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Originally Posted by LoathsomePete
It's not the first time characters have jumped around from publisher-to-publisher, I mean Leonard the Duck was suppose to be the original Howard the Duck but in hiding from an evil corporation he escaped, they even did a crossover with Erik Larson's Savage Dragon and Spider-Man.
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Yeah, but like I said, this isn't a crossover. She's gonna be straight up Marvel and I imagine have no connection to Image and Spawn anymore. She's owned 100% by Marvel and has no legal connection to Todd MacFarlane. If anything this is more like Captain Marvel (DC) or Green Arrow being put into DC after having their original companies bought out. And I can't think of any thing like that since the forties or fifties or whenever that happened.
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It's kind of funny how that legal battle began because the early Image Comics guys really sucked at writing legal contracts, but I suppose having been dicked around by Marvel and DC with character rights for so long, it only makes sense to go in the exact opposite direction. This is also when McFarlene unwittingly showed everyone he had far more interest in merchandising Spawn then he did actually writing it.
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From what I've gathered it's actually MacFarlane who sounds like he was trying to screw over Gaiman. He commissioned him to create/co-create (not entirely sure) a few characters, and then claimed sole ownership so he could not pay Gaiman any royalties (or whatever the equivalent in comics are).
And I can believe that MacFarlane doesn't really care about the comic anymore. Now that I'm older I see the artwork and concept of Spawn as being fun and cool, but kind of gimmicky in it's supposed grittiness. Not that I'm taking away from the character elements of the series. Spawn's relationship with his wife and his general isolation from the world is easily one of the most compelling stories in comics. I listened to the audio-commentary on the old Spawn HBO cartoon and he definitely talks about getting away from the more "comic book" elements as time went on. He sounds like he basically wanted to turn Spawn into an urban legend kind of Batman character. You might notice that you saw a lot less of his costume from the second season on, mostly just his cape. Even the white part of his mask was generally covered in shadows. And more and more of the enemies tended to be humans with human motivations and goals and not necessarily with any kinds of powers.
I get the feeling he's actually kind of embarrassed by the comic bookiness of his earlier work. Although, given how the second season of Spawn was easily the best I can't fault his instincts.
Anyone interested in Angela's introduction into Marvel should check out the current "Thor and Loki: The Tenth Realm" series. She showed up I think in the last issue of the Age of Ultron series, but apparently more as a teaser than anything else. This series is definitely her real introduction.