Elsewhere in the brutal world of Spawn, Joseph P. Illidge and Tim Seeley are penning a new miniseries called Bloodletter, with art by Christian Rosado. The story follows Tasha Thornwall, a mystical mercenary and former CIA operative whose cover was blown by Al Simmons a decade ago. Upon learning that Simmons is now Spawn, Tasha sets out on a revenge mission meant to kill him once and for all. Issue #1 will be out June 18.

ScreenRant interviewed McFarlane while at WonderCon in March, where he went into more detail about the role Bloodletter plays in the Spawn Universe, what to expect from the storyline that Spawn #367 kicks off, and what his long-term goals are for a character that's already been running longer than anyone might have imagined. Finally, he shared his personal take on the perfect DCU Batman.

Bloodletter #1 Takes On A Different Tone From Other Spawn Comics

“If You Don't Like Spawn, How Can I Get You To Pay Attention?”

ScreenRant: I want to talk about Bloodletter #1 because it introduces Tasha Thornwell, a character with deep ties to Al Simmons. What inspired the creation of this character, and how does she shake up the Spawn mythology?

Todd McFarlane: The one thing that you try not to do overall is give the same repetition of the same character, with the same voice and the same motivation, over and over and over and over to all the readers.

What I'm hoping for with the expansion of some of the books we've done and some of the mini series and whatever is to create this buffet of stories: everything from the goofy stuff like Spawn Kills Everyone and Sam and Twitch, which is the hard-boiled detective genre, all the other way to the stereotypical superhero stuff. But I also want to paint in between those so that people [have options]. Not just for the book you mentioned, but for a lot of them, I think that we've hit our mark and we've done something positive.

[I hope] some people come up to me in 10 years and go, "I never really liked Spawn. Who cares about him? But those other three books you do, or that other character you did, they're my favorites." It's sort of like picking your favorite on the Avengers or the X-Men or whatever. You don't have to love all of them equally, and we all sort of gravitate, but I don't want to assume that people who like what I do on Spawn are necessarily going to buy anything. It's actually quite the opposite. If you don't like Spawn, how can I get you to pay attention? The only answer is to start doing different characters in different ways with different genres at times.

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ScreenRant: Something I find really intriguing about Bloodletter is this concept of a revenge mission against Spawn himself. How does Tasha's story challenge Spawn in ways we haven't seen before?

Todd McFarlane: Number one, we're not giving the same, "You die, you make a deal with the devil, you come back" origin. We're not playing the checklist of how you become a hellspawn or superhero. The other thing I think is important, especially as we keep moving along, is to give different voices to different characters. In this case, to both male and female characters of different ages.

I've been reaching out to various writers going, "Hey, look, I'm an old man. I'm an old white man, so I can write a certain amount of stuff and fake a little bit of the rest. But it just seems like it would be way more sincere if you could come and bring your experience and your voice to it." Just like anything else. This may seem odd, what I'm saying, but I think that when you're doing female characters or minority characters or people that have been close to being homeless or have addiction... That somebody who's had some experience - not always personally, but maybe knows somebody, or who's done enough reading - should come onto the books and be able to give that voice.

Tasha's just me going, "Hey, if you don't want some sort of testosterone level macho guy Al Simmons, which is a lot of what I write, then here's a more sophisticated, grounded story." It has enough elements of fantasy in it so that it's interesting, but it doesn't cross genres. I can sell this book potentially to my daughters, my wife, and the next door neighbor more than I could Spawn. Spawn's more for if you like action movies or something like that.

Spawn #367 Will Take Al Simmons Down A Peg

“You Never Want To Make It Easy On Your Heroes”

ScreenRant: I want to talk specifically about Spawn #367 because it teases a new threat looking to take Spawn's place as the Alpha. Can you give us a hint about who's challenging Spawn, and what makes him such a formidable opponent?

Todd McFarlane: All the powers have been returned to all the heroes, and because of that, we're now going to find out that a few more wildcards have entered into this equation. We're going to see that everybody assumed that Spawn was the toughest guy on the block; he was the Alpha dog. But I'm going to take a character that has been there, and they're going to get elevated.

I think it's fun to either invent characters and bring 'em on and surprise people, or to take characters that people underestimate and then build them up, and all of a sudden they become sort of the kingpins; the masterminds of all. You never want to make it easy on your heroes, and you're constantly trying to test them on their hero's journey. And to me, it's not whether you're going to win the battle, it's the journey of why you're even doing any of what you're doing to begin with.

So, he's going to get pushed and tested. And sometimes when you've been the Alpha dog for too long, there's a bit of cockiness and self-confidence that shouldn't be there and can be exploited. And so we're going to go, "Hey, you're getting a little bit big for your britches, Al. Maybe you might want to dial it down a little bit." My wife reminds me of that a lot.

Looking Ahead To Spawn’s End – Should There Ever Be One

“I'll Be Dead! It Won't Matter Anyway”

ScreenRant: You've been working on Spawn for such a long time, and it's such an iconic character. Do you have Spawn's final Swan song in mind?

Todd McFarlane: Yeah, I've had it from the very beginning. I always knew what the ending was. I just hoped that I never would have to tell it. It's sort of funny when you go and pitch stuff in Hollywood. You go and pitch these big grand stories and stuff, and it's interesting how many executives ask, "How does it end?" And I am like, "Why would you ask that? That's a defeatist question." Whenever they ask, I go, "What's the end of Superman?" The answer should be that you never want to tell it.

You hope it goes on for your lifetime and your kids' lifetime. Why are you talking about the end when you haven't even done the first episode? You should be going, "Man, that's a good idea. We can do this for 20 years." If I come to you with a Sam and Twitch detective story that has a beginning, middle, and end - we can talk about the end of that. What's the end of this one arc? But if you're asking me what's the end game of all of it, even if I tell you, you should be crossing your fingers that we never have to get there.

But I've always had it, so probably what I'll probably do is put it in an envelope and put it away. My kids will have it so that it'll always be there in case anybody after my death wants to pull the plug on the character or whatever. They'll go, "Here's what Todd's ending was." Even if people look at it and go, "That was dumb, Todd," I'll be dead! It won't matter anyway.

I only had two goals when we started. One was that I hoped Spawn the character would live past my lifetime, and it looks like we're on that path. Two was that there would always be an Image Comics in my lifetime. I made a vow to myself that I was going to put the Image logo on every issue of Spawn until I dropped dead. Even if Image is one title, it will never go away because there will be at least one title. We've been super fortunate. My biggest pride in comic books, really, is the growth of Image and seeing all the talent and people bringing their ideas, and a bunch of them prospering from their own ideas. I think people should reap the benefits of their own blood and sweat equity.

Fancasting The DCU’s Batman With Todd McFarlane

"I Want To Win, And I Want Them To Be Afraid”

ScreenRant: We're on the precipice of a new DCU with Superman, and Batman's one of the most popular comic characters of all time. Who would Todd McFarlane cast as Batman to fit into this universe?

Todd McFarlane: I'm not great at Hollywood names, but there's an actor I like. He might be too old, but he was Spock in the Star Trek movies, and he was in Margin Call. [Zachary Quinto], that's the name.

I've seen him in shows where he can be somber - and I'm not talking Spock somber, I'm talking about how there's a seriousness to a lot of characters he's done. I think Batman needs that personality because Batman, to me, is a guy that's so focused. Here's who Batman is to me, which why I like him and think he's the coolest: he comes home to all his money, but he doesn't give a s--t about the money. They go, "You're handsome, and there's a lot of people you can date." He doesn't give a s--t about going on a date. It's like, "What do you care about?" And he just goes home, sits there, and then at 2 o'clock in the morning, he gets out the black costume. "I'm going to go scare them. I am tired of them scaring us. I'm going to go scare them back, give them a taste of their own damn medicine."

I oddly get that guy. He just doesn't like bullies, and I have no patience in my life for bullies. And he's just going, "I'm not going to be afraid. I'm going to get them to be afraid of me." I like that. Superman and Spider-Man just want to win the day, but I get a sense that on his best day, Batman goes, "I want to win, and I want them to be afraid.”

Source: Screen Rant Plus