Spawnography

"Endgame" trudges on and your humble hosts are starting to lose a little bit of faith in the direction that Spawn and its creative team are taking. It's hard not to be a little bit frustrated with a book that is clearly struggling with finding a new identity in the wake of handing the book over to a new main character. But it's not all bad! And it can't get worse... can it? This week's recommendat...

Todd and the gang continue to go back to basics as the mystery of Jim Downing continues! We've got talking head newscasters! We've got questions! We've got no answers (yet)! And we've got the power meter! We've also got some pretty impressive work by Whilce Portacio. You could accuse of of "bageling" a bit here but we take the time to really diginto what work's about these issues as the questions...

Al Simmons is dead! Long live Al Simmons! Todd is back in the saddle and there's a new Hellspawn in town - Jim Downing. We're also seeing some familiar faces back on the creative team as well as newcomer to the title, Whilce Portacio. But can this title handle a major change to the status quo given the awkward handoff from the last writer? George and Pierce will get into it.  This week's recommend...

This is it! The end of Spawn.... until the next issue! But at the very least, David Hine's run is over and we have some feelings. This was, overall, a pretty interesting era and Hine is a writer who definitely had a different take on our hellish hero than folks in the past. There is an argument to be made that this is the second best era of the book to this point due to how it expands the mythos b...

More and more secrets are revealed! Who is Morana and what is her connection to Al? What's up with Cyan's connection to something super natural? Is Al a good person as his run winds down? We'll get into all of it and more! This week's recommendations are the Amazon adaptaion of Lord of the Flies as well as 2000s indie rock band, Gatsby's American Dream's record Volcano,  which weirdly enough has a...

Things are getting dicey as Al Simmons winds down his initial run! Can he reconcile with Wanda? How does Cyan play into this? Was Mammon behind everything? What's up with Morana? We'll get into it! This week's recommendations are to be kinder to yourself but also to check out one of Geroge's favorite podcasts "The Worst of All Possible Words." Meanwhile, Pierce recommends the incredible tunes of J...

Welcome to George's niche interests explored episode! We're getting into vampiric lore and World War I history as David Hine, Brian Haberlin and company push the mystery at the center of this run forward while backfilling some interesting details along the way. What does all of this mean for Spawn and Al Simmons? How is Mammon really involved? How deep does this all go? We'll get into it. This wee...

How is a manga contest tied to a series of murders spread across the United States? How is the number one suspect a boy who can't leave the safety of his hermetically sealed room? What lasting effects did the four horsemen of "Armageddon" have on the world despite Al Simmons remaking it? Well, it all goes back to Mammon! But that just means George and Pierce will have to dig into what that means f...

Hey there Hellspawn! We're back with another guest! This time we have Mark Zovak aka TinySpawny with us and we're talking about his favorite Spawn, Gunslinger! We also take a bit of time at the top to talk to Mark about his Spawn journey, the state of the Spawnmunity and his recently launched YouTube show Let's Talk Spawn!  This week's recommendations are, of course, Mark's show Let's Talk Spawn ,...

We wrap up this Simmons family reunion and it has some dire consequences for at least one characters. Mammon continues to exert his influence as David Hine and Brian Haberlin look to backfill some of Al's story to help build to an eventual payoff. Overall, it kind of works but we'll get into it of course.  This week's recommendations are to check ot the latest season of The Boys and on a more somb...

We knew Al Simmons had one brother but David Hine imagines a world where, get this, Al had  two brothers. More of Al's history is revealed! But is this a result of how Al rebuilt the world? Is this another one of Mammon's manipulations? We've been told that Mammon has been pulling the strings for quite some time and here Hine and Brian Haberlin begin to scratch the surface of that mystery.  This w...

Hey there, Hellspawn! This episode will see us wrap up "The Voice Hearers" and the return of Clown and then catch up with Nyx as David Hine and Brian Haberlin keep doing the Yeoman's work of putting pieces back on the board after Spawn's ostensible boardwipe back in "Armageddon." Overall, the results are pretty solid even if some of the subject matter (namely, the somewhat sterotypical depiction o...

What does the world larger world look like in Spawn's reimaginined reality? Why does one apartment building seem to be the root of all evil? What pieces are coming back into the equation from the past? Why did George and Pierce play FMK with Muppets? All thse questiosn will be answered and more!  This week's recommendations are Abruptio which you can easily find on Tubi, as well as the Wolfman/Per...

Armageddon is over and we've got a doozy of a couple of issues for you this week. First, an epilogue of sorts for the last mega arc that really paints Al in a pretty precarious light which feels like a bit of an odd move this late into the book's run. (We are aware it's likely a feint but taking the story as read, it is a bit concerning.) Then we get the origin story for a cool action figure: Mand...

We have reached the end of "Armageddon!" but is this really an ending or simply a new beginning? Only time will tell. That said, Philip Tan and David Hine really rip out all the stops here. One thing that is impressive is how often they've forced us to reevaluate where their work stands within the Spawn mythos. This arc ends up representing a bit of a fulcrum point and it's exciting to see where w...

Armageddon rages on and the stakes keep getting higher! The four horsemen of the apocalypse come to play! Granny Blake gets raptured! Spawn takes on Jesus' disciples! David Hine and the art team are really upping the ante! This week's recommendations are "Heaven and Hell" by Dio and the latest flick from Sam Raimi (a favorite around these parts) Send Help. As always you can check out Geroge's band...

Jakie and Katie's true nature is revealed! We get some truly cathartic moments from just about the whole cast! The art team finds some level of cinsitency and we definitely feel the sort of Yeoman's work that David Hine is being tasked to do. We extend that to comics critics in general as well. This is a tough industry and when someone is able to make something fun and readable (even if they have...

A bonkers arc continues! George and Pierce debate the reception to this era of Spawn as Philip Tan and the art team as well as writer David Hine are still finding their footing. That said, there are some wild moments - we get closer to understanding the twins, see how Spawn has grown with his new understanding of his existence and get some really nice characterization between Spaw, Sam and Twitch....

We are firmly in the David Hine era the times they are a'changin' especially as we get deeper into a run that has yet to have a clear direction or identity. The mystery of the twins deepens, we meet some of the legion of spirits that make up Spawn, Spawn fights Kali, the goddess of destruction and the art goes through a bit of a rough patch with a veritable army of inkers and colorists. This arc d...

Last episode was a milestone for Spawn and this episode is a milestone for us! We've made it to episode 100 so we are finishing out the "Thamuz" arc before headingstraight into Armageddon! We are definitely entering an interesting era of the book and as a result some of the discussion does get a little bit fraught but its all in support of the continued analysis of the book. This week's recommenda...

We've made it to another milestone and this one ushers in the David Hine and Philip Tan era. George and Pierce get into a little bit of a retrospective of the Holguin and Medina run but are pleasantly surprised by Hine and Tan's first outing with our favorite Hellspawn. will it last? Only time will tell! This week's recommendations are Zeke's album Lords of the Highway and nouns' album still . Tha...

Sometimes, even your humble Spawnographers can't parse a story and "Howl" happens to be one of those. But then we dive into "Random Patterns," an arc that certainly earns its title. It's an interesting era for Spawn and his creative team to say the least and your hosts will get into it. This week's most important recommendation is to get involved with your local community. We only have each other...

We are back to the main Spawn title with an arc that doesn't leave us scrataching our heads necessarily but does make us question the ramp up to #150 on some level. Todd, Holguin and Medina are clearly looking to expand the mythos and build up Mammon but the story itself feels like a little less than the sum of its parts.  This week's recommendations are the excellent Youtube channel Animalogic  w...

This episode we wrap up the first arc of Marc Andreyko and Scott Morse's Case Files: Sam & Twitch and prove that even when you think you completely understand an arc, sometimes you don't. The show starts off with a some talk about upcoming movies like Street Fighter and Masters of the Universe so feel free to skip tot eh 30 minute mark to get right into discussion of the book. As we noted last epi...

We're back with another slight diversion from the main Spawn title as we dive into Marc Andreyko and Scott Morse's  Case Files: Sam & Twitch . We're only covering this first arc (for now) and we find our hispid hero Twitch Williams in a bit of a predicament. Told in 3 timelines unfolding simultaneously, it seems the events of the first two have landed Twitch in jail in the third! It takes us a lit...