Todd McFarlane Says Spawn #350 Is Good Jumping on Point for New Readers

For several decades and across multiple forms of media, the story of Todd McFarlane's Spawn has provided a unique twist on the superhero mythos. That ongoing adventure is expected to hit a fever pitch in the coming months, particularly with the release of February's Spawn #350, which will have line-wide implications on the Spawn universe. In a recent interview with ComicBook.com to promote Spawn #350, McFarlane teased exactly what that will entail — and how, in a roundabout way, it will catapult the series into a new-reader-friendly territory.

"It's always interesting to sort of go 'When can you pick up either lapsed readers and/or new readers?'" McFarlane explained in our interview, which you can check out above. "I think this is a spot, just like I think [Spawn] #300 was a spot. We did the two issues before issue #300 to sort of say 'If you missed the first 299 issues, here. You can catch up.' Here's why I think #350 is a good jumping on point — for two reasons. One, it, it finalizes the story that, in the back of my mind, has been sort of lamenting for — and this may be shocking – 250 issues. In issue #100 to Spawn, Spawn took his creator, his maker, and he cut his head off and said, 'No, I'm gonna be my own man.' And then he went on and went back to Earth and did his thing, which he's been doing for 250 issues. The problem with that is that that throne that his creator was sitting in has been empty. So there's been a power void, a vacuum in Hell. And there's been smaller scrums, and I've alluded to it, but now there's a climax of — who's gonna be Hell's next king? Who's gonna sit on the throne? And there's a couple of the villains that are making a massive effort towards it. One of them being the new and improved Clown, who's no longer a short little fat guy, he's big like Kingpin and is formidable. And Cogliostro has been around forever, and is basically now this sort of Magneto-type villain."

"They both are trying to get there for two reasons," McFarlane continued. "One, they both want to be the king. And two, whoever sits on the throne, their powers get augmented. However good they are now, they're gonna get better and for both of them, that means they can take down their enemies everywhere, whether it's Heaven, Hell, in the universe anywhere. That's it, it's game over if they go there. Now the climax is 'How do you solve this problem?' And one of the potential options is that Spawn himself doesn't want to, [but] may have to sit on it himself.  Basically, to use sort of bad vernacular, he needs to dick block them. 'I don't want to be there, but I'm the only one that can prevent them, and the only way to prevent them is to get to the throne before them.' So there's this race going on right now between sort of those three factions. And so #350 will climax the answer to that question of who sits upon the throne... The ramifications of that answer is gonna impact the Spawn mythology moving forward. Once you jump into #351, the universe is now changed because of that. There's gonna be a bit of a jump a few months in the future. And given that all my books are gonna be impacted by that, you can go 'Oh, I can start at #351 and I'm coming in at this new moment. I don't have to know, prior to that, anything.' I can just jump on at the new moment at #351, as we sort of start making plans for #400."

What Is Spawn #350 About?

Spawn #350 is described as a story 32 years in the making. This industry mainstay title that has constantly outsold some of the biggest names in the comic book industry will reveal to readers who will finally sit on the vacant "Throne Of Hell." Will it be Spawn? An enemy? Or someone else hiding in the shadows? And more importantly…are any of them worthy enough to claim the power of the throne? This anniversary issue will give answers to ALL those long-gestating questions, and the aftermath of which will continue into the four current titles (Spawn, Gunslinger Spawn, Scorched, and King Spawn).

"I think it's going to be in keeping with what I've done in the past; you're going to get a thick issue," McFarlane explained to ComicBook.com. "You're going to get terrific artwork. Brett Booth is coming on, he's going to be the new artist on the book. Carlo Barberi, who's been giving me years of his life, he's going to do one of the chapters on that before moving over to [Gunslinger Spawn]. So, visually, it's going to be a hell of a book, right? And then there's going to be... I don't know if it's a true twist ending, but hopefully there'll be a surprise to the end of it that people will go, 'What? Okay, cool.' But that surprise then, although it's a weird one, that although the story sort of culminates this 250 issues of Hell's Throne being vacant finally being filled, right? That's the punchline of the story. It gets filled."

What do you think of Todd McFarlane's new comments about Spawn? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Spawn #350 will be released wherever comics are sold on Wednesday, February 21st.