Writers: Sean Lewis & Todd McFarlane
Artist: Stephen Segovia
Colorist: Ulises Arreola
Letterer: Andworld Design
Cover Artists: Victor Bogdanovic; Paul Renaud
Publisher: Image
Price: 2.99
Release Date: May 31, 2023
Gaia decided to extinguish all life on Earth. Necro, Margaret Love, and Mandarin spread a pandemic. A plague of locusts transforms humans into zombies. Can the Scorched prevent the Apocalypse? Let's descend into The Scorched #18 and find out!
Story
Like Covid-19, the zombie virus evolved. It takes on bestial form and targets the spawns. As the Scorched fight off the attack, Necro, Margaret Love, and Mandarin leap into the fray. Yet these are mere opening bouts. The headline fight between Monolith and Urizen awaits.
Like a ringside announcer, the narrator waxes enthusiastic. He responds to each combatant's utterances. Sometimes his wordplay stumbles. "What does he mean?" the reader cries. Once, he contradicts the previous issue's assertion regarding which cosmic force marked the Earth for destruction. Yet his words—and each character's dialogue—sing along to The Scorched #18's theme song. Is it a swansong to our planet or merely to some of the hellspawn? Whatever track DJs Sean Lewis & Todd McFarlane are spinning on the Image turntable, it’s Something Epic!
Art
Necro, Margaret Love, and Mandarin opened a portal in the previous issue. She-Spawn leaped into this vortex of multicolored energy, intent upon defending the Earth against whatever they summoned. This onslaught splits light into spectrums. Intense colors fall from the heavens—courtesy of Ulises Arreola—and illumine our heroes. Some—like She-Spawn—radiate light. Others—especially Monolith Spawn—change color. The red giant turns orange in the glare. The god Urizen crunches through the electric blue permafrost, exhaling green fire. Even white becomes a color as patches, smears, and lines convey highlights, and an ancient symbol burns in She-Spawn's eyes.
Can She-Spawn defend against skinless virus demons that grasp her in their claws and spew particles into her nose and mouth? As Mandarin attacks Medieval with his two-bladed weapon, he looks made of sticks. Monolith towered over the Scorched teammates on Omega Island. Yet Urizen dwarfs him in The Scorched #18. Highly detailed characters and costumes lose definition as they face cataclysmic threats. Yet Stephen Segovia’s intense action scenes harmonize with Lewis and McFarlane’s riffs on the Book Of Revelations.
{Attention! We interrupt this review to alert all Fantasy fans. Lovers of books by writers J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Paolini, and Naomi Novik will see panels that make their eyes glow greener than spawns! We now return you to this review!}
Andworld Design treats readers of all ages to big uppercase letters in The Scorched #18. While Monolith’s italicized lettering may tax, for the most part, Andworld Design provides adequate spacing between letters using an easy-to-read font. Yellow words in brown narration boxes relay the enthusiastic referee’s commentary. Colored letters, colored balloon outlines, and the shape of linking arrows signal character identities and emotions. Sound effects amplify the drumbeats of destruction as the Four Horsemen crash into our planet’s Hellish Defenders.
Final Thoughts
Heroes and villains fight amid the destruction and plague threatening Humanity in The Scorched #18. Will they survive to defend Earth against the planet eaters that consumed Monolith's world? Tune in Next Issue. Same great publisher. Same great series. Same great local comic shop!
Rating 8.4/10
To view another cover options see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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