If you had told me six months ago that I would be so thoroughly entertained by a book focusing on Spawn’s evil clown adversary The Violator, I would have… Well, I don’t know, probably wouldn’t have done anything really bad, but certainly scoffed mildly. Yet here we are, six issues later, with an absolute blast of a series as of the final issue, Violator #6. And yes, this clown is here to amuse you.
In the sixth issue of the series by Marc Andreyko, with art by Von Randal, we’re finally caught up to the “present” with Violator fully owning his clown persona. Still, there’s plenty of jumping through time here as we see the disturbing reason he dresses like a clown, as well as various other historical moments he had a devious hand in. In fact, if there’s any criticism I have about this issue, it’s that it speeds through the concept for what could have been a dozen more issues of a wild, time-hopping anthology series in a matter of pages. Seeing this demon mess up the entire world would have been a horrific delight; instead we’ll have to make due with this very fun miniseries.
Von Randal does some stellar work here, particularly with some heavily painted splash pages of Violator showing him in his various forms. There’s even a fun “cameo” by Spawn that purposefully feels rote — which Randal draws in an almost off-hand fashion.
What Andreyko has done so effectively is channel the anarchic spirit of the Spawn villain. Jumping through time, showing some absolute horror, and grinning gleefully through it all is fun enough. But it’s also given us an effective back-story for the baddie without diluting any of the absolutely gross things he has done and will continue to do. This is less about building up an anti-hero than showing us how diabolical a villain can get.
And to get into mild spoilers, things are left open enough at the end here for there to be a Violator II. Here’s hoping this series was successful enough to… Spawn… More stories.
Violator #6 Rating:
Violator #6 Official Synopsis:
The Violator’s tale is coming to its end. His adventures and manipulations through human history are reaching their crescendo. How much of it was true? How much of it was the embellishment of a sadistic and insane demon? Who really cares? It was a great story, right? The Violator’s new best friend certainly thinks so.
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