Spawn Made Huge Lore Change to Explain Continuity Errors
Most fans are probably aware that Spawn‘s costume is actually alive, but how many know the reason behind that creative decision? According to creator Todd McFarlane, it all came about because he kept messing up the details of Spawn’s costume early on and needed a way to explain the continuity errors.
McFarlane recently spoke with Robert Kirkman for the debut episode of Dynamic Duos, a new podcast from CBR that features conversations between top comic creators. The conversation eventually turns to both creators’ long stints on their respective books, and the difficulty of maintaining continuity when a comic series runs over a hundred issues. McFarlane admits that the continuity in Spawn can be pretty loose. “I make almost everything up on the fly,” McFarlane says, going on to reveal how a major piece of Spawn lore occurred by happenstance: “Here’s the god’s honest truth about Spawn: he was never supposed to have a live costume.” McFarlane goes on to admit that he played pretty fast and loose when adding in the details of Spawn’s outfit, such as where his spikes are affixed, and where exactly all the chains and skulls appear.
Spawn’s Costume Is A Living Thing… To Explain Continuity Errors
“People started writing in,” McFarlane continues, “asking, ‘How come the pouch was on his left leg and now it’s on his right leg? How come he had five spikes on his leg, but now its seven?’” McFarlane eventually decided to solve the problem by making the costume a living thing that’s constantly in flux, thus explaining why there were often subtle differences in his look from issue to issue. This eventually became a major plot point, with the suit even getting its own name and backstory. Spawn’s living costume was revealed to be K7-Leetha, or Leetha of the 7th House of K, a demonic neural parasite. Each Hellspawn is granted their own living suit that grants the wearer their powers, able to shift into different forms and heal their wounds.
Spawn Lore Was Changed Forever by Nitpicking Fans
It may be shocking to think that this major piece of Spawn’s lore was little more than a throwaway quick-fix, but both McFarlane and Kirkman state in their interview that things like this happen all the time in comics. “Sometimes I think fans would be horrified if they knew how much stuff we forget,” Kirkman says, pointing out that it’s easy to forget details when issue numbers start to reach the triple figures. But McFarlane and Kirkman both stress that comics are a medium built around deadlines, so more often than not some key element of any given comic was added at the last minute. It sounds chaotic, but for McFarlane, it’s all a part of the process: “I was making stuff up on the fly, so I had to then cover what I was making up on the fly to get to that.”
One of the things that makes serial comics so fascinating is how they exist in conversation with each other, reacting to what went before and even to fan feedback. In the case of Spawn, that meant inventing a huge new chunk of lore to justify a claim that was only made to explain a careless lack of consistency.
Source: CBR