“Todd McFarlane’s Spawn” Created by Todd McFarlane; Developed for television by Alan B. McElroy; Starring Keith David, Richard Dysart, Dominique Jennings, James Keane, Michael McShane, John Rafter Lee, Victor Love, and Michael Nicolosi; Rated TV-MA; Originally aired May 16, 1997; Run time 30 minutes.
CONTENT WARNING: Contains scenes of graphic violence, adult language, and nudity.
From 1997, HBO developed Todd McFarlane’s beloved comic book series “Spawn” into an animated series featuring eighteen 30 minute episodes, these episodes were later grouped by threes into a series of animated feature length films.
The story follows Al Simmons, an ex-war-veteran and government assassin, turned hellspawn. Simmons is resurrected after five years being dead into a decaying body surrounded by a living cape and armed with deadly chains.
Simmons makes a deal with the leader of the eighths plane of Hell in order to return to Earth so he can see his wife. Simmons discovers that in the five years since his death, his wife has remarried his best friend and has a daughter. Stricken by grief and confused by the events that have led to his current predicament, Simmons struggles with retaining his humanity and fulfilling his deal to deliver acts of evil upon the earthly plane.
The series was voted the fifth best animated comic book adaptation by IGN and with good reason. It stands far above the live action film based on the same material. The animation is gritty and immersive and the series offers a drawn out but cohesive version of events that is compelling enough to binge watch. The series having been on HBO with a rating of TV-MA also means it was able to remains faithful to the tone of the source material without making sacrifices in order to achieve a particular rating.
“Todd McFarlane’s Spawn” presents a world as dirty and unfair as the real one. While the character of Spawn is only a “hero” by the thinnest definition, he is compelling for the same reasons that Batman is compelling. There is a primal satisfaction in the idea of an entity that can be seemingly omnipresent and is able to invoke true justice in places where an unjust world may fail.
The darkened alleys where Spawn makes his home are places that the world has largely forgotten. Inhabited by people the world has largely forgotten, people who are often victims of a seedy criminal element. Spawn intervenes on behalf of those good, but invisible, members of society and brings criminals, who are insulated by a high ranking corruption, to a bloody but satisfying end.
The character’s functional invincibility means he has no concerns about physical repercussion and can levy his own brand of hellish justice with extreme prejudice. He is the embodiment of thoughts we’ve all had about what we might do to right the wrongs of our world, if only we had the capability and the guts. This, along with beautiful animation and compelling characters, makes the series incredibly satisfying.
Recommended for any fans of the source material, fans of comic books in general, or fans of good animation and writing. “Todd McFarlane’s Spawn” stands as a gold standard by which all animated adaptations should be measured.