Spawn

...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.

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.

Spawn was way ahead of it's time. I remember watching the original in the 90's on HBO and loving it. Here we are in 2014 and I'm rewatching it and just loving it...just loving it. Adult all the way, Spawn isn't for the kids. It's, of course, a Faustian tale and a superhero title but at it's core this is horror. The cartoon is very dark, chilling, and gritty. It's ultra-violent, suspenseful, animated beautifully, the voice-acting is precise and quietly subdued. It's as if all it's characters are speaking as shadows. Brilliant stuff here that outshines anything DC is doing currently and DC is the only one really doing anything worth a crud for American comic-book animation. Love Marvel but their animation is pathetic. If you're over 18 and want a good super-hero animation that lives and breathes in the dark...go buy Spawn. Mr. McFarland....please bring this back!

I agree with what many reviewers said and I wont rehash the story line anymore - many folks have done so already.

What I'd like to add is that HBO Cable Networks did a wonderful thing in showing this as a weekly series. I was glued to the television weekly at midnight - not just me but all of my friends as well. I don't care what I was doing, I HAD to watch this. We all loved this animated working of Spawn. The animation was crisp, the storytelling was adult and intelligent, the vocal casting was superb. This is what adult animation and comic book adaptation was about. The first season was better than the second one to me but both were groundbreaking.

What I disliked more than anything -- was the feature film of "Spawn". It did not hold a candle to this series and just ruined what was already done. Sad thing, HBO hasn't re-shown repeats of this and they should. And HBO hasn't produced & adapted other comics, which it should be doing along these lines. There are many production lessons here as well as a great adaptation lesson.

Todd MacFarlane's creation is the best here. I hope they show it again, release a DVD if so, do not miss this. Be forewarned - adult themes run through this version. The first season is NOT for the kiddies or a PG-13 oriented. It is dark, it is wonderful and it is the world of Spawn as it should be seen and interpreted.

Having been a big fan of Spawn back in the day, and have been reading the comic book since the first issue was published and up well into issue 100-something, I must say that it was nice to actually sit down and watch this animated series based on Todd McFarlane's Spawn comic book.

Oddly enough, then I only made it through the first season back in the time when it was all new and just came out. But I drifted away from the series, only to return in 2021 and complete it. And turns out that I had been missing out on a great viewing experience indeed.

If you have read the comic books, then you will definitely feel right at home here, because this animated series does a good job at capturing the essence of Spawn and the whole universe that McFarlane created. Just a shame, though, that the series only ran for three seasons, as there was a lot, a whole lot, more to tell in this series.

"Spawn" is an animated series for the adults, as it does contain a good dose of explicit violence, nudity, foul language, substance abuse and such. So you might not want to introduce a younger audience to this series.

I think that by hiring Keith David for voicing the Spawn character, they really made a wise and excellent choice. His voice is just so unique and characteristic and really brought a lot of flavor to the Spawn character.

The art style they used in the series was very true to the art style seen in the comic books, lots of dark imagery and nice use of contract colors. It was visually a treat to sit through the three seasons of "Spawn", no doubt about that.

Something that I didn't like about the series was that every episode was kicked off by having creator Todd McFarlane sit or stand around with words of wisdom to share, and trying to be all enigmatic and gloomy. Yeah, yeah, we know that you created Spawn, and we know what you look like. But having him be around to host and start off each episode was just not something I enjoyed. It just came off as a bit too 'look at me, I'm famous'.

One thing that was missing from the three seasons was more of Angela. Sure, she was there, but way too briefly. She was definitely one of the more interesting characters in the comic books.

Whether or not you have read the comic books or am familiar with the Spawn franchise, then this animated series that ran from 1997 to 1999 is definitely something I would and will recommend that you sit down to watch, if you haven't already done so, and if you have the chance. This is top notch animated entertainment for an adult audience. And let's just be frank about it, Spawn totally wipes Batman off the charts here.

My rating of this animated series lands on a well-deserved nine out of ten stars.