2006

Spawn ended 2006 with #163 ranked 89th. It is rather sad because I personally thought that Spawn since #150 has been very readable. Spawn also belatedly joined the webcomics bandwagon in trying to capture a slice of the pre-teen and teen market.

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Shadows of Spawn Vol 2
January 2006
Besides KK the Spawn, there are three other Spawns in this manganised spawndom. There is Cheveyo the Zombie Spawn who apparently led a double life - being bad in Curse of the Spawn and good in Shadows of Spawn. He is a Series 7's Zombie Spawn lookalike.

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Cheveyo is a native American from the tribe of Hopi who lives for more than 500 years. More images of Cheveyo.

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Then there is Caleb the Pirate Spawn. Pirate Spawn she may be but she dresses more like She-Spawn of Series 4 (January 1996) complete with skull brassiere inspired by Madonna. Several enlarged images of Caleb. She plays the role of a bad Spawn, sucking dry other Spawns to maintain her youthful appearance.

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And finally the third member of the trio - Mangler whose spawn persona is hinted in the conversation between Cheveyo and Ken. Following the tradition of Manga (and likewise comics from East Asia), do read the above panels from right to left.

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But when he is transformed, the half wolf/half humanoid Mangler the Spawn bears the symbol of Spawn, looks like a spawn, smell like a spawn, quack like a spawn, he is a Spawn! Check out the enlarged images of Mangee.

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Spawn #153
February 2006

Looking at the Legion in this issue there is no prize for guessing that the Armaggeddon story was one of my favourite...for a while, that is. I was salivating at the prospect of seeing so many different Spawns that would line up together with Al Simmons the Spawn. This legion of Spawns, estimated by Mitch as something in the region of 6,000 and all part of Al Simmons the Spawn can be summoned into action only by Christopher the Spawn. So far so good right? Well, after the promising appearance of Hiroshi and Kumiko, it was disappointment on the scale of the titanic when the legion ultimately plays a very minor role.

Here are close ups of some of the prominent Spawns. Larger images can also be viewed here.
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this is definitely Kumiko

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this one got a 'third eye' and he is one of the seven survivors who would re-appear in 2008

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the pirate spawn that would also re-appear in 2008

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Shadows of Spawn Vol 3
February 2006

The final volume of this series ends with the following prophetic doomsday declaration: "To Be Continued?"

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Spawn #154
March 2006

In #154, there appeared the most unlikely of Spawns.

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The Kitamura's family of grandfather Hiroshi and granddaughter Kumiko pair as Hiroshi and Kumiko Kitamura the Spawns, summoned by Christopher to aid Simmons. Kumiko looks lovely unmasked.

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It would be an exciting fight when Zombie Spawn led his zombies against the Kitamura's clan. Check out the enlarged images here.

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Ant Vol 2 #5
March 2006

Spawn appearing in Moving On Part I. This is the third apperance of Spawn in Ant. This appearance of Spawn is brought to my attention courtesy of 'murch' from Spawn Message Board.
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Dr Blink - Superhero Shrink #3
April 2006

A likeness of Spawn appeared in glorious fashions on the cover and the starting four pages of this issue by Dork Storm Press. Spank has to pay a visit to Dr Blink, the Superhero Shrink after he suffered a devastating and humiliating experience in Hell. All four pages plus cover are reproduced in the addendum.

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Future Shock
May 2006

In the 2006 Free Comic Book Day's event, Image came out with an issue titled 'Future Shock'. Spawn's contribution to this event is a 4-page advance copy of Spawn #159 which is due in August 2006. Boring.

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Ant Vol 2 #7
June 2006

Hannah Washington in a flashback and remembering her encounter with Spawn. The 4th and final appearance of Spawn in Ant Volume 2.

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The Adventures of Spawn
July 2006

Saturday Morning Spawn
Spawn entering belatedly into the world of webcomics with the launch of The Adventures of Spawn illustrated by Khary Randolphs that is targetted at kids and kidults. With the ultra slow release, I seriously doubt that the megaultra impatient kids of the 21st century would tolerate the wait.

"The comic is just an extension of the Spawn Series 30 action figure line, so that's where the idea sprang from. Todd wanted to create a line of figures that would be representative of what Spawn might look like if he were part of the Saturday morning set as opposed to the dark, violent and hyper-detailed character that he is." - Jonathan David Goff in an interview in September 2006.

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A New Spawn: Al Simmons the Spawn X - The name of the character is Al Simmons but the official website has made it abundantly clear that this is a separate universe from the old Simmons. So why can't they rename him anyway? Also introduced are Omega Spawn and the robots created in his likeness: Omega Squadron.

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Spawn #160
September 2006

The two Spawns (one of them goes on to inspire Ninja Spawn 2 in Series 29) that assist Al Simmons in his battle with the disciples at the portal to Eden would be the last appearance of the Legion in this story-arc, darn! After a promising #153, only FOUR Spawns of the SIX THOUSANDS appeared to help him! Egoistic as ever, Al Simmons the Wanda Stalker fought alone...okay, the writer makes him such because the other Spawns are draining his power but with a little twist, the writer can make the other Spawns increase his power too! Anyway, with only four Spawns, it was an incredible letdown! The weird thing is, if those two fighters are supposed to die at the same time as Al Simmons in the 1990s, why are they dressed up in those attires? They kicked their respective buckets at a halloween party?

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We have a close look at the second Spawn in this alternate cover to Spawn #158. Takeda the Samurai Spawn?

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Spawn: Godslayer
October 2006

64-page graphic novel written by Brian Holguin and illustrated by Jay Anacleto. Set in an epic fantasy world ruled by a myriad of gods, every character is beautifully rendered but with such details that one is unable to find a decent Spawn drawing to scan from.

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Bairn is Spawn the Marauder, the Godslayer who slayed ancient gods for fun. The one-shot special Spawn Godslayer is successful enough to prompt the decision makers (or more likely a singular decision maker) to transform this into a regular series. Spawn the Marauder's collectible figure is part of Series 31. And the good thing about a collectible figure is that no amount of messy artwork can prevent a decent 3D reproduction.

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Spawn #162
November 2006

The Last of the Hellspawns. Al Simmons the Spawn has a final showdown with the rest of Hellspawns that are still...eh...basically devilspawns.

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Like long-running soap opera, as the bad spawns are going down, one of them promise Al there would be more to come. This is certainly promising. Enlarged images here.

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Spawn/Batman: Inner Demons
Originally scheduled for release in December 2006 and although procrastination has been a defining password for my favourite comic, this delay smells fishier. A batman/spawn cold cast porcelain statue from DC Direct that is meant to accompany the release of this graphic novel was surprisingly on time.