Spawn’s Universe crowns its monarch and assembles another crop of co-stars in King Spawn #1, written by Sean Lewis and Todd McFarlane; drawn by Javi Fernandez, Stephen Segovia, Marcio Takara, Philip Tan and Brett Booth; inked by Adelso Corona and Daniel Henriques; colored by FCO Plascencia, Andrew Dalhouse, Marcelo Maiolo, Peter Steigerwald and Dave McCaig; and lettered by Tom Orzechowski and AndWorld Design.
Justin Partridge: It’s a new month! Which means a new Spawn #1! AND a new friend here discussing it all with me!
Please join me in a warm, necroplasmic welcome to the immensely smart and extra-talented Ritesh Babu, who unexpectedly jumped at the chance to cover this new #1 with me, thus making my entire year. The readers at home and in the Dead Zones know my connection with Spawn and Todd by now, but Ritesh, what made you want to throw in on this?
Ritesh Babu: Hullo, everybody! Fun to pop into Todd-Land every now and then, but really, what drew me to this is how this is Todd’s big proclaimed new #1. It’s his “If you missed Spawn #1 back in the day, this is the book to get!” And so there’s a curiosity there. It’s Todd’s self-proclaimed secondary title for the character. What does that mean, and what does that look like? I wanted to take a look up close, and chat about it.
Justin: I am honestly just PLEASED AS PUNCH to finally be covering something with Ritesh. I have been a fan for a long time, so I am so happy now I get to talk about another kinda super weird #1 issue with one of my FAVES! It’s like St. Chainspin’s Day came early!
Ritesh: This oughta be a lot of fun, mate! Let’s do it!
Aggressive Expansion
Justin: So, like the Spawn’s Universe #1 kickoff issue, King Spawn #1 is sectioned off very much like a pilot episode attached to more punchy teasers, showcasing the new characters. Also like Spawn’s Universe #1, I am not sure if it’s A GOOD ISSUE per se, but it is absolutely a fascinating one. And pretty entertaining in parts!
Here again we are thrown into the ongoing cold war being wrought throughout the world and the “Dead Zones,” semi-corporeal gateways between Heaven, Hell and Earth that are constantly spewing demons and angels who take human form. These “Shadow Operators” are ramping up their efforts, sewing carnage and mayhem throughout neighborhoods of civilians. This is displayed in a particularly garish opening in which a Shadow Operator posing as a primary school teacher detonates a bomb in a classroom full of children. All to attract the attention of Al Simmons and his allies.
As an opening issue, I am still struck by how nakedly plotty a lot of this stuff is. Despite some welcome callbacks to not only Spawn #300 but even to the VERY FIRST arc of Spawn, writer Sean Lewis delivers a decidedly different flavor from McFarlane’s efforts, but one that still is focused on “selling” this new iteration of Spawn. It’s a feeling that very much extends into the McFarlane-scripted backup stories introducing new villains Nightmare, The Hero Komox (a sort of dark mirror of Shazam and Billy Batson) alongside new anti-heroes Haunt and the Gunslinger. You needn’t worry, though, there is still plenty of Todd here, too. His Sophocles-ass 3 Newscasters chorus make an appearance, as does McFarlane’s classically unwieldy third-person narration. So as an “authentic Spawn comic experience,” it slaps.
It’s all … super ambitious, obviously, and a lot of broad fun at times, but I am not sure it’s entirely successful. What did you think, Ritesh?
Ritesh: First off, I was decidedly not expecting this to be about/centered so firmly on school killings. I feel like folks should know that going in. Be warned and aware, if that’s something you actually want to engage with.
But beyond that, having read Spawn’s Universe #1 when it hit, and having mostly forgotten it since (It wasn’t terribly memorable or good), I found it accessible enough. I’m something of a recent Spawn Enjoyer, with the final thing that sold me being the Morrison/Capullo arc Reflections, which I consider to be the apex of the whole enterprise. And coming into this, especially with it being another writer again via Sean Lewis (who’s historically solid), I was surprised.
This isn’t terribly good comics, I don’t think, but it is incredibly moody, gorgeous comics, as drawn by Javi Fernandez. Fernandez draws the main, core story which Lewis is penning, with lettering by AndWorld Design. Tom Orzechowski not lettering this ‘main’ King Spawn story despite being on the issue feels telling. It feels like a statement. A sort of “Alright, all new hands on deck,” even if Todd is still involved.
Fernandez’s grimy, swirling reality of sprawling capes, old gravestones and bizarre cults is an excellent tone to set up for this book. And it was a lot of fun seeing AndWorld, led by Deron Bennett, take that classic Orzechowski aesthetic and the balloons of Spawn and play with them. But aesthetics aside, I think there is one notably interesting element here.
McFarlane described the title King Spawn as an homage to Conan comics, and as his answer to the “Uncanny X-Men! Amazing Spider-Man!” problem. All the good words were taken, so he settled on King. But he also added that it spoke to Spawn’s temperament, in that he acts like a king now. And while it is too early for me to see that, I do think that intentionality is reflected in the work itself.
Lewis/Fernandez/AndWorld’s story here very much concludes on the revelation that this is all happening because a mad cult believes its prophetic figure to summon is … Spawn, who they consider their king. And it feels like we’ve come a long way from Spawn #1 in that sense. Gone is that sense of him as this random lone creature of the night, a single victim hunted and pursued by a world of forces. An outsider from all. But now he is no longer that. He is part of the establishment. He is part of this system, and has been around for ages. And he’s part of the status quo such that they’re attacking his realm, his kingdom if you will, killing innocents, to cause an effect on him. Spawn has arisen and become something far bigger and grander than he or his maker originally dreamed. Spawn has acquired nigh-mythic stature, and that’s what it feels like this issue attempts to cement. That irrevocable shift.
Justin: And that “twist” I feel is really interesting. Because it’s like you said, it’s basically a direct inverse of the “twist” of Spawn #1. Instead of Violator and Malebolgia holding all the answers Al is looking for, it’s a new cabal of villains trying to upend the established power dynamics of this post-#300 landscape.
I also think the obvious upscaling of the stakes is something that is really interesting, especially this deep into a Spawn run. Before, Al’s world barely extended out of the Alleyways and Rat City. Sure, he would go to Hell sometimes or even hop a train to Gotham City. But here, also like you said, his “world” is now so much bigger, so naturally the scope of the issues has to get bigger. Like you, I am still not completely convinced this is a great first issue, but I think the new elements and creative teams (standing wonderfully alongside the older elements like Todd and Tom O.) give us a bit more juice than your run-of-the-mill #1 issue.
A Spawn for the Prestige Cable Era
Justin: While the overall plot and construction of King Spawn #1 come across a bit clunky, I think its ambition is still something that should be celebrated. Or at the very least, discussed a bit. As I think its striving for a whole new audience in the weirdest possible way is something that really fascinates and charms me.
Both Lewis and McFarlane, in separate interviews (in which each creative interviews the other, which is just … SO Todd) in the backmatter, mention how part of this franchising decision came from Todd’s realization that he was “running out of pages to tell Spawn stories.” Thus the need to expand the narrative into separate titles, sustaining multiple casts.
NOW AGAIN, I am not sure King Spawn #1 is entirely successful just in terms of a first issue. It is oddly inert and focused on a lot of setup for the incoming titles while keeping itself somewhat insulated with callbacks to #300 and beyond. THAT SAID, I think King Spawn #1 could have a real chance at catching on with people wanting a splashy in-road to a major title.
Think about it, it’s pretty focused on it’s lead and the main row of antagonists. It’s portentously written and showy in its production value, AND EVEN has a major jolt of that bloody, semi-nihilistic adherence to performative “adult-ness” that seems to permeate major cable dramas of the day. Yes, I am looking at you The Boys and Game of Thrones and Line of Duty!
Did you pick up on this at all, Ritesh, or is this just entirely me?
Ritesh: Probably my first thought looking at this whole enterprise is that it at once wants to be For All New Audiences, and yet Todd cannot even begin to imagine handing over the longest-running independent Black superhero character to an actual Black writer in the year of our lord 2021. It’s still far too trapped in what Spawn is and has been, rather than what it could be, to truly catch a legion of new folks, I think. Then again, what do I know?
And yeah, there is a sense of wild commercialism about it all, which, while nothing new for Todd, when you look at this whole Spawn’s Universe, feels quite obvious. We’re in the age of Cinematic Universes now. Whether it’s The Walking Dead, The Boys, or Game of Thrones, everything gets a spin-off. Everything is a “universe” now. Everybody’s gotta have a franchise. Hollywood’s looking with expectant eyes at comics publishing for IP, always.
Amidst all that, you have McFarlane trying to get the Spawn movie made as director, constantly trying to make this a profitable, viable IP. The Todd’s said he wants to be akin to Walt Disney, he wants to be akin to Stan Lee. He wants his creation to outlast and outlive him, be a franchise, be a universe. Be more than just a comic book and a toy line. And this is transparently an attempt at realizing that dream. He’s building the Spawn Universe to create a more appealing, shiny little box to get that Hollywood money, attention and better deals, which secure the future for his creation.
So there is absolutely a level of calculated “This is developmental ground for a whole legion of stuff!” to all of this.
Justin: OH, ABSOLUTELY, I feel this all, too. And aside from the obvious and instantly noticeable mistakes of a not-that-diverse of a bench of talent (sans Bennett, but still no women yet), I think Spawn could probably sustain a whole silo. I felt this too during Spawn’s Universe.
You and I have talked a little off-page about that quote of The Todd’s in the press leading up to these, saying he wants to make himself obsolete with these books. That, for me, was a big part of the appeal of covering all these in the first place. It’s nice to see him trying to make that explicit here in these new #1s even if they aren’t, ultimately, perfect debut issues.
Ritesh: Yeah, that’s my primary interest in all this. Watching the transition and moment wherein hopefully Todd phases himself out of this, and what happens and comes of that. What stories get told then? Who gets hired then, once Todd is more at a distance, making his Spawn films/shows, as others oversee his comics kingdom? It’ll take a while before we can truly see and tell, and insular as it all is, largely still being in its early phases, it’s something I did want to observe.
Meet the Spawns! Again!
Justin: And now we come to the somewhat roll call-esque section of the opener: the backup stories, which kinda just top out at “fine” for me, really.
To get the openly negative stuff out of the way first, I still don’t really give a rip about Gunslinger Spawn. And he SHOULD be, really, the dopest shit ever for me. Being the sucker for pulp westerns that I am. The idea of an Old West Spawn is such a slam dunk, but I still can’t muster up any real excitement about Brett Booth as an artist, despite this also being a much stronger effort than his Spawn’s Universe backup was.
It is a bummer, for sure, but we will get a nice figure of him sometime anyway, so it’s a wash from where I sit. Hell, we may have already. I should look around.
[Grote’s note: Look no further than Target.]
My toyetic woolgathering aside, I do think the other backups have some interesting stuff going on. Haunt looks like an anti-Venom with the serial numbers filed off, but could give some fun kineticism to the line in later issues. The Hero Komox also has a spark for me. McFarlane riffing on established superhero archetypes is nothing new, but this one being so obviously a Shazam thing could bring a neat new Fawcett energy to the books. That would be fun as all hell and could keep me coming back to these, just as a fan reading them.
Nightmare too looks like a pretty open take on the Distinguished Competition’s Doomsday (just branded as a Spawn), which is … embarrassingly cool to me. Even though I know, REALLY KNOW, that it’s not that novel of an idea. I dunno, maybe I am getting softer (Read: dumber) in my older age.
Did any of these have you looking up action figure orders, Ritesh?
Ritesh: They won’t have me buying toys, because I am immune, but I did have a ton of fun with these backups. They’re prime Todd McFarlane nonsense, and I’m able to take that in limited portions, which is what these backups are served in.
Haunt is absolutely cut from that Venom cloth, but here’s what I found hilarious about it. Todd writes about Wife Guys constantly. Spawn is all about, really, how much Todd loves his wife (Wanda is the name of both Spawn’s wife and Todd’s wife) and how far he is willing to go for his love. It’s a horror comic about losing your wife and life, essentially. So Haunt starting off on the ideal Todd McFarlane Fantasy of having a lovely partner, only for her to turn out to be an agent in a Divine War who never loved or cared for you, and leaves you tortured and broken … I just find that deeply fucking funny. It is so purely Todd. It is such a loud and unfiltered expression of the kinds of comics Todd makes.
Nightmare is probably the most generic and blah of all of these. I suspect Todd thinks this guy’s his Apocalypse or Darkseid or Thanos or what have you. The sort of Big, Heavy Ultimate Extremity Antagonist. But it’s all so painfully generic and just kind of … there. The work aims for some eerie horror imagery, as Nightmare pours maggots down the eyes of a man he kills, but I’m not sure I come away any more affected. This is the segment of the book that most echoes one aspect this whole enterprise has been trying to go hard on: Biblical Epic of Horrors. I admire the attempt, but I think it’s gonna take a whole lot more to get it over a certain line and bar before it’s worth anything.
The Hero Komox I found fascinating because while it too was dreadfully tired, there’s a kernel of charged conceptual potency that I thought was fascinating. I once wrote a whole piece on what actually appealed to me about the conceptual realm and core of Spawn. It can be read here. (Justin’s Note: You absolutely should. It’s phenomenal.)
In it, I talked about how much I loved the original classic Captain Marvel of Fawcett, and how Spawn felt like it was a great reflection and mirror to that, even if in unintentional ways. The fantasies there and how they map has always been interesting to me. So to see a rather transparent, blatant classic Captain Marvel riff for the Spawnverse in the form of Komox? I was grinning. They’re two separate people, too, as opposed to the modern One Person take. Love that!
But that said, the way Komox manifests and is played in the realm of Spawn is interesting and telling, I think. He’s the son of a seemingly powerful, wealthy, abusive crime lord, rather than the son of just decent people. He’s a privileged child of a powerful empire, albeit traumatized and hurt by his circumstances. He resents his father. And then bam! In one horrific night and event, everybody’s wiped out. His father, this whole crime family mess. And it turns out, he is responsible! Komox, the gleaming divine figure conjured up, which acts upon the most basic emotions and will of this child, which moves as the child wishes. It’s a rather morbid, screwed up twist on Billy Batson, especially as The Power is a horrible curse, but also the one that frees him from his circumstances here. It’s a curious setup, and I wonder where this’ll go next.
As for the Gunslinger parts … I’m gonna be honest. I gave up on those. I can’t read Brett Booth comics. I find the man unreadable. And given I’d read like 50 pages of Spawn by the time I got to his story already, I figured I’d read enough. Booth In = Me Out.
Justin: I could NOT agree with you more. And yeah, it absolutely tracks that we have more weaponization of being a Wife Guy at play here, alongside some open riffs on popcorny superhero bullshit. To be honest, it would be weirder if there WEREN’T any Wife Guy-ness at play.
Komox, I think, might be the early favorite, for sure. I have read that piece of yours, exploring Todd through the lens of Fawcett, a few times now, and it’s incredibly interesting to see him just FULL ON leaning into it. I really hope The Hero doesn’t get the short shrift just so Booth can work out some more of his old Team 7 bullshit or whatever.
Ritesh: Fingers crossed. Need Booth to get as far away from my realms of interest as soon as possible. And yeah! The whole Komox segment was a real “Ah, I see, Todd. So you understand what you’ve accidentally created. Cool. Cool. I wonder what you’ll do with this revelation now.”
Justin: Fleer cards on the table, I didn’t expect to really love King Spawn #1, but I walked away thinking about it far more than I thought I would. I am keenly interested to see where this all goes, and whether The Todd and his bench of creatives can sustain them past the debut arcs. At the very least, I hope these continue to stay fascinatingly strange so we have something to write about.
Because we do, in fact, love chains. We just can’t help it.
Chain-O-Grams
- Justin actually liked the Donny Cates cover. People were being weirdly mean about it, but it’s a fun cover. He may have even gotten it, had he had the chance.
- The Komox and Redeemer designs really do kick ass.
- “Symbiote-covered ears” might very well be the Line of the Year.
- Obligatory “Tom Orzechowski rules.” We should make T-shirts with that on it that look like the “Stephen King rules” shirt from The Monster Squad.
- We JUST NOW remembered that Jessica Priest AKA She-Spawn was a former rival of Al’s during the Jason Wynn days. We are Fake Spawn Gurls.
Ritesh Babu is a comics history nut who spends far too much time writing about weird stuff and cosmic nonsense.
