback into her past and I wanted immediately to expand upon that so bad. I’m hoping and assuming Jordan will further explore her backstory before Spread comes to it’s conclusion someday. This story and world is violent, bleak but even in the most vile of characters in Spread — I’m feeling invested in each of them. It still boggles my mind that this giant gross cannibal has taken the lead in Spread and the series still works so well. Jordan is messing with the formula here and killing it with this must-read comic.

Rating: [star rating=”4″]