[00:00:01] Speaker A: Since the dawn of time, the throne of Hell has been one of the most powerful objects in the universe. In order to claim it, to wield its extraordinary power, one must either be a creature of hell. Or one who's been marked by it.
Good evening, and welcome to the Mal bulge. This is regarding spawn, the world's best spawn podcast. I am your co host, Jon Fisher.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: And I am your co host, David Williams. And Johnny, I feel like we're being watched. I feel like there's some presence paying attention to us that isn't here.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: I know. I feel like I'm a prey. I feel like I'm being hunted.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: What's that?
[00:01:08] Speaker A: Hunting. I feel like I'm being hunted because.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Hunted for what? Your sweetmeats?
[00:01:14] Speaker A: No, for my spawns. I mean, I got. He's. We're in his sights. We're here. Well, guys, welcome. It's a big episode today. As you probably know from the episode description, we're covering 350 finally. Finally. But we've also got a very special guest returning to the show for their second appearance, the Spawn hunter.
[00:01:33] Speaker C: Hey, what's up, guys?
[00:01:36] Speaker A: Welcome, welcome.
[00:01:37] Speaker C: Happy to be here.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Some spawn. Happy to be here. We're happy to have you.
[00:01:41] Speaker C: Thank you. It's always good to chill, sit back, especially where home alone, like I am right now. Also you, David. So it's great to just chill and just talk about Spawn, geek out, and keep up with the latest and greatest it's been.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Oh, let's see. We talked right before Spawn Con, and then we got to hang out there.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: A baby could have gestated in about that time, right?
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been about six months now.
I got my prints on the wall in the other room, so that's been great. I got all the stuff I got, and that's great. It's so funny. There's actually this new Star wars card game I've been playing, but you have to have this token for initiative, and I've been using my spawn coin from.
From spawn.com.
[00:02:24] Speaker C: It's a great coin.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: Got a nice feel to it.
[00:02:27] Speaker C: Oh, it's a great coin. I have it here somewhere. Oh, here it is. Yeah, it's a super great coin. And definitely everything that you got. A spawn con was just definitely a product of what, these group of friends, because that's who we are, that we love the character and just wanted to make something special. So I think out of everything that you have probably come across with, whether it's the merchandise, the t shirts, hats, I think one of those items, the coin came out. Really nice. And that was all the work from Jeff Monk, as you probably heard his name before. He's one of the artists that was involved with Spawncon. He is also on Thomas Healy sites to do a cover soon for Spawn, as he mentioned at Spawncon. And, yeah, so that coin was super popular. It sold out. It was, like, the first item that sold out from the spawn convention. And we're very happy and proud to have made such a wonderful little momentum for. From the convention. So, yeah, so it's really cool.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, there it is.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Nice. It's awesome.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I get compliments on my hat and my shirts all the time. Like, people really do you realize when you start wearing it around, there's, like, people remember spawn. He definitely made an impact on a lot of people in the nineties. And I think a lot of people will be like, I was at the airport one time, and the guy behind the bar was like, oh, spawn. Because I have my shirt on. And I was like, yeah. And I was telling him about, like, how there's the four new comics and all this stuff and how it's still going on. And he was like, oh, I have to check that out. Because he had no idea that it was still around. But it's just really endured. And it's cool to see that people really respond to the. To the hat and the shirt. Like, really do. It's funny. David, has someone recognized the violator?
[00:04:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Somebody was like, that's the violator. Awesome. And I wear that shirt all day.
[00:04:20] Speaker C: So you're referring to the eyes with the mouth, right? And.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:23] Speaker C: So there you go. Another wonderful creation by another of the guys that put this together, Dinah Morgan, who. He's an artist. And that idea came out from our first ever, ever conversation we had about Spawncon. We were. Have we. We met in Houston, and I told him, let's meet for dinner. We were having wings. And then he goes, spawn con. Hear me out. It was like those memes. You hear me? Spawn con. And so we're talking, talking, talking, and getting all super geeked out about the convention and ideas and exclusives. And then we talked about the eyes. About the eyes. The eyes are so iconic. The green eyes. And then how about violator eyes? And then, like, the t shirts are looking at each other. I'm like, oh, my gosh. So a year and a half later, to have shown those shirts to Todd McFarlane himself, and for him to say, I like those.
And he really, really liked the eye shirts. And so for somebody like Dino, who's a fan, an artist, and to have those t shirts officially licensed by. Talk about foreign productions. I mean, what a wonderful outcome for an artist, for someone who. Who can say, hey, that t shirt design, it's licensed. And I. And I created that, like, for him to say that. So I'm very happy for Dino and. And happy that you guys love that shirt too, because it is one of my favorite shirts.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: I'm. I'm. I'm already sad for when the. When it, like, is full of holes and you can't tell what it is anymore.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: Vintage, man.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: But then you can sell it on eBay.
[00:06:08] Speaker C: I would not. Of course.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Then it's vintage. Exactly.
Exactly.
Well, speaking of vintage spawn here, it's getting old because we're going to be covering, as I said earlier, issue 350. But where are we? What are we? I haven't done the full intro, David. Oh, my God.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. No, you haven't. No, we got too excited. You were fearing for your life too much.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: Because I was being hunted. No, it is. We are respawn, and we're. Each week we bring you two issues from spawn universe. Except when we don't. This is one of the special occasions we don't because it's a double sized, big old issue. So we figured we'd just do the one. This is Spawn 350, the record breaker. Everyone's a record breaker, but this is, like, a more important record breaker.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: The Todd father was feeling sassy on this one because he put it right on the front.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Put it right on the COVID Right on the front.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: There's this great interview. He says, whenever I feel sassy, I'm going to put it on the COVID So I guess he was feeling sassy this week. 350, we're talking about with, uh, with spawn hunter here. Yeah. Tidy. Actually, let me ask, do you care if we use your real name?
[00:07:10] Speaker C: Oh, of course, Ty. Whatever. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: Okay, cool. I wasn't sure. You never know. Okay, cool. And so we're here talking with Ty here. One thing with spawn that everyone always talks about is the covers. Of course, we just had cover artist Mark Spears on the show, so that was pretty fun.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: He was absolute sweetheart. If you ever get the chance to meet Mark Spears, Ty, meet Mark Spears.
[00:07:31] Speaker C: I'm going to put him in that list of guests for spawn con, too.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: Oh, he loves. He's. He's. He was really enthusiastic, and he seemed like he knew a lot about the lore and stuff.
[00:07:40] Speaker C: Oh, that's awesome.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. His stuff. So. His stuff. So insane. Like the. The painted stuff that he does, it's just.
[00:07:48] Speaker C: It's very much. I get these Alex Ross vibes from back then, so, like. Yeah, and plus you add a little bit of, uh, like. Like that gothic dark element that he does with his colors and the way. I don't know. It's hard to explain. Not an artist, but I really like it. So. Yeah, man, you'd like to have him.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: It's. It's a lovely, like, viscerally weird way. Like, this is what a monster would look like if you came across him in the street and it just hit you in a weird way. It's like, oh, God. Oh, I would not. I would not want to be near that. Yeah, absolutely.
If you saw Jericho out on the streets. Nah, fuck outta here.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: He probably smells really bad.
There are six kind of regular covers for this, and then there's a very special cover, which I don't have because I don't know. I don't know what my comic store did with theirs.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: I was offered the one per store cover at my shop, and I was like, sure, how much is it? And then I was like, I cannot afford that much spot. Sorry.
[00:08:53] Speaker C: Yeah, how much.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: How much were they trying to get?
[00:08:55] Speaker B: They were. They were selling it for 300.
[00:08:58] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: 300. Almost a dollar per issue number, so. Yeah, but that was. That was an in store discount because I actually think it was 375 on there.
[00:09:08] Speaker C: Wow.
Yeah.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: Oh, that's nice.
[00:09:10] Speaker C: Yeah, that. That covers. And I think just like with everything else that Todd McFarlane kind of puts out.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:17] Speaker C: It's, uh, it gets you on that fomo, right? Fear of missing out. And that cover was hyped up, and everybody was just, like, had to have it. And, yeah, I think on eBay has kind of plateau at around maybe $300 now for the product, for the book, but it gets better because you probably know that there's a copy of that book that was not signed, so it's a virgin, like, no signature cover of that same thank you book. And that is probably even more rare than the signed one.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: Wow. It's the only one not signed. Wow.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: That's kind of sounds like it's going to be a bit like the missing box of mortal Kombat that was found in a closet.
[00:09:59] Speaker C: Yes. It's on eBay right now, and it's.
I think it's already broke $1,000.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: That's impressive, man.
You know how much I wish I could just casually drop a four digit number on just some spawn. Not even some spawn. Ace one of them.
[00:10:22] Speaker C: Yeah, well, the statue just came out two days ago, Thursday, and that statue was $500 for statue. Yeah.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: So was that the Batman?
[00:10:33] Speaker C: Yeah, the Batman's pawn statue. Yeah. So, no, it's the collectible. The collectibles are getting pretty much up there when it comes to pricing. And so as fans, we have to kind of, like, drive this ship on. Where are we going to take our collections? Where do we want to take our hobby? Right, so you got the guys collecting every cover of 350. You got every guy collecting all the variants, the sketch covers, and guys like myself that I like the toys, you know, I have to get the platinum chase or want to keep seal, want to open. So even that kind of plays a role into my collecting, because do I want to spend double the money on figures that I'm just going to open and keep one seal, or I want to just buy one to keep seal? So, yeah, I mean, like, it's adding up. So it's something that we can talk about for lengths at another episode, but the toy collecting, space, spending, it's definitely something to reconsider.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: I dabble. I used to. I used to, back in the day, I used to collect the Star wars power of the Force line. When I was younger, I had pretty much all of them, and I was buying. It's funny to see, because you go to the comic con now, and those are just everywhere, but I feel like the spawn stuff is so much more rare and collectible. Like, they hold their value, and it seems like more than, like, the Star wars stuff. Everyone is. The stuff you never expect to be valuable is the stuff that is valuable. Like, no one kept, you know, if they kept a spawn, the dark ages, you know, but, like, everyone kept a Luke Skywalker in box, but everyone had one of those because they thought it was going to be worth something. I don't know. That's just my experience with it. It's always the stuff you never expect that's going to be the one thing that people want.
[00:12:15] Speaker C: It makes sense. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: So speaking, speaking of platinum chase variants, real quick, if I may. Did you happen to get that chase variant of the disruptor with the original anti spawn paint job?
[00:12:29] Speaker C: I did. I did, I did.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: Oh, man. I'm quite envious right now. I'm not gonna lie.
[00:12:35] Speaker C: When it comes to spawn collectibles, it's like, it's not even a question.
I will move the earth and the sea to find that particular item. And a lot of times, to be honest with you, David, it's from other friends that also collect Spawn, and they're like, hey, tonight I found it. Or tonight I was able to get an extra one, and it's like, oh, thanks, man. I was not able to find it. And so a lot of it, seriously, it's. As much as I like to say, I'm going out and hunting, a lot of it also comes from my friends that are out there doing the hunt as well.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: Sounds like you need to change your name to the spawn hunter gadget.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: The spawn network.
Spawn hunting network.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like your agents.
[00:13:22] Speaker C: We all help each other.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: It's a great community.
We talk about it all the time. We love how much everybody is just very positive in the spawn community.
[00:13:37] Speaker C: Very much so. Very much. And your listeners, they know that we talk about that. The community, it's so interconnected when it comes to the podcast, the videos, the youtubers, and everything else. And the collectors, like myself and the other people out there, we are. We all know each other. It's such a niche group of people that we are just know each other, and. And we're helping each other. I like that. That's one of the things I really enjoy about the hobby. Our hobby is that it's. It's knock on wood. It's been so drama free in that sense, and we just help each other and make this more enjoyable.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: It's a fun circus. It's like, instead of the classic circus tent, it's just a big red tent.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: Coming from being a big Star wars fan a lot of my life, I know a lot about fan drama. Yeah, that's, like one of the worst.
[00:14:27] Speaker C: Yes. No.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: They either love or hate anything. It's so extreme.
[00:14:32] Speaker C: I like when you get there.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: Same thing with Star Trek. The number one thing about Star Trek fans is they love to complain about current Star Trek, and then in, like, ten years, be like, that was the best Star Trek ever.
[00:14:45] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: That's pretty much everybody.
[00:14:47] Speaker C: There you go. It's like Star wars and the prequels now. They're like, oh, they were so good. And, like, back then, like, they hated it.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. We just. We just watched episode two because we were doing a Star Wars Day special. We're covering each movie and each. So once a year, we're gonna do a Star wars movie. And this is our second year doing the podcast where we hit may the fourth, and so we did episode two. And it was just funny to, like, think about. I mean, that movie is. There's some parts of this age really poorly, but it's just funny to think about, like, when it came out and then the reaction to it now, like, after that movie came out, you would. I would have never, if someone was like, oh, they'll bring Hayden Christensen back for a tv show. I said, yeah, right. They're never gonna do that. And no, no hate, no ill will against Hayden Christensen. But it's just funny because, like, at the time, everyone hated it so much, that would be out of the question.
[00:15:38] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: And now it's like they bring him in, and everyone's like, yeah. And they love it, which is good for them. Like, it's nice to be redeemed, I bet, but it's just funny to think about for sure.
[00:15:48] Speaker C: And who knows? Maybe we'll get that kind of feedback 20 years down the road for the spawn movie from 1997.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: But that's, there's some fans coming up. I mean, there are some people that are liking it.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: It feels like not a week goes by that I don't see, see, or hear something on the Internet about John Leguizamo as cloud clown being one of the best performances.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: He absolutely killed.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: He did. He said, I would say he saved the movie in a lot of ways.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Oh, he made it for sure.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Every time I see Michael J. White in a movie, it's Michael J. White parentheses, from spawn.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: He's always spawned to me. I liked him too. I thought he did a good job.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: With what he did.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: And I think he was.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: He did. He did.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Yeah. I think if they had hired a different Terry, it would have had a much different flavor. Just can't get over DB. DB white, is that not Sweeney?
[00:16:39] Speaker A: He's the white guy, but DB Sweeney.
[00:16:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: Might as well be db white guy. Yeah. That's the problem with that Terry.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Nothing against DB Sweeney, but he just doesn't have the charisma that I want in a Terry Fitzgerald.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: He really doesn't.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: Yeah, we've been, we've been reading a lot of old spawn recently, and, man, Terry Fitzgerald is a nice hunk of man meat. I'm not gonna lie.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: He's buff.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Yeah, he's some eye candy.
[00:17:08] Speaker C: Yeah, he definitely could have. Could have been. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I mean, man, we could have a whole two part episode about talking about the movie.
With all the stuff that's. That I've learned over the years just from talking to other fans, talking to people that were involved with the movie. And, man, yeah, there's so much to talk about. If, for our spawn friends about the movie, that would be. Maybe I'm just giving you an idea that if you ever want to talk about the movie. That would be a great episode for you guys to do about the movie.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. Well, I think our, I think our plan is we're trying to save it for when the new. When a new movie comes out. And then each episode that month would be about the old movie would be the joke.
[00:17:48] Speaker C: All right.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: And then we do another month about the. Or, then we finally, the end of the month, have the new movie.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: Fair enough.
[00:17:54] Speaker C: Fair enough.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: But hopefully we're saving it for it, so. But if it gets too late, we might have to bust it out.
[00:17:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:18:01] Speaker A: That's a big car.
[00:18:02] Speaker C: Yeah. We might have wheelchairs by then. And I know.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: Exactly. I won't be able to read the spawn. I can't see it. I'll be like, who's spawned?
Who is this guy? Well, who is this guy? Well, he is the guy on most of these covers here, which is interesting choice, because I guess you didn't have to necessarily do all spawn, but they did.
And I think my personal favorite's probably the puppeteer Lee one.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: The just standard issue one. That's the one.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: The first. Yeah. Oh, sorry. It's like. But yeah, the puppeteer Lee. That's probably my personal favorite.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: The puppeteer Lee one is great. Just cause puppeteerly is incredible. I've got the Jonathan Galapion as well, and I just love Jonathan Galapion's covers. They're incredible.
[00:18:50] Speaker C: They are. And you know that fun fact about that cover, about how there are 350 rats?
[00:19:01] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:19:01] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: I didn't know.
[00:19:02] Speaker C: If you count them, there's 350 pairs of eyes for the little rats.
Yeah.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: I'll take your word for it.
[00:19:15] Speaker C: So at Spawncon, Mister Glapion was kind enough to grace us with his presence at Spawn Con, and he brought that same cover, the original art of that cover, to the convention, and he told us, yep, count them. There's 350 rats. And he said he didn't intend to, and he was just, like, putting the, the eyes here and there, and then his wife was the one like, you know, why don't you just put 350? And there he goes. So he, he went all out and got the 350 pair rat's eyes in there. Yeah. Cool little Easter egg for you guys.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: Do you, do you have a favorite cover of this set?
[00:19:59] Speaker C: I have to say that puppeteer Lee is definitely one of my. Just for the striking image of his art. Very photorealistic, right?
Very gothic, eerie, dark.
Has so much presence as it is, plus holding that big axe chains just kind of going out. And then the cape. The cape just brings it all together for me. So. So, like, if I remove the lettering and the. And the icons and all that, and, and if I went to Italy and I'm walking around and I see this painting, I would be like, holy shit. This is insane.
Right? So, yeah, so I like that for that reason. And then my second favorite one is Mister Clapian's cover. I thought he did a really cool job. He. He captures the comic feeling of spawn, and that's. And that's how I grew up with. With that comic, comic presence and that. So I like both.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[00:21:03] Speaker A: Well, you got the Todd father himself doing one, which his spawns like, he's pretty haggard. He's like. He's, like, beat up.
[00:21:11] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: If you can see it, David.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: He just looks. He looks. He's not beat up. He just looks like. He looks like a great weight is on his shoulders, which I guess there is drained.
He looks drained. Right.
And then you've also got, of course they have one. They give one each to Carlo Barberry and to Brett Booth. And that's fun because they're both just like, you know, kind of showing off their classic, you know, their style spawn. And they both look really good.
[00:21:40] Speaker C: Yes. I was surprised, I have to say, now that we're talking about the covers, if that's okay with you guys. I'm surprised there was not a Greg Capullo cover. Am I wrong?
[00:21:49] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, for 350, you thought he would have come back, right? Maybe done one.
[00:21:53] Speaker C: Right? So I was surprised about that.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Heavy hitters in here, but it's all the modern kind of guys.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: That's weird now that I'm thinking about it, because I know that Greg Capullo now is doing Marvel again for a long time, and I wonder if part of his Marvel contract was because that they wanted him only on marvel stuff for, like, the length of his contract. So I wonder if that might have been part of it.
[00:22:17] Speaker C: It's possible.
[00:22:17] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:18] Speaker C: But I was surprised that for an event issue, that he was not. He didn't do a cover. And I feel like it's always, we're also so used to having that Greg Capullo reminder that, hey, there's Greg's cover. Right. And I didn't see it, but who knows? Yeah, that might be a really good, valid reason for contract wise to not be involved in any other products other than Marvel.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Yeah. I have to apologize at this point, Johnny. Apparently my neighbors are listening to music in the street, so we might have some. We might have some backing tracks.
[00:22:54] Speaker C: Oh, I don't hear it.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Episode.
Okay.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: I don't hear it. So you're probably. Okay.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:59] Speaker A: That's the six. Oh, there's also a sketch cover. That's right. There's a sketch cover of McFarlane McFarland's cover. So those are the six covers, which is, you know, honestly, that seems like a lot for one issue, but, like, that's not a lot, like, compared to what other people would do for something as big as 350.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: If it was Marvel, it'd have, like, 20 covers or something.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: Or even compared to just Batman Spawn. Spawn. Batman. Which one was the. Which one was the recent one?
[00:23:25] Speaker C: Batman Spawn.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: Yeah, Batman Spawn.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: That one had. That one had a ton of covers.
[00:23:31] Speaker C: Yes. Yes.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: Yeah. But that was a DC joint. That's why it had all the covers. I think that's what Thomas Healy said at Spawncon. Anyway.
[00:23:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: And see, because he was talking about.
[00:23:42] Speaker C: That, I liked that for 350, there were only those six covers because it made it, how do I say it? Approachable. He made it very maybe easy for any fan to go out there, even a new fan, to say, hey, I want to collect all the covers. And they were readily available at any store. So I went to a lot of comic book stores when 350 came out, and I had no issues finding any of the covers. Even the sketch cover by Todd, it was not a problem. And then. But where they adjusted that, the variant was just to get that thank you book. Right. So they made. They upped it to make it more difficult for the hardcore collectors to find that other cover. But I appreciate the less amount of covers and focus on the story, which we'll delve into. But the story is, to me, what knocked it out of the ballpark, how well that story was executed.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: Definitely. Well, let's get into it then. First up, we got the credits, of course, we got to run through, but script plot by Rory McConville, who's done a really. This is kind of his victory lap on his run here and his, like, big climax. And I thought, he's done excellent work for the last couple years. He's been on spawn.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:02] Speaker A: With additional script, of course, by Todd McFarlane, of course.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Can't get far without that double duty on art.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: Brett Booth and Carlo Barberi.
Inks by Carlo Barberi and Adelso Corona. Colors by J. David Ramos.
Lettering by the great Tom wards house.
[00:25:20] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: Hell yeah.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: He gets a great shout out at the end of this.
We already covered the covers.
And creative directors Todd McFarlane and Thomas Healy is editor in chief, I saw that he was enjoying a nice weekend after having done Rat City, so I'm glad that he got. Thomas healy got a little bit of a break because he seems like the busiest man I've ever seen.
[00:25:44] Speaker C: Yeah, man. Especially, has he gone through quite a bit these past few months, too, right?
[00:25:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And, like, immediate sell out at the retail level for Rat City. So it already has a second printing and it's only been out for, like, four days.
[00:26:01] Speaker C: Yes. So, I mean, like, man, I mean, talk about netter. That had the 350, that all these issues coming out, preparation for the issues, and then you had the spot spawn spawning contest and all the, I guess we could say, drama behind that, too, with the AI cover and all of that. And he was practically on the receiving end of everything, whether it was praise and whether it was complaints and whether it was all of that. So I think he, he, he's taking a lot and he's handled it very professionally. And so when I saw him posting that picture of him relaxing, I wrote salute. Like, cheers, man, here. Like, relax. Yes.
Because that amount is just very stressful. So.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: Yeah, true, true, true.
It's a lot.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: I missed some of that. There was, um, there's AI art that was in the spawnuary.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: Yeah, apparently. What? What? Like, it's, it's, uh, handle name was actually something about, like, robot art or something like that. And it's just a AI art account.
[00:27:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: Oh, wow. I didn't realize.
[00:27:12] Speaker C: Yeah, that's. There's a whole, there's a whole lots of material to read about that. Yeah.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: So, okay, I'll check it out. I'll go down the rabbit hole.
[00:27:21] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: Or you could just, you could just stay happy and avoid it and just trust that somebody else is going to take care of it.
I think it's true.
[00:27:31] Speaker C: I think at the end of the day, it's going to have to be coming down to the fans and how they see things, how they are now, because it's a question of the old school, traditional pencil artist guy and then the guy who just kind of rely on technology to create the art. So where you stand is the question that only you can answer. And do they both meet at some point in the middle? I don't know. Can they? I don't know. I think only time will tell.
[00:28:05] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it's hard because a lot of the templates that the AI art generators use are based off of massive amounts of content that other people have already created. So it's kind of like the same argument that people had with hip hop back in the day. Where is sampling stealing? Or is sampling making something new from something that exists? Only this takes the intentional creation out of it. If it's just a robot doing what it's told.
Yeah, I'd still say pay artists. They deserve it. They make good shit. Yes. Yes.
[00:28:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
I'll be curious to see what John gets out of reading about it. When later down the road.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: Oh, curious. I'll check it out.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: You might go on a David style rant.
You forgot the previously, Johnny.
[00:28:58] Speaker A: Oh, I forgot the. Previously on oh, previously in Spawn.
Spawn has arrived, and the final battle for the fate of the throne has begun. Who will take the throne and become the new monarch of hell?
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Gender neutral title there. Hmm?
[00:29:17] Speaker A: The new monarch. Yeah, that's right.
[00:29:21] Speaker B: I don't know if he listens to our Thomas Healy spoilers for, like, 45 minutes from now when we get there, but I don't know if you listen to our Thomas Healy episode, but I correctly guessed who sits on the throne.
And after this issue. After this issue came out, Johnny was like, he had to have been just sweating it.
Like, the fact that he wasn't allowed to say anything at that time. It just had to have gotten.
[00:29:49] Speaker C: No, I bet. I bet. Now I have to check it out. I feel like I watched every interview with him, but I missed that one. I have to watch it. I have to listen to it.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: He's. I know you've talked to him personally. He's a great guy to talk to.
[00:30:00] Speaker C: He is very smart guy.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Well, speaking of smart guys, we got spawn here, and he's in the infernal keep, and we're opening up on that. But basically, the opening quote is the opening of this that I did. I read at the beginning of the.
[00:30:14] Speaker B: Episode, he's looking pretty rough, too. Look at him.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: He's looking pretty rough.
[00:30:18] Speaker B: He's got some meatball face showing from behind his mask.
[00:30:22] Speaker A: But then you got Wanda, who's, like, kind of watching over and hoping that things go well and then make chaos where you get the whole scorch going kind of crazy fighting everyone. They're doing the big battle that we've been leading up to. And I love. This is great, because you get all that Brett Booth detail here right when you get into the scorch. I love Brett Booth's.
Just his fine detail and everything, and attention to that.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: I really appreciated this panel, where it's just a whole bunch of demons, a whole bunch of Brett Booth demonstration. Cause he hasn't gotten to do this very much.
So, like, immediately.
[00:30:59] Speaker C: I love his art. He is such a good artist when it comes to spawn.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: Yeah, but this is like, a little. It's like the pope. It's like the thing in the pope where the smoke comes out of the chimney when they pick the new pope. That's what's going on here.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's a big, green, just explosion when the new monarch sits down and we get, you know, everybody's just staring at it, like, oh, God, I guess. Oh, my.
What would the hell version of oh, my God be?
[00:31:34] Speaker A: There is not one. There's no malvulsia. Well, all my nicks.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: Oh, my nicks. All my nicks. Well, I mean, the light has been brung, so this is technically a luciferase, which is very fun with the lightbringer.
[00:31:52] Speaker A: Oh, is that what. That's what Lucifer means, right?
[00:31:53] Speaker B: Yeah, Lucifer means the lightbringer. And there's actually a scientific assay called the luciferase assay, where it's based on the amount of light that's exhibited by a reaction.
[00:32:05] Speaker C: Oh, wow.
[00:32:06] Speaker B: I find fun because then I get to work with Satan on a regular day basis, the more, you know, and Redeemer has the dramatic face toward the camera.
Hell has a new king.
[00:32:24] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's like a little prologue you get.
[00:32:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: And then it jumps to ten minutes, ten minutes earlier.
[00:32:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Boy, I like that. I like that. How? Kind of like the movies, right, where you watch the movie where it's kind of like the climax point, and then you're like. Then he jumps back to, like, how we got there. So that was pretty cool.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: It reminds me of, like, the beginning of almost, like, the Lord of the Rings movies. They always start with some kind of really cool thing and then go to something else afterwards or go back or give you better context of the thing you saw. And it's a fun device, and it's just.
Yeah, this is, like, like you said, this is a great. Like you said, the story is kind of king in this issue. And, like, it really does. Like, you know, a lot of people, you can hear people say, like, oh, I just buy spawn for the covers or, like, you know, whatever. And this really shows that, like, the story can be really exciting and epic. And just, like, I immediately read 351 after this. When I read it this morning, I was like, oh, man, I want to read the next one. Just because I was super. Couldn't remember what happened. But just the way it's constructed with the flashing back and then, like, the reveal of finally who is going to take the throne, I think, is really, really well done.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like, it's like one of my favorite devices, the time. The time loop movie, where in one of the subsequent trips round the time loop, they go to a different part of the action. And it's just those people over there. That's what they did the whole time. Yeah. Regardless of what you were doing over here.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: Yeah, sin's looking pretty cool.
[00:34:01] Speaker B: Yeah, we, at this point, when our audio guy, Bran, was doing, doing their read through on 350 day, they were like, who's this green guy? And we were like, eh, it doesn't matter.
Don't worry about it.
[00:34:17] Speaker A: He won't be allowed. He won't be around much longer.
And that's what. That's actually what's good about this issue. I was trying to look at it this time. I read it through some, like, fresh eyes. And, like, it, uh. It is a good jumping on point, because it's just like, all you need to know is like, these are the bad guys, these are the good guys. And they're fighting this throne, and it resets everything so well that it's a good jumping on point. Like I jumped on.
[00:34:43] Speaker C: Yeah, it really is. And you bring up a good point. Is that so? You saw the box of diamond, had a bunch of 350s that were given to me, and I gave about ten of them to colleagues at work. So I was doing a. I was doing a training class. I was the instructor, and I. And at the last, hey, guys, you guys know. You know, I do spawn and all that stuff, so here's a copy each. And they exactly agreed with what you just said, john, that it was so easy to understand. Like, oh, guys, bad guys. And they're fighting, and it's so freaking awesome. Like, they just saw the action and the sequencing of the issue that they didn't have to understand. Like, oh, who's the good guy? Who's the bad guy? They understood it without even knowing one thing about spawn. So, yeah, it is a great starting point, this issue.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Even if you have a little bit of knowledge. There's a guy, when we were doing 350 day, we had, like, a live event at our comic shop. And we were, like, talking to people. And this one guy that was picking it up to be.
Yeah, he was going to be his jumping on point, but he was just really curious about spawn. It was cool to see.
[00:35:50] Speaker B: I think it was his cousin. His cousin was into spawn. And he was like, I guess I should get into this. And so he was getting into it that day.
[00:35:59] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:36:00] Speaker B: That's always fun. Meeting people at the comic shop. Like, when Rat City came out, the guy behind me in line was buying an issue of Rat City, and I was like, ah, I got to talk to you about this. So he was a king spawn rat city guy now. So it's always good.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: So, yeah, sin's coming in. The keep clown's already there. This is where the brawl kind of starts. Really?
[00:36:28] Speaker B: Yeah. The man sin, to this point, so this page, he's just, like, walking down the hallway, exploding people's heads with necroplasm, and then he gets into the room with clown, and then just, you know, he whams and he bams. And then they, thank you, ma'ams.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: I like, the clown turns into, like, the violator, but he has, like, the leather jacket on.
[00:36:50] Speaker B: Yeah, he's like a. Like, a violator hybrid because the. The original violator was separated from him. So it's, I guess, just latent fleabiac DNA that he's. He's flexing or something.
[00:37:02] Speaker C: It's. Yeah, definitely a lot of stuff going on with that. Yes. Not just we. Not only that, we get that awesome fight between sin and clown. Clown, aka violator, but, yes, lots of talk about this violator look, because as you can see, he's not. He's not your short, chubby, short arm, short leg guy. He is like, you know, he's got the whole chain, the jacket, and then that hybrid look of the violator. Yeah, it's definitely brings a different mix. It kind of reminds me of how with Hulk, they had savage hulk. Smart hulk. And I think, in a way, I see this violator, like, something like that. Like, where it's like a new version of the violator, which I'm sure we'll get in an action figure form at some point. There we go.
[00:37:49] Speaker A: Oh, of course.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: That would be. That would be a great action figure. And it would be easier to pose than the regular violator because he's not got these lippy arms that you gotta balance.
[00:37:59] Speaker C: Exactly. But, yeah, that fight sequence was very well executed.
[00:38:06] Speaker B: They're fighting under the long, rotten out eyes of their old master, Malbolgia. Yeah, this would be a fun product for them to make, like, a fake taxidermied head, only it's a rotten Malbolgia skull.
[00:38:21] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:38:24] Speaker A: You make, like, a thrown playset with a skull over it.
[00:38:27] Speaker C: That's what I was thinking, too. Where is that makes.
[00:38:29] Speaker A: Makes.
[00:38:30] Speaker B: Makes you wonder, since this is obviously mounted on the wall, if they have, like, a malbolgia skin rug on the floor, that would be hilarious.
It's just really skinny. But then it gets to the pot belly part, and it's real big.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: And he's hairy enough to make a rug.
[00:38:50] Speaker B: While Simmons and clown are fighting, Al Simmons just, you know, busts in with his big ass, big ass nineties gun.
[00:38:58] Speaker A: This is the gun he took from heaven.
[00:39:01] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah.
[00:39:02] Speaker A: Yeah. He went up to go get it with haunt.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, boy. And it's enough to eliminate a single necroplasm powered hellspawn. And it only does a little bit on sin since he's, you know, eated a lot of. A lot of necroplasm.
He's just full of it.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: He says multiple within him.
[00:39:26] Speaker C: Yeah, the. The colors here too. I mean, just the fire in the background. Oh, yeah, that. The orange, the reds. I mean, just the sequence when spawn is just shooting that weapon, it is just pretty impressive.
[00:39:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, I love Bret Booth's art. Always feels like. It's like we always say. It's like it's vibrating. It feels like it's almost about to move. It was just so energetic.
[00:39:54] Speaker B: And then this. This next, like, I.
I hesitate to call it a two page spread, but it's basically a two page spread. Okay.
[00:40:01] Speaker C: It is. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:40:03] Speaker B: It's just a whole bunch of different images on it, though. But, like, I can basically feel this fight moving. It's so well choreographed with.
[00:40:10] Speaker A: Yeah, it looks so awesome.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: With violator on one side and spawn on the other side and sit in the middle and they're all fighting each other. Oh, boy.
[00:40:19] Speaker C: Definitely. It's a double page spread that could sell for a lot at a convention.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
Oh, yeah. If you get that art. Yeah.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: I like the little mention of somebody in sin's camp saying that destiny has brought them to this moment.
And when I was reading this again to prep for this, I was wondering if there might have been a deleted scene that the toddfather wrote of sin leaving his camp and somebody saying, destiny's brought us to this point. And then sin, like, grabbing this dude by the head and said, nah, I fucking did this, and then killed.
[00:40:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: Because, you know, that's definitely what happened to the guy who tried to blame this on destiny. Sin wouldn't have it. No, no, no. He put too much work in this for it to be forced beyond his control.
[00:41:06] Speaker A: Yeah, well, sin so, like, selfish and full of himself too.
[00:41:11] Speaker B: I thought you were about to say even tempered.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: And no magnanimous cog's in it for himself, man.
[00:41:20] Speaker B: Yeah, he sure is for himself in that strawberry ripple.
Yep.
[00:41:24] Speaker A: He's supposed to be drinking in the alley like he was in the early, early issues. He's drinking all this stuff.
[00:41:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
I have a question about Hell's ultimate pinnacle degree.
Is that degree sign supposed to be there?
[00:41:38] Speaker A: What?
[00:41:39] Speaker B: On the very last bit of narration on the page, it says, by acquiring Hell's ultimate pinnacle degree, exclamation mark.
[00:41:48] Speaker A: I don't know. Oh, I didn't even notice that.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: Is that a typo or is the degree sign supposed to be there?
[00:41:56] Speaker C: I'm going to go with typo.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm going to go with typo.
[00:42:00] Speaker B: Very exciting. We haven't covered a typo in a while. I like it.
[00:42:04] Speaker C: I mean, like, unless. Unless, I mean, like, if it was one of those, you know, how it. It tells you as read on issue, whatever. Right.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:17] Speaker B: There's no footnotes.
[00:42:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
And why would the reference be. The only reference I would probably put in would be issue 100, where it's where we.
[00:42:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:42:28] Speaker C: Where things were left off. So. So, yeah, but. But I think. Yeah, I never know. I never noticed that little.
[00:42:37] Speaker A: So they're also thrashing at each other trying to get to the throne.
[00:42:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Violator gets a couple of good shuts in on sin's face there. He gives him the.
He makes it look like scar. Gives him the scar treatment there.
[00:42:51] Speaker A: Sin tells him to basically, like, you gotta get with it, man.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:55] Speaker A: It's gonna be humans, you know, you gotta get wise.
[00:42:59] Speaker B: That's why Mel Bolsher didn't let a hell person wear the symbiote suit in the first place.
[00:43:04] Speaker C: Yeah. There's a lot of resentment that the violator the clown has always kind of taken on since issue two when he made his first appearance. And it's something that his angle is always gonna be that he wants to rule hell and he feels that somehow he's viewed as inferior because many reasons, including the one that Sen mentions in there, there's a reason why you didn't get a symbiote, like you said, or even Malbolgia will consider you to rule hell.
Yeah, for sure.
[00:43:42] Speaker B: And I like that. Obviously, their sort of positions are very clearly stated here. So that way, coming to it, you know, cold, you understand that these two have beef, but that Rory McConville has, like, been building the sort of atmosphere of beef around these two ever since, like, the beginning of his run, where he started with violator and Coleostro worked together to create the symbiote in the first place. So. So they. They have longstanding resentments from hating having to work with each other millennia ago, and it just, they've never been able to resolve it. So. So it's been, it's been real nice to sort of see that relationship of hate grow.
[00:44:29] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:44:31] Speaker B: So it's there no matter what, but you get a little bit of extra flavor with it for having had followed the story.
[00:44:38] Speaker C: It gives them more layers to the, to these characters. They're just not just characters that I don't like you. No. This is something that's been built upon layer on layer and layer. So. Yeah, definitely. Good, good build.
[00:44:51] Speaker A: I forgot the royal convalescent introduced that part where they were working together. I was like, early in his run.
[00:44:57] Speaker B: How could you forget about the story of Coleostro, man?
[00:45:02] Speaker A: No, I remember the story of Coleostro. I just forgot it was in there. Yeah, I know.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: They said he's with the council meeting that they're having with the purple guy, and nobody brought donuts.
[00:45:12] Speaker A: I remember that now. I remember that now.
There's just so much spawn, David. There's so much.
[00:45:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's true.
And then we get one of the first things that while. So Johnny let me read the issue first.
[00:45:26] Speaker A: We were sitting there at the comic shop doing a booth and giving out stickers.
So, yeah, I handed it to David to read first.
[00:45:33] Speaker B: And we're, at the first time I went, holy shit. And Johnny was like, what? No, don't tell me. What? No, don't tell me.
Then, you know, and then I knew to watch him when he got around this page too. And then Bran, listening to Bran go, oh, holy shit.
[00:45:51] Speaker C: There's a Malbolge ahead to keep us company.
[00:45:55] Speaker A: Oh, that's awesome.
[00:45:56] Speaker B: That's gross.
[00:45:58] Speaker A: It's like a Malbolgia sculpture. Gross head.
That's awesome.
[00:46:05] Speaker B: I like that. The necroplasm mixture becomes the pedestal that it stands up on. That's a pretty great design.
[00:46:13] Speaker C: Yes.
They don't make him like they used to.
[00:46:19] Speaker A: Was that an action figure?
[00:46:21] Speaker C: Yeah, series 20 classics. It came with the spawn figure, which is right here.
[00:46:27] Speaker A: He's, like, holding the head.
[00:46:28] Speaker C: Yeah. So you get that figure. I added the, I added the green effects there, but it. This is what you get. And he comes with this. Like, this is the accessory. So even the knife, it's all bloody.
[00:46:41] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:46:42] Speaker C: And then he's like, he can actually hold the head on his hand.
[00:46:46] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome.
[00:46:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:48] Speaker A: That's so glad. I've never seen that one.
[00:46:49] Speaker B: They don't make him like they used, man. There's a lot of, there's a lot of spine action figures. I haven't seen. Every time I stumble across some, I'm like, holy shit, this exists, too.
But, yeah. Anyway, the holy shit moment is sin just rips violators head right off. Oh, boy. Yeah, look at that. There's a little bit of, there's a little bit of spine dangling there.
Oh, it's, it's gross and disgusting, and I love it.
[00:47:15] Speaker C: It's exactly what we needed on this issue.
[00:47:18] Speaker B: Yeah, we had to, like, it's, I know. It's basically right off the bat, too, because, I mean, this is the first fight that we're seeing in this issue, and it's just, whew. Every, every fight in this issue has a very definitive ending, and I like that there's no coming back from this.
[00:47:39] Speaker C: And he just tosses that head on the ground and you can see flop on the ground.
[00:47:45] Speaker A: He should have thrown it on top of the other mal bulls you had stacked on top of each other.
[00:47:50] Speaker B: He could have tried to shoot it in there like a basketball.
[00:47:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:55] Speaker B: And now, now that the violator is out of the way, sin turns his focus onto Al Simmons just continued fight between cog and Spahn. And then we get one of the toddfathers. Great, great recurring motifs of grabbing big tree or big cylindrical thing to hit somebody with. Could you imagine being hit by a marble pillar?
[00:48:15] Speaker A: No, that would hurt.
[00:48:17] Speaker B: That would hurt even more than getting hit with a tree. I can't imagine getting hit by a tree, much less a marble pillar.
[00:48:23] Speaker A: And spawn, basically, he's down. You think he's down and out.
[00:48:28] Speaker B: Sends, like, sins, sucking his necroplasm up like a, like a little roomba.
[00:48:33] Speaker C: He's just like, like a ghostbuster.
[00:48:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:48:38] Speaker B: And then, and then Al gives a silly little laugh. He's like.
[00:48:46] Speaker A: Yeah, he laughs at him.
[00:48:48] Speaker B: And then I can't read it in a regular register. It has to be very high octave.
[00:48:54] Speaker A: It's so high octave. It cuts out on the zoom. You can't even hear it.
[00:48:58] Speaker C: Whose voice do you hear when you're reading this? And like, yeah, like those panels. Like, like he's laughing. Like, whose voice are you, like, playing in your head when that, when that sequence is happening to me? It's Keith David's spawn from the.
[00:49:14] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, it it really depends on what he's saying, because a lot of times it's Keith David. It's usually Keith David for the normal stuff, but then when he's obviously yelling, I think of bat dad. And that's the voice that all of Spawn's yelling is in for me.
Kind of ruins the gravitas. But that's. My brain is broken.
[00:49:37] Speaker C: Yeah, I hear you.
[00:49:39] Speaker A: He yells a lot.
[00:49:41] Speaker B: He sure does. And then, you know, Sen just starts looking at Al, and he's like, why the hell is this dude laughing? And that mysterious green flash comes back. And then, speaking of flashes, we flash back again to five minutes ago.
[00:49:57] Speaker C: Five minutes.
[00:49:58] Speaker B: Five minutes. Ten minutes.
[00:50:00] Speaker A: Five minutes.
[00:50:01] Speaker B: I enjoyed the unexpected double flashback quite a lot.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:50:07] Speaker C: It's hard to pull off in comics, I have to say. You know, I think it's hard to pull off in every evening a movie. Right. Because you're like, wait, what's happening? And I think a lot of, like, if you ever watch pulp fiction, pull fiction. That's a lot of that. Like, it's like multiple timelines that, you know, like John Travolta. I thought he died. So. No, they. They execute. Like I said, wonderful job, Thomas Healy, editing this. Ten minutes. Five minutes. Building up to the moment, but, yeah, well done.
[00:50:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And then you finally get the. And it's like. Cause you're just waiting for the reveal. And then finally, when you finally do get to it, because you can't show her an issue earlier, as everyone's gonna know.
[00:50:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:45] Speaker A: Cause it's like, it's the. It's the thing you don't expect.
[00:50:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:49] Speaker C: And I'm glad that they added that little flashback square on that opposite page.
[00:50:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Cause that you don't. You don't really know it's a flashback square until afterwards, because you're like, wait, is this.
[00:51:02] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:51:03] Speaker B: Is he talking to Wanda right now, or is he not talking to Wanda?
[00:51:05] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think it's great that they added that, because perhaps somebody would. Would question, why wouldn't spawn take the throne? And I think in that square. In that little exchange between Wanda and spawn practically answers that question.
[00:51:22] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:51:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Because he was.
[00:51:25] Speaker B: And, yeah, this whole time, Rory McConville has been building up the fact that Spawn doesn't want to be shackled to the throne. He doesn't really want to rule hell.
And so it's been a fun sort of building to be like, well, this is the guy that's going to sit on the throne, but he doesn't want it. So I don't know.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: Then you turn the page, and there's Nix. There's Nix.
[00:51:50] Speaker B: And Spawn is. Is, you know, saying that you don't have to be of hell. You just have to be marked by hell to be able to sit on the throne. And so this is. This is like, Nick's being like, I can't apply for this job. I'm not qualified yet.
[00:52:07] Speaker A: And this is queer supply.
[00:52:09] Speaker B: And Al being like, we can. We can be a little squiffy in the details. It's fine.
[00:52:17] Speaker A: Just apply.
[00:52:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:20] Speaker C: I really like the presentation of Nyx on that panel.
[00:52:25] Speaker B: Yeah. How she's just kind of floating and. Yeah, she's got her.
Oh, boy. What's her name? Her rogue. Her rogue bits just floating through the air.
[00:52:36] Speaker C: Yeah. Hey, two pack figure right there. Nick's before ruler, and, yeah, they're due for knicks figures.
[00:52:44] Speaker B: I said almost immediately that this needs to become an action figure. Yeah, but so there's the. Al's telling her what has to happen, and he's sorry that it's come to this. And then, you know, Nick's considers running away, but she's like, nah, I'm not that selfish.
I know that this has to happen, even though it kind of sucks that this is how it's come to be, right? She pushes open the doors, and then we get hit with that green light again.
[00:53:12] Speaker C: And now.
[00:53:13] Speaker B: Then we flash.
[00:53:14] Speaker A: We're back to now. And we turn, and then you kind of go, wow.
[00:53:18] Speaker B: Yeah. The war is over. Hell is under my control now we've.
[00:53:22] Speaker A: Got the new monarch looking pretty badass.
[00:53:27] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:53:27] Speaker B: Hell, yeah, she is. Oh, man.
[00:53:29] Speaker C: Totally. Hands down. Like, great character presentation.
The costume is right on. You know, I love the fact that steers away from that over sexualization of women characters in the comics. Right. It's just has so much badassery in it. I love the gauntlets, which kind of brings it to spawnish. Kind of. I love the chains, again, that has that. That bell that hangs low on the waist, reminding me of Angela and that purple cape, you know?
[00:54:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:05] Speaker C: And then you got that fire head, like firestorm, which is great.
[00:54:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it's great. Uh, one thing I very much appreciated was that she's not in high heels. She's just in her demon feet, like regular hell. People are. Um. And that's, you know, ultimately very practical.
[00:54:21] Speaker C: Yeah, good point. Yes. Very proud.
[00:54:25] Speaker B: She comes up to. She's like, hey, I'm the queen now. How's it going, sin? And he's. He's upset, uh, you know, obviously.
And boy.
[00:54:36] Speaker A: Vaporizes him.
[00:54:37] Speaker B: She dispatches him quite quickly at this point. Bran was like, oh, yeah, you're right. I didn't need to know. I didn't need to worry about it.
[00:54:45] Speaker A: I didn't even know who that guy was.
[00:54:46] Speaker C: So here's the thing where I ask you guys, right? This is the. And I probably know that what the answer will be, but.
So it's like, when you see that panel, I see, like, man, sin's dead, right?
[00:55:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:55:02] Speaker B: I don't. I don't think, uh.
Is it supposed to be anything else? Like, he's been vaporized. I've been. He's like the skeleton. He's like a person from a nuclear blast.
[00:55:11] Speaker A: So, like, Martin shadow of him.
[00:55:14] Speaker C: So, like, yeah. At this point, are you ready to close the book on sin?
Yeah.
[00:55:23] Speaker A: I don't know. I don't. I would, I guess so it'd be nice if you took a break. I guess he's been kind of the main focus for a long time.
[00:55:30] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:55:31] Speaker B: He's been stuck on earth for thousands of years.
[00:55:34] Speaker C: Right.
[00:55:35] Speaker A: I like the legacy of the character of being Cagliostro and everything. So that's kind of important, I think. And, like, I would be more interested to see him come back in his regular cagliostro form for a little bit because I kind of like that. So maybe he'd like Gandalf or something. He comes back in, like, a different form.
[00:55:51] Speaker C: I like that. I like that approach. I really do. It brings it back to the OG.
[00:55:56] Speaker A: Yeah. He needs to show back up as a unhoused man in the rat alley in Rat City in the future, just.
[00:56:06] Speaker B: Not knowing who he is because he's.
[00:56:07] Speaker A: Still going to be around causing trouble in the future. You know, he'll show up there. Maybe.
[00:56:12] Speaker B: Either.
[00:56:12] Speaker A: That seems like Erica Schultz read her stuff because she knew about the blast and had some good spawn lore in there.
[00:56:19] Speaker B: Yeah, either that or we know that the violator can have children that appear to be rather human.
Are we led to believe that Koleostro and his thousands of years on earth never had a child anywhere. I think it would be better for there to be a sin legacy instead of Coeliostro to come back for it, picking up the mantle of his dead father.
[00:56:46] Speaker C: I have so many mixed feelings about the character because, as you probably know, Cagliostro was a creation of Neil Gaiman back right when he was a contributor to the spawn lore. And so, Todd, with all the legal issues, he kind of wanted to get away from the cuglio strobe, from the Angela, from the medieval spawn, all that stuff that he, that Neil had created for him. And that's why Zin is who he is, is because he's not cogliostro anymore. Like, he doesn't look like Cogliostro anymore. So I don't know if I. If I could see him going back to Cagliostro with the, in the, in the alley. Right. With the hat, kind of like the Gandalf look.
But I could see moving forward, I could see something where he comes back. Right. How? I don't know. We'll see. But in this panel, on this page to me was like, puglios, you're out. Yeah, till next time.
[00:57:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it looks pretty definite, since I get, or not saying. Nixon's like, get up.
[00:57:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:52] Speaker A: And she's like, well, you know, we probably could have done something else, but who am I to argue with the great spawn?
[00:57:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:58] Speaker A: You know, she kind of, like, disses him a little bit.
[00:58:01] Speaker B: Yeah. We get a, we get a cool series of flash. Flash flashes around hell where, you know, sort of the carnage that happened and then sort of everybody slowly disappearing back to the realms that they're supposed to be in.
So obviously dead cataclysm. And the little bitty omens aren't phasing out of nowhere. Cause they're where they belong.
But Wanda's. Wanda's fallen to pieces. Jessica Priest's turning into light. Green light. The angel people are turning into green light.
And Nix is like, I need you to get the fuck out of here, Al.
And then he, like, spirals out of there. He just goes.
[00:58:51] Speaker A: He just zooms on out.
[00:58:54] Speaker C: Snap our fingers.
[00:58:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:57] Speaker C: And I think that's just an indication of how powerful this character is become and will become in the upcoming stories.
[00:59:08] Speaker B: Absolutely.
There's a reason that it was such a vacuum since issue 100.
And now that that's back in play, everybody has to sort of be wary of it. That's fun.
And then we get the introduction to this guy, Alzafont, who just, like, slinks out of nowhere.
[00:59:31] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:59:32] Speaker B: He's the chief custodian of the internal keep.
[00:59:35] Speaker A: So he's like, oh, new ruler. How? I'm going to make myself known real quick. He's an entrepreneur.
[00:59:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:59:42] Speaker C: It's like an alfred.
[00:59:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:59:46] Speaker B: He's got his forearms and he's, reminds.
[00:59:50] Speaker A: Me of Dalzem from street fighter.
[00:59:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:59:55] Speaker A: But Dalzem had the stretchy arms.
[00:59:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Good call.
[01:00:00] Speaker B: So I guess if we need to put this in terms, who from Star wars would this be?
[01:00:09] Speaker A: Would he be Dexter Jetster?
[01:00:10] Speaker B: Dexter Jetster be Fortuna.
[01:00:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Bifortuida. Yeah.
Yeah. He's like a bifortu character.
[01:00:18] Speaker C: Like whispering on your ear. Yeah, lord of the Rings had a guy like that. Right on the third.
[01:00:25] Speaker B: Like a warm tongue, only. Only less of a. Wormtongue.
[01:00:30] Speaker A: Grimoire Wormtongue.
[01:00:31] Speaker B: Well, but no, Grima. Grima was controlling the king.
[01:00:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:00:35] Speaker B: Rohiram, this guy, this guy doesn't seem to be, you know, the power, the power of the throne or really care about the power of the throne. He's just there to make sure that the stuff can get done. He's like the executive assistant.
I think Alfred's probably the best, the best we can, we can put together, because we know Alf. Alfred doesn't want to put on the cow. Alfred doesn't want to go out and beat the people up. No, he'd rather stay home. You know, dust some shelves, make some tea, make some coffee, have all the good advice. And Nick's Nyx is like, I need you to go get me a council of people. And Alzafont's like, but everybody's gonna be pissed at you. And she says, don't make me repeat myself.
[01:01:16] Speaker C: And then we got that last page, which, yeah, so well done.
[01:01:22] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
[01:01:24] Speaker A: Just sitting in Melbourne's head.
[01:01:28] Speaker B: Such a great image.
[01:01:29] Speaker C: It is. Which is also the image for the virgin employee only cover.
[01:01:36] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[01:01:37] Speaker C: Yeah. That is probably the ultimate cover of 350 that any collector could get their hands on. Is that panel made into a cover virgin? And it was only given to employees of McFarland productions.
[01:01:53] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:01:53] Speaker A: Wow, that's cool.
[01:01:56] Speaker C: And they do exist, I bet.
[01:01:59] Speaker A: Yeah. But they couldn't, couldn't put that in the shop, though. Big spoiler.
[01:02:02] Speaker B: Yeah, big spoiler. Mark Spears was telling us that they had an idea for, to have a series of variant covers, be each individual person that could potentially sit on the throne. Sitting on the throne like that. But that they, they ran out of time to pull it off.
[01:02:20] Speaker C: Oh, that would have been nice.
[01:02:21] Speaker B: Sucks. Because it would have been a great idea.
[01:02:23] Speaker C: What a great idea.
[01:02:24] Speaker B: I like that it would have been fun for them to also have a couple of MacGuffin people on there. Like, maybe like a couple, like a whole bunch of the minions just, like, climbing all over it.
[01:02:35] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:02:37] Speaker B: Like Terry Fitzgerald or something.
[01:02:40] Speaker A: Sam and twitch sitting on the throne.
[01:02:43] Speaker B: That was, that was Johnny's. Johnny's prediction was that Sam was going to be following trail of donuts to, to solve a clue and then gets tired and just sits on the throne and becomes king of hell.
[01:02:58] Speaker C: There were so many people guessing right. And the other one I heard was hound. Then I was saying malboulgia, because it was like one of those weird twists. Like, he comes back.
[01:03:11] Speaker B: We've had a lot of discussions about how cool it would be to have Malvolgia back. We miss that pot bellied dude.
[01:03:17] Speaker A: Yes, we love him.
[01:03:19] Speaker C: Yes, I, that my money wasn't my bolger. So that was, that was my, that was my, my angle was like, he's gonna come back, and we need that big, bad baddie back. And he would have fit that role very well. But I'm very happy with this outcome. Very happy to have come to this page right the end of the story and see her sitting on the throne. Great character that not many people are familiar with. Great character that people are now hunting down. The first appearance of Nick's great character in just the costume or the, her robes and everything else. So for toy collectors. Yes, I'll buy that figure.
[01:04:00] Speaker B: I'll buy that. Yes. It's like compensatory now. Yeah, you have to. Compulsive. Compulsory. That's the word I was looking for, compensatory.
So, yeah, I get injured, so I get a, a figure for free. Oh, nice.
Yeah. So unfortunately, we gotta move past this image to Johnny. I can make my joke again. There's just nothing but a blank page. Yes, there is, Ty. That used to be my joke that we used to, I used to pretend that the pundit pages didn't exist and that the page was just blank. And then Johnny would get upset and he says, no, there's pundits too.
[01:04:40] Speaker A: So many people would say they skip them.
[01:04:43] Speaker B: There's a lot of good information in those, but. So this is the crossover from Brett Booth back to Carlo Barberi here. Real quick, we got a little quick epilogue about where everybody zapped to once they were leaving hell.
Spahn asking his second favorite question after why.
[01:05:04] Speaker A: Wanda.
[01:05:05] Speaker B: Wanda.
[01:05:06] Speaker C: Yes.
[01:05:08] Speaker A: That is his favorite question.
[01:05:09] Speaker B: Martha. He's got three flavor, three favorite words. Why no. And Wanda.
[01:05:19] Speaker A: I like how he's like, it took me a second to realize, like, why? Because he doesn't have power. So his capes not, like, alive.
[01:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[01:05:25] Speaker A: So his case is like, it's like really, probably really annoying. It's like a big curtain just hanging off of you.
[01:05:30] Speaker B: Yeah. It's like when you, when you try to walk around the house with a blanket on, so that way you don't have to put on a jacket. And it's just like this thing.
[01:05:38] Speaker A: It's just getting caught on everything.
[01:05:40] Speaker B: I don't understand why my neighbors are shooting off fireworks in the middle of the day. Like the artillery shells that go up into the. Why the sun's out, you can't see shit. Why? Why wait until it's dark out? Guys. Geez. Sorry.
[01:05:55] Speaker A: They're just excited about spawn. 350.
[01:05:57] Speaker B: Yeah. They must.
[01:05:58] Speaker C: They must be the spawn hunter podcast episode.
[01:06:01] Speaker B: It is a fantastically beautiful day outside. I considered trying to record outside, but there's. There's construction going on all over the place, and the sound would have been gross.
[01:06:12] Speaker A: Too much.
[01:06:13] Speaker B: I get it. But wait till it's dark for fireworks, for Pete's sake.
Yeah.
[01:06:18] Speaker C: The pillow that they added at the end, I thought.
I thought it kind of illustrates where these guys are now as far as no powers, right. And it sets the stage for what's to come, because they have no powers, right. And it makes them question everything.
[01:06:39] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Like, al's like, what?
Oops, did I. Oopsie.
[01:06:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:06:45] Speaker A: Did I make a mistake by putting Nix on the throne?
[01:06:48] Speaker B: Yeah. And Jessica's like, wait, you're here. Did we lose?
And he's like, nah, I put Nyx on the throne, and she's like, Nixon.
Don't you remember that? She's one of our enemies?
[01:06:59] Speaker C: And I think this. This changes the dynamic. Like, somebody was saying how spawn doesn't have power, so he's going to have to rely on practical things or weapons and chains. The cape is obviously not going to be served on any utility right now, but somebody like the gunslinger who uses guns, and he's very familiar with that, he could very much well have the edge over everybody else because he has. He maneuvers weapons really well. So it was good to have this little. Few pages kind of, like, check on where everybody's going to be at and what the next issues are going to be like without powers. And I thought that was very well done too. It helped bring it all together.
[01:07:44] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:07:46] Speaker A: The fallout in each one of the books, which is cool.
[01:07:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And it's a good time. So al tries to.
Nothing. Zippity zaps. And then Jessica's like, nope, I can't do it either. And so. But luckily, neither can their foes.
[01:08:05] Speaker A: And then you find out that monolith and Redeemer are in the himalayas.
[01:08:10] Speaker B: Yeah. I wonder if that means that they're gonna meet Redeemer's old friends, the yeti, again.
[01:08:15] Speaker A: I don't know that. Maybe that's why.
[01:08:21] Speaker B: Can't wait for that yeti to come back.
[01:08:23] Speaker A: This demon who's dying basically starts taunting them and says the dead zones have all become everywhere because you've been messing with them too much. You're pushing a haunt through. You're pushing clown through back and forth and back and forth.
[01:08:36] Speaker B: Yeah, well, clown into fucking heaven, pushed into entire armies through them. So, yeah, so I guess it's like a. Like a. Like an old tube sock that, you know, used to. Used to sit real high on the calf. But as you keep shoving your leg in there just now, it's just a crumpled mess down on your ankle.
[01:08:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:08:56] Speaker B: Yeah, they just get worn out.
[01:08:59] Speaker A: He says that the dead zones are to cover the entire planet.
[01:09:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:09:03] Speaker A: And Jessica and Swan both look like. Oh, shit.
[01:09:06] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, there's a. They both have the round eye of surprise going on.
[01:09:10] Speaker A: Yep. They're both like, what?
[01:09:13] Speaker B: What?
[01:09:14] Speaker A: And even more surprising is spawns power level.
[01:09:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:09:18] Speaker C: One, two, one.
[01:09:21] Speaker A: Just one. Everyone's won now.
[01:09:23] Speaker B: Everyone's won.
[01:09:24] Speaker A: Wiped it clean.
[01:09:26] Speaker C: I want an alarm clock that looks like that.
[01:09:29] Speaker A: Yeah, they need to spawn alarm clock. That's a good idea. Yeah.
[01:09:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it would be great.
[01:09:34] Speaker A: It just yells at you.
[01:09:35] Speaker B: It just yells.
[01:09:40] Speaker A: They could you put in your name. So instead of Wanda, he yells your name at you. Like, John, wake up.
[01:09:46] Speaker B: Yeah, they could even. They could even have. Have Keith David do the voice for it, so. Oh, is that an action? Oh, my goodness.
[01:09:54] Speaker C: Check this out.
[01:09:56] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[01:09:57] Speaker A: Oh, that's so cool.
It's like a spawn.
[01:10:01] Speaker C: It's just a light.
[01:10:02] Speaker A: Light.
[01:10:03] Speaker B: The spawn emblem and it's a light. That's awesome.
[01:10:06] Speaker C: I know. We need an alarm clock like that, right?
[01:10:10] Speaker B: I thought you were gonna tell me that it was like an actual clock and I was gonna be envious again, but no, it would be cool, though.
[01:10:16] Speaker C: But it's just a way they.
[01:10:18] Speaker B: They need to start making more of the orb. The orb merchandise again, because it's very hard to find anything. Orbs new nowadays.
[01:10:27] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I mean, like hats, shirts, you name it.
[01:10:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Like watches. They could do watches with the. Oh, boy.
[01:10:36] Speaker C: I know.
I made a coin.
[01:10:40] Speaker A: Yep. Oh, that's cool.
[01:10:42] Speaker B: It's perfect.
[01:10:44] Speaker A: And we get the spawning ground, which is just a big thank you from.
[01:10:47] Speaker B: Todd McFarlane, which is, you know, it's nice. It's nice. I like, I like.
But I digress.
[01:10:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it's interesting. Like you said, that Greg Capulla doesn't have a cover because he mentions him so much here.
[01:11:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:11:03] Speaker A: In this spawning ground you mentioned it was like three times. But, you know, he just. Thanks, everybody. I think it's funny, he says there'll now be a cause and effect fallout.
[01:11:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah. I love unnecessary quotation marks.
I do like that he. He brings up again that Tomo has touched more pages of spawn than anyone in live, including himself.
[01:11:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
If I have any regrets, from spawn Con is getting this lettering that Tom was doing at spawn Con on their covers.
So, like, he was adding, like, a war bubble, say, on the COVID on his style.
[01:11:43] Speaker B: Like, that's awesome.
[01:11:44] Speaker C: Yes. Oh, there's so much cool stuff I didn't do.
[01:11:48] Speaker B: Well, Johnny got to point him to the bathroom, so that's.
[01:11:51] Speaker A: Yeah. He asked me where the bathroom was.
[01:11:52] Speaker C: And I told him you helped him.
[01:11:57] Speaker A: Yep. That was my special moment with him after his panel. Um, and you get some, like, detail.
[01:12:03] Speaker B: Some pencils on the.
[01:12:04] Speaker A: Yeah, pencils on the Brett booth stuff on all those big pages. That final mixed shot as well. Yeah, just look at all the. Oh, man. Look at the detail on those. That's crazy.
[01:12:17] Speaker B: That's a lot. Yeah.
[01:12:20] Speaker C: We're shooting to have him at Spawn Con for sure, but we're trying.
[01:12:28] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, are you allowed? Is there any rumblings about when the next one will be, or do you know?
[01:12:34] Speaker C: I can definitely give you dates. It will be on September 14 and 15th and.
[01:12:41] Speaker A: Oh, cool.
[01:12:42] Speaker C: We are just kind of narrowing down the location so more details will be very soon, but, yeah. So we have dates. Yeah, we have dates. And we have a really cool place that we hope it works out just so that it's fun for everybody to go and warmer climate and fun things to do if you bring family or whoever. So we're fingers crossed that we can get the location locked down, and then we can share the details. But September 14 and 15th, the weekend before Baltimore convention. Weekends before New York Comic Con. So the artists will be fresh and not tired. From New York Comic Con.
Yeah.
[01:13:30] Speaker B: That's awesome. We also have the monster set, and then the page punchers is the final.
[01:13:35] Speaker A: Final toy, the final bit, the monsters ad at the back, and the page monsters ad.
[01:13:40] Speaker B: That's 350, as they say.
[01:13:42] Speaker C: Very good.
[01:13:43] Speaker A: Is 350 because.
[01:13:46] Speaker B: Because it's a perk of being on the show. You get to see one of the. The numerous puppies that is always surrounding me.
There's always a puppy.
But since we're only reading one issue this. This time, it's time to rate the puppy.
[01:14:04] Speaker A: It's time to rate the puppy.
So this is the part of the show where we rate the issue. I guess I'll go first.
I really, like I said, I really liked it. I think it's got some great covers. I think that the story, though, like we were saying, the story is just so amazing, just the way it's played out and the reveal of Nyx, just that it was Nyx and just the reset and everything.
It's just everything you want in a big, bombastic 350 issue, huge fights, character deaths, things that feel like they have stakes that matter. So it was just a celebration of spawn, of Rory McConville's run of the last few years. It felt like, and just like a culmination of that. So I think it really lived up to the hype and it lived up to what it needed to be.
[01:14:54] Speaker B: And absolutely.
[01:14:56] Speaker A: I'm going to give it five mounted Malbolgia heads out of five.
[01:15:03] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:15:04] Speaker C: Nice.
[01:15:06] Speaker B: Would you like to go second, or would you like to go last? Ty?
[01:15:09] Speaker C: I'll go last. Yeah, go ahead.
[01:15:12] Speaker B: Awesome. I agree very much, very much with Johnny.
So I've been around comics long enough to know that sometimes, and a very well hyped issue might not really live up to what it is or makes itself much more dependent on immediate predecessors and immediate followers than you'd really like.
But this, this is, first off, it lives up to the hype. It's great.
[01:15:42] Speaker C: It's.
[01:15:43] Speaker B: I was. I've been excited every time I've read it. So no diminishment and excitement at all. It's very well self contained.
It obviously gives the hints toward, you know, the future sort of playing field of the following issues. But, like, I mean, you read this, if you don't read anything else, you'd be satisfied with the way it ends. Like, you know, it's great. And the art man. Fuck Brett Booth just does such a great job. We get a little bit of the Carlo Barberry, just sort of a little farewell salute to the main title that he's been doing. And I'm trying very hard to find a fault in it. So I am also gonna give it five ofal eating minions out of five, because they're just sitting there. They're actually eating. They're eating the clown. They're eating the clown.
[01:16:41] Speaker C: Oh, I never realized that.
[01:16:43] Speaker A: I didn't realize that either. That's hilarious.
[01:16:45] Speaker B: I literally just realized that they're eating McMahon. So, yeah, five crazy.
[01:16:50] Speaker A: That's hilarious. Those minions.
I didn't realize, as Mark Spears called them, the Goonies. Yeah, yeah. Sweet.
Well, ty, what do you think?
[01:17:02] Speaker C: All right, so I think I have to go with what David just said in every. In every aspect, because, yes, I went into Batman spawn with such high expectations. It was overhyped. There were so many covers. It was the talk of the town. It was Greg Capullo. It was like everything just like, it felt like an overwhelming train with no breaks. And the story did not deliver for me. And I think for a lot of people, the story was really, like.
It was just not that good. So 350, it didn't have that amount of hype. But, man, the story. Nailed it. Really well executed. The art, the pacing, the reveal, and how it helps anyone who has not followed spawn for the last 350, 49 issues. It actually helps them jump on board. And not only that, it springs into what's it gonna be like for spawn with no powers. So you, if you put any superhero in a position like that where, like, they have no powers or Batman with no gadgets, then it makes it for such an interesting dynamic moving forward. So with that said, what, everything that you both have said, I'm gonna give it five horny Knicks heads out of five because it's such a good issue.
[01:18:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:18:35] Speaker A: Hell, yeah.
[01:18:36] Speaker B: Excellent. Speaking. Speaking of, you know, going forward with, with no powers, I do like how gunslinger has picked up immediately and been, like they said, he's the weakest, so he had to, he had to compensate the whole time. And so, you know what? He's doing just fine.
[01:18:54] Speaker C: It is.
[01:18:55] Speaker B: I found that to be a fun little thing.
[01:18:57] Speaker C: No, it's good. It's been good. I'm glad that 350 delivered the way it did, because we needed that. We as fans, as the community, we needed to have an issue that we, can I give these away? Like I said, I give this to people that haven't picked up spawn or, like, what is spawn? Or remind me again, I'm like, I just give them this issue. I'm like, here you go. And right away, they're just, they don't read the, you know, the war bubbles, but they're like, oh, my gosh, the art is awesome. So it's such a, it's such a bundle of good comic book joy and delivery, so that I'm very happy we have an issue like this. Very happy.
[01:19:43] Speaker B: I also think it was very important that they sort of nail this the way they did because, you know, we've got this starting for, like, this came out, and then they were going to start the expansion across 14 new titles.
And, you know, if they, if they didn't get this to be just right and hit the. Everything that it needed to be, then the excitement would dwindle for if you can't do one, how are you going to be able to do 19 at once? Kind of thing? So, so I think it's. It was very important that they got this the way they did it.
[01:20:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I agree.
[01:20:19] Speaker B: Just knocked it out of the park.
[01:20:20] Speaker C: I agree. I agree. I haven't felt this way about a spawn issue since.
I would say issue 100.
Issue 100 was kind of, it reminds me very much of that. That pinnacle of, like, all out battle. And it was, you know, it's kind of the same thing, kind of the same build up. And. And 100 delivered. I mean, Angela died on that issue.
[01:20:42] Speaker B: Spoilers. I haven't read 100.
[01:20:45] Speaker A: Really?
[01:20:46] Speaker B: I think I've gotten to 93 in my. In my back. In my backlog run, and then we started the show, and so I've not gotten any.
[01:21:00] Speaker C: Well, but let's just say it was a really good issue.
[01:21:02] Speaker A: She's killed by the copyright.
That's hilarious. I read. Yeah, I'm almost. I'm at, like, on my back issue read because I got in because of king Spawn, but then I've been reading. I'm, like, almost at 200. I'm almost to the fourth compendium.
[01:21:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:21:21] Speaker C: But, yeah, in the sense of hype and vibe, the 350 reminded me of issue 100, just, like, so much stuff happening, and it just delivered that way. So. So, no, they're very, very happy with this book.
[01:21:36] Speaker B: And it was only $5. It was only $5 grind.
[01:21:39] Speaker C: Very good.
[01:21:40] Speaker A: So what else is excellent, David?
[01:21:44] Speaker B: What's that?
[01:21:45] Speaker A: Is all of our is friends on Instagram, and today we have one with us. So, yeah. For our weekly shout out of who to follow, if you're listening to the show, you're not following. Spawn Hunter, what are you doing? You're doing it wrong.
[01:21:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:21:58] Speaker A: So make sure to give them a follow.
[01:22:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:22:01] Speaker A: On social media ties there anything else, anything you got coming up that you wanted to plug or.
[01:22:07] Speaker B: Or any friends that you wanted to shout out so that way they can get Instagram followers from this too?
[01:22:13] Speaker C: Oh, well, you know, they should be. They should be following you. You guys definitely are delivering something that is very special, very unique. So I really like to have you guys. So please, everybody follow. These guys respond on Instagram. So, yeah, no, I'm very happy to connect with all of you guys.
[01:22:31] Speaker B: So.
[01:22:31] Speaker C: So thank you.
[01:22:33] Speaker A: While you're over there, make sure to give us a follow. We are regarding spawnpod on Instagram, we're posting about our episodes. We're posted reels, reviewing stuff. I'm reviewing things I've been liking in pop culture. So a lot of good stuff going on there. Then you can always hit us
[email protected].
[01:22:54] Speaker B: Hell, yeah. We'd love to. We love to get letters. And if you send us your email, if you sent us your. An email with your address, we'll send you some stickers.
[01:23:02] Speaker C: So, yes, and I have the stickers. I have those.
[01:23:06] Speaker A: I've got your stickers. And I've got a couple other things from the spawn hunter stuff that I got.
[01:23:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:23:11] Speaker A: So pretty cool. It's nice to be able to, like, trade with stuff like that, like, with a spawn museum. And everybody is really fun. And that's cool. It's good. We got a date, and we'll keep an eye on where it's gonna be and.
[01:23:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:23:26] Speaker A: Can't wait for sponk on year two.
[01:23:28] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh. I know. And I want to see you guys there for sure. So hopefully you guys can both make it out there.
[01:23:35] Speaker A: Hopefully we'll see what the future holds. Yeah, it's. It's a. Adult life is crazy, but we'll figure it out.
[01:23:42] Speaker B: It's wild.
And do you have a question you want to ask the people to inspire?
[01:23:49] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. For anyone that wants to write an email, if you want to write in a response this episode, I was asking what you thought of 350. So just write it. Hit us up. You know, hopefully you were just excited about it, as we were, and really enjoyed it, but let us know what you think. Just send us an email, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on 350.
[01:24:07] Speaker B: Yeah, sweet. So, well, with. With that said, you know, I don't think we really have much, much else to say except for a tie. The spawn hunter. It was fantastic having you on again. We love. We love talking to you. We love picking your brain. We love. We love that we say something sort of offhanded about some sort of spawn property, and you're like, hold on a second. I will be back. And then you rub it and you come back.
[01:24:35] Speaker A: We do love it.
[01:24:36] Speaker B: It's amazing.
[01:24:37] Speaker C: I love being here. So thank you for having me. Always. I enjoy. I love to geek out with you guys, guys.
[01:24:44] Speaker B: It's always a good time. And with that, I think I have nothing left to say except for Johnny Ty.
May the scorch be with you.
[01:24:56] Speaker A: And also with you.
[01:24:58] Speaker C: Hell yeah.
[01:24:59] Speaker A: Hell yeah.
