What do you think?
Rate this book
Spawn Collection #3
Spawn Collection, Vol. 3 by Todd McFarlane
Spawn, the archetypal anti-hero, is featured in pivotal confrontations with The Violator, The Freak, Cy-gor and The Curse. Complete your Spawn library with 20 issues of pulse pounding sequentials.
Paperback
First published April 17, 2007
3 people are currently reading
231 people want to read
About the author
Todd McFarlane
1,865 books445 followersTodd McFarlane is a Canadian comic book artist, writer, toy manufacturer/designer, and media entrepreneur who is best known as the creator of the epic occult fantasy series Spawn.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McFarlane became a comic book superstar due to his work on Marvel Comics' Spider-Man franchise. In 1992, he helped form Image Comics, pulling the occult anti-hero character Spawn from his high school portfolio and updating him for the 1990s. Spawn was one of America's most popular heroes in the 1990's and encouraged a trend in creator-owned comic book properties.
In recent years, McFarlane has illustrated comic books less often, focusing on entrepreneurial efforts, such as McFarlane Toys and Todd McFarlane Entertainment, a film and animation studio.
In September, 2006, it was announced that McFarlane will be the Art Director of the newly formed 38 Studios, formerly Green Monster Games, founded by Curt Schilling.
McFarlane used to be co-owner of National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers but sold his shares to Daryl Katz. He's also a high-profile collector of history-making baseballs.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McFarlane became a comic book superstar due to his work on Marvel Comics' Spider-Man franchise. In 1992, he helped form Image Comics, pulling the occult anti-hero character Spawn from his high school portfolio and updating him for the 1990s. Spawn was one of America's most popular heroes in the 1990's and encouraged a trend in creator-owned comic book properties.
In recent years, McFarlane has illustrated comic books less often, focusing on entrepreneurial efforts, such as McFarlane Toys and Todd McFarlane Entertainment, a film and animation studio.
In September, 2006, it was announced that McFarlane will be the Art Director of the newly formed 38 Studios, formerly Green Monster Games, founded by Curt Schilling.
McFarlane used to be co-owner of National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers but sold his shares to Daryl Katz. He's also a high-profile collector of history-making baseballs.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 22, 2018
Ok I'm gonna go out on a limb a bit here. Hear me out.
You know in Lord of the Rings/Hobbit all those songs that no one actually reads? Well that same phenomena happened over and over again in this third collection of the SpawnVerse (as it were). Irritation and frustration dug in as an already sprawling story became way too big for its proverbial britches and continually busted at the seems.
What went wrong? Well a lot of things. And all the worse, to its continual detriment, compounded upon itself again and again.
All the things that were right in the previous collection germinated in (mostly) all the wrong ways from here on out. Initially it was cool to have multiple story-lines all dancing around each-other. They helped weave a thoroughly complex and richly designed tapestry of narrative. But here, there is way too much going on with literally (like) 8 separate strands of story and character development (in one way or another) that border on excess first and then violently belch across the belt-line for the remainder of this compendium.
Just like the aforementioned voluntarily ignored cantical lacunae of the LOTR trilogy I found myself more often than not skimming at first and then downright ignoring the continual plights of Sam/Twitch and Terry/Wanda story-lines. They don't really add much to the over-arc and suffer from a mind-numbingly banal level of repetition (same shit - different page).
All the more frustrating are further threads that are woefully shadowy (Cagliostro) and others that find themselves inhumanly crammed in (Cy-Gor). When a character is cursorily (re-)introduced only to be further developed some 5-7 issues later, and again to only disappear once again their importance to the story becomes diluted. And the quality overall suffers as in the back of your mind you find yourself continually stretching your brain to remember who was doing what, when, where and so on and so forth. Your mind will become a dish-washer of sorts as the story twists and turns throughout its ever convoluting nature.
As if that wasn't frustrating enough, one of the comics' greatest idiosyncratic strengths becomes an experiment in visual butchery. Unlike most comics, the lettering choices within the Spawn mythos continually change and reinvent themselves with a continually changing series of fonts, colors, and backgrounds that actually added a really cool level of detail and unique strength. However, what worked well before is hideously malappropriated to disastrous effect here. There are numerous examples of the font color poorly implemented across a shamefully similar background. Squint all I wanted, there were numerous panels that I was barely able to read (at best). Yet another act of voluntary negligence has to be executed once again.
So to recap - there's wayyyy too much going on at the character level. And mistakes befitting of a neophyte with a pre-graphic design 101 level understanding of MS Paint have left the story unreadable to critical eyes. However, it's the atrocious coup-de-grace that is built into Spawn's very character that significantly brought down the overall quality even further into the bowls of Tartarus.
Unlike typical comic hi-jinks with a clear plot and pathway to achieve it's teleological end, the character of Spawn, and ultimately his plot, is oddly formed. While Batman might have a bad guy to track down or a disaster of some sorts of fight against, Al Simmons is quite aptly best described as no longer (Hell)Spawn but rather, (as Houdini said in the last compendium) "Hell's Pawn." Caught between multiple forces all vying for this sinful soldier, the protagonist becomes something a rag-doll merely richoeting across each crisis as it comes up instead of forging his own path to achieve his own ends. With no clear pathway from A to B, it's more a case of Al being along for the ride rather than a properly bodied hero (or anti- in this case) who does what he has to do. All the more damnable given his phenomenal range of powers that include Resurrection. You'd think a guy this powerful could think up some wicked shit but alas, is not the case.
Anyways, take everything I've said and add what seems to be a heaping helping of filler that saturates well over half of this collection, Issues #33-54# are a far cry from what once was a stupendously well put together work that forged a stellar balance between extant material and the author's own original content.
I actually don't really want to read any more of this now. :/
You know in Lord of the Rings/Hobbit all those songs that no one actually reads? Well that same phenomena happened over and over again in this third collection of the SpawnVerse (as it were). Irritation and frustration dug in as an already sprawling story became way too big for its proverbial britches and continually busted at the seems.
What went wrong? Well a lot of things. And all the worse, to its continual detriment, compounded upon itself again and again.
All the things that were right in the previous collection germinated in (mostly) all the wrong ways from here on out. Initially it was cool to have multiple story-lines all dancing around each-other. They helped weave a thoroughly complex and richly designed tapestry of narrative. But here, there is way too much going on with literally (like) 8 separate strands of story and character development (in one way or another) that border on excess first and then violently belch across the belt-line for the remainder of this compendium.
Just like the aforementioned voluntarily ignored cantical lacunae of the LOTR trilogy I found myself more often than not skimming at first and then downright ignoring the continual plights of Sam/Twitch and Terry/Wanda story-lines. They don't really add much to the over-arc and suffer from a mind-numbingly banal level of repetition (same shit - different page).
All the more frustrating are further threads that are woefully shadowy (Cagliostro) and others that find themselves inhumanly crammed in (Cy-Gor). When a character is cursorily (re-)introduced only to be further developed some 5-7 issues later, and again to only disappear once again their importance to the story becomes diluted. And the quality overall suffers as in the back of your mind you find yourself continually stretching your brain to remember who was doing what, when, where and so on and so forth. Your mind will become a dish-washer of sorts as the story twists and turns throughout its ever convoluting nature.
As if that wasn't frustrating enough, one of the comics' greatest idiosyncratic strengths becomes an experiment in visual butchery. Unlike most comics, the lettering choices within the Spawn mythos continually change and reinvent themselves with a continually changing series of fonts, colors, and backgrounds that actually added a really cool level of detail and unique strength. However, what worked well before is hideously malappropriated to disastrous effect here. There are numerous examples of the font color poorly implemented across a shamefully similar background. Squint all I wanted, there were numerous panels that I was barely able to read (at best). Yet another act of voluntary negligence has to be executed once again.
So to recap - there's wayyyy too much going on at the character level. And mistakes befitting of a neophyte with a pre-graphic design 101 level understanding of MS Paint have left the story unreadable to critical eyes. However, it's the atrocious coup-de-grace that is built into Spawn's very character that significantly brought down the overall quality even further into the bowls of Tartarus.
Unlike typical comic hi-jinks with a clear plot and pathway to achieve it's teleological end, the character of Spawn, and ultimately his plot, is oddly formed. While Batman might have a bad guy to track down or a disaster of some sorts of fight against, Al Simmons is quite aptly best described as no longer (Hell)Spawn but rather, (as Houdini said in the last compendium) "Hell's Pawn." Caught between multiple forces all vying for this sinful soldier, the protagonist becomes something a rag-doll merely richoeting across each crisis as it comes up instead of forging his own path to achieve his own ends. With no clear pathway from A to B, it's more a case of Al being along for the ride rather than a properly bodied hero (or anti- in this case) who does what he has to do. All the more damnable given his phenomenal range of powers that include Resurrection. You'd think a guy this powerful could think up some wicked shit but alas, is not the case.
Anyways, take everything I've said and add what seems to be a heaping helping of filler that saturates well over half of this collection, Issues #33-54# are a far cry from what once was a stupendously well put together work that forged a stellar balance between extant material and the author's own original content.
I actually don't really want to read any more of this now. :/
December 6, 2016
Slightly improved writing when he shows restraint instead of writing an overwrought 13 year old goth's kid blog post in the middle of a comic. Which still happens too frequently for this to actually be good. Art is incredible though.
October 1, 2020
Ya he tomando la costumbre, de al final de mes leer un tebeo y realmente spawn es una locura!
November 3, 2015
Can't Go wrong with Spawn or Todd McFarlane.
March 6, 2025
Supuestamente este tomo trae los #34 a 54 y estoy casi seguro de haberlos leído casi todos en la vieja edición mexicana, pero lo dejo pendiente hasta retomar la relectura ordenada que vengo posponiendo desde hace rato.
April 11, 2014
All the slow down from the first issues are gone. We finally get past the parts of constantly recapping and start getting into some actual meat. Before I was confused as to how this character became so loved but now im starting to see it. Also the Christmas issue was pure gold.
April 13, 2018
Comics 35-54. Great love story, keen dead hero, trippy villians, some decent side characters, and an excellent concept of heaven, hell, and how it all works.
Read
May 5, 2012Issues 41, 42 and 43 only.
December 29, 2012
The Alan Moore bits make this good. The rest is OK.
May 25, 2014
Amazing images. I love the colors. The storyline is well thought out, and well executed. I will continue reading more.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews