The 10 Most Shocking Spawn Villains (& How Al Simmons Defeated Them)

Spawn is one of the most hardcore characters in Image Comics history, and perhaps even in all comic book fiction, which means he’s bound to have plenty of villains strong enough to match him in battle. Indeed, Al Simmons only became Spawn by channeling the powers of hell, subsequently attracting the most vile, despicable, and powerful enemies wanting to challenge him.

While it’s true most of Spawn’s enemies are the worst of the worst, there are times when Spawn faces off against momentary challengers – some, even, who are more familiar than fans would expect. These foes aren’t just limited to supernatural entities like demons and angels, either, as he’s gone up against the likes of aliens, cyborgs, mutants, and even just humans skilled enough to take him on. Yet time and again, Spawn always manages to come out on top – either through mutual resolution, or absolute domination. Here are Spawn’s 10 most shocking villains (and how Al Simmons defeated them).

10 Spawn Takes Down the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Image Comics’ TMNT #24 – “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs Spawn” by Frank Fosco

One of the more shocking enemies Spawn has faced during his vigilante career wasn’t a repugnant demon or vindictive cyborg, it was a single team of iconic mutant heroes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This fight was as surprising as it was short, as it was featured on the last few pages of Image Comics TMNT #24 and amounted to little more than the Turtles running into Spawn in the sewers and having it out with him right then and there.

While this standalone fight didn’t offer much in terms of story or world-building, it certainly didn’t shy away from the action. The moment the Turtles saw Spawn, they immediately jumped into battle-ready positions. However, Spawn’s hellish powers proved too strong, and he knocked them all away with a single attack, ending the fight as quickly and as shockingly as it began.

9 Spawn Takes On Batman Before Coming to a Peaceful Resolution (kind of)

Spawn/Batman by Frank Miller and Todd McFarlane

Spawn crossing over with the likes of Batman was undeniably shocking when it was published, and fans were assuredly even more surprised to learn that the two weren’t exactly on good terms throughout the book, either. Rather than immediately teaming up for a shared adventure, Batman and Spawn were initially enemies. Batman didn’t like Spawn’s murderous methods, and Spawn didn’t like Batman encroaching on his territory.

In the end, neither of them ‘won’ or ‘lost’ the fight, as this was an example of the aforementioned peaceful resolutions. However, the book did end with Spawn getting hit in the face with one of Batman’s batarangs, which proved to be one of Spawn’s more iconic injuries to date, and allowed the two to end their crossover on good terms (kind of).

8 Spawn Teams Up With the Rest of Image Comics to Fight the Mars Attacks Aliens

Mars Attacks Image #1-4 by Keith Giffen, Gary Carlson, Andy Smith, and Bill Sienkiewicz

There aren’t many publisher-wide crossovers in Image Comics, mostly because it’s a creator-owned publication consisting of unrelated solo titles. But in the ‘90s, there was one major crossover of note: Mars Attacks Image. In it, Spawn teams up with the likes of Savage Dragon and the Maxx, just to name a few, to fight the invading forces of the aliens from Mars Attacks.

In the end, the efforts of Spawn and the rest of Image Comics’ catalog of ‘90s characters were too much for the Mars Attacks aliens to handle, and they quickly retreated back to the Red Planet. While the ending of this crossover wasn’t that surprising, the beginning of it certainly was, as the fact that the Mars Attacks aliens were fighting the likes of Spawn at all was shocking in and of itself.

7 Spawn’s First Major Villain is the Epitome of Shock-Value Horror

Spawn #2 by Todd McFarlane

While it’s no surprise that Spawn would be battling demons – hell is the cornerstone of the entire series, after all – one of the first ones he encounters is still a shocking character to behold. The Violator has two main forms: that of a tall, thin creature resembling an emaciated Venom, and a grotesque clown. The sight of the Violator alone is the epitome of shock-value horror, as are the horrific acts of despicable violence he commits throughout the Spawn series.

Spawn would eventually defeat this original arch villain once and for all by obliterating the Violator with a massive explosion of necroplasm.

6 Spawn Fights Angels Just as Often as He Battles Demons

Spawn #9 by Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane

The first angel Spawn encounters is named Angela, who is a Hellspawn-hunter that’s been killing potential generals of hell since the dark ages – and likely long before. This issue confirms that Al Simmons isn’t anything original, but merely the latest in a long line of Hellspawn who are unleashed upon the Earth, killing evildoers and sending their souls to hell to grow its demonic army – and it’s Angela’s job to stop them before they make hell powerful enough to overthrow heaven.

While Spawn isn’t strong enough to kill Angela outright, this issue ends with Spawn sending the angel running. This not only proved shocking to the reader – as Angela’s strength is very well established – but also Spawn’s in-world allies as well, who knew just how powerful Angela really was.

5 Spawn’s First Major Matchup Wasn’t Demonic or Angelic, But Cybernetic

Spawn #6 by Todd McFarlane

In a series like Spawn, where the main protagonist is supernatural in nature and the overarching plotline is littered with angels and demons, it might be a bit of a shock to learn that the first villain who really gave Spawn a run for his money was a cyborg named OvertKill. OvertKill is a classic character one would expect to see in practically any ’90s comic. He’s massively buff, totally hardcore, and has cybernetic enhancements. OvertKill initially didn’t seem to fit the tone of the Spawn series, but that didn’t stop him from completely dominating Spawn upon their first encounter.

While Spawn may have lost to OvertKill during their first fight, he came back with a vengeance. Spawn unleashed an unyielding barrage of firepower upon OvertKill, so much so that the villain was reduced to little more than a skeleton by the time Simmons was done with him.

4 Spawn Hunts Down and Mutilates the Man Who Killed Him: Chapel

Spawn #13 by Todd McFarlane

This issue is the second part of the storyline “Flashback”, which fleshes out Al Simmons’ backstory and reveals nearly every detail about how he became Spawn – including and especially the identity of the man who sent him to hell in the first place. Al realizes that one of his former fellow special forces soldiers named Bruce Stinson was the one who actually killed him. While it was someone else who ordered it, Bruce was the one holding the proverbial gun. Since then, Stinson became a government-contracted soldier codenamed Chapel.

After Spawn recovered these memories, he hunted Chapel down and sliced off most of his face, leaving him alive with his skull almost entirely exposed. While the idea that Spawn would hunt down the person who killed him isn’t itself all that shocking, the reveal of who killed him, and how they were living their life afterward decidedly was.

3 To Get To Chapel, Spawn Had To First Fight Youngblood

Youngblood #10 by Rob Liefeld, Eric Stephenson, and Stephen Platt/Spawn #13 by Todd McFarlane

After killing Al Simmons, Chapel didn’t just join any government-affiliated team, he joined Youngblood. Youngblood is a team of super-powered individuals whose stories are chronicled in the Image Comics series Youngblood, created by Rob Liefeld. The heroes didn’t know everything about Chapel’s past (and they didn’t want to), but it came as quite a shock when it was revealed that their teammate effectively unleashed the wrath of hell upon all of them due to the sins of his past.

While Spawn and the Youngblood heroes would eventually settle their differences, more or less – meaning no one really won or lost – the conflict itself was one of the more shocking in regard to both franchises. Youngblood was directly tied to Spawn and his origin in the darkest way possible, and one of their own members paid a hefty price for it.

2 Spawn Battles a Shocking Current Image Comics A-Lister: Invincible

Invincible #60 by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley

During the Invincible War event, when the villainous Angstrom Levy unleashes his squadron of ‘Evil Marks’ from across the multiverse to wreak havoc, one of them ends up in the clutches of Spawn himself. While this isn’t the original Invincible, it is a near-perfect variant, one who happens to share the original Mark’s powers. And Spawn had this Invincible in the grip of his cape, with his chains wrapped tightly around the half-Viltrumite’s throat.

Spawn is no stranger to crossovers – as has become obvious – but this one is especially shocking, as it’s almost like a passing-of-the-torch from one Image Comics A-lister to another, while firmly reminding the next generation that the classics can still kick ass.

1 Spawn Defeats Satan AND God (At The Same Time)

Spawn #163 by David Hine, Philip Tan, and Rodel Noora

When Spawn made his deal with the demon lord Malebolgia, it seemed inevitable that he would eventually face-off against the king of hell themself, Satan. Al Simmons was doomed to lead hell’s army, after all, which is decidedly not the most heroic thing for a good-hearted antihero to be doing, meaning he’d eventually have to turn against the very source of his own power. However, what’s shocking is that Spawn didn’t just vanquish Satan, he defeated God as well – and he beat them both at the same time.

Spawn found a way to trap God and Satan in a pocket reality where the two would trade blows for all eternity, which is about as thorough as one can be when pulling off a victory over all-powerful, immortal beings – especially ones as utterly shocking as these (with God being the obvious standout).