Thespawnarmy

On Feb 19th, BROKEN FRONTIER posted up an interview with Todd and you can read on and maybe see the change that Al Simmons maybe never be spawn as we known him, may never be again.

Spawning a Legend

This week, Todd touches upon his most famous creation and what his plans are to catch up on Spawn. Oh, and there’s that milestone issue (Spawn #200) right around the corner.

McFarlane’s Mark is produced by Sam Moyerman and Frederik Hautain.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Spawning (if you’ll pardon the pun) from our discussion of Wolverine and how the mysteries behind the character kept him going for so long, it seems like a good time to switch over to the character you are most famous for creating, one whose next release will be issue #196.

Was that building of a mystery behind the character something you have been going for all along with that character to keep the readers asking questions about Spawn?

TODD MCFARLANE: Well, as of issue #185 we made a change and now there’s a new Spawn.  So it allows me to put him into positions that are dramatically different from the first Spawn.  We’ll see whether that’s good or bad to the readers, as they will ultimately make the choice there.  I thought some of the stories (with Al Simmons as Spawn) were getting a bit repetitive.  And since you can’t change a character’s personality… well, maybe you can, this is comic books after all, and you can do whatever you want.  It was more of a decision to bring someone new in, give them the same powers and situation and see how they would react.

You and I, in the exact same situation, would function differently.  Why?  Because we are bringing the baggage of our life and our history, experiences, and whatever else we have to that moment.  We would problem solve the same thing in completely different ways.

For Spawn, this meant I could bring back old characters (i.e. The Clown) and it will still feel new because The Clown will know and/or realize that this isn’t the same guy.  He can say, “Instead of being a bad guy, maybe I’ll try and act nice and convince this new Spawn that I’m a good guy and get him to be my pal.”  So now The Clown starts to act differently than what we’ve seen for 185 issues.  Having a new main character also allows me to bring in new villains and a brand new supporting cast to the series as well.

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