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 12!
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.
Time for another flashback to one of our beloved members of the Spread family – this time Molly. I love Molly – she’s insane, she’s fierce and she’s one of the good ones. This comic makes her my favorite character of the entire series. Guest artist Jen Hickman comes in to take over and she does a wonderful job bringing Justin Jordan’s gut-wrenching origin story to life in some of the most sad comic pages I’ve ever read. When you realize that the opening shot of little Molly clutching a teddy bear echoes the very last page when we catch up to her when she’s older… it makes me choke up right now just thinking about it…
In the letters column, Jordan himself mentioned how this was the hardest comic that he’s ever had to write and I don’t blame the guy. I got emotional reading it and I’m getting emotional writing about it – which proves his point. The Molly we know now, is pretty much feral. How did she get to that point? Issue #12 reveals all and I almost wish I didn’t know the truth. One of the craziest moments was how we see Molly cracking jokes and acting like a normal young woman at a trading camp — I almost couldn’t believe this was the same person. As the issue progresses and we witness the hell she’s put through – everything comes to light.
Why is that baby in our current timeline so important to Molly? Why will she do whatever it takes to protect this child from raiders and monsters? You will come to understand why at the end of this chapter. Is this a hard comic to read? Yes it is. But it’s entirely gripping – I couldn’t catch a breath during the final panels because I was so entrenched in the moment. Which is why the ending is even harder to come to terms with… I will likely never read issue #12 again, because it’s incredibly depressing. That being said – it was also incredibly moving and just one more reason to love Image Comics’ Spread.
Rating: [star rating=”4.5″]