Black Comic Characters - Spawn

I'm sure that many have seen or heard of the character Spawn. You have seen the comics, the HBO shows, and the movie. Yes, some might say that such a character that has been popular in all the media of our society that happens to be a black superhero shows how far we have come in terms of race relations, but I think that closer scrutiny is needed. I have to point out that Spawn was created by a white man, Todd McFarlane. I'm not saying that is a bad thing. For example, the character Blade was created by two white men in the 1970s and I have very little negative things to say about Blade and how he is characterized. Spawn on the other hand is so disfigured that it's hard to tell that he was black. I use the past tense that he's also dead and gets his super powers from the devil. This bring us some theological and racial problems. There are a few other characters out there who's powers are demonic but none have had the same success as Spawn. This is why I single him out. If you are familiar with the story, the devil recruits Spawn to lead his army to fight and conquer heaven. Tis is definitely an anti-biblical plot contrivance. Why would the devil give Spawn supernatural powers and then allows Spawn to use those powers against him?

I have three other problems with the back story of Spawn. One is that no where in the story is Jesus or God even remotely brought up as having to do with the story. The devil is depicted with all of the power and Heaven is on the defensive. This is also opposite to what the Bible says.

Two, in the comics Spawn's best friend that ended up marrying Spawn's wife, Wanda, after Spawn died. They had child when Spawn and Wanda never could. I admit that this added a lot of drama when Spawn shows up after 5 years to find out that his wife married to his best friend and with the child he could never give her initially not knowing that he had been in hell five years. Ouch. Thing is in the comic books and cartoon Spawn's friend is black and in the movie he is white. What were the producers of the movie trying to say about black men and black families? Let me blunt. They were saying: Look at this black man - he wasn't able to protect himself or his family so a white man had to step up and do it. Make it worse...he can't protect Wanda without power the devil gives him.

Third, the movie glamorizes hell and paints a picture that hell is fun not torment. That you have super powers if you go and can go and leave whenever you want. More religious heresy. I realize that a lot of people did not look at Spawn these ways. They look at it as entertaining fiction. But the way it expresses itself can't be ignored and points to a worldview we must be aware of. I like the character visually....he look cool in full costume and his power set is interesting, but don't forget that we must always look at truth and think about what is really being said. There is a mugen character for Spawn. Here is a demo of Spawn fighting Spider-man and with both characters being computer controlled. Spider-man owned Spawn as it should be!

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