While growing up, there was a limit… only a certain type of comic that I had been exposed to. These comic books were purely superhero in nature. I only knew of hero’s with their symbols worn across their chest that battled the traditional larger than life villains over and over again. Then something changed. I was at the ground floor when a new kind of hero emerged, a darker hero. He was much more violent. This new hero pushed the through the limit of what was previously acceptable. and kept pushing. I was in the comic book stores when the first issue came out. I only knew of the creators name, which was uber popular at the time. That creator was Todd Mcfarlane. This new comic book was called Spawn. This new reluctant hero was born out of murder and a deal with the Devil that didn’t go as he intended. What could possibly go wrong? Well, Al Simmons, also known as Spawn finds out when he trades one war for another. This new war where the sides are heaven and hell and he is caught in the middle. All the while he is tormented by his past, by the life he once lived and the tragic world Al Simmons now lives in. When this comic book came out, I was hooked right from the start. This issue definitely changed my perception of what a hero could be like. I discovered that a hero’s purpose didn’t have to be driven by the death of of his parents or his uncle. It could driven by his own death in a mythic fashion that I’d never imagined before. Yet another seed was planted that day long ago in my mind. A seed in the garden that is my imagination.
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