A lot of people I know aren't, well, too happy with IDW portrayals of Spike, or their portrayals of Angel, for that matter, while of course there are others who love it. Brian Lynch's version of Angel is very idealized, he considers him an epitome of nobility, and he loves Spike but IMO his Spike is way simplified and not a complex character I like. I didn't read many IDW comics, but I have read the "Spike" miniseries, and Lynch inserted several of his own interpretations of canon into that one. Starting with the first pages of #1, where Spike describes Angel as the epitome of nobility he aspires to, complete with an "evolutionary" sequence that shows Angel as the last stage (10 out 10) while Spike is "8.5 out of 10"), which shows two things: despite being an AtS fan, Lynch must have missed the part in "Destiny" where Spike says what he actually thinks about Angel; and, Lynch either isn't aware of Joss's interview where he called Spike "more evolved than Angel, because he sought his soul", or was deliberately pissing off Joss by literally contradicting him.
That's just the beginning: the whole miniseries, as we soon learn, is based on the concept of "soul for a soul": some human serial killer called John is after Spike (and used by Wolfram & Hart) because Wolfram & Hart took away his soul, to restore the balance when Spike lost his. (The catch is that John was always a psycho killer, but he doesn't feel as much pleasure in killing as he did when he had a soul.) Say what?! So would that mean that every time someone is sired, someone else has to gain a soul? Who keeps the balance? Nonsense. Some people think that the miniseries is canon because one plot ties into season 8, and because Willow was a guest star and Joss oversaw her dialogue, but the whole exchange of souls is surely never going to be pronounced canon.
And then in issue 6 or 7, I don't remember, John takes out Spike's soul but Spike manages to keep John from getting it, and he decides to give it temporarily to someone else - Drusilla, who was just in the process of biting Spike's human friend Jeremy, so it was mostly a pragmatic decision. (Don't ask why Drusilla was in the comic...long story.) Of course, Spike gets his soul back shortly afterwards, but the moment he lost it, he gives a speech about how it doesn't matter because he was already good without a soul, when he loved Buffy and was helping the Scoobies, and the soul just made it official. Obviously, another instance of Lynch blatantly using Spike as the spokesperson for his own views. Some Spike fans loved that, others, like me, really hated it. Ironically, somme Spike haters also loved it and jumped all over that, because in their view, if Spike was already able to be good without a soul, that means that was even worse and much more responsible for the bad things he did than Angel was (Bangels are particularly fond of this view). Spike was more evil than Angel because he was less evil; get it? It makes the kind of sense that's not.
cont.
That's just the beginning: the whole miniseries, as we soon learn, is based on the concept of "soul for a soul": some human serial killer called John is after Spike (and used by Wolfram & Hart) because Wolfram & Hart took away his soul, to restore the balance when Spike lost his. (The catch is that John was always a psycho killer, but he doesn't feel as much pleasure in killing as he did when he had a soul.) Say what?! So would that mean that every time someone is sired, someone else has to gain a soul? Who keeps the balance? Nonsense. Some people think that the miniseries is canon because one plot ties into season 8, and because Willow was a guest star and Joss oversaw her dialogue, but the whole exchange of souls is surely never going to be pronounced canon.
And then in issue 6 or 7, I don't remember, John takes out Spike's soul but Spike manages to keep John from getting it, and he decides to give it temporarily to someone else - Drusilla, who was just in the process of biting Spike's human friend Jeremy, so it was mostly a pragmatic decision. (Don't ask why Drusilla was in the comic...long story.) Of course, Spike gets his soul back shortly afterwards, but the moment he lost it, he gives a speech about how it doesn't matter because he was already good without a soul, when he loved Buffy and was helping the Scoobies, and the soul just made it official. Obviously, another instance of Lynch blatantly using Spike as the spokesperson for his own views.
Some Spike fans loved that, others, like me, really hated it. Ironically, somme Spike haters also loved it and jumped all over that, because in their view, if Spike was already able to be good without a soul, that means that was even worse and much more responsible for the bad things he did than Angel was (Bangels are particularly fond of this view). Spike was more evil than Angel because he was less evil; get it? It makes the kind of sense that's not.