DAVID HINE ON SPAWN'S NEW LOOK, NEW WORLD, NEW MISSION

[MattBrady]

by Vaneta Rogers

Open up the next issue of Spawn and it's going to look a little different. No Satan preparing his army for Armageddon. No angels fighting demons. Not even a Hell.

Or, as a commercial might say, this is not your father's Spawn.

Not only has the whole premise behind the comic changed, but the artistic and creative feel as well, as the comic takes a turn away from superheroics and closer to horror, away from gritty battle scenes and closer to realism.

No, the old ideas weren't suddenly thrown out -- but they were resolved. Over the last 15 issues, writer David Hine has explained and tied up almost every last plot thread and former hint about the future. In fact, the constant references throughout Spawn's history to an impending Armageddon came true -- the world really did end.

But a new one has now taken its place.

Why the revamp? If you don't understand what prompted a change, you're probably fairly new to the world of comics. When lead character Al Simmons was first introduced as Spawn in 1992, he quickly became one of the most popular comic book characters outside the DC and Marvel labels. By the mid-'90s, sales of the Spawn comic had skyrocketed and soon after, the character was featured in everything from movies and cartoons to action figures and video games.

But interest in the character has declined drastically since, along with the title's sales. In fact, the
Spawn comic -- once a top selling title -- barely breaks into the top 100 comics anymore. The reasons for that could be debated forever (and seemingly have been on various message boards). But one thing's clear -- the direction that Spawn was taking after its initial success wasn't working as well with readers anymore.

Now that the end of the world has occurred in the Spawn-iverse and a new one has taken its place, Newsarama talked to Hine about what readers can expect from the title as it takes this new direction and why he thinks former Spawn readers should give the comic another look.

Newsarama: The revamp of Spawn has been getting a lot of attention from reviewers lately. Why do you think this was so needed and how did it come about?

David Hine: When I was offered the gig on Spawn I had a lot of back issues to read. What struck me was how many great ideas were in those books and that a lot of the individual issues were superb stories. But there was a lack of forward drive to the series. It was always stated that Armageddon was coming but there were an awful lot of detours on the way, so when I took over on issue #150 the intention was to tie up all the loose plot threads and then actually get to the Apocalypse. There was also a consensus between myself, Todd McFarlane, editor Brian Haberlin and artist Phil Tan, that afterwards we wanted to take the book in a new direction. Less mainstream superhero and more horror-based.

NRAMA: “Horror-based” is still a pretty general description. Besides the fact that it concentrates on horror-type stories, how would you describe the book now to someone who used to read it and gave up on the title? What's changed from how it used to be?

DH: From [issue #]166 the book will be more realistic. We’ll still be dealing with some weird and twisted concepts but the setting and treatment will be more down to Earth and I want the characters to feel more real so the readers can identify with them. That’s always tough to do with angels and demons.

NRAMA: No more angels and demons. That's quite a change for Spawn. Why do you think it needed this whole new direction?

DH: The book had become too complex and had lost a distinct direction. I felt that although the plot was brilliant, much of it was so understated that I think it went over the heads of a lot of readers and there was a need to deliver on the things that were being hinted at. There are still some major subplots that I will return to in the future, but in the meantime we’re going to tell some shorter stories that focus on character development and more personal conflicts, rather than the cosmic scale of recent years.

NRAMA: And the direction toward horror -- do you think those types of stories naturally work with the character Spawn?

DH: I was never a big fan of the big guns and superhero aspects of Spawn. To me he always worked best as the dark mysterious character, communing with bugs and bats and coming out of the shadows like your worst nightmare. The book and character are incredibly malleable. It’s no accident that his costume and appearance are constantly changing. We are simply going to concentrate on those darker aspects of his character and tell some stories that will scare the pants off the readers.

NRAMA: Let's talk about how you got to this point. It's a whole new Spawn-iverse because, as you said before, you took the series right up to Armageddon. How in the world did you tell the story of the Apocalypse and beyond in 15 issues?

DH: Initially we planned on a really long arc to take us to the Final Battle but after a few months we realized that if the story lasted fifty issues we were going to be delaying the new look for another four years, so I took on the challenge of wrapping the story up in fifteen issues. The result was that the pace of the story has been hell for leather over the past year and the readers have been kind of shell shocked by the speed of developments.

I think that actually worked in our favor. There are some fans who would have preferred to see epic battles lasting three or four issues but on the whole the rapid fire release of revelations seems to have met with general approval. It has been something of a white-knuckle ride and every issue has ended with a "Wha-huh?" moment that kept the readers talking.

NRAMA: Sales on Spawn used to be, as you know, huge. But a lot of people haven't read Spawn in awhile. Can you bring all those former readers up to speed with what happened as the world they knew ended?

DH: Al Simmons was the last in a line of Hellspawn, human warriors resurrected and given supernatural powers in return for leading the demons of Hell in the Final Battle of Armageddon. Our Spawn rebelled against his demonic masters and rejected the authority of both Heaven and Hell. God and Satan have been notably absent in the past but in this arc they were finally located in the form of a couple of homicidal toddlers.

NRAMA: So God and Satan were here on earth fighting each other?

DH: Our take has been that there is a creator of the cosmos, the androgynous Man of Miracles who had given this corner of the Universe to God and Satan to rule over. But they had become obsessed with their personal feud and were using the human race as cannon fodder in their endless squabble. In order to teach them humility, MoM arranged for them to be born into human form so they could learn the value of human life.

Things didn’t go entirely as planned and the Twins ended up instigating the Apocalypse. The Four Horsemen were unleashed and the entire human race was massacred, then resurrected as warriors in the Final Battle. Spawn meanwhile, underwent a trial of fire to prove himself worthy of eating from the tree of life, which gave him godlike power to equal God and Satan. Faced with an impossible battle against the billions of demons, angels and resurrected humans, he chose instead to wipe out all human life. God and Satan, believing that Spawn was also killed, are now continuing their battle on a lifeless planet Earth.

NRAMA: Phew. You were right before about all the cosmic stuff getting complicated. But it's re-launched now, right? How did the end of the earth lead to a whole new Spawn series?

DH: All this was a ruse by Spawn who, under the guidance of Man of Miracles has recreated the Earth and the human race. Everything should be as it was, only God and Satan are permanently banished and the portals to Heaven and Hell are sealed, leaving the human race free to find its own destiny.

Now we’re done with the cosmic stuff and future story lines will be more grounded in reality,
although it’s still a very twisted reality.

NRAMA: Wow, David. You wrote about Heaven, Hell, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse -- plus you had Jesus and Judas running around in there, too. Did you do a little Bible studying to write all this or what?

DH: Yeah, I know my Bible pretty well already but I did some more background reading on things like the Rapture and the Gospel of Judas Iscariot and other more recent additions to Christian mythology. I was interested in the theory that Judas was the truest of Christ’s followers, the only disciple who really understood that Jesus had to die to give his ministry meaning. We deviated a little from most Christian teaching though, by making Jesus the physical incarnation of the Mother of the Universe. The clues were there in the name Man of Miracles of course. God and Satan are both bad guys. Interestingly, most of our Christian readers took it all in good heart. I don’t think we had one serious complaint of blasphemy. Very disappointing.

NRAMA: You had to tie up a lot of loose ends. The solicitation said you were "wrapping up 163 issues of continuity with a final conflict." How difficult was that?

DH: Very tough. I felt an obligation to tie up as many loose threads as possible and still do justice to the awesome spectacle of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse striding the Earth, the destruction of Los Angeles, the Last Battle and the temporary raising of the Hellspawn legions. I think our one mistake was to introduce several new concepts and characters following issue #150. There was the legion of souls that occupied Spawn’s subconscious. Those were the 6,000 people who died in the same hour as Al Simmons. Then there were Man of Miracles, Zera and Thamuz. We were just bursting with ideas and concepts when we took over the book but in retrospect we should probably have wound up all the old plot lines first. It has been a very eventful eighteen months in Spawn’s existence.

NRAMA: OK, let's talk about this revamp. Now that Armageddon has happened, where are you going from here with the story?

DH: Firstly, a confession. We have played with readers’ expectations a little. Actually we downright lied. Issue #163 appears to be the last issue of the arc (in fact it reads like the last issue of Spawn ever) and we did announce it that way. I wanted to see the reactions of the readers and it has been interesting. It was kind of risky because there may be people who decide that that’s a perfect end and stop buying the book. Which would be a big mistake of course, because issue #164 is the real end of the arc and it becomes clear that this is leading into something very different. That’s all I’ll say about issue #164.

NRAMA: And #165?

DH: Issue #165 is a one-shot. I wouldn’t describe it as a fill-in because that wouldn’t do justice to a story I’m very pleased with and has fantastic art by Lan Medina. His previous work includes the Eisner award winning Fables and of course his run on District X at Marvel. I’ve wanted to work with Lan again and this was the perfect project. There have been many humans resurrected as Hellspawn and this is the story of a tragic creature who lived in 12th century China. A grotesquely deformed man who was kept as a freakish form of entertainment by a corrupt provincial governor. Like Al Simmons he is made an offer he can’t refuse and returns to wreak a terrible revenge as Mandarin Spawn.

Issue #166 is the re-launch. Spawn has literally destroyed mankind and put them back together but it soon becomes apparent that things are not quite right. It’s just little things at first. The fact that whisky tastes a little different, that everything is more sharply defined. We’re running with the questions raised by the science fiction concept of the matter transmitter. If you break a human being down into particles, zap him across the Universe and put him back together, is it still the same person? As the story progresses the cracks will really begin to show.

NRAMA: Let's talk about the characters in Spawn now. There are very few comics readers in the world who don't know the name Al Simmons. Tell us where his head is now and how you would describe the character as he goes forward.

DH: After saving the world, all Spawn wants to do is go back to his wife Wanda and live out his life in human form as Al Simmons. We’ll see how that turns out. Whatever the outcome there doesn’t seem to be a need for Spawn in this brave new world he has created. No Hell below us and above us only sky. Al Simmons has had enough of the violence and conflict. It will take something extreme to get him motivated to come back into the fray. So it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that something extreme is coming. The way he faces up to his despair and attempts to find a new role in the world will define him as a character, one that will be more accessible to readers; someone whose skin we can get into.

NRAMA: What other characters can you tell us about?

DH: Sam and Twitch will play a major role in the future of the book. Twitch takes it upon himself to get Spawn back on his feet. His argument is that anyone who has sacrificed himself to save the entire human race deserves better than hanging out in a damp, smelly, bug-ridden warehouse.

Armageddon has made Sam face up to himself and he doesn’t much like what he sees. He’s a man who has lost his appetite for life but can’t stop eating. Then the witch, Nyx will be returning. Her intense relationship with Al Simmons was never fully resolved. In fact the last time she saw Spawn he was intent on killing her. Tough love indeed.

The demons Ab and Zab will also return. They were stuck on the wrong side when the portal to Hell was closed, but they aren’t too bothered. It’s no fun to sin in hell.

NRAMA: You've kept a few of the old characters, yet you say the comic is taking a more realistic turn and that there are there people with whom we can identify?

DH: That's one of my priorities. The characters have been a little operatic in their scale in the past. Our monsters will be more human in the future and there will be more concentration on how characters like detective Twitch Williams and Nyx react to the screwed up situation around them.

The dialogue will be more realistic too. The language of the Armageddon arc has sometimes been deliberately grandiose and theatrical to reflect scale of the events. I’m going to be using dialogue more intimately in future and I think that will make the characters more sympathetic.

NRAMA: And as the book changes, you're also changing artists?

DH: Phil Tan is moving over to the new Godslayer Spawn book and Brian Haberlin is taking over the art. Phil did some brilliant work on Spawn over the last eighteen months and we had planned to work on the new look together. Then Godslayer came along and that really seemed to suit Phil's style. Meanwhile Brian was working on some concepts and Todd saw the art and realized that it was perfect for the new look Spawn so things actually came together very well for everyone. Brian Holguin, who wrote Spawn for many years, is on board to write Godslayer so it’s a good time for Spawn fans. Two monthly books instead of one.

NRAMA: You said mentioned Todd's reference to "the new look of Spawn." How would you describe it?

DH: We are thinking very much in cinematic terms with the pacing and cutting and also from Brian’s point of view, with the framing and format of the panels. I like to see a lot of "widescreen" panels but of course you can also play with smaller panels and rapid cutting that achieves things that you can only do with the mechanics of the comic strip. But our vocabulary is all cinema.

NRAMA: Your "vocabulary?"

DH: In the script I talk to Brian in terms of camera-angles, lighting and acting. You’ll see how that translates in the samples of Brian’s art. I like the way the change in art style reflects this "re-made" world. Everything is in sharper focus. It looks realistic but it’s a skewed version of reality.

NRAMA: You've proven in your other work that you're a fan of rather macabre stories. How has it been working on a comic which fits squarely in that horror genre and seeing some of those dark ideas come to life with the artist's hand?

DH: I’ve been very lucky with the artists I’ve worked with. Phil has drawn some real classic scenes. I have to admit that my favorite scenes have been the more gruesome ones. There was the country and western singer zombie who bursts out of his grave to take revenge on his cheating wife with the line "There’s two things in this world I just can’t stand. Watered down whisky and a two-timing whore." Then there were a couple of scenes where God and Satan in the form of the twin toddlers Kate and Jake commit serious violence against one another. Phil also did a wonderful version of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that had nothing to do with horses or horsemen. They were truly horrific and far surpassed what I had imagined. And Sam’s poignant death by Famine, starving to death as he crammed his face with all the food he could get his hands on. Too may great scenes to list.

Lan’s visuals on Mandarin Spawn are exquisite. He is another artist who always surpasses my expectations and I’m very happy with what Brian is doing with issue 166 too. The horror is on a more psychological level and those first pages are looking seriously disturbing.

NRAMA: So it sounds like now is a good jumping-on point for new readers? With what issue should someone start?

DH: Issue #166 is the perfect place to start but I hope readers will pick up the collection of the Armageddon arc too. Volume 1 is already published and volume 2 will be in stores in February. If you’re into horror you should also take a look at that one-shot story in issue 165, also out in February. Read a couple of pages in your comic book store and I think it will hook you.

NRAMA: Your extensive work at Marvel aside, I know you're a big supporter of independent comics, but a lot of people have stopped thinking of Spawn as independent. It is though, isn't it? In a climate where big events seem to rule the top comics list, why do you think readers should give an independent title like this a shot?

DH: Dare I suggest that there are readers out there who may be fed up with huge cross-over events? There are some beautifully crafted independent comics around and they aren’t getting enough attention. There was a time not so long ago when independent publishers made a healthy showing in the sales charts. Now Marvel and DC are completely dominating the market place.

It’s a wider issue than simply getting people to buy Spawn again. People should be buying more copies of Fell, Elephantmen, Godland, Walking Dead, Love and Rockets, Cross Bronx and a shedload of other great stuff. I’ll allow that standards have risen at Marvel and DC in the last few years but it’s not healthy to see two publishers having such a stranglehold on the market. I’d like to see retailers showing some faith in a few independent titles that are not Big Two or franchises like Star Wars. And I do think the onus is on the retailers to take more chances with the indie books. They may argue that they are simply supplying the demand but I find it hard to believe that the potential market is so narrow. If good indies are displayed and marketed properly they can and will sell. Okay, rant over.

NRAMA: Wait now. If you're going to get retailers to buy copies of titles like Spawn, you've got to give them something to go on. What can you tease about the next few issues that might pique retailers' -- and readers' -- interest enough to pick up Spawn again?

DH: We’re kicking off with a three-issue story called The Voice Hearers. We start to see the cracks appear in Spawn’s new world when the tenants in an apartment building start to go off the rails. One by one they take their obsessions to the limits and the result is murder, suicide and self-mutilation. I wanted to explore the idea that society only works because we all regulate our behavior and if the restraints are gone things will very quickly descend into bloody chaos.

Then there will be the two-part story of the Hell House. This is a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly popular in America and is spreading to Europe. Basically it’s the fundamentalist Christian version of the Funhouse, known as the Hell House or Judgement House. You send kids through a series of dramatized events where young people are corrupted by drugs, homosexuality and abortion and end up in hell. Ab and Zab make sure this Hell House is unusually authentic.

NRAMA: That's short term. Anything you can tell us about long-term plans?

DH: There will be a series of these shorter story arcs leading up to another epic story line a few years down the road. Eventually we will discover a lot more about the character Mammon who has been subtly manipulating events in the background and what made Al Simmons the perfect candidate to become Spawn. There is also a major twist coming that will break the Spawn message board in two but the fans will have to wait a couple of years for that.

NRAMA: So, let's say you've got someone's attention, but they were just too "burned" by Spawn in the past. What final thing would you tell them to get them to give it one more chance?

DH: Buy Spawn or the pussycat gets it!

[BlueThunderArmy]

Intriguing. I dropped Spawn in the early days because of the art (the part most people liked!), though I still found much interest in some of the concepts. I'd agree the superhero aspects were never the strongest, maybe I'll give the new version a read.

[The Foreigne]

I've never been interested in Spawn, and I'm not into horror comics, so this isn't really my thing, but I'm still impressed that they've finally decided to actually DO something with the character.

Direction is what Spawn has been lacking for years.

[mrfstr]

I read Spawn for a while... dropped it around the mid-40's, I think.

My big issue with it was how heavily it got into Mob stories. I'm just not a fan of mob stories, don't appeal to me much. When Batman or other books have intense Mob stories, I generally drop the book.

I would check in on Spawn, but it seemed like they were sticking with Mob stuff, so after a while I just stopped checking.

This new direction sounds pretty exciting. Sure hope they rush a TPB to get those of us that didn't read the story about the Armegeddon

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

by Vaneta Rogers

Open up the next issue of Spawn and it's going to look a little different. No Satan preparing his army for Armageddon. No angels fighting demons. Not even a Hell.

Or, as a commercial might say, this is not your father's Spawn.

I couldn't agree more.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

God and Satan are both bad guys. Interestingly, most of our Christian readers took it all in good heart. I don’t think we had one serious complaint of blasphemy. Very disappointing.

Heheheh

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by mrfstr

This new direction sounds pretty exciting. Sure hope they rush a TPB to get those of us that didn't read the story about the Armegeddon

Originally Posted by MattBrady

DH: Issue #166 is the perfect place to start but I hope readers will pick up the collection of the Armageddon arc too. Volume 1 is already published and volume 2 will be in stores in February. If you’re into horror you should also take a look at that one-shot story in issue 165, also out in February. Read a couple of pages in your comic book store and I think it will hook you.

[Tusko]

Too ugly and morbid for me. No thank you.

[djcoffman]

They got it all wrong... people lost interest in Spawn because Todd McFarlane stopped drawing it pretty early on.

[Eison]

Good interview Vaneta.

[mrfstr]

Originally Posted by Kolimar

D'OH!!! Guess I missed that... THANKS!, Kolimar!

[Kolimar]

Now that I've done my 5 minutes of numb staring at the art, I have to say it's wonderful. It exudes darkness and wickedness.

[Scorned1]

Wow, great read. Who knew Brian Haberlin can draw. If this is a reboot then it is about time. I haven't read a single issue of Spawn since issue #100. Maybe I should read the last fifteen issues before the reboot. Why can't Todd or Greg draws again if this is a new turning point for the book? That is pretty much why people were buying it in the first place. Todd said during a convention when Robert Kirkman asked him why he doesn't draw or create anymore because he already has his Mickey Mouse in Spawn. But Spawn is failing to sale. Maybe it is time for Todd to be creative again but not in the same character. Come one Todd. Get back to do what we all know you're great at. Creating toys is not one of them.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by mrfstr

D'OH!!! Guess I missed that... THANKS!, Kolimar!

You're welcome.

[Sesshomaru]

Originally Posted by djcoffman

They got it all wrong... people lost interest in Spawn because Todd McFarlane stopped drawing it pretty early on.

Er not , they nailed it actually . We got over the loss quite early with the not so dissimilar and arguably better art of greg capullo .
It kept selling well with greg for a while .

We dropped the book because various times , we where robbed of any developpement right when an important saga ended . Each time something big happened , in the end hop Al was zapped into oblivion , traveled a bit , and came back in his garbage street doing the same old stuff .

Angela and Spawn get nasty ? we never see her again but of legal rights wars ....
Spawns finally kills Malebogia ? he is immediately robbed of his throne by cogliostro , a once support character they never really bothered to explain , and hop Al is travelling in the country weaker than ever and meeting nutjobs , while cogliostro is forever gone as well without a rematch , yet again because of legal issues .
Jason wynn keeps coming and going away... we keep getting involved in wanda/terry storylines ....
plenty possibilities are opened yet never used , (like the mini spawn bloodfeud) . Even Spawn from past eras , a nice concept arent so much used to give some fresh and welcomed air ...

nah really until Hines's coming and the previous storyline with mammon , spawn wasnt going anywwhere .
Stagnation works for marvel and dc superheroes , but not for a guy whose one of the premises was him being the last general of hell before the apocalypse .

[stvnhthr]

You really want to see sales on Spawn change? Do the Spider-Man/Spawn crossover the fans have been beggingf for. No one would see it as selling out. It would be the best thing for all of McFarlane's companies. It would get massive press and be a runaway success, and apply salve to McFarlane's wounded public image, but sadly the smartest and best move for Todd won't happen because of pass percieved wrongs and ego. Imagine being in control, having the ability to do something which would benefit everyone around you, please your fans, and help the market, but choosing not to.

I don't think this relaunch will work, it is just repackaging the same concept of a character who is no longer relevant to the comic buying eye. Let Spawn do a crossover with the whole Universe of characters, either Marvel or DC, (create prebuzz by publicaly auctioning off the rights between the two giants.) Heck, loan the character to a company for a month and create a major event through all the books. Get Todd to do all the covers and Draw one issue and you might as well be printing cash. Todd would get the last laugh and Spawn again would be on top of the sales charts.

[ender2814]

Awesome interview and sadly, for a few moments, I considered buying Spawn. Who knows? I may still have to.

I had a conversation with a Spawn fan once and I noted that the article on wikipedia does a great job of making the story sound great, but the execution is what makes it fail sometimes.

I sincerely hope this new direction does something for the title though. I hope Spawn can become a flagship title at Image again because God knows they need one other than Invincible.

[Sesshomaru]

You really want to see sales on Spawn change? Do the Spider-Man/Spawn crossover the fans have been beggingf for.

I agree that it should be done , at the very least to relaunch interest . But something had to be done about the serie too ...
For a while he was neutered to a batmanish ghost rider/punisher ...
Attention all characters that i like , and from wich he drew a bit of inspiration .. however i know that i was expecting mostly the story of Spawn vs hell vs angels ... not so much close to 100 issues of Spawn vs "nutjob joe" in his street

[GenerallZodd]

I read this having no intention of picking up Spawn. Now I'm down to read this.

[stvnhthr]

Originally Posted by Sesshomaru

I agree that it should be done , at the very least to relaunch interest . But something had to be done about the serie too ...
For a while he was neutered to a batmanish ghost rider/punisher ...
Attention all characters that i like , and from wich he drew a bit of inspiration .. however i know that i was expecting mostly the story of Spawn vs hell vs angels ... not so much close to 100 issues of Spawn vs "nutjob joe" in his street

Imagine if McFarlane announced this during the height of Spiderman 3 movie exposure. Todd could make that massive Marvel publicity machine work for him-for free. Marvel would have to give Todd huge exposure and heap praise on him because now it would be effecting Marvel's bottom line.

Still I hope their revamp works, I love Todd's independent spirit, but the possibility of a Spawn/Spider-Man crossover is the 800lb Cy-Gor in the room no one is talking about.

[Ye Olde Iowa]

I haven't read an issue of Spawn since the title was in the mid 20's or so, but I think I could see myself definitely checking out this new direction. If nothing else, kudos to the creative team and McFarlane for having the guts to take such a bold move as this. Granted, its not like they are reimagining the book while it was in its prime, but to do this is still pretty impressive.

[I-Ching]

Great interview.

Unfortunately I still don't think they get what the book is missing.

The art is what drew me in and the basic story of Al Simmons...after that...well...it got overblown. The art style became to be more of a caricature of McFarlane's style and the story didn't do a whole lot for me.

The "new" look would be new if I'd never seen Venom. Even though I always felt he had a Venom/Spider-Man look (which is understandable) but it was still unique. Now with a suggested "horror" theme this change was expected.

I don't know if this is being done as just a sales boost or to clean the book up but I think the horror change will do nothing to pick sales up. Spawn will return to his original look once they understand that the book's current sales level will continue as they are.

[shadowchaser]

i gave up on spawn around the 30's...it was going no where

[Tater Salad]

I stoped buying Spawn at issue 100. It seemed like a good jumping off point.

[feyr]

I gave up on Spawn and anything Todd McFarlane after he threatened to sue a role playing game company over their game named Nightspawn.