Spawn...what happened

[SpiderLover]

So I remember around the 90s all I ever heard about was how cool Spawn is, and how the creator was really changing the way we look at comics. My question is why was Spawn so popular? What happened to where I rarely hear his name uttered anymore?

[Beta Ray Bill Cosby]

Spawn was totally awesome to the max, but a lot of the time had very little else going for it. Like a lot of the stuff Image (and subsidiaries) put out in the 90s it had way more style than substance. That said, it had several cool concepts, but ultimately I was turned off of it, once again, by how poorly defined Spawn's powers were.

[SpiderLover]

I understand that, thank you for clearing up that mystery.

[greyman24]

Very succinct.

I am not succinct, so here is the longer answer.

Todd McFarlane rocketed to super-stardom doing Spider-Man. He had done a couple books before then, but Spider-Man was what everyone identified him with. Eventually he got big enough to get his own Spider-Man imprint. When word came out that a new Spidey title was coming out JUST FOR MCFARLANE, the speculators FREAKED. Marvel did multiple variant covers and printed a gazillion copies (thereby making them practically worthless).

Still, they did very well: selling (according to the figures I could find) over 2 million copies of Spider-Man #1. I know I have a copy. A copy that isn't even worth cover price at this point.

McFarlane had a very vocal falling out with a new editor and got together with a bunch of other superstar artists/writers to form Image. They got quite a lot of press in the comic book rags at the time (this was pre-Internet, so it was just Wizard, a few other mags and word of mouth), sounding the rallying cry of creator's rights and independent comics.

Spawn was part of the first wave of the Image, creator-owned books. Also in there were Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon, Rob Liefeld's Youngblood and Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.S. (among others), but McFarlane was the most vocal and stirred up the most interest with Spawn.

When it came out, it matched the brouhaha behind the Spider-Man fiasco. It sold over 1.5 million copies, which, considering it wasn't put out by DC or Marvel, was pretty amazing at the time. And McFarlane was a tireless self-promoter: using his own stardom to launch his toy line and shop Spawn out into both a cartoon series and a HORRIBLE movie.

All that Rodrigo said was absolutely true, though. The book itself had some very interesting ideas, but the plotting was pretty bad, and it suffered from a premise with a finite ending...which proved to not be the ending of the book. Also, some of the most widely acclaimed issues weren't even written by McFarlane, but by guest writers (Neil Gaiman, Dave Sim and others).

[Slappy]

Spawn also typified the 90's comic.
Megapowerful "Hero" who not only fought the most powerful of evils, but dealt with the sickest of society such as a child molester/ killer Billy Kincaid.
Meanwhile the government was evil and the "hero" had his own issues.  In the case of Spawn, He was dead, his best friend married his widow and had a kid with her.  When Spawn did appear in human form, he could only do so as a white man.
Was it great no.  Not in retrospect but at the time it was a different ride.

[Navarre]

Spawn appeared as a Caucasian? Why?

[hectorbustnuts]

Spawn appeared as a Caucasian? Why?

Wasn't that Malebolgia dicking with Al Simmons the first time he wanted to go see his Wife, by making him appear as a white, bleach-blonde guy instead of his former black, bad-ass self?

Anyhoo, I really rather liked Spawn, especially when McFarlane handed pencils over to Greg Capullo.  Man there was some stylish art in those pages.

And Bendis' "Sam and Twitch" spin-off was brilliant, too.

[Slappy]

Spawn appeared as a Caucasian? Why?

Wasn't that Malebolgia dicking with Al Simmons the first time he wanted to go see his Wife, by making him appear as a white, bleach-blonde guy instead of his former black, bad-ass self?

Anyhoo, I really rather liked Spawn, especially when McFarlane handed pencils over to Greg Capullo.  Man there was some stylish art in those pages.

And Bendis' "Sam and Twitch" spin-off was brilliant, too.

Exactly.  The demon was done right.  "Sure you can see your wife again, but only as a white dude or a worm infested dead man" 

[Thorninside]

I went to my hastings yesterday and discovered a hardbound Spawn collection titled "Origins Collections-Book 1". When i was a kid, 10-11, i got a copy of spawn and loved the art. This hardcover collects issues 1-12. Todd Macfarlane and the rest of the image guys were doing something amazing as they started their own company. I enjoy this stuff, and cant wait for the next volume.

[The Mighty King Cobra]

So I remember around the 90s all I ever heard about was how cool Spawn is, and how the creator was really changing the way we look at comics. My question is why was Spawn so popular? What happened to where I rarely hear his name uttered anymore?

I know that, for my money, I never had the slightest inkling what in the hell Spawn was about, other than a guy who apparently hated work-for-hire jobs giving over his creation to dozens of work-for-hire creators...

[greyman24]

I know that, for my money, I never had the slightest inkling what in the hell Spawn was about, other than a guy who apparently hated work-for-hire jobs giving over his creation to dozens of work-for-hire creators...

Hah!

[Jawiin]

I actually went back and re-read some old Spawn issues, and found myself getting literally bored to death. (No pun intended.)

The issues had fantastic art, but the plot moved at a turtle's pace. Plus there were several issues that were devoted to entire conversations, and that's it.  You would see pages of dialog balloons obscuring the art.

Spawn was a good idea. That was executed poorly.

[andrew wiggins]

i love spawn another work todd does is with robert kirkland and it called haunt and it has aot in common with spawn

[Navarre]

I heard "Haunt" wasn't very good though. That it was too much like Spawn?

[Alisha Mynx]

I actually went back and re-read some old Spawn issues, and found myself getting literally bored to death. (No pun intended.)
Spawn was a good idea. That was executed poorly.

Agreed, agreed, agreed!!

I liked Spawn back in the day, but it eventually got to the point of feeling "What the hell am I reading?!?!".  There were nuggets of story gold in the book from time to time, but it got to the point I just wasn't willing to take the gamble anymore.