Review: Spawn's Universe # 1

It is finally here! Todd McFarlane hinted about expanding his Spawn Universe for a while and now the wait is over. The longest running independent comic which hit comic book shelves way back in 1992 as part of the infamous Image Revolution, unlike fellow co-founders Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld and Marc Silvestri who launched Team Books Youngblood, Wild C.A.T.S and Cyberforce… McFarlane launched Spawn, a single character. Thereafter Erik Larsen and Jim Valentino launched single character titles also with Savage Dragon and Shadow Hawk. Who would’ve thought that Spawn would outlast them all? (Savage Dragon is close though!)

Hype had picked up with Spawn leading up to issue number 300, with a special thanks to the amazing homage covers based on past covers of The Amazing Spider-Man (1963), Spider-Man (1990), The Incredible Hulk (1962) and Batman (1940) which were originally illustrated by McFarlane.

Now fans rejoice as Spawn’s Universe is hitting your local comic stores. From the opening pages we are taken on a ride with Spawn and a reformed Cy-Gor are captured by a new mysterious villain, our antagonist then finds he’s bunked up with his supposed ally Cogliostro and another captured figure unknown to him? (You gotta read this to find out who)

You will have to read on to find out if our heroes get out alive!

In addition to the main story, there were bonus short stories “Medieval” with art by Stephen Segovia, “She-Spawn” art by Marcio Takara and “Gunslinger” with Brett Booth on art duties giving us fans a clear glimpse of whats to expect prior to their spin-off stories. All written by the forever busy Todd McFarlane himself.

This new life injected into the Spawn Universe is nearly 30 years overdue, there have been spin-off series is the past such as Cy-Gor, Sam and Twitch (which included a very young Brian Michael Bendis), Angela, Spawn Kills Everyone among others but nothing like this being an ongoing series. The main story: I thought Jim Cheung’s art was at his standard, with great detail and flawless action scenes – great to see JC’s take on the Spawn’s media scenes influenced by Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. A staple of the Spawn title from way back to the early days.

I have a soft spot for Cy-Gor as Spawn’s sidekick, there were some magic moments.. especially \where Spawn’s captors talked about hurting Cy-Gor and Spawn just lashing out in a protective rage. – Todd, please give us more Cy-Gor and hopefully some more Cy-Gor action figures! Another bonus for fans we see more characters in one panel appearances, does this mean we’ll see some more of these characters in SpawnU?

I appreciate that the concept and introduction of Spawn’s expanded Universe are not force-fed onto us and that Todd has improved significantly over the years as a story teller.. all four stories in this book are written by the Toddfather and they are all completely different! She-Spawn’s short story is family orientated whereas Medieval has the fantasy element whereas Gunslinger gives us a dirty western.. or The Good, The Bad and The Ugly on steroids! The pacing and dialogue is solid, there are spelling errors although I truly hope it’s because I have a review copy and these bugs are fixed before launch day. I love that the lettering, Tom Orzechowski (Andworld Design) has been consistent throughout all four stories especially keeping the readers engaged.

I truly hope Todd takes the same direction as Mark Millar does for MillarWorld to instill trust into other writers to carry the mantle for each of the titles. All in all – this is a must read for Spawn fans or new fans looking for an alternative to the Big 2! The variant covers by J. Scott Campbell are fun to buy as a set, nice to see we’re not given 300 variant covers to choose from.

I give Spawn’s Universe #1 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
SCORE: 4.5/5
Do ya’self a favor and check it out!

(W) Todd McFarlane (A) Jim Cheung, Todd McFarlane, Stephen Segovia, Marcio Takara (CA) J. Scott Campbell

Author Profile

Shane Tydeman

The Wonder from Down Under,
Dodgy is a senior contributor to Comic Crusaders. Co-Host of The Yeah-Nah Wepa Show! An advocate of indie comics and is creator of Indie Comics podcasts Flipside Focus, Sunderkatz and Think Indie Podcast!

An unapologetic movie fan, NBA fan, action figure, trading card fan! Also an advocate for Depression awareness!