Spawn

Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld and their merry band of inkers and scribblers moved on from the publishing slaughterhouse of Marvel Comics to form their own brand of magic in Image. Soon, along with Marvel and DC, they became legion. Too many years had passed with artists treated badly, raped of thier work and paid a pittance for their scemes and visions. So says Frank Miller in the foreward to this first glimpse of the Spawn comic phenomenon. Enter Image Comics. Enter Todd McFarlane. Enter Spawn. The Empire is made. Spawn starts off where most comics had not before this time in early '92. Al Simmons, an ex-paramilitary assassin, hired gun, mercenary, etc.... wakes up and finds that he had died and gone to hell and sold his soul to come back to earth to see his wife. Weird. Yeah. Only Al (Spawn) finds out that five years have passed since he died and that his wife Wanda has remaried his best friend and they now have a child together (something Simmons could never do). Ouch. Life sucks. The Devil (Malebolgia) has screwed him bigtime! Enter The Violator, an entity and emissary of Malebolgia's, hiding his truly hideous demonic form behind the guise of a short, fat, disguting clown. Really weird. Spawn works on levels that Marvel and DC couldn't or wouldn't touch at the time. More adult in its themes. More skin. More violence. More vulgarity (without outright profanity). Issues illustrated and discussed in Spawn were darker and more relevant than anything that was going on in the big publishers comic collections. Corruption and greed, murder, rape and despair.... What McFarlane did in the creation of Image and Spawn was giving the artists and writers back their pride and their rights to make a profit on their own creations and move away from the tired characters that Marvel had been toting around for decades. What he did with Spawn was create a anti-hero/vigilante Hellspawn kick-ass comic legend. Sure it got tired as it drug on, but the begining was fresh. Dark. Deep. Dig it.

Out of all the mainstream comics on the market today - superman, spiderman, batman, etc. - Spawn is certainly the best. The main thing contributing to this is the realism of Spawn, that he has a very dark human nature and he shows you that it's okay not to be perfect. The art also compliments the story. Detailed, Gothic, and with a dark style all it's own, each page is vibrantly alive.

I grew up reading comic books and have always had a fondnessfor them. Spawn is stylish and cool. I love it's darness andthe moral ambiguity; the anguish and emotion that is portrayed.Of course the fact that Spawn kicks tail helps. To commenton someone else's review where they protested about TM commercializing Spawn and making a ton of money - who cares??If I came up with something this good I would expect to bewell compensated as well. If it wasn't any good people wouldn'tbe willing to pay for it now would they??Enjoy!! Spawn is good stuff

Beautiful coloring, wonderfully detailed artwork - enticing storyline - definitely a "should have".

This book is the beginning of MacFarlane's Spawn dynasty. It is also the beginning of the graphic masterpiece that is Spawn. It slowly takes grasp of you, and wraps you in the plight of Al Simmons, a.k.a. Spawn. This is a great way for new fans to get the early issues (1-5), or even for us comic vets who want to have all five in one convenient package! Also recommended, Spawn books 2-6. Believe me, it will hook you!