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Spawn Universe
Gunslinger Spawn Volume 1
He is a man out of time. Lost in his future and in search for a way back to the past. Gunslinger Spawn has many scores to settle with those that did him wrong. Be he has been thrown into a greater conflict, one of the fate of humanity, and his revenge just might have to wait for a bit.
Collects GUNSLINGER SPAWN #1-6
Collects GUNSLINGER SPAWN #1-6
168 pages, Paperback
First published July 27, 2022
13 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Todd McFarlane
1,765Ìýbooks430ÌýfollowersTodd McFarlane is a Canadian comic book artist, writer, toy manufacturer/designer, and media entrepreneur who is best known as the creator of the epic occult fantasy series Spawn.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McFarlane became a comic book superstar due to his work on Marvel Comics' Spider-Man franchise. In 1992, he helped form Image Comics, pulling the occult anti-hero character Spawn from his high school portfolio and updating him for the 1990s. Spawn was one of America's most popular heroes in the 1990's and encouraged a trend in creator-owned comic book properties.
In recent years, McFarlane has illustrated comic books less often, focusing on entrepreneurial efforts, such as McFarlane Toys and Todd McFarlane Entertainment, a film and animation studio.
In September, 2006, it was announced that McFarlane will be the Art Director of the newly formed 38 Studios, formerly Green Monster Games, founded by Curt Schilling.
McFarlane used to be co-owner of National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers but sold his shares to Daryl Katz. He's also a high-profile collector of history-making baseballs.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McFarlane became a comic book superstar due to his work on Marvel Comics' Spider-Man franchise. In 1992, he helped form Image Comics, pulling the occult anti-hero character Spawn from his high school portfolio and updating him for the 1990s. Spawn was one of America's most popular heroes in the 1990's and encouraged a trend in creator-owned comic book properties.
In recent years, McFarlane has illustrated comic books less often, focusing on entrepreneurial efforts, such as McFarlane Toys and Todd McFarlane Entertainment, a film and animation studio.
In September, 2006, it was announced that McFarlane will be the Art Director of the newly formed 38 Studios, formerly Green Monster Games, founded by Curt Schilling.
McFarlane used to be co-owner of National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers but sold his shares to Daryl Katz. He's also a high-profile collector of history-making baseballs.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 29, 2023
I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I admit my knowledge of Spawn is limited (mostly to the movie than the comics).
One minute, the Gunslinger was in 1864, and the next, he is in the modern world. Not being versed in technology and skills we take for granted, he will need a local guide. The trouble is who he trusts? Who is actually after him, and what do they want? This leads into the Scorched story.
The story is ok. I love the artwork, I really enjoyed the backup stories. They gave me a great insight into Gunslinger, which is just a few pages each. If this is a companion book, I am looking forward to Scorched even more.
One minute, the Gunslinger was in 1864, and the next, he is in the modern world. Not being versed in technology and skills we take for granted, he will need a local guide. The trouble is who he trusts? Who is actually after him, and what do they want? This leads into the Scorched story.
The story is ok. I love the artwork, I really enjoyed the backup stories. They gave me a great insight into Gunslinger, which is just a few pages each. If this is a companion book, I am looking forward to Scorched even more.
September 13, 2022
A fun, if not dumb, roadtrip of a book.
Basically our Spawn in this is a gunslinger from the western days. Todd, with all his impressive writing, crafts a likeable lead who just wants to get back to his time where he can pop some people in the head for them calling him names. Which I guess isn't too unlike modern time. He meets a kid, who teaches him about toilets. Probably the greatest scene in this book.
It's basically Spawn, but with a fish out of water view, but the art is solid and the story is fun. I'll keep reading no doubt if it keeps it up.
Basically our Spawn in this is a gunslinger from the western days. Todd, with all his impressive writing, crafts a likeable lead who just wants to get back to his time where he can pop some people in the head for them calling him names. Which I guess isn't too unlike modern time. He meets a kid, who teaches him about toilets. Probably the greatest scene in this book.
It's basically Spawn, but with a fish out of water view, but the art is solid and the story is fun. I'll keep reading no doubt if it keeps it up.
May 18, 2024
I think my expectations were a little too high going into this one. I was expecting a mix of Spawn and Jonah Hex, and I guess in a way it is, but it really just felt like Spawn all over again. At it's heart this just comes across as another Spawn Vs. Clown story. That being said, there is a bigger picture at work here, and I'm hoping there will be a good payoff at some point. The Brett Booth art is good, and I do like the Gunslinger Spawn character. Just felt like it moved a little slow, and it didn't really feel like anything new or different. I'll still be continuing, however, as I do enjoy the Spawn Universe.
August 17, 2022
Great artwork, but the story didn't quite do it for me.
April 19, 2023
Honestly the majority of this book is kinda mid. But the last issue is so good it actually makes it worth a read. I think having him be the weakest spawn, but beat a tough enemy using cowboy skills is fun, and I loved the short flashbacks (especially the one of him in the bar).
June 5, 2024
8.5/10
Hell Yeah!
Hell Yeah!
December 30, 2023
I stopped reading the original Spawn series at issue 50, but I had to come back to this Spawn because people online were raving about it. I did not regret it; Gunslinger Spawn was a lot of fun to read. The art is great, the designs are awesome, and Todd McFarlen's story-telling is massively improved, but the book just failed me in the end.
The biggest complaint about Todd's original stories was the walls of unnecessary text he would write; that is gone, and in Todd's original writing, he would move the story forward at a snail's pace, concentrating only on humans and leaving the supernatural aspects alone. He does not do that now; this story moves at a great pace. The art and designs are amazing too; growing up, I used to draw McFarlens art, but I will not attempt to draw Gunslinger; there is way too much detail on him. Brett Booth's art is not as good as McFarlane's, but really, who's is? I think the art is almost as good.
I loved this story until issue six. I would find myself laughing out loud at this fish out of water, Spawn, trying to make sense of a toilet and his backstory, and him trying to fight being a weaker Spawn. In issue six, this story did the one thing I hated the most in the original Spawn series: whenever Al Simmons was on the backfoot, he would dues Ex Machina a new power to escape the situation to the surprise of everyone, and no matter how cool the enemies were that were sent after him, he did not have to strategize to win; he would just blunder into powerful enemies and upgrade his abilities to get out of the situation. In Gunslinger, this character looked like he was beaten down by The Violator, who, by the way, has had a Beast Wars like upgrade and looks awesome. But at the end of the story, just when it looked like Gunslinger had to negotiate, he came up with a new ability to give the violator a beatdown .... why?
Todd I have massive respect and good will for you. Your story-telling has massively improved over the decades. The next level of your writing would be to make your heroes live in a world where they can be defeated by more powerful enemies, they don't play possum, and they don't have super-sayan-like levels; they actually have to strategize, retreat, lie, negotiate, and compromise to move forward with their goals, it's OK to give your characters new powers but let them lose sometimes. It's not really teenagers that are enjoying your writing now, kids are playing with their smartphone, it's adults who are mostly enjoying your work now and we would like a little more meat on your stories.
The biggest complaint about Todd's original stories was the walls of unnecessary text he would write; that is gone, and in Todd's original writing, he would move the story forward at a snail's pace, concentrating only on humans and leaving the supernatural aspects alone. He does not do that now; this story moves at a great pace. The art and designs are amazing too; growing up, I used to draw McFarlens art, but I will not attempt to draw Gunslinger; there is way too much detail on him. Brett Booth's art is not as good as McFarlane's, but really, who's is? I think the art is almost as good.
I loved this story until issue six. I would find myself laughing out loud at this fish out of water, Spawn, trying to make sense of a toilet and his backstory, and him trying to fight being a weaker Spawn. In issue six, this story did the one thing I hated the most in the original Spawn series: whenever Al Simmons was on the backfoot, he would dues Ex Machina a new power to escape the situation to the surprise of everyone, and no matter how cool the enemies were that were sent after him, he did not have to strategize to win; he would just blunder into powerful enemies and upgrade his abilities to get out of the situation. In Gunslinger, this character looked like he was beaten down by The Violator, who, by the way, has had a Beast Wars like upgrade and looks awesome. But at the end of the story, just when it looked like Gunslinger had to negotiate, he came up with a new ability to give the violator a beatdown .... why?
Todd I have massive respect and good will for you. Your story-telling has massively improved over the decades. The next level of your writing would be to make your heroes live in a world where they can be defeated by more powerful enemies, they don't play possum, and they don't have super-sayan-like levels; they actually have to strategize, retreat, lie, negotiate, and compromise to move forward with their goals, it's OK to give your characters new powers but let them lose sometimes. It's not really teenagers that are enjoying your writing now, kids are playing with their smartphone, it's adults who are mostly enjoying your work now and we would like a little more meat on your stories.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 25, 2023
Look, Spawn as a whole has a lot of issues. And gunslinger spawn is no exception, the narration is often unnecessary, the dialogue tends to run a little cringe, and all spawn has an issue of reusing shit all the time. But, I just can’t hate it. I mean, the art is good, there’s always that, and I’ll be real, spawn has such a cool design across the many incarnations. Gunslinger spawn might be my favorite of the many to share the spawn legacy design wise. And it’s so silly. We go from a zombie woman controlling dinosaurs to an attack of little clown monsters made from the souls of murdered kids within the course of pages.
All of that is to say, in spite of not being really all that great, I still like it. It’s silly and stupid and edgy and over the top and it’s just dumb fun even when it’s kind of boring
All of that is to say, in spite of not being really all that great, I still like it. It’s silly and stupid and edgy and over the top and it’s just dumb fun even when it’s kind of boring
October 7, 2024
I don’t read enough Spawn to know whether or not Gunslinger holds water, but right around when this kicked off I was *trying* to get into Spawn. This and King Spawn electrified my imagination. Simple, snappy, and savage stories illustrated beautifully and with some truly inventive and hideous villains that I got the sense were being drawn up from a rogues gallery, Gunslinger Spawn was a welcome reprieve from the over-saturation of the MCU influence I got the impression I was drowning in on other shelves on comics day. You want violence with some glorious artwork and malevolent grins for days? This is a fun start. I’m gonna see this series through. And eventually try to read my way through all of Spawn.
April 12, 2023
I haven't read Spawn since Jim Downing left the title, this one appealed to me though, I've always loved the way Gunslinger looks.
It takes me back because it feel exactly like Spawn from the early days, where things are chaotic and our protagonist is just trying to survive. He's lost his memory and he's displaced from time and his only interest is going home. Yet people keep trying to kill him or like the Violator recruit him, which he's having none of.
Javi is a lot weaker than most Spawn so he has make up for it by outsmarting people, he's so stubborn as well. There is a lot against him being that he can't read and interpret technology either, it's such a fascinating read.
It takes me back because it feel exactly like Spawn from the early days, where things are chaotic and our protagonist is just trying to survive. He's lost his memory and he's displaced from time and his only interest is going home. Yet people keep trying to kill him or like the Violator recruit him, which he's having none of.
Javi is a lot weaker than most Spawn so he has make up for it by outsmarting people, he's so stubborn as well. There is a lot against him being that he can't read and interpret technology either, it's such a fascinating read.
March 7, 2023
I don't know why, but I'm back in the Spawn universe. It started with King Spawn, which I thought was well written, where I learned there are other versions of Spawn, such as a crazy looking cowboy Spawn. Gunslinger Spawn has one of the worst costumes I've ever seen. It's an eyesore. I mean... THAT HAT! But darn gum, if this story didn't grab me. He's likeable. He's Hispanic ( doesn't look it at all). AND there's even a reason for the hat! And Booth's art is kicked up I kinda need to see what happens next
December 28, 2023
The artwork by Brett Booth is the real reason to pick this up as it's f**cking fantastic! Every page is worthy of being framed and hung on your wall. The story and writing by McFarlane is pretty basic and does just enough to keep you entertained. He really should bring in a qualified writer to help out with dialogue, plot and character development.
The artwork is enough to keep me on board for volume 2 and 3, but not sure I continue once Brett Booth leaves the series.
The artwork is enough to keep me on board for volume 2 and 3, but not sure I continue once Brett Booth leaves the series.
November 28, 2023
Gunslinger has been flung into the present and he's not happy about it. His only goal is to go back to 1862, killing his enemies along the way. It's typical McFarlane writing that doesn't advance the plot much. Booth's art is good, if overly busy like he tends to be. Like the rest of Spawn, it's not great, but it's not bad either.
April 16, 2025
É uma história divertida de um pistoleiro demônio fora do seu lugar no tempo.
Vai ter Violência e frases de efeito, uma enxurrada de splash pages e algumas situações até engraçadas. Captura a essencia de Spawn e atualiza mesmo que recicle boa parte das ideias do original é uma leitura divertida e descompromissada
Vai ter Violência e frases de efeito, uma enxurrada de splash pages e algumas situações até engraçadas. Captura a essencia de Spawn e atualiza mesmo que recicle boa parte das ideias do original é uma leitura divertida e descompromissada
June 17, 2024
The art is great, I have to check out more of Brett Booth� work!
The characters are cool, the action is good, the story ok so far.
But the dialog 😬
It was never Todd McFarlane‘s strong suit, but here he clearly underdid himself�
The characters are cool, the action is good, the story ok so far.
But the dialog 😬
It was never Todd McFarlane‘s strong suit, but here he clearly underdid himself�
August 28, 2022
The artwork is great and Gunslinger really is a different Spawn. Out of the current Spawn titles this one and King Spawn seem to be the best
January 8, 2023
Lovin' the story and lovin' the character.
April 17, 2023
Decent book. Good art.
June 18, 2023
Kinda just more of the same I've read of Spawn. Not remarkable, probably won't read more.
November 25, 2023
Art is good. Storyline is unique but a drag. Could have been better I believe.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
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