Spawn

[Toxin45]

I just had the thought… if Todd was willing to relaunch Casefiles again; why not relaunch Hellspawn as the appropriate sister-book for Spawn? King Spawn, if Al doesn’t reclaim the throne of hell… the title kinda becomes redundant now. Dunno, just a thought I just had. Like you, very interested to see the landscape post 350, and all of Al’s relationships with past and present allies and enemies going forward.

king Spawn is just a title and nickname just detective comics and action comics.

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Without saying too much, today’s issue of Scorched retconned Medevil Spawns fight with the Violator, but honestly, it’s not that big of a deal. Violator was telling the story to those three kids back in issues 14-15 in “his” version, and the Violator is a well known liar, so this retcon of events of how the battle actually played out is a fine turn in my opinion.

That being said, I would think that Medevils supposed death in Spawn issue 9 could be treated as from Angela’s skewed prospective and not what actually happened. With Angels off the table, nice to be able to be used again, it’ll be interesting to see if Medevils origin/“death” is retconned as well in time.

[Toxin45]

Angela is not canon anymore so of course they had to change things.

I feel death won’t matter anyways beside the medival spawn mini series should cover his he got in the present day and his new origin story

[HellsRider]

Like bro king spawn is more like detective comics and action comics spin-offs for the main series.

For sure that is absolutely not the case for a while now. King Spawn certainly started that way for the first 18 issues, but right now its just been a filler book and has been so for about a year since issue 19 with the filler arc on brains derailing the story the book was telling up to that point and then trying to find its angle in the Throne of Hell event and not providing anything to the overall story and doesn't help that the main book had Wanda and Al reunite before it happened in King Spawn. You could have effectively jumped from King Spawn 18 and headed into the main book and not missed anything in King Spawn. Hopefully, after the Throne of Hell event is over everything is recalibrated and King Spawn can find its footing again because it started off so damn good. Upcoming solicitations post-350 and time jump don't sound too exciting, though, but we'll see.

Speaking of solicitations, the April 2024 solicitations are out and Rat City - the Spawn of the Future series - will be out on April 10th with the team of Erica Schultz on story and Ze Carlos on art. Looks like it'll be an ongoing, raising the total books to six ongoings, and the solicitation reads as follows:

The EXTRA-LENGTH first issue of RAT CITY has finally arrived and features the talents of EICA SCHULTZ (THE DEADLIST BOUQUET, Moon Knight: Black, White and Blood) and ZE CARLOS (Captain America, Strange Academy: Moon Knight).

Peter Cairn is an ex-soldier, an amputee, and a Hellspawn in a post-war future. But Peter's not dead like Al. Peter got his Spawn powers from the nanites in his prosthetic legs - nanites that were affected when Al Simmons initiated his necroplasmic detonation in the present. Al had no clue that the effects would ripple across not just space, and but time as well.

Sounds interesting and another result of Spawn's actions in 300/301 but its clear at this point that Al knows he messed up time given he's been working with and facing characters from different time periods for a while now and its the space aspect he's still fairly new in discovering that impact.

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I wonder how far is the gap between the time periods from the upcoming Rat City comic and Daniel Llanso‘ Curse of the Spawn period.

Honestly, if there was an alternate Spawn title to collect, I’d rather buy an ongoing of Daniel Llanso. I wonder if he’s even considered canon anymore; granted he was a far future Spawn. Maybe his story, in the grand scheme of things is a result of what Al does in the present?

For sure that is absolutely not the case for a while now. King Spawn certainly started that way for the first 18 issues, but right now its just been a filler book and has been so for about a year since issue 19 with the filler arc on brains derailing the story the book was telling up to that point and then trying to find its angle in the Throne of Hell event and not providing anything to the overall story and doesn't help that the main book had Wanda and Al reunite before it happened in King Spawn. You could have effectively jumped from King Spawn 18 and headed into the main book and not missed anything in King Spawn. Hopefully, after the Throne of Hell event is over everything is recalibrated and King Spawn can find its footing again because it started off so damn good. Upcoming solicitations post-350 and time jump don't sound too exciting, though, but we'll see

That whole Brains arc that derailed King Spawn, I look at it as a “soft” launch for Todd’s CaseFiles and Misery books. Had to find a way to include Cyan, Sam and Twitch in somewhere.

[HellsRider]

That is a good point and honestly considering by the end of King Spawn 18, Al was prepared to go to Hell that would have effectively kicked off the Throne event and in the main book it was wrapping up the return of Nyx storyline, it seems that what they decided to do was have the Throne of Hell event be mostly in the main book which put King Spawn in an awkward holding pattern until it can be part of the event hence the Brains story that brought Sam & Twitch and Cyan back into the fold. I get it but just feels like there was a better way to do it all and hopefully it is something they can tighten up post-350 if they want to continue a semblance of an inter-connected universe or just let each book be its own thing which I think that would be for the best. I've been re-reading the Throne of Hell event little by little and I just realized that Clown should have been in Hell a long time ago as he went into the same fissure as Sinn did in Gunslinger 23 that the main book referenced before Al and the team went into Hell. So did Clown go to Hell, bounce when he saw Heaven come in understanding what the means if they invaded, contacted Cataclysm that he would invade Heaven to throw them off, goes to Heaven with Forsaken to do just that, and now goes back to Hell according to the main book? I think that checks out and likely means we'll see the end of the Heaven side of the story in 349 at least as it concerns Rapture I believe.

As for Daniel Llanso and the post-apocalyptic Spawn, I may be misremembering but when 300-301 came out with the covers of the multiple Spawns, I think Todd mentioned that all of them were canon given the time rip which makes sense since we've seen most of those Spawns - Omega, Nightmare, Gunslinger, Ninja, Llanso's Spawn plus two others we haven't seen on the 300 cover and Mandarin, Raven, War, a different medieval Spawn, a pirate Spawn, and a couple of others we haven't seen on the 301 cover. So I think he's around and we just haven't seen him yet.

[Toxin45]

Well they confirmed that suture is still canon at least from thomoas also teasing about malebolgia and Tiffany showing up. So we may see Daniel show up rat city seems to be the equivalent of spider-man 2099 and Batman beyond

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I’m gonna go dig out those trades that cover from 298-310 again. I don’t feel like digging out my single issues lol. Once I read them and seal them shut in plastic and storage that’s it, especially now that we are getting regular trade paperback releases again now, lol. Hard to remember what was covered in those issues, it’s been so long now it feels like.

349 came out yesterday. It read ok, but it felt like another placeholder issue just to get us to issue 350.

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SCORCHED-HAUNT.jpg

Also, wanted to share this; another artwork of mine that I did for Todd’s Spawnuary challenge.

[captainzombie]

This is a cool retailer incentive for 350. It is up to $400 already on eBay.

IMG_0826.jpg

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King Spawn came out this week. This issue, much like Spawn issue 349, felt like a lot of filler to get to 350’s conclusion, but not unnecessary filler. Al and Wanda had a talk that was, in my mind, long time coming, where she more or less tells Al that he “must move on” regarding her. She also says (I don’t have my issue on hand so I may be misquoting this) may God protect him, which he retorts that God abandoned him long ago.

I can’t wait until 350 gets here; as I truly do believe that Todd will have Wanda become the new ruler of hell. I see Wanda doing this as a way to stop Al’s continued sacrifices, feeling that the outcome we saw earlier in King Spawn to be avoided, by Al taking the throne, for her to take it. Maybe it’s some grand plan between her and God that they set in motion to set the next path of stories forward for a while, maybe since the end of the Satan war Saga.

Im really excited for the book to move past 350. I feel it’ll get its deserved due shot in the arm for all three main books to start progressing forward.

[Toxin45]

King Spawn came out this week. This issue, much like Spawn issue 349, felt like a lot of filler to get to 350’s conclusion, but not unnecessary filler. Al and Wanda had a talk that was, in my mind, long time coming, where she more or less tells Al that he “must move on” regarding her. She also says (I don’t have my issue on hand so I may be misquoting this) may God protect him, which he retorts that God abandoned him long ago.

I can’t wait until 350 gets here; as I truly do believe that Todd will have Wanda become the new ruler of hell. I see Wanda doing this as a way to stop Al’s continued sacrifices, feeling that the outcome we saw earlier in King Spawn to be avoided, by Al taking the throne, for her to take it. Maybe it’s some grand plan between her and God that they set in motion to set the next path of stories forward for a while, maybe since the end of the Satan war Saga.

Im really excited for the book to move past 350. I feel it’ll get its deserved due shot in the arm for all three main books to start progressing forward.

Saw a preview of king spawn 31 with Al’s new look so yeah they already spoiled that al don’t take the throne. Also Bludd is gonna be a villain again to al this time.

[HellsRider]

Catching up on the Universe books for January, I like that we are getting a smaller story in Scorched right now before the time jump after two massive arcs. I think it'd do the book better to have smaller arcs & smaller teams so that characters get a chance to be more fleshed out. To that point, the Scorched has done a good job of fleshing out this version of Medieval's past from the first arc's connection the character has to Plague Spawn to this current Viscerator arc that touches on Medieval's previous history from the main book back in the hay day with his fight against Violator that works for me. Not sure what that woman with a shotgun was thinking after seeing a battle like that go down and thinks she has some power in the situation lol. That said, obviously they can't use Angela anymore and given Medieval was ripped from his own time, its a perfect reason to change things up once he goes back to his past which will likely be where his book will take place whenever that comes out. I don't care too much about Viscerator herself, but I understand this is a character being introduced that will be a key player in the Medieval book so its fine and nice to not have some massive world ending threat again. Curious how this arc will end.

Main book has continued exactly where I expected it would in removing the final players it needed to before the big showdown next issue so not a super interesting issue but a necessary one in moving the players to their final point. The mystery of what Wanda told Al could be interesting to see play out next issue while King Spawn hasn't added too much to the story other than Wanda being a god level character now while repeating certain points of Al letting go of Wanda that were touched on in Satan Saga Wars years ago. Wanda's interest in the throne in both books is curious. I wonder if we'll see any resolution to the King's Pawn moniker Raven Spawn talked about or the idea of Al reviving Wanda which were big points in the King Spawn book and not really something that has been touched on in this event, but it looks like based on the preview of the next issue of King Spawn set after the time jump, it looks like we are headed to a new direction on that book so I'm curious what the mission statement of that book will be going forward post-350. I agree that Wanda is likely to take over Hell, so I'm curious to see what that would mean if it happens and what that would mean for Clown and Sinn.

As for the changes to come in terms of art with Booth coming back to the main book while Barbieri will be going to Gunslinger, I'm not crazy about Booth's art as he'll have to be paired with the right colorist for the book to pop for me as it did in the later issues of Gunslinger when they changed colorists. Soy on Gunslinger has actually been perfectly fine currently so it'll suck to lose him but Barbieri is a good hand. That said, I sincerely hope we are in the twilight of Gunslinger so we can get that sequel series with Palmiotti sooner rather than later.

[Toxin45]

Catching up on the Universe books for January, I like that we are getting a smaller story in Scorched right now before the time jump after two massive arcs. I think it'd do the book better to have smaller arcs & smaller teams so that characters get a chance to be more fleshed out. To that point, the Scorched has done a good job of fleshing out this version of Medieval's past from the first arc's connection the character has to Plague Spawn to this current Viscerator arc that touches on Medieval's previous history from the main book back in the hay day with his fight against Violator that works for me. Not sure what that woman with a shotgun was thinking after seeing a battle like that go down and thinks she has some power in the situation lol. That said, obviously they can't use Angela anymore and given Medieval was ripped from his own time, its a perfect reason to change things up once he goes back to his past which will likely be where his book will take place whenever that comes out. I don't care too much about Viscerator herself, but I understand this is a character being introduced that will be a key player in the Medieval book so its fine and nice to not have some massive world ending threat again. Curious how this arc will end.

Main book has continued exactly where I expected it would in removing the final players it needed to before the big showdown next issue so not a super interesting issue but a necessary one in moving the players to their final point. The mystery of what Wanda told Al could be interesting to see play out next issue while King Spawn hasn't added too much to the story other than Wanda being a god level character now while repeating certain points of Al letting go of Wanda that were touched on in Satan Saga Wars years ago. Wanda's interest in the throne in both books is curious. I wonder if we'll see any resolution to the King's Pawn moniker Raven Spawn talked about or the idea of Al reviving Wanda which were big points in the King Spawn book and not really something that has been touched on in this event, but it looks like based on the preview of the next issue of King Spawn set after the time jump, it looks like we are headed to a new direction on that book so I'm curious what the mission statement of that book will be going forward post-350. I agree that Wanda is likely to take over Hell, so I'm curious to see what that would mean if it happens and what that would mean for Clown and Sinn.

As for the changes to come in terms of art with Booth coming back to the main book while Barbieri will be going to Gunslinger, I'm not crazy about Booth's art as he'll have to be paired with the right colorist for the book to pop for me as it did in the later issues of Gunslinger when they changed colorists. Soy on Gunslinger has actually been perfectly fine currently so it'll suck to lose him but Barbieri is a good hand. That said, I sincerely hope we are in the twilight of Gunslinger so we can get that sequel series with Palmiotti sooner rather than later.

actually they are just origin stories according thomas healy

Medevial isn’t going back to the past the medevial mini series is just an origin story

And the deadly tales of the Gunslinnger is not a sequel but a prequel series

Feels like sinn dies and clown but the latter will come back after refusing with violator cuz he is too popular I guess.

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If Cog/Sinn dies, it won’t be permanent. As many times in the past where “dead meant dead” in the Spawn world, how many times have we seen Kincaid? Malebolgia even came back once. The only permanent death we’ve seen so far is Satan and Angela (for obvious reasons). I think we’d see Cog/Sinn get taken off the board for a while again, but in the world of Spawn, death is almost treated like Dragon Ball, a revolving door.