Originally Posted by
HellsRider
Issue 164 - Homecoming - With Al banishing God and Satan and remaking the world such that Heaven nor Hell have access to it, Al is ready to come home to Wanda. Man of Miracles says it has one final thing to show him, but Al brushes it off. We see Wanda, Terry, Granny Blake, and Cyan in the living room with Granny knowing it was Al that saved them all and shaken given her experience. Cyan says she's not calling Spawn the Sad Man anymore, but Al. Wanda and Terry go to the bedroom and have a fight. Terry essentially feels inadequate given what Al has not only done, but spying on Wanda with photos and love letters that Wanda and Al used to have. Wanda then wonders if Terry is going to hit her which sees Terry taken aback especially when she says that Al would have. Wanda then tells Terry, with ghost Al present, about the first time Al hit her, but he tried to make it up to her. At some point, Wanda felt that if they had a kid Al would stop being in the field so its revealed that not only was Wanda pregnant with their child, but upon hearing about it Al killed their child. Wanda says that she was planning on leaving Al when he came back, but never did and professes her love to Terry. Al returns to his body now fully remembering this and Man of Miracles suggests that this is the reason why Al has never been able to see Wanda again as he was previously since he came back, but as the monster Al believed he had become. Al begs to be killed, but Miracles says he can't until he has redeemed himself and sends him back to the alleys to be all alone. We get an epilogue at the New Vista Apartments where, despite the newscaster saying everything is better than before, and person killing someone suggesting that not everything is fine with the new world Al has created.
"He is Al Simmons...the man who saved the world, but could not save himself..." That final page is the perfect ending for Spawn I have always dreamed of and still is a powerful ending shot to end the Armageddon arc on. The issue would mark the final issue that Philip Tan would be on the series, but he would go on to do Godslayer Spawn as the series would change artists for the Mandarin Spawn one shot with 165 and then change again with 166 with the series continuing the main story. Now the content of the issue, I think, is still pretty divisive given that while we did get some hints on Al being a wife beater going the extra mile with Al being the reason why he and Wanda couldn't have a child can be seen as too much. The idea here is for Al to never have a happy ending and the only way for that to happen was if he couldn't go back to Wanda. It also sort of makes the reader see the ending as a potential just punishment for him, given the revelation, despite the fact that he literally went through hell and back and rooting for him to win and have a happy ending for once. Its still an issue that makes me think all these years later given the arc, revelation, and ending...and then it just had to keep going. Granny and Cyan having their moments were good with Cyan fully embracing Al and you feel for Granny given what she just went through and not shaking her faith. All in all with the issue being 12 years old I still think this is the perfect note to end the series on and whenever Todd decides to end Spawn I wonder if it'll be able to match or top this.