Spawn Origins Collection Vol. 1 by Todd McFarlane

​   For me Todd McFarlane is the guy who does the awesome action figures and collectibles first and comics second. Which, is of course, not at all right, because he’s a huge comics guy. Moreover, I remember Spawn, albeit vaguely, the cartoon, the movie. Just never found it to be as impressive as McFarlane’s figurines. Those are pure art with magnificent attention to details. I’m proud to own some of them.
    Spawn the comic, well, not really pure art, not really magnificent, not in my opinion anyway.
It’s decent enough, albeit not overwhelmingly original by any means.
      Al Simmons, a former military man, a former assassin, a former husband of Wanda, dies and ends up making a deal with the devil to come back. It’s very romantic because he does it for love, but he doesn’t read the small print and ends up with the wrong end of the stick. Now he’s got no face, no skin, but superpowers and a costume with chains and spikes.
       So he can’t really make a play for Wanda’s affections, because of his appearance and because it’s been five years and Wanda’s now married to his former best friend and they have a baby girl together. Plus…whenever Al, who was black while alve, turns into a regular person, he’s inexplicably Caucasian, of a blond surfer boy variety to boot. So it’s all kinds of messy.
      Now Al’s all kinds of sad and mad. Might just have to learn earn to enjoy his Spawn persona. Fight some crime. Right some wrongs. Do battles with some evildoers and McFarlane throws some creepy ones his way.
      So that’s how it goes with this book, that provides the character’s origin story. It’s very violent, very graphic, McFarlane seems to relish the fact that he created a superhero who isn’t afraid to kill. There are some nice visuals. But outside of that, there isn’t much here to wow the readers. Or at least not this reader. Nothing special, but fun in a sort of retro way now and  decent enough of a read.