Unbeatable Comics: Spawn #220

writer: Todd McFarlane
artist: Szymon Kudranski

It's hard not to see Spawn as the defining creation of Image Comics.  He was the most famous one in the early days, and he's one of the few still standing, and in regular publication since the beginning.  He was Todd McFarlane's response to the question, "What happens after DC and Marvel?"

As indicated in an extensive commentary included in this twentieth anniversary issue, McFarlane still has passionate belief in Spawn.  When the movie version was released in 1997, he called Spawn the complete opposite of Batman.  That may be more relevant today than ever before.  Spawn is no longer Al Simmons, the hapless military vet tricked into becoming the occupant of a costume created in Hell.  Instead, he's Jim Downing, whose past has been shrouded in mystery, even though he's become a celebrity to the rest of the world as a possible messiah.  (It was hard for me to read this issue and not think of Warrior, in which Tom Hardy seemingly comes out of nowhere to be a prime participant in a massive MMA tournament.)

Downing is not only Spawn, but the victim and outcast of a cabal of scientists who would probably be at home in Fringe.  There's a lot of reading to be done in this comic.  It's definitely, now more than originally, nothing like the superhero comics you'll find at DC and Marvel.  In a way, that's hugely encouraging.  Truth be told, Spawn used to be the worst offender of the overblown creations Image used to be known for, even after its vaunted sojourn into creator rights.  The joke ought to have been, "They wanted the right to create garbage?"  But over time, the company got its act together.  Of course, sales are marginal even by the low standards of comics today, especially compared to the nearly two million copies the first issue of Spawn sold.  (There's a handy timeline of Spawn history included as well, that helps outline its legacy to date, even though it conspicuously overlooks the whole Neil Gaiman flap.)

In losing most of its audience Spawn has finally shaped itself into something that would have been worthy of those readers.  That's an irony if I ever saw one.