Ah, finally, another installment of Todd McFarlane's Spawny Guy, here to fulfill all my gore and violence needs! This is the third season of the acclaimed HBO series, leaning away from the X-Files conspiracy feel of the second series, and leaning more toward the first series's atmosphere of an undead guy learning about his powers. Only this time, his opponents are of a much more supernatural league than a technological or political one. Our opening sees our zombie in spandex as he's haunted by visions of some black knight (for you fan boys, I think this is a reference to Medieval Spawn). Also, Cogliostro the old bum finally reveals why he knows so much about Spawny: he was a Hellspawn once! All you fan boys and chicks out there already knew this, so I shall proceed. Spawn is then forced to make a morality check about the philosophy of "just following orders" involving a street thug, as well as some of his own 'Nam flashbacks. Wonder if Chop Top was there... Spawn then goes on a rampage thanks to his ever present whining and bitching about his choice to work for Malebolgia (Satan), which ends in a rather uncomfortable way as he gets impaled on an inverted cross... Cog(liostro) may have failed at reforming previous Hellspawns, but it loos like Spawn can't even help himself! We do learn though, that the black knight in Spawn's dreams, is actually Cog, back in his days when he was Merlin (yep, as in Camelot, King Arthur, and chicks in lakes tossing cutlery) as a Hellspawn. Using sorcery though, he managed to break from the curse. Elsewhere, that asshole Wynn is still causing trouble for people, and thanx to his little connections in the police force, our "Jake and the Fat Man" team of Sam & Twitch are now assigned to the Spawn case, where they're expected to bring him in on charges of suspected accessory to murder. Suspected accessory?! Isn't that like a double negative or something? Bah, I flunked grammar, so who cares. Also, our pal Chapel, the babbling lunatic, is their only lead on who or what Spawn is. One of Twitch's connections, an Asian assassin/reporter named Jade, has a hunch that Spawn may actually be Al Simmons... she must've been looking at the script! Twitch manages to get a little one-on-one talk with Spawn, which now leads him toward the evil deeds of Mr. Wynn, which gets the good little cop a bullet in the head courtesy of the chief o' police... who, not surprisingly, blames it on Spawn. So, this puts the fat man Sam on a vendetta against the caped corpse! If that weren't enough trouble, our hero's also gotta give up his past as Al Simmons, leaving Wanda behind for good, is he plans to be free of Malebolgia's little deal. Cog helps him out, by using his magic to make Spawn human again. Now, with his new "Al Simmons" skin on, Spawn goes to visit Wanda's mom for a little reassurance and spiritual healing. Elsewhere, Twitch wakes up in his hospital bed with a "twitch" of amnesia, though slowly regaining his memory of who shot him, piece by piece. Still elsewhere, Wanda's replacement husband Terry is attempting to take down Wynn through political means, but Wynn's got Clown for a stool pigeon, so Terry isn't accomplishing much. After returning to his Spawn visage, our hero then uses his costume to change once more, this time into Terry, so he can get one more stab at Wanda's slip and slide pie before giving her up for good. Not surprisingly, he gets her pregnant, leading to some prophecy about how a child born of a woman and a demon will decide the war between Heaven and Earth (not unlike the one in the PROPHECY series). Complications arise though, as Wanda's thinking about getting an abortion... looks like this war could go into overtime. Anyway, Cog reveals to us that the assassin after Spawn, Jade, also took out another famous Hellspawn: Genghis Khan! Also, it turns out that a war mask worn by Khan contains some very powerful Hell magic. Did someone say power? You know that Wynn's gonna be all over that mask. As for Twitch, he escapes yet another attempt on his life by the chief (Wynn's not gonna like that) as he leaves the hospital to rejoin his partner Sam and figure out just what the fuck is going on! To add to the mix, there's an ex-bounty hunter from Heaven turned vampire on the loose, who's killing off bad guys in her hunt for that bastard Spawn. Turns out that she was raped by a Hellspawn, and must now kill Spawn if she ever wants to get back into Heaven's good graces. But, after she kicks Spawn's ass around for a while, he turns the tables, dousing her little white-bread ass in sunlight, flash frying her to a crisp. Say goodbye to Heaven. This leaves Spawn weakened and open to an attack by Jade, but being a babe of honor, she lets him go so she can get a fair fight out of him later. Back to Wynn, his quest for the Khan mask leads him to one of Al Simmons's old Majors from 'Nam. So, Wynn has him kidnapped from his hermit hidey-hole where he's been kept P.O.W. for years now. The old guy tells Wynn where the mask is, so Wynn does a little grocery shopping in Chinatown. Also, after Terry makes an unsuccessful play for Wynn's life, he has the poor guy sedated and imprisoned in an opium den, left to rot away the rest of his existence as a junkie surrounded by big-titted Asian babes... this is torture? Wanda shows up to save his sorry ass though, getting herself caught in the process. Wynn takes this time to slap on the mask, but then chucks it when it maims his and disfigures him. When a man loses his looks, he is lost... good thing for him he's got all those fat bucks to guide him back. Spawn, still disguised as Terry, saves everyone held prisoner by Wynn, including the Major that he stabbed in the back and kidnapped for Wynn so many years ago. He's accomplishes this, only with the help of jade, who apparently gets all hot in the crotch just because hamburger face is so damn honorable. Hey, I'm a man of honor, why not come play in my boneyard? Oh well, the babe makes out with Spawny, which her superiors in Heaven aren't gonna be too happy about. Meanwhile, back in Twitch's neck of the woods, he finally realizes it was that bastard chief who shot him, so he and Sam dig up some evidence on the asshole, leaving him to blow his own brains out in an attempt to save the reputation of his name and his family. Don't fuck with Jake and the Fat Man! Okay, now for those Heavenly repercussions... Heaven, pissed at Jade for her failure to do her job, and for thinking that a Hellspawn can be rehabilitated, decide the only way to fire her is to fire her right: send a few more bounty hunters down to take her out. She gets mortally wounded, but has Spawn kill her off so her soul can be preserved. The hunters, their prey now dead, go back to Heaven, vowing to return for Spawn's bastard offspring one day. Our maggot eaten hero in tights then goes and does a little favor for Wanda's mom, before returning to Cog, claiming that he's finally ready to atone for his sins, put his former life as Al Simmons behind him, and drop this whole Hellspawn clause. With an ending like that, I can't wait till they put out volume 4! The only thing this episode needed was some more Clown related time, but even without our rotund villain, they still pumped out a nice, violent, mature 'toon! Nice job boys! Excellent animation as always!

Also Known As: TODD MCFARLANE'S SPAWN - THE ULTIMATE BATTLE; SPAWN 3: THE ULTIMATE BATTLE

Sequels: I hear talk of a fourth volume to continue the legacy of Spawn, yet to come.

If You Liked This Flick, Check Out: PROPHECY 3: THE ASCENT or VAMPIRE HUNTER D