Home Columns Classic Comic Compendium Classic Comic Compendium: SPAWN – THE DARK AGES is the same Spawn,...

Classic Comic Compendium: SPAWN – THE DARK AGES is the same Spawn, different era

Plus, crusades and knights.

12/08/2025 11:00 am

A few years ago, shortly after breaking the record for longest running indie comic, Todd McFarlane decided that it was time to expand on Spawn’s universe again, with a number of new ongoing series set within his shared universe. For a little more than four years now, they’ve explored new corners of the mythology and represented one of the best shared universes outside of the big two. It’s not just that they exist, but that they’re also really quite good. Anchored by The Scorched and King Spawn, we’ve also seen Monolith, Bloodletter, Rat City, two Gunslinger Spawn books, a new Sam & Twitch series, and more.

This isn’t the first time that McFarlane’s corner of the Image universe has grown, but I do think it’s the longest running. There have been other spin-offs, and there’s definitely still an argument to be made that there’s still a shared universe between the Image founders at least (even a time when some of the characters were crucial to internal storylines within each other’s books), but the last time there was such a concerted effort was roughly 25 years ago. Hellspawn, Cy-Gor, the first Sam & Twitch that helped elevate early career Brian Michael Bendis…

And one of my favourites, Spawn: The Dark Ages.

“The night exploded in a violent storm of crimson and black.”

Spawn: The Dark Ages by Brian Holguin, Liam McCormack-Sharp, Brian Haberlin, and Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Oscar Gongora, with an assortment of other collaborators over a fourteen issue run, began an ongoing series of a new Spawn set back in time. A more brutal Spawn in Lord Iain Covenant, but with familiar trappings of having been caught in a war, a mentor in Cogliostro, and facing off against angels and sensible clothing.

The book started as a brutal, dark, and oppressive tale of a lord coming back from the Crusades, damned as one of Malebolgia’s Hellspawn, to find his lands under the boot heel of the person he left to protect it. Between the first two arcs, it set up an idea of questioning the roles of heaven and hell, of personal accountability, and the choices that we make. Whether the latter matter or if there’s a fated destiny. With gods and monsters. Through it, interesting shifting voices from Holguin’s narration, changing points of view and incorporating a kind of idea that these stories might be a bit embellished. That we’re getting a string of unreliable narrators.

The final arc of Holguin and Sharp’s run on Spawn: The Dark Ages was called “A Child’s Crusade” and it pushed the storytelling and design aesthetic of the book even further. Framed first in a stage play re-enactment of the event, it told the story of a young woman’s village being murdered and the child army she raised to face the murderers. It ties back in to Cogliostro’s ongoing narrative in this book and the main Spawn title, but the real star here in Sharp’s glorious artwork. Earlier issues pushed the visuals, and this arc really strove to more experimentation. Including an issue with guest art from Angel Medina and Jonathan Glapion. Although given how cold England can get, I did wonder a bit about some of the clothing choices. Mark Nicholas joining the team for more sepia-toned colours, adding to Sharp’s unique framing, giving it an almost storybook quality.

My only complaint, though, being that in these later issues of their run, the letters became a bit too fanciful for my taste. With curly ascenders to the fonts becoming a bit of a distraction. I know I’m generally a proponent for unique narration boxes and word balloons, but this became a bit much. It would have been one thing just to be the narration, but it gets used for the dialogue as well. It continued on past the arc as well as the new creative team came in, making it a bit less special for this arc (and it would take way too long before they removed the style for dialogue, nearing the end of the book).

“Quite a strange fellow he was, like some black knight out of a children’s ghost tale. Sad, doomed, and haunted.”

The first fourteen issues of Spawn: The Dark Ages by Holguin, Sharp, Medina, Haberlin, Nicholas, and Starkings & Comicraft, took the familiar elements of Spawn lore and placed them in a harsher time. They played with the story elements of crusades and knights, being fated by God, and pagan lore to present an entertaining tale. All while Sharp himself continued to progress and experiment with his artwork in some incredible ways.

After their run, Steve Niles and Nat Jones would continue the series for another fourteen issues. A new limited series of Spawn: The Dark Ages from Sharp and Andworld Design started a few weeks back. Near as I can tell it’s currently unrelated to the original series, featuring a different Spawn and taking place something like seven hundred years before it, but the first issue was still a great new addition to the Spawn Universe. And an excellent showcase for how far Sharp’s storytelling has come, even from his outstanding art on the original series. Both definitely worth your time.

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