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A fan-favorite Spawn incarnation, Spawn: The Dark Ages is on the way to fans, launching a six issue mini-series in October.
Forsooth!
A classic Spawn theme that’s been around for a while, the dark-ages version of the anti-hero is coming back. Image Comics and Todd McFarlane Productions just made the big reveal, announcing that Spawn: The Dark Ages #1 would be debuting in October.
The new mini-series will run for six issues, and cast a new character named Erlking Ulegrave in the title role. He’ll have quite a bit on his hands too, though so will a newly crowned Christian king. Both men find themselves in the wreckage of the Roman Empire’s withdrawal from what would become Britain.
At the heart of the series is Erlking Ulegrave, the Devil’s Spawn and master of the Wild Hunt. As Saxons raid from the East, Picts loom in the North, and Hibernians strike from the West, newly crowned King Aurelianus Ambrosius must seek out the Erlking and forge a dangerous alliance to save his kingdom. But can the Christian King truly trust this ancient power—or will such a pact condemn him to eternal damnation?
Image Comics press release
A Dark Ages epic
From the sound of things, this new mini-series is aiming big. According to the writer, Spawn: The Dark Ages will be packed with just about every medievalish theme you could imagine, with a fractured and changing world as its backdrop.
Speaking of writers, that’d be Liam Sharp, though that’s not the talent’s only role on the title. He’ll also be serving as writer, inker, and colorist. And according to him, it won’t take any fore knowledge of Spawn, or even the setting in general, to dig into The Dark Ages.
Though, and we’re not sure how deep this goes, but you might want to have a passing familiarity with Arthurian legend…
“Returning to Spawn: The Dark Ages after so long has been a wild and wonderful ride!” said Sharp. “I wanted to create something truly unique, that didn’t require any former knowledge of Spawn, or the dark ages in general. I also wanted to take it right back to the very start of that period, setting the story in post-Roman Britain in the 5th Century—a time steeped in folkloric traditions, when the old Pagan ways were fading, whilst the new, young Christian faith was taking a hold. But I also wanted to write a grand melodrama, with love, betrayals, and courtly intrigues in the vein of the Arthurian legends—for whom our King, Aurelianus, was a prototype, and the possible historical root of that legend. And I wanted to give it a quirkily literate bent, to try and gift it a unique sense of place and time…”
Image Comics press release
For those looking for the ‘Spawn’ pedigree too, it sounds like creator Todd McFarlane is looking forward to this new tale as much as anyone.
Spawn creator and President at Image Comics, Todd McFarlane, added: “As a fan of dark gritty stories and of Liam Sharp’s storytelling, this combination has been something I’ve been looking forward to showing the fandom for quite some time. It was literally, decades ago when Liam first wowed me with his interpretation of the Dark Ages Spawn characters, now after far too long a time, Liam will once again show the readers how cool, dangerous, gritty and ugly the past can be. And how surviving it is not a given for the characters!”
Image Comics press release
Variants? You bet
Spawn: The Dark Ages #1 (of 6) will be landing in stores this October 8th. When it does, it’ll naturally be accompanied by a spate of variant covers. That’s kind of standard these days, and from the looks of the first two covers, they might be pretty killer.
The first will be provided by the uber-busy Sharp as well, with a 1:50 “Incentive Variant” from Ryan Brown. You can see both in the gallery above, though you can add two more, with a blank sketch and a virgin variant (of Sharp’s piece) joining them.
All of the above will be available as of that October 8th date, along with Spawn: The Dark Ages‘ digital release. The latter will see the title arrive for Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play.
