Having been a big fan of Spawn back in the day, and have been reading the comic book since the first issue was published and up well into issue 100-something, I must say that it was nice to actually sit down and watch this animated series based on Todd McFarlane's Spawn comic book.
Oddly enough, then I only made it through the first season back in the time when it was all new and just came out. But I drifted away from the series, only to return in 2021 and complete it. And turns out that I had been missing out on a great viewing experience indeed.
If you have read the comic books, then you will definitely feel right at home here, because this animated series does a good job at capturing the essence of Spawn and the whole universe that McFarlane created. Just a shame, though, that the series only ran for three seasons, as there was a lot, a whole lot, more to tell in this series.
"Spawn" is an animated series for the adults, as it does contain a good dose of explicit violence, nudity, foul language, substance abuse and such. So you might not want to introduce a younger audience to this series.
I think that by hiring Keith David for voicing the Spawn character, they really made a wise and excellent choice. His voice is just so unique and characteristic and really brought a lot of flavor to the Spawn character.
The art style they used in the series was very true to the art style seen in the comic books, lots of dark imagery and nice use of contract colors. It was visually a treat to sit through the three seasons of "Spawn", no doubt about that.
Something that I didn't like about the series was that every episode was kicked off by having creator Todd McFarlane sit or stand around with words of wisdom to share, and trying to be all enigmatic and gloomy. Yeah, yeah, we know that you created Spawn, and we know what you look like. But having him be around to host and start off each episode was just not something I enjoyed. It just came off as a bit too 'look at me, I'm famous'.
One thing that was missing from the three seasons was more of Angela. Sure, she was there, but way too briefly. She was definitely one of the more interesting characters in the comic books.
Whether or not you have read the comic books or am familiar with the Spawn franchise, then this animated series that ran from 1997 to 1999 is definitely something I would and will recommend that you sit down to watch, if you haven't already done so, and if you have the chance. This is top notch animated entertainment for an adult audience. And let's just be frank about it, Spawn totally wipes Batman off the charts here.
My rating of this animated series lands on a well-deserved nine out of ten stars.
