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Spawn (US) #3
Spawn, Book 3
This softcover graphic novel is from the Spawn series. This is book 3 of 4.
120 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1996
57 people want to read
About the author
Todd McFarlane
1,864 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
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 19, 2018
Spawn Book Three: Revelation is significantly better than Book Two; nearly all of the flaws of the previous book have been amended as we're left with much better story-driven issues. Spawn Book Three: Revelation serves to further the main Spawn storyline by means of offering more substance and less mindless action. Todd McFarlane returns as the sole writer for issues 12-15, and the shift in quality is quite noticeable after reading Book Two.
We start off with an emotional issue where Al Simmons reunites with his grandmother-in-law and has a heartfelt talk with her about his fate and Wanda's new life. I was happy to see the bulk of this issue focus more on story and character development and less so on action since the last book I read was almost completely made up of fight scenes and shooting. This segment is surprisingly emotional and develops Al Simmons as a sympathetic character despite his grotesque appearance and past life as an assassin. I hope more of these moments pop up in future storylines.
Though the initial focus is on Spawn's emotional turmoil, we soon come back to form when he faces off against his assassin, Chapel, with whom he had worked along side while serving the American government. This battle has much more weight to it than previous battles fought by Spawn. As opposed to the pitiful fight sequence with Overt-Kill from Book Two, the fight with Chapel means something to Al Simmons. He is, after all, facing off with the man that executed him and turned his entire life upside-down. The final revenge that he takes out on Chapel is befitting his wretched character, if a little tame by Spawn's standards. Nevertheless, it was a cool fight.
The final two issues marks the return of the Violator as he recalls a story to a group of street kids. His tale recounts the time when he faced up against the Medieval Hellspawn of 800 years ago. I found these two issues to be the most entertaining of the collection. The Violator's full-of-shit narrative, coupled with flashbacks of the actual incident, serves as a funny and revealing juxtaposition of the Violator's innate evil and desire to appear grandiose in his devilish ways. It was also very cool to see more of Medieval Spawn in action; how closely the modern Spawn mimics the one of 800 years in the past is quite interesting and revealing of the types of people that are chosen to become soldiers of Hell. In just a few short pages, I found that the Medieval Spawn was just as dynamic a character as any other introduced so far. Hopefully, we see more of this Hellspawn in the future.
Spawn Book Three: Revelation was as good as Book One in terms of its storytelling and progression of the main plot. Where Book Two was mostly just a messy concoction of hit-or-miss issues that focused very little on advancing the mainline story, Book Three turns ship and delivers to readers what they should have received in the last book. Like always, the artwork is still great and adds to the high marks of this collection. If you were taken aback by the inconsistent quality of Book Two and felt the desire to stop reading Spawn because of it, I implore you to stick with the series and push on through to at least this volume because you will not be disappointed in what transpires within it. I'm very much looking forward to Spawn Book Four: Escalation after getting through Book Three.
We start off with an emotional issue where Al Simmons reunites with his grandmother-in-law and has a heartfelt talk with her about his fate and Wanda's new life. I was happy to see the bulk of this issue focus more on story and character development and less so on action since the last book I read was almost completely made up of fight scenes and shooting. This segment is surprisingly emotional and develops Al Simmons as a sympathetic character despite his grotesque appearance and past life as an assassin. I hope more of these moments pop up in future storylines.
Though the initial focus is on Spawn's emotional turmoil, we soon come back to form when he faces off against his assassin, Chapel, with whom he had worked along side while serving the American government. This battle has much more weight to it than previous battles fought by Spawn. As opposed to the pitiful fight sequence with Overt-Kill from Book Two, the fight with Chapel means something to Al Simmons. He is, after all, facing off with the man that executed him and turned his entire life upside-down. The final revenge that he takes out on Chapel is befitting his wretched character, if a little tame by Spawn's standards. Nevertheless, it was a cool fight.
The final two issues marks the return of the Violator as he recalls a story to a group of street kids. His tale recounts the time when he faced up against the Medieval Hellspawn of 800 years ago. I found these two issues to be the most entertaining of the collection. The Violator's full-of-shit narrative, coupled with flashbacks of the actual incident, serves as a funny and revealing juxtaposition of the Violator's innate evil and desire to appear grandiose in his devilish ways. It was also very cool to see more of Medieval Spawn in action; how closely the modern Spawn mimics the one of 800 years in the past is quite interesting and revealing of the types of people that are chosen to become soldiers of Hell. In just a few short pages, I found that the Medieval Spawn was just as dynamic a character as any other introduced so far. Hopefully, we see more of this Hellspawn in the future.
Spawn Book Three: Revelation was as good as Book One in terms of its storytelling and progression of the main plot. Where Book Two was mostly just a messy concoction of hit-or-miss issues that focused very little on advancing the mainline story, Book Three turns ship and delivers to readers what they should have received in the last book. Like always, the artwork is still great and adds to the high marks of this collection. If you were taken aback by the inconsistent quality of Book Two and felt the desire to stop reading Spawn because of it, I implore you to stick with the series and push on through to at least this volume because you will not be disappointed in what transpires within it. I'm very much looking forward to Spawn Book Four: Escalation after getting through Book Three.
April 2, 2024
Spawn is not my cup of tea. But, given it is a widely popular comic book character, written and drawn by some widely popular authors and illustrators, I felt I owed myself the read, as long as I had the first three volumes in my collection, as given to me by my fellow BSC classmate and good buddy Dan [ https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4... ] many moons ago.
I get the appeal from many angles -- famous creators and guest creators, movie-tie in popularity, the good guy twisted into a bad guy by the devil who still wants to be a good guy, the love lost, the tragedy, the anti-hero. But... none of those appealing motifs could overcome just the pure comic chaos, randomness, weirdness and in some cases, nonsensicalness of the first three volumes of stories. It almost seems like McFarlane had a great idea that ran out of steam after a few issues -- hence opening it up to guest creators and storytellers almost immediately out of the starting gate -- and then didn't know where to go from there. Or he did, but just lost me trying to get there with the pace and interruptions / side-stories. The main character Spawn doesn't get that much storytime. In fact, in several of the first three volumes, he is not even present. Maybe it was more about world building up front, but not having the main character be in some of the early issues was just... weird.
I think more than anything, it is hard for me to like anything that isn't X-Men/Marvel adjacent. (Sorry, but not sorry!) It was cool to see the origins of Thor's sister (no, the other sister, Angela, created by Neil Gaiman and artist Todd McFarlane) who eventually crossed over into the Marvel Universe. In fact, that was probably my favorite sub-story of the first three collections.
All in all, would not recommend except from the perspective of a comics enthusiast looking to sample famous titles from the industry.
I get the appeal from many angles -- famous creators and guest creators, movie-tie in popularity, the good guy twisted into a bad guy by the devil who still wants to be a good guy, the love lost, the tragedy, the anti-hero. But... none of those appealing motifs could overcome just the pure comic chaos, randomness, weirdness and in some cases, nonsensicalness of the first three volumes of stories. It almost seems like McFarlane had a great idea that ran out of steam after a few issues -- hence opening it up to guest creators and storytellers almost immediately out of the starting gate -- and then didn't know where to go from there. Or he did, but just lost me trying to get there with the pace and interruptions / side-stories. The main character Spawn doesn't get that much storytime. In fact, in several of the first three volumes, he is not even present. Maybe it was more about world building up front, but not having the main character be in some of the early issues was just... weird.
I think more than anything, it is hard for me to like anything that isn't X-Men/Marvel adjacent. (Sorry, but not sorry!) It was cool to see the origins of Thor's sister (no, the other sister, Angela, created by Neil Gaiman and artist Todd McFarlane) who eventually crossed over into the Marvel Universe. In fact, that was probably my favorite sub-story of the first three collections.
All in all, would not recommend except from the perspective of a comics enthusiast looking to sample famous titles from the industry.
November 12, 2025
Aunque este tomo lo leí de la vieja edición mexicana que tenía una traducción espantosa, recuerdo estos capítulos como muy entretenidos y con un nivel de dibujo muy alto. Además, gran galería de villanos en estas historias.
March 27, 2013
See my review of Spawn Book 1
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews