Spawn is Al Simmons, a government assassin who was murdered, went to Hell and made a deal with the demon Malebolgia to see his wife again. The price was his soul: he came back as a Hellspawn, a soldier for Hell's army, in a burned and broken body, five years after his death, to find his wife married to his best friend. His powers run on necroplasm, Hell's own energy, and his costume, cape and chains included, is a living parasite bonded to him.
Spawn launched at Image Comics in 1992 and has run ever since. There was also a live-action film in 1997 and an adult animated series in the late 1990s; this follows the comics unless it says otherwise. The prints on the Spawn shelf cover the man, the soldier and the alleys he haunts.
Who Al Simmons was
Al Simmons was a decorated soldier who became a covert operative for a US government agency, and in time its best assassin, working for a man called Jason Wynn. He was good at killing and less and less able to live with it. His wife, Wanda Blake, was the one thing he had that was not part of the job.
Wynn had him murdered on a mission. In the comics, the killing is an inside job by his own side; in the 1997 film, Wynn betrays him and he is burned to death at a weapons plant. Either way, a man with that many deaths on his hands goes to Hell.
Al Simmons is the man before and after the deal.
The Hellspawn deal with Malebolgia
Malebolgia is a demon lord who rules the Eighth Circle of Hell. Hell is preparing for its war against Heaven, and it needs officers. Its recruits are Hellspawn: dead humans, usually killers, remade with demonic power and sent back to Earth to harden. Al is far from the first.
Malebolgia offers Al a deal: become a Hellspawn, and he can see Wanda again. Al accepts. The small print does the rest. He returns five years after his death, with his body burned and his memory in pieces. When he remembers enough to find Wanda, she has married his best friend, Terry Fitzgerald, and they have a daughter, Cyan. He can watch them; he cannot go back.
That is the heart of the series: a man who sold his soul for love and got exactly what he asked for. He spends the issues that follow refusing to be Hell's soldier, and in issue 100 (2000) he goes back down and kills Malebolgia. Hellspawn is the soldier he was made into.
Necroplasm and the countdown
Necroplasm is the energy of Hell, and it is what keeps Spawn moving. His body is dead; necroplasm holds it together, heals it, fires as green energy from his hands, lets him teleport and lets him disguise himself as a living man.
In the early comics, the supply is finite. A Hellspawn starts with 9,999 units of power, and every use of it ticks the count down. When the count reaches zero, he is pulled back to Hell for good. That made every act of power a cost, and Al spends the early issues trying not to use what he has.
The cape, the chains and K7-Leetha
Spawn's costume is alive. It is K7-Leetha, a neural parasite from Hell, made of necroplasm and bonded to his nervous system for life. It moves on its own, protects him, and responds to his will and his danger.
The cape is the most visible part of it: a huge, ragged red shroud that can spread like wings to let him glide, wrap round him like armour, or lash out at an attacker. The chains move by themselves too, catching, binding and striking. Together they make a silhouette nothing else in comics shares, half monk and half hanged man.
It is easy to compare it with a symbiote, and the two do share the idea of a living costume, but K7-Leetha comes from Hell, not from space.
Violator, the clown
Violator is the demon Malebolgia sends to keep Spawn on track. He is one of five demon brothers, and on Earth he wears the shape of the Clown: a short, fat man in clown make-up who jokes his way through every cruelty. Under the disguise he is a huge demon with claws and a mouthful of fangs.
His job is to tempt and goad Al into using his powers and serving Hell, and to see that the Hellspawn does what he was made for. He mocks Al at every turn. The Clown is in the 1997 film too.
Rat City and the alleys
When Al has nowhere to go, he goes to the alleys of New York, a stretch of back streets where homeless people live, known as Rat City. He hides there, and over time he becomes its protector, the dead man watching over the people the city has forgotten.
Rat City is where he meets Cogliostro, an old homeless man who knows far too much about Hellspawn, and who becomes his reluctant guide. Two police detectives, Sam and Twitch, work the murders around him and become some of the few people who understand what he is. Rat City is that patch of the city on a print.
On the shelf
On the back of a tee
All three prints are on the Spawn shelf, drawn from canon reference art. Check the size guide before you pick a size.
Why Spawn works on the back: a red cape, chains and two green eyes on black make a shape that was built for posters, and a print gives the cape room to spread.
Read next: Viltrumites, the Guardians and the GDA: Invincible explained (another Image Comics hero with a dark deal at the centre) and Venom, Carnage and the symbiotes explained.
Back Issue is fan-made, unofficial merchandise. We are not affiliated with, licensed or endorsed by any studio, publisher or rights holder. Character names, titles and marks belong to their owners and are used only to describe what a design shows. Rights & IP