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Spawn Reading Order (and the Spawn Universe)

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In 1992, after leaving Marvel, Todd McFarlane and other high-profile illustrators launched Image Comics – you know the story… It was a gamble, to say the least, but it paid big. This success didn’t take long to come, as the first issues published were smashing hits. Spawn was no exception. In fact, it was the most consistent one because of McFarlane, and that stayed that way.

In fact, in 2020, Spawn reached issue #300, a rare feat for an independently published comic. Now, there’s even a Spawn Universe with new spin-offs to expand the world of Spawn like never before.

At the center of the series is Al Simmons, a highly trained government assassin who is betrayed and murdered by fellow operative Bruce Stinson, better known as Chapel. Condemned to Hell for his life as an assassin, Simmons makes a deal with Malebolgia, ruler of one of Hell’s armies, to become a Hellspawn in exchange for seeing his wife, Wanda Blake, one last time. Five years after his death, Simmons returns to Earth in a grotesquely disfigured body and discovers that the life he left behind has moved on. Wanda has remarried his best friend and has a daughter. Unable to reclaim his former life, Simmons takes on the identity of Spawn, initially driven by anger and revenge before gradually becoming a reluctant antihero. As he struggles to understand his powers and his place in the world, he begins searching for a new purpose while caught between the forces of Heaven, Hell, and humanity. Hundreds of issues and spin-offs have expanded this story into a whole universe, so follow our Spawn Reading Order to not get lost.

Spawn Reading Order:

The New Spawn Compendium Edition

Let’s start with the last collection, the Compendiums, which are huge volumes collecting every issue of the main Spawn series in order. Those big books are affordable, easily accessible, and even collect some issues that were unavailable for so long (due to legal conflicts).

Also available in this format is the spin-off series Sam and Twitch, the two detectives who are going through the dark underbelly of the city and chase mobsters, serial killers, and monsters! 

The “Spawn Origins Collection” was launched in 2009. It’s a line of TPB reprints (with new cover art by Greg Capullo). After 20 volumes, the collection was stopped in 2014 but restarted in 2022. Not listed here are the hardcover editions of the same name (but the content of each book is different). To avoid confusion, because of the similar titles, I preferred to keep them out.

“Curse of the Spawn” is a spin-off exploring the life of the previous Hellspawns and other supporting characters. All is not collected yet (all the issues are nevertheless available here) and the stories were not published in chronological order.

The Spawn Universe

Spawn #318 leads right into Spawn’s Universe #1, which launched the Spawn Universe. The world of Spawn changes forever! New heroes. New villains, and more importantly, new titles:

  • Gunslinger Spawn: A centuries-old, cowboy-hat-wearing Hellspawn fights for vengeance after being brought up in modern times.
  • Deadly Tales of the Gunslinger Spawn: Series set in the past before the Gunslinger is pulled to the future.
  • King Spawn: Companion series to the main Spawn book following Al Simmons.
  • The Scorched: It’s a team book uniting lethal forces like She-Spawn, Redeemer, Gunslinger, and Medieval Spawn to destroy apocalyptic threats.
  • Rat City: A high-tech soldier in the future bonds with Hellspawn energy, creating a cyberpunk cyber-soldier.
  • Sam and Twitch: Case Files: The two gritty detectives are back investigating the darkest crimes.

It all starts here:

Spawn #350 is another pivotal issue. King Spawn #31 picks up around a month after the events of this issue, Spawn #351 around two months after, and The Scorched #27, a few months later too. 

More to Come!!!

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