Todd McFarlane's Spawn

Todd McFarlane's Spawn
This image depicts the logo of the animated television series Todd McFarlane's Spawn, which aired on HBO from 1997 through 1999.
Genre	Superhero Action Horror Suspense
Created by	Todd McFarlane
Developed by	Alan B. McElroy
Starring	Keith David as Spawn
Voices of	James Hanes Dominique Jennings James Keane John Rafter Lee Victor Love Michael McShane Michael Nicolosi Kath Soucie
Narrated by	Richard Dysart
Theme music composer	Shirley Walker Graeme Revell
Composer(s)	Shirley Walker J. Peter Robinson
Country of origin	USA
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	18
Production
Executive producer(s)	Todd McFarlane
Producer(s)	Catherine Winder
Running time	30 minutes (episodes) 150 minutes (films)
Release
Original network	HBO
Original release	May 16, 1997 – May 28, 1999
External links
Website

Todd McFarlane's Spawn is an animated television series which aired on HBO from 1997 through 1999. It is also released on DVD as a film series. It is based on the Spawn character from Image Comics, and was nominated for and won an Emmy in 1999 for Outstanding Animation Program (longer than one hour).

A sequel series titled Spawn: The Animation is in production since 2009, with Keith David reprising his role as the title character.

Todd McFarlane's Spawn was ranked 5th on IGN's list of "The Greatest Comic Book Cartoons of All Time", and 23rd on IGN's list of "Top 25 Primetime Animated Series of All Time."

The series centered around the story of an ex-serviceman named Al Simmons, who fought in the Vietnam War as a commando. He was betrayed and killed by a man whom he believed to be his close friend (the man, Chapel, burned him alive with a flamethrower). Upon his death, Simmons vowed revenge on Chapel and hoped that he would one day return to his beloved wife Wanda.

In order to accomplish his vow, he makes a pact with the Malebolgia (who was the overlord on the eighth plane of Hell). The pact was a simple one: Simmons would become a Soldier in Malebolgia's army (known as the "Hellspawn" or "Spawn" for short) in return for the ability to walk the earth once again in order to see Wanda. However, Simmons was tricked and his body was not returned to him; instead he had been given a different body which was a festering, pungently cadaverous, maggot-ridden walking corpse that had a massive living red cape attached to it. The head of this new body had been rotten for some time and was in an advanced state of decay, which led to Simmons donning a mask in order to cover its grotesque appearance.

Upon his return to "life", Spawn seeks out Wanda, who had apparently got over the grief of having lost Al and married another man, Al's best friend Terry Fitzgerald with whom she seemingly had a daughter, Cyan. Terry, a respectable man, works for a man named Jason Wynn. Wynn is a black-market arms dealer, amongst other things (such as the head of certain government organizations, one of which dispatched Al and his team to Vietnam), and is revealed to be the man responsible for the death of Al Simmons due to a disagreement the two had between each other. Jason's actions would also prove dangerous to the lives of Terry, Wanda and their daughter as well. Realizing that he is no longer the man in Wanda's life, Al swears to protect her and her new family.