King Spawn’s epic goal explained by Todd McFarlane at Comic-Con 2021

With the release of a new Spawn series, King Spawn, a few weeks later, Todd McFarlane used his Todd McFarlane takes control of the universe! panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2021 to tease what lies ahead for infernal vigilante Al Simmons – and explain what makes the new series so regal in the first place.

In a surprising move for anyone who expects McFarlane to repeat his Comic-Con tradition of holding court solo during his panel, the Spawn The creator took a back seat for the 72-minute virtual event, leaving two guests to speak most of the time. During the first 25 minutes, J. Scott Campbell – who created a number of covers for last month’s bestseller The universe of Spawn one shot – talked about the process of creating a cover art and how it has changed between entering the industry over two decades ago and today. (Basically his artwork is not based on a simple graphic image, so it looks better on a smartphone screen; “If he can read that size, I think that’s a good sign that he can read that size. ‘it will resonate,’ he argued.)

The meat of the panel, however, was a conversation between McFarlane and King Spawn writer Sean Lewis on the collaborative process to create the series, as well as what it takes to write comics in general.

When it came to planning this King Spawn should be, McFarlane was clear on one thing: “I’m not inclined to have to have, and I don’t want to, have [the new series] imitate what Spawn is, ”he told Lewis. “If I want the book to do the same thing, I would just do both books. ” In place, King Spawn is going to be a title that will be “moody [and] gritty, ”he teased.

Lewis shed a little more light on the darkness at the heart of the series. “I have an amazing time exploring the absolute darkness of Spawn and who Al is as a human,” he said. “I’m really interested in Al’s humanity. I think this is the part I don’t understand the most.

Specific inspirations for the series, Lewis revealed, include Frank Miller Batman: Return of the Dark Knight and Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s Punisher: born. “It’s a pretty dark book,” he said. “There’s a lot of thriller elements, there’s a lot of horror.” McFarlane added another genre, claiming he had said to Lewis, “take it as a war book, and then it all makes sense.”

In terms of what King Spawn will, explained Lewis, “You basically have the embodiment of revenge in Spawn, which makes him so fun and badass, and yet the one thing he can’t really get revenge for in this character is Wanda, is to lose his wife, and lose his life, from the start … [vengeance] mean if you can’t get it for yourself? ”

Readers shouldn’t expect King Spawn be an utterly bleak experience, however, with Lewis admitting he finds “an incredible personal liberation” in writing Simmons when in his more familiar and more chain-laden guidebook, claiming that the juxtaposition between Spawn and Al Simmons the fascinates. “I want to keep coming up with the most elaborate, crazy, absurd, crazy murder scenes, but unbelievable murders that are as humanly possible, and at the same time, I want to see how grounded Al is and what Al need, if anything.

McFarlane was also keen to explain what the title of King Spawn means. Although Lewis made reference to his interest in how the character, who is traditionally a loner, deals with having “subjects,” the creator of Spawn made it clear that King Spawn shouldn’t be taken literally – instead, “King” is meant as a metaphorical prefix, much like Spider-Man being amazing and spectacular at Marvel.

“He’s not literally going to walk around like a king,” McFarlane said, adding, “to me the word“ king ”means a leader… It’s a big word that has a great meaning. It’s not specific. Lewis agreed, saying, “He’s more of a symbolic king. It’s ‘kingdoms’ in there. breaking Bad concerns kingdoms.

After speaking to Lewis, McFarlane closed the panel by talking about future releases from his toy company – expect more DC Multiverse figures, as well as toys based on the new line of Spawn comics – and promising updates on the long gestation Spawn film, claiming that a new storyline is due by some mystery writers who will “blow your mind” when their identities are revealed. It might not be the only one Spawn media fans can expect; McFarlane spoke of “answering almost non-stop calls over the past three, four months” from media companies interested in the property in light of the success of The universe of Spawn.

Whether it’s in the comics, toys, or on-screen, it looks like it’s Spawn’s universe, and we live in it.