Spawn

Mercenary Al Simmons (Keith David) returns to earth five years after his death having made a deal with one of the lords of Hell, Malebolgia (who never appears on screen). Under the conditions of his deal his mind is broken into fragments with missing memories and his form is rotten and burned beneath his garb as Malebolgia's Spawn. Now Al wanders skid row tormented by the knowledge his wife is now married to his best friend, and now finds himself at the center of power struggles of Heaven, Hell, the criminal, underworld, and his former superiors.

During the late 90s HBO experimented with original animated programming with three original series under their short lived HBO animation label. The experiment's results were mixed. Austin Powers: The Animated Series was cancelled before production could be completed on a single episode due to Mike Myers' prima donna behavior that disillusioned HBO with the project, and while Ralph Bakshi's Spicy City gain enough viewership to greenlight a second season, HBO's desire to replace Bakshi's writing staff lead to creative clashes that ultimately lead to the series' cancellation. Spawn was the most successful of the three, lasting a respectable three seasons and tapping into the cultural zeitgeist that made Spawn so prolific in the 90s. The series was certainly groundbreaking for the time and its influence can be felt in projects that followed despite the series being rather rough around the edges.

The first season of Spawn is the strongest as it follows Al's adjustment to a world that has passed him by and he no longer belongs to. As he lives in the abandoned areas of squalor with the cities homeless becoming their reluctant protector, we see him tempted by hell's emissary Clown/Violator who's basically an amalgam of everything wretched with humanity. He delights in tormenting Al with flashes of his death inter cut with scenes of his wife having sex with his best friend and and while Clown is certainly a source of macabre humor throughout the show, there's also a threatening element to him that makes him an effective antagonist especially throughout the first season.

The first season also ties into a season long arc involving child murderer Billy Kincaid who is being manipulated by Clown to drive Al to a point where he'll be forced to use his demonic powers and descend into a dark path. The scenes with Billy are effectively disturbing, and the show doesn't hold back from diving into the ugliness. But despite the show's willingness to plunge into the darkest depths of humanity, there are lights trying to fight back against the darkness. Sam and Twitch are easily my favorite of the supporting cast as they're two of the only honest cops in the city willing to take on the city's criminal element as well as the hellish minions who exert their control. Sam's brashness and muscle are well balanced out by Twitch's intellect and calm collectiveness making them an endearing set of side characters who keep the series from becoming overbearingly dark.

The show unfortunately becomes less focused in later seasons as it struggles to balance new elements with the ones established in the first season. New plot threads involving emissaries of Heaven, Al's former boss Jason Wynn working deals with Hell, and police corruption in Sam and Twitch's department are all vying for attention and Al doesn't evolve much beyond the first season until the end of the third season in what's establishment for a fourth season that never happened. The second and third season are still compelling and have individual moments of greatness to them, but unlike the first season there's no central plot thread tying them together like the Billy Kincaid plot that kept the show moving.

Spawn is a flawed series, but it does have a lot going for it. From its beautiful and stylishly dark animation that brings life to the dilapidated streets and hellish artwork, to the unapologetically intense material that isn't afraid to be dark and sleazy Spawn was a groundbreaking series especially in an era when animation for adults consisted of Simpsons and South Park. The series has trouble finding its footing and doesn't know how to effectively balance competing plot threads (especially after its first season) but it's a respectable attempt an animated adult series that tries to go against established formula.

Spawn has, for quite some time, being the grounding stone of Image Comics. Image is the third largest retailer in the US and UK. Marvel, the leader, has names such as Spiderman, X-Men, Capt America, Hulk and a never-ending list of other heroes. D.C., the second, has Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and a whole load more. And Image has Spawn. There are a few others, but most would not have heard of them. This is just a brief glimpse at the popularity of this single character whose sales in comics alone support the mammoth of a company that Image is.

The animation runs over three seasons (also referred to as three feature-length movies) and each season is split into six twenty-five minute episodes. On DVD, the seasons run as individual films. This is a total running time of a little over seven hours, as each film is about two and a half hours. And within these seven hours, is everything one could possibly want from Spawn. Without giving away essential plot points, it is safe to say that the basic, original story of Spawn which is covered over the first couple of dozen comics and the not-so-well-received movie, is covered in the first season. The second and third seasons are also true to the comics, but are a deeper insight into the legend of Spawn.

The animations are slightly in manga style (only very slightly, taking the few better elements of manga and mixing it with conventional western cartoons), but are also western enough so as to keep the gritty feel that the original comics generated. There is an abundance of blood (I would say gore, but it is all spurting blood and little guts), plenty of swearing and a whole load of nudity. Now, I am a fan of Justice League which is pure and innocent enough to be shown on day time TV. But if I'm going to go out of my way to watch an evening adult show, I do appreciate it when the makers go all out to MAKE it an adult show. It is not for the pathetic, faint of heart. It is brutal, it is hard core, and I love it to bits.

Spawn is voiced by Keith David who had the most brilliant, atmospheric deep voice which captures the purest essences of what Spawn should sound like, and likewise the rest of the voice-casting is outstanding at worst. The voice overs are half what make a show like this, and when they are so precision perfect and so fantastically scripted it's no wonder that watching the film like this draws you deep into the world.

And animation is well above par. Not the best I've ever seen, but that is rare and often a sure-fire sign that too much time and money has gone into too specific an aspect of the overall project. The colouring/inking and shadow work are perfect for Spawn. Most of the time the majority of the characters are cast half in shadow, and the more mysterious a character, the less you see. This applies to Spawn too, but we see plenty of him so it's fine.

All in all, I can only wish there are more programs like this out there. I do believe that the audience they aim for is quite small considering all the people out there who would rather watch feel-good daytime talk shows and shopping channels than a brilliantly conceived film-noir style animation. So if this is your thing, I cannot recommend it more strongly. And if you are a fan of Spawn, lock yourself in a room with plenty of food and water for a day, because you will not be able to tear yourself away.

The comic books are rich in character backgrounds and, elevate rapidly through masterful story lines. Since when has a comic book character brought so much pain and adversity to our screens. Since when has a comic book character been adapted into an animated series and still creates an aura of harshness and entertainment. Maybe the Batman series of the early 90's reflected the true depiction of it's character; Bob Kane intended Gotham City to be a dark and disturbing reality. A world like David Fincher or Tim Burton. Spawn does indeed thrive in this blend of nightmarish fantasy, which still portrays a world that does exists. Maybe the thought of a soldier sent from Hell, inhabiting the streets dressed in a red cloak and a rubber costume, while ridding the slums of criminals seems far fetched, it is still entertaining. The fact that Todd Mcfarlane has worked on comic books such as Spiderman shows that he knows how intricate characters are to be depicted. So he knew fine well that for this series to work an in depth, complex and intriguing storyline had to prevail. Spawn the animated series is just that and if you take time to appreciate each character and their personalities you should find Spawn to be highly watchable. Moving away from this the animation is just sublime; playing with the shadows of Rat Alley, and blending the hatred of Spawn with his undying love for Wanda, we are led into a paradoxical imagination of two untouchable forces colliding - Heaven and Hell. Watch Spawn and if you can read the comics, they are of a very good quality.

...does that make it good? I do find Spawn the animated series interesting. The characters are fairly well-developed, I suppose the gore is an accurate representation of what's going on. But...the thing drags. And it drags further because HBO only seems to air the show in 6-8 episode batches, once a year. Just when things get interesting, it's Whoosh! off the air for 6-8 months. There also seems to be a lot of unnecessary padding (more in the second year), and Cogliostro is just downright annoying, both as narrator and in his conversations with Spawn. Keith David's voice work is excellent as always, though. Generally, though, this doesn't inspire me to go out and read the comic books. It's one of those shows you like to watch, but don't inspire you to watch devotedly every week. And Todd McFarlane as the intro Serling-like host? Sheesh.

"Spawn: The animated series" is one of the best adaptations of one comic into animation, just like "The Maxx". The animation is excellent, full of details and with a dark and mysterious atmosphere, and the story is dark as well. While in the movie the characters are plain and uninteresting, in this show, all those characters are much better developed, and the story was interesting and well written.

the whole series was put together fabulously, and it is superior in every single detail in the movie. It stayed true to Spawns roots, it was dark, it was emotional, it was violent, it had a sick sense of humor. "Spawn" is one of the best animated series ever made.