Medieval Spawn #1 Is a Boilerplate Swords and Sorcery Comic (Review)

Spawn could be considered the greatest indie character ever. Todd McFarlane’s creation was the first Image solo hero, and has lasted for over thirty years. Though not as popular as he once was, Spawn has a universe of spin-offs, and has made McFarlane a very rich man, even allowing him to start his own toy company.

Spawn comics have been big business over the last few years, and 2025 is seeing a large increase of Spawn titles. Medieval Spawn #1 brings back one of the oldest Spawn variants, created way back in Spawn #9 for what is ultimately a paint by numbers swords and sorcery story.So, right off the bat, I want to say that this isn’t a bad comic at all.



It’s going to seem like I’m talking badly about it, but this is still an entertaining book. It has a solid plot, some good action, nice little hooks to keep readers interested, some cool foreshadowing. John, the Medieval Spawn, and his group of soldiers run across a boy from a nearby village who tells them about a calamity brought on by a knight who came to the village the night before.

They go back and find an empty village strewn with what I think is supposed to be gore or is being magically transformed, but the art is confusing on that note. There’s monsters to fight, an evil knight serving a dark god, and a fight between the knights. John wins, and takes the young boy, named Richard, as his squire before revealing in the captions that he should have killed him.

That’s all pretty standard for a story like this, but there’s one big thing missing — Spawn. Sure, John definitely looks like a Spawn and has the right speech bubbles, but that’s it. Spawn stories have a certain feel to them and this book just doesn’t have it.

Writer Rory McConville does everything right in the issue except make it feel like something unique. This story could be done with basically any set of medieval characters. It’s well-structured, but you’ve read this story several times.

There’s signs that things will pick up as the book goes on — for example, it foreshadows the dark god Abraxis showing up at some point — but unless things change a lot, this is just a standard story. It’s empty calories, tasty but with no nutritional value.RELATED: McFarlane Toys Robot Wars Spawn and The Deviant Figure Pre-Orders Are UpMarco Itri’s art looks very familiar to anyone who has been reading Image comics for a long time.

Not because of Itri’s own work spanning that time frame, but just the general uninspired superhero art you got from the C and D-list Image books of the early to mid ’90s. You know the ones I’m talking about; they’re the ones that Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, or Marc Silvestri never touched, but still published under their imprints. Much like the story, this art isn’t bad, but it’s not going to win any awards.

It’s basic. So, the character designs are fine, the monster designs are fine, the action is fine, but there’s really nothing that’s going to stand out. Of course, there’s also nothing that looks terrible, either.

I think that’s the best way to describe Medieval Spawn #1 in general. It’s not breaking new ground and it’s not terrible. There’s really not much to say about the book.

I went into this book thinking about something like the old Curse of the Spawn series, which followed different Spawn from throughout time on different insane adventures that ran the gamut of sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes, crime comics, and more. However, it always felt like a Spawn comic, using the ideas that made Spawn unique to make the stories special. Medieval Spawn #1 doesn’t really have anything like that.

However, there’s still a lot of potential. For example, who is Abraxis? Is he related to Malebolgia? Why does John wish he should have killed Richard? Is this book maybe going to establish a new fate for Medieval Spawn, since his first appearance is no longer canon because of lawsuits? All of this is enough to get readers to come back to the book next issue. So, sure, there’s nothing special about this book.

It doesn’t really feel like a Spawn comic. But, it tells a good story with good hooks. You won’t feel like you’ve wasted your time reading it and you’ll want to know what comes next.

Rating: 3.3 out of 5Published by Image ComicsReleased on April 23, 2025Written by Rory McConvilleArt by Marco ItriColors by Ulises ArreolaLetters by Andworld DesignMedieval Spawn #1 is on sale now.The post Medieval Spawn #1 Is a Boilerplate Swords and Sorcery Comic (Review) appeared first on ComicBook.

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