"do You Know Who Spawn Is?"

If you re a comic book fan you ve probably heard of the Spawn and may have seen the Spawn movie from the early 90 s, but do you know who, or what he is?

Created in 1992 by writer/artist Todd McFarlane he has become one of the most popular and enduring anti-heroes in comic book history.

Al Simmons was once a highly decorated member of the American Secret Services and CIA, he had even saved the Presidents life at, and had a beautiful wife called Wanda.

But this all came to a sudden end when he was brutally murdered by his boss, Jason Wynn, for witnessing his illegal activities.

Unfortunately for our hero, instead of dying in peace he was sent straight to Hell because of his often violent and brutal work as well as the dubious nature of his of his assignments which are rumored to have included more than one assignation.

So, burning with a desire for revenge and wishing to see his wife one last time he struck a deal with the evil demon Malebolgia, a servant of Hell and the powers of Darkness, to serve him as long as he could see his wife Wanda again.

...And so he was returned to the realms of the living as a Hellspawn, badly scarred and burnt and with little memory his past.

Five years have passed since his death and his wife Wanda has remarried to his best friend Terry Fitzgerald and they have had a baby called Cyan, however Al Simmons is unaware of this until he finally finds his wife.

Al is left with two choices which are represented by a disgusting minor demon of Malebolgia s called The Clown (with the power to change into the huge, fanged, clawed Violator) and a harmless old man known as Cogliostro, to either accept his place next to Malebolgia and embrace the Devil and his cause or to renounce them.

And so, with what humanity he still has he decides to denounce the devil, in order to fight the evil on Earth using his powers as a Hellspawn for the world s good in order to try and redeem himself for his past evils.

The Spawns first battles are a frenzy of revenge and hate against the evil that has created him with little thought for what he was doing. As a result he brutally takes out and kills various street gangs as well as a pedophilic serial killer and takes over the alleys and streets of "Rat City".

But the local street mobster boss "Tony Twist" Twistelli, suspects Terry Fitzgerald, the Spawns old friend, of being behind the brutal and bloody killings of his "soldiers".

Tony therefore sends a rebuilt and reprogrammed Overtkill, a mob enforcer who is half human and half cyborg, out to hunt down and kill Terry. This in turn forces the Spawn to protect his friend, by taking a bullet to the face, and eventually revealing his true identity to him.

In these early days he also faces Angela, a beautiful angel sent to hunt down and kill all Hellspawn, and the The Redeemer, a Heavenly sent Anti-Spawn, who unknown to Spawn, is his former boss and murderer Jason Wynn.

Despite his vast powers he is nearly destroyed during some of these early battles because his frenzied, unplanned attacks and because he has yet to learn the full powers he posses and how to use them.

During a crossover story arc with the Youngblood comic Spawn s friend Bobby is brutally murdered and the Spawn uses his powers to bring him back to life

But later, his friend Bobby is kidnapped to be studied by Heaven and so Spawn is forced into a confrontation with heaven to try and gain his friends freedom. Forced into entering heaven his suit turns mad and begins freaking out almost killing him and their natural aversion to each other, i.e. Heaven and Hell in the same place at the same time.

He also comes up against a new Redeemer, vastly more powerful than previously and thus the ensuing fight leaves Spawn seriously weakened and barely alive, his suit in tatters and becoming erratic and unpredictable...

... And so Spawn metamorphosis for the first time.

His suit, which had become torn and ragged, is transformed into pure black and white. With this transformation it also becomes much more powerful and gains the power to shape shift. His gloves and boots also morph becoming heavily armored with spikes and chains.

Despite these extra powers and his continued fighting and battles against evil his task seems endless.

At one point The Curse manages to capture him and after surgically removing his suit to learn its secrets. When he finally reunites with his suit he finds it has gained a mind of its own and tries to take control of Spawn.

The Spawn has to fight to regain control in a constant struggle between their minds and this struggle weakens him until constant battle and use of his powers result in his suit, and him with it, being summoned back to Hell.

Trapped back in the depths of Hell Spawn fights its many demons in the various circles and territories of Hell and eventually ends up back at the foot of Maleboglia's throne, who laughing and gloating at Spawn banishes him back to Earth.

And so Spawn s struggle to regain his humanity and free himself from his ties to Hell continues.

The attacks against Spawn from both Heaven and Hell become increasingly frequent and violent forcing him to be drawn even deeper into the spiraling world of carnage, violence and evil that he is trying to escape from



Part II to follow next month

By: Colin Dorman

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