Monday 2 May 2016

Deadpool Vs. Spawn: Let's Compare


So who came first? 
Spawn or Deadpool?

Who intro'd their premiere Anti-hero first? Image Comics or Marvel?

Both these characters have become widely known as their respective Comic giant's ultimate Anti-Hero fantastico. Let's take a look at some similarities first:


I can't help but wonder if these traits are exactly what makes them so popular with readers, I can agree that they are what make them super awesome to me :-)

Mind orgasmic powers aside, their personalities and willpower are what stand out as they use these to overcome some of their most challenging moments.
After doing the above table, I gawked at it, shocked at how many similarities there are.
Granted Spawn is more physically brutal, darker & serious in nature. He's also regarded as an Occult Anti-Hero. While Deadpool is mostly cray-cray in the hay-hay, often breaking the 4th wall. Which is frickin' Epic!

So without further ado, the answer to the question is........(Drum roll please)............................................................

Deadpool!!! Tadarattada!!


Deadpool's first appearance was February 1991.
Spawn's first appearance was May 1992.

Crazy how close their debuts are hey? Deadpool comes out in February, then a little over a year later, Spawn debuts. 

Let me start by saying I'm huge fan of Todd McFarlane (I mean who isn't). But it does beg the question, did Deadpool's fame influence the creation of Spawn? Did Todd McFarlane use those same characteristics to come up with the deadly Hellspawn? 
Furthermore, McFarlane had enjoyed superstar status among comic fans with his work on Spider-Man, which had featured McFarlane's name prominently as both writer and artist. Which ties in with a similar post I did regarding Superman Vs. Spiderman: Let's Compare.

According to Todd, he created the character Spawn when he was 16, and spent "countless hours" perfecting the appearance of each component of the character's visual design. Whereas if you look at Deadpool's creation by artist/writer Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza, a lot of the influence came from DC's character, Deathstroke. Other influences include, what Danny DeVito's character was to Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in Twins, Deadpool was intended to be to Wolverine. They also used mannerism from Spiderman, in the way that he makes jokes during battle. 

Now that we know what their similarities are, who came first & their creation stories. Can we still say that one influenced the other? 

I'm a major fan of the Spawn artwork & graphic detail yet I'm also a major fan of Deadpool's signature traits & mannerisms. His dialogue is mad hilarious at times. Plus the dude dates Death & breaks the 4th wall! I love it. Both have gotten their own Feature-Length films which only further popularized their characters & comics. So in all fairness, it's a win-win. 


On a side note, a guy began a comment debate on Facebook about whether or not Deadpool can be labelled as a Superhero since he's classified as an Anti-Hero? 
There were some solid points made for each side of the debate. 
I define it as Deadpool is a Superhero under the sub-category of Anti-Hero. 

Interested to hear others thoughts on this, so comment below. 

~Be Kind to One Another~ Ellen Degeneres

8 comments:

  1. My husband and I would have to agree...DeadPool is a form of superhero! Totally love the movie!

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  2. My boyfriend would love this article!!

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  3. No contest it's Deadpool - btw thanks for sharing my Mars Attacks post!

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  4. Where Deadpool was intended as a way of Marvel poking fun at Deathstroke,Spawn was a original character and is far more developed by McFarlane.
    Al Simmons was not a "merc" but worked for the US Government and his kills were sanctioned until his section leader went rogue.

    While Deadpool is far more of a street hero,Spawn is more of a cosmic hero,fighting enities not of this plane.

    Deadpool is a fun character but isn't special,every Marvel hero pretty much pops off during their fight scenes,everyone makes jokes.

    But still a decent entry.

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  5. Spawn is better and deadlier

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  6. This was dope including comments. #TeamSpawn

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  7. In my opinion look at Marvels history stealing characters. You see the comparisons. Todd worked on Spawn for years the design character etc, you don’t think he showed the design to any Marvel artist or writer who then thought hey that looks cool I could do something like that in New Mutants. Look at the mask similarity or give Dead Pool a Spawn Cape. Marvel haven’t had a truly successful character that was original since Dead Pool . However look at Dark Seid and Apocolypse. Deadpool imo was a behind curtain influence off of McFarlane sketches of Spawn given Spawn debuted 6 months and he started Image later this is the perfect time frame where a character was completed with intent to be used and Marvel just quickly drew up a influenced character and were more quickly able to deploy him in a current ongoing series.
    Join OddKey and talk to Todd in person tonight I’m going to ask him this !

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