"Spawn" Comic Series Talkback (Spoilers)

[Bird Boy]

Because you demand it: A Spawn talkback thread! Discuss one of the most popular Image Comics of all-time, and one of the biggest comic characters to come from the 1990s!



Spawn Comic Series Talkback
Created by: Todd McFarlane
Creators: Various
Al Simmons is back from Hell, but why? After making a deal with the devil he gets more than he bargained for, and finds himself on the frontlines of a war between Heaven and Hell.

Spawn
Latest issue: #118 (June 2022)

Spawn envisions the lives of his predecessors, including his own past life as Al Simmons. Is what he's seeing real or imagined? If real, how will the scene he observes at his own funeral affect what he has always supposed to be true? In his original agreement with Malebolgia, he acquiesed to becoming a Hellspawn in order to be reconciled with his beloved Wanda; but were his memories of his marriage accurate? As Spawn descends into Hell with Cog at his side, will he finally abandon all connections to his previous world and take his place on the throne that he inherited from Malebolgia?

Discuss both the latest issue and the entire comic series and franchise right here!

Any and all comic book things Spawn, talk about them right here!

Related Discussions:
Todd McFarlane's Spawn Animated Series Talkback (Spoilers)
Spawn: The Movie Talkback (Spoilers)

 

[Cogliostro]

If there are no fans here I recommend trying it out, it might be something you like or might not but worth a try for sure. Also another great Spawn comic is HellSpawn, not for the young readers it more of a dark freakier story of Spawn with great different style of art. If anyone recently or does get hooked on HellSpawn I suggest getting the back issues they have some freaky stories. If there are Spawn fans here how are you liking the new artist and recent arch #116 and the recent #117? Also discuss any other thoughts about Spawn here...

 

[Spider-Man]

I like Spawn although I had to srop the book from my pull list after re-evaluting my budget for the comics. It was a good series but I thought it was getting a bit repetitive. I thought the cartoons series was awesome and the live action movie wasn't that bad. I am still hoping that a Spawn/Spider-Man one hsot will happen.

 

[Cogliostro]

Yeah the animated series was great, it showed the true darkness of the world of Spawn. Spawn 2 is in works as I type I also would like to see a Spawn/Spiderman one-shot but highly doubt that will ever happen with Todd's relationship with Marvel. You should try a issue of HellSpawn if you dont like dont get anymore I think its better then Spawn right now...

 

[Spider-Man]

Are there any specific issues you could recommend. I was an avid follower of Spawn until the price hike forced me to drop the book. I held on as long as I could before I dropped it. If I luck into some extra cash, maybe I will pick up some new Spawn.

 

[Clayface]

I used to collect the Spawn comic - started with issue #1 and didn't miss an issue up until about 6 months ago. By that point, the comic gave you less and less content for more and more money, so I dropped it. It was just spreading the story way too thin, IMO.

 

[Cogliostro]

Well the current arc from #116 and current issue #117 is great it has to do with a old character, Eddy (I believe thats his name forgot it at the moment) that was in the early issue where Spawn was hiking back to New York and had to do with the 2 kids and the father that beat them and a classic villian coming back with a new look and new hate...

For HellSpawn I don't know which one to recommend they all are pretty good. I have only missed issue 9 and 12. I would say go with issue 10 if not just get the most current one you can get a hold of. Its $2.50 like Spawn but I think its worth it..

Checkout this link and all the sections on it about HellSpawn. The issues section will give a summary of some issues and Images has some Pages of HellSpawn #12..

http://www.steveniles.com/hellspawn.htm

 

[Joe Wagner]

I was reading Spawn on a monthly basis up until a couple of years ago - dropping the book right around the 100 mark. As the price of the book went up I felt like I was getting less and less content within the pages so I ultimately decided that Amazing Spider-Man was a far better title for the money. I still try and pick the book up occassionally but I have done so recently.

-Joe!

 

[MDawg]

The same here. I read the book from about 60 to 100, and watched Spawn: TAS, but I just got tried with the story and the fact the the second half of the book was just a giant ad. Are there even any TPBs out for this book? I don't recall ever seeing one.

 

[Cogliostro]

Yeah there are some TPB's but they only go up to issue 54. Here's a link if you want to check out the covers and which issues come on each one:

http://www.spawn.com/productions/spawn/spawntpb1.html

 

[Bird Boy]

I'm not the biggest fan of the comics--in fact, I've never even seen the movie (although I want to--just gotta turn 17 then I can buy the DVD.. ), but man, the action figures (or statues, as most are) are the coolest thing I've ever seen. I am interested in picking up a couple of the trade paperbacks (I saw one of the ones you linked too and had to make an avatar out of it..it was just too cool not too..).

-BB

 

[Evil Dr. Reef]

Originally posted by Clayface
I used to collect the Spawn comic - started with issue #1 and didn't miss an issue up until about 6 months ago. By that point, the comic gave you less and less content for more and more money, so I dropped it. It was just spreading the story way too thin, IMO.

This is why I haven't bought an issue since about #112. But I'm trying to get back into it.

 

[Spider-Man]

Sorry for the bump! In October Image is going to release a softcover and hardcover trade collection for Spawn and it will start from issue one. I'm pretty excited for this. I haven't read these early comics but always wanted to. Plus the $20/$30 price for ten issues is really good. But when I was going through the listing todayt it say the trade would have issues #1 - 8, 11, 12. Why are they skipping #9 and 10?

http://spawn.com/comics/comic.aspx?bookid=29-1-13-0

 

[Bird Boy]

Ones over legal reasons, the other is because it's an off-continuity story. I wish they were all included, but back-issues can't be too hard to find. Guess I'll have to fill in the hole when it's released.

-BB

 

[Stu]

I dug the short lived and much missed Spawn cartoon from a few years back and tried to get into the comics, but there simply wasn't too many ways to get into them without having a huge gap in knowledge.

If they're releasing the trades in order, I'd be very interested in picking them up.

E

 

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

Issues #8-12 were a publicity stunt where Todd McFarlane got 4 of the hottest writers in comics to do single-issues of Spawn to counter the arguments that the book was all flash and no substance.

Issue #8 was written by Alan Moore, and introduced the Violator, along with a lot of the mythical concepts behind Spawn.

Issue #9 was written by Neil Gaiman, and introduced the character of Angela.

Issue #10 was written by Dave Sim, and had a brief crossover between Spawn and Sim's Cerebus. The story was a thinly veiled screed against the work-for-hire practices of DC and Marvel at the time, and the trend of "revamping" heroes by doing things like killing them, maiming them, or otherwise really screwing up their lives. Thank goodness American superhero comics outgrew that phase, huh?

Issue #11 was written by Frank Miller. To my knowledge, it didn't significantly add anything to the Spawn universe.

Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane had a significant falling out much later over the character of Angela and others created for issue #9. The courts came down pretty definitively on Gaiman's side. As a result, Angela and all the characters Gaiman created were written out of Spawn one way or another, and no more toys or other merchandise have been made with them. This is also why the Angela trade paperback went out of print and why issue #9 is being excluded from the Spawn TPB.

My nearest guess for why issue #10 was excluded is either 1) Bird Boy is right in that it's an out-of-continuity story and would just confuse new readers, or 2) Dave Sim still owns Cerebus and reprint rights for everything Cerebus has been in, and he just said no. Given that Todd has behaved as badly or worse than the DC and Marvel corporations that he left to found Image Comics, it wouldn't surprise me if Sim said no on general principle, but I haven't seen a statement from him (or anybody) one way or another. If I get to see Dave Sim at the Big Apple Con in November, I'll try to remember to ask him.

-- Ed/Ace

 

[Spider-Man]

Issue #9 was written by Neil Gaiman, and introduced the character of Angela. Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane had a significant falling out much later over the character of Angela and others created for issue #9. The courts came down pretty definitively on Gaiman's side. As a result, Angela and all the characters Gaiman created were written out of Spawn one way or another, and no more toys or other merchandise have been made with them. This is also why the Angela trade paperback went out of print and why issue #9 is being excluded from the Spawn TPB.

But if she appears alot in the series then does that mean every comic that features her will be omitted? This will really mess up any plans on having a "complete" collection of Spawn comics.

 

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

But if she appears alot in the series then does that mean every comic that features her will be omitted? This will really mess up any plans on having a "complete" collection of Spawn comics.

Well, it means that Neil Gaiman will be owed royalties for any reprint of a comic that Angela appears in. I am guessing that the omission of #9 in the first TPB is probably because McFarlane does not want to do this as a matter of principle. As a result, I'd say that either every comic she appears in will be omitted, or Todd or his replacement of the moment will need to pull a George Lucas and write new fill-in issues to cover up her involvement.

Personally, if I was Todd, I'd pull a trick from the Microsoft playbook and make all those Angela comics available for free (or for a quarter) as an Internet download and broadcast some lie about it being "out of concern for the fans." Fans get their stories and Neil gets little or no royalties. Then again, business acumen does not seem to be one of Todd's strong suits.

And yes, this will completely foul up any attempt at a complete set of Spawn reprints. Then again, seeing as it took McFarlane 3 years to finish his contribution to the Image 10th anniversary hardcover and more than 10 years to begin reprinting Spawn in TPB, I'd say that problems with Angela are the least of the hurdles facing a complete set of Spawn reprints.

-- Ed/Ace

 

[Spider-Man]

Well, it means that Neil Gaiman will be owed royalties for any reprint of a comic that Angela appears in. I am guessing that the omission of #9 in the first TPB is probably because McFarlane does not want to do this as a matter of principle. As a result, I'd say that either every comic she appears in will be omitted, or Todd or his replacement of the moment will need to pull a George Lucas and write new fill-in issues to cover up her involvement.

And yes, this will completely foul up any attempt at a complete set of Spawn reprints. Then again, seeing as it took McFarlane 3 years to finish his contribution to the Image 10th anniversary hardcover and more than 10 years to begin reprinting Spawn in TPB, I'd say that problems with Angela are the least of the hurdles facing a complete set of Spawn reprints.

How often did her character appear? I know she had that mini-series a few years ago and then was killed off in Spawn #100 but aside from that I don't have a complete idea in how many appearances she had. I'm not looking to collect the entrie series but I hear the first 30 - 50 issues were the best the series had to offer before it hit a rut that it could get out of. I just want the early years of the series.

I guess this means I'll have to search for some back issues to fill the gaps if possible.

I hope these collections are't too plagued with problems. It does seem like they're releasing these collections now with the new cartoon DTV coming out and apparent "renewed" interest in the Spawn property. I'm sure once the interest dies out we won't be seeing a new collection for awhile. Has Image been good about their trade paperback releases?

 

[Spider-Man]

Does anyone know what happened to this trade? I went to the comic store expecting to pick it up but my comic book guy said Image hasn't released it yet. Is there a new release date?