Considering all traits that should be present in the quintessential hero, legendary comic personality Superman.
Spawn was created by Todd McFarlane after he and other comic artists broke from Marvel Comic to form Image Comics. The comic tells the story of Al Simmons, a CIA agent with a military background, who is double-crossed and murdered by of his own team. Simmons' spirit is sent to Hell, where he makes a deal that allows him to return to "the living" so that he can be with his wife again. In return, Simmons agrees to work for the demon Malebolgia as a Hellspawn. Simmons is double-crossed again as Malebolgia returns him to the world as a superpowered freak. At once fighting to make up for the death and pain he caused before he died while resisting the diktats of Malebolgia, Spawn attempts to find balance in fighting evil and criminal deviancy where he can. While some heroes might leave a criminal's fate to the justice system, Spawn subscribes to the, "If you're guilty, you’re dead” mentality.
At San Diego Comic-Con, Screen Rant spoke with McFarlane and asked him how he balances his antiheroes' likability with their moral ambiguity. His response reveals what makes, in his mind, the primary differences between an antihero like Spawn, and so-called "mainstream heroes" like Batman and Superman.
So let's talk about this weird word antihero. I consider the Boy Scout superheroes to be way more odd than the antihero, right? For me, I don't get it. I've said before that here's the difference between Batman and Spawn, right? Yeah, Joker comes in and kills somebody, and then Batman beats him up, and you send Joker to jail, and then the system can't keep them in jail. So ... he comes out and he kills and repeat this over and over and over and over. And I keep going, when's Batman going to realize that there's an easy way to stop the Joker from killing people? Kill him! This is easy.
McFarlane's point is double-edged. On the one hand, it absolutely skewers the idea of the superhero being the last line of defense against criminality and depravity. Indeed, locking the Joker up time and again in Arkham Asylum, knowing full well that he will neither be rehabilitated nor kept detained for long, gives life to the statement, "Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results." It's a worthless exercise that leads the public into a false sense of security, while facilitating further death, mayhem, and injury when the villain, angrier than ever, escapes into the community again.
On the other hand, it dangerously elevates the status of Todd McFarlane prefers the type of hero like Spawn who is willing to stop evil by any means necessary, as opposed to Boy Scouts like Superman and Batman.
