Spread Issue 12 - R18+

Spread Issue 12

Spread issue 12 is written by Justin Jordan, art by Jen Hickman, colours by Felipe Sobreiro, letters by Crank! and published by Image comics. Spread is one of my favourite comics currently running and I've reviewed Spread volume 1 before and now follow the series in single issues which has continued to be consistently enjoyable but if anybody needed a reminder that Spread is not for children issue 12 is an extremely confronting reminder of that. I can not stress enough that Spread is not for children and especially not issue 12, I'm giving you fair warning this review will contain spoilers, while I don't normally reveal the entire story I will for this issue, and contain some very confronting issues so I'm going to slap a big R18+ on this review.

Issue 12 is the origin story of Molly and how she became "Crazy Molly" and oh my god is it dark. It begins with a very young (pre-crazy) Molly alone and scared being taken in by two scavengers, John and Raven, despite Raven's objections that they are barely surviving themselves. Molly is taught the trade of salvaging and lives happily with John and Raven for years until the camp is attacked by raiders and John is killed and Raven fleas without Molly.

One of the raiders, Rachel, takes Molly from another Raider saying that she is for "Ravello" and offers Molly a chance to do "better". Rachel takes Molly to meet her new "sisters", the other women in Ravello's Harem, as they prepare her to meet him for the first time and tell her she should be grateful and that he is good to them. It gets pretty damn dark here as the young Molly is raped by Ravello as he talks about how much he loves this new post-apocalyptic world. Some time later Molly realises that she is pregnant and it suddenly dawns on her that there are no children in the camp, she confronts Rachel as to why there are no children with Rachel's silence speaking chilling volumes.

Molly causes a distraction and fleas the camp and is quickly pursued by Rachel. Rachel tells Molly she is taking her back to camp to which she reacts violently disfiguring Rachel as she fleas once again. Months later Molly is living in the wilderness with her new baby when Rachel comes looking for her again for revenge. Molly hides using well built traps but while trying to prevent her baby from crying Molly accidentally smothers her. Climbing out of her hiding place hours later Molly looks down at her baby, realising what she has done, and pitifully utters "Molly is sorry" completing her decent into madness and finally becoming "Crazy Molly".

The art for Spread is usually done by Kyle Strahm and is grotesque in a strangely enjoyable way but issue #12  is done by guest artist Jen Hickman and is much cleaner and simpler than the usual style. I really think the guest artist for this issue was a fantastic choice as the usual grotesque, quirky style would have distracted from the true horror of the story being told.

Molly is just heartbreaking in the way she seems to find a way to overcome the challenges she faces in this apocalyptic world and works with each situation so she can survive . Molly is happy living with John and Raven, despite being abandoned by Raven at the worst possible moment, and even finds a way to live a decent life as part of the harem referring to the other women as her "sisters". It is not until Molly has another life to worry about that she decides to escape her situation for not just herself but for her unborn child. Molly's terror and despair is so genuine that it makes the reader feel uncomfortable completely pulling them into the story.

I can't explain how uncomfortable this page made me feel

Rape is an extremely touchy subject that is not tackled by many forms of media, let alone in comics, and depending on the handling can come across as exploitative at the expense of the female character but I find that the handling of it in Spread is done very well showing it as a truly horrific event that makes the reader feel extremely uncomfortable and exposed. This issue was extremely depressing between the abuse that Molly suffered and the tragic fate of her baby I needed to go and read something sweet and innocent like Bizarro until I felt better about life.

Issue 12 was an extremely hard hitting issue that really stuck with me after I read it so I'm going to give it a 4 out of 5 fluffy puppies because I think we all need a bit of cheer after this one.

Look how fluffy they are!

Find out more about Spread here.

Should I take my kids to see Deadpool?

No.

The movie is rated R for a reason. If you still aren't sure go and buy a Deadpool comic, read it and then decide if you think it is appropriate for your children.