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For Todd McFarlane, creating multiple versions of Spawn a la the Spider-Verse isn’t enough — he wants to create a whole interconnected universe.
Spawn creator and Image Comics president Todd McFarlane addressed the concept of a shared Spawn universe, pointing out that in contrast to similar media like Into the Spider-Verse, his end goal is not necessarily to create multiple versions of the same character.
“Spawn is the catalyst for all of this,” McFarlane said in an exclusive interview with CBR, answering a question that compared his Spawn mythos — which has recently burgeoned with three new ongoing series, King Spawn, Gunslinger Spawn and The Scorched — with Marvel’s Spider-Verse. “He’s been the only book that I’ve been doing so he was an obvious choice to use as the starting point,” McFarlane said.
McFarlane added that despite the fact that two of the new series, King Spawn and Gunslinger Spawn, were both centered around Hellspawns, ultimately he wanted to avoid oversaturation.
“I keep saying that further and further down the line, that impact will be lessened because new characters, who are not Spawn, who are heroes and come in having nothing to do with the mythology of Spawn other than that they just share the same world map, will be introduced and go on their own way and rarely interact with some of the other Spawns,” McFarlane said. “I didn’t want to expand the universe to fill it with more Spawns. I wanted to expand the universe to fill it with more characters, some of which may be Spawn-related but I’m hoping the vast majority aren’t, in the long run.”
McFarlane’s strategy of creating a “multi-character, interconnected comic book universe” spinning out his most famous character was originally announced in February. The Image Comics president repeatedly stated that he wants Spawn to join the ranks of other heroes, like Batman and Spider-Man, who have multiple monthly books and a self-sustaining ecosystem of supporting characters who can also star in their own comics.
“The simple question is this: DC Comics started a shared universe in the late 1930s. Marvel Comics began theirs in the early 1960s… so, can lightning strike a third time beginning in 2021?” McFarlane asked back in February. “I personally do not have the answer to that question right now, but the only way to get an answer to that question is to make the attempt in the first place. This is a long-intended plan that will need the help of dozens and dozens of creators to help create hundreds and hundreds of characters. And then to reward those creators if any of their ideas pay off in a big way outside of the comic industry.”
McFarlane already dabbled with this formula several times since creating Spawn in 1992, including signing off on spinoffs centered around the bounty hunting angel Angela — who has since been integrated into the Marvel Universe due to a legal rights battle with her co-creator, Neil Gaiman — and the New York City detectives Sam & Twitch.
The latest, concerted push to develop Spawn’s universe is far larger than previous efforts, however, and appears to be paying off. King Spawn shattered records as the best-selling superhero comic of the last 25 years, and Gunslinger Spawn #1 broke a similar record with a first printing that has already sold 385,000 copies.
Source: CBR
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