Todd McFarlane is Vince Russo

[Sephiroth]

I discovered the HBO Spawn series on amazon prime. It’s a real mixed bag because the animation and voice casting hold up very well-but it is such a godawful depressing series to watch. Just nonstop violence, depravity, and cynicism. And that got me think8mg about it’s creator Todd McFarlane. On one hand there is no denying his contributions to comics, and his run on Spider Man remains a very fond childhood memory of mine. But when I look at his career in Image and beyond I suddenly see parallels with, of all people, Vince Russo.

Yeah, McFarlane is undeniably creative and he wasn’t afraid to tackle controversy in the pages of Spawn. But it seems his creativity really needed to be harnessed by an editor who could weed the good from the bad. And once he had total creative freedom he went bonkers. All of his characters were unlikeable assholes without a shred of empathy between them, his storylines were overly long and complex, and he went overboard on extreme violence and most especially sex. And much like Russo booking himself as wcw champion, it seems McFarlane’s ego got swelled as he insisted on inserting himself into episodes of the HBO series and his early toy commercials.

Sound about right?

[realist]

Swerve: it's actually Seth McFarland

[Mozenrath]

Hey now, that's totally unfair.

Todd actually found success beyond his blowup in the 90s.

(Honestly, he used to get dunked on a lot by action figure fans because his company's figures had awful articulation, but they have turned that around lately, and their stuff is among the best, especially for the price.)

[Amazing Kitsune]

I think if you understand Russo in the greater context of 90s trends, he starts to make a lot more sense. He tapped into a lot of stylistic trends going on at the time. It's not surprising there are other people from roughly the same era who have similar sorts of styles.

As a kid, I always understood Attitude Era pro wrestling as a kind of comic book come-to-life

[thechase]

Is Spawn 2 out yet?

[BorneAgain]

I admit I'm not the foremost comic expert, but if we're talking similarities to a creative type from 90s like Russo whose work has aged dubiously, demonstrated bad results when not reigned in, takes excess credit for successes, and has inexplicably stayed in the business long after their value has seemingly dried up... wouldn't Rob Liefeld be a bit more apt as a comparison?

[Allie Kitsune]

He said a bunch of stupid and incredibly bigoted things?

[BlackoutCreature]

The comic book industry is loaded with "Vince Russo's". McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Frank Miller. Just guys who managed to tap into the zeitgeist of a point in time and put out a classic based on it, but never able to move past it or grow and change as the world did. Heck, you can even throw Stan Lee onto that list because a lot of his post-60's stuff is just really bad.

As for Spawn: The Animated Series, I really hate it. I too watched it for the first time on Amazon Video about a year ago, and was really excited because I had heard so many good things about it. And it wound up sucking so much. Just slow and boring and depressing. They spent an entire episode building up to a big fight between Spawn and a cyborg and almost the entire battle happens off-camera. And it really feels like just about every problem Spawn runs across he could solve in thirty second with his powers, but the entire series is him just flat-out refusing to get off his ass and do anything.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Did Vince Russo found a company with a lot of fanfare about creator rights then turn around and try to shaft creators on his own title out of theirs?

[BlackoutCreature]

Aug 13, 2019 7:14:06 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

Did Vince Russo found a company with a lot of fanfare about creator rights then turn around and try to shaft creators on his own title out of theirs?

He helped create TNA. Same diff.

[bob]

[Mozenrath]

Aug 13, 2019 6:22:01 GMT -5 BorneAgain said:

I admit I'm not the foremost comic expert, but if we're talking similarities to a creative type from 90s like Russo whose work has aged dubiously, demonstrated bad results when not reigned in, takes excess credit for successes, and has inexplicably stayed in the business long after their value has seemingly dried up... wouldn't Rob Liefeld be a bit more apt as a comparison?

I think Liefeld's different in that he displayed potential, but was overpushed before he was ready, whereas Russo's overpush is the only way he'd have ever displayed aptitude for booking to begin with.

But yeah, even if he was a bigger jerk than Liefeld from what I can gather, he was a better artist, I'll grant Todd that much.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Aug 13, 2019 7:15:29 GMT -5 BlackoutCreature said:

Aug 13, 2019 7:14:06 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

Did Vince Russo found a company with a lot of fanfare about creator rights then turn around and try to shaft creators on his own title out of theirs?

He helped create TNA. Same diff.

TNA were never marketed as a wrestler rights focussed company, with the two assholes from Memphis running things, who would have believed them if it was?

[Cyno]

Aug 13, 2019 5:55:09 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Hey now, that's totally unfair.

Todd actually found success beyond his blowup in the 90s.

(Honestly, he used to get dunked on a lot by action figure fans because his company's figures had awful articulation, but they have turned that around lately, and their stuff is among the best, especially for the price.)

Their articulation was awful, but I did like the detail in the sculpts compared to other figures at the time. Of course, now you have action figures with both now and his toy line had to adapt with the times.

[Mozenrath]

Aug 13, 2019 13:42:41 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Aug 13, 2019 5:55:09 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Hey now, that's totally unfair.

Todd actually found success beyond his blowup in the 90s.

(Honestly, he used to get dunked on a lot by action figure fans because his company's figures had awful articulation, but they have turned that around lately, and their stuff is among the best, especially for the price.)

Their articulation was awful, but I did like the detail in the sculpts compared to other figures at the time. Of course, now you have action figures with both now and his toy line had to adapt with the times.

Yeah, both because he got the Fortnite license and considering Jazwares got it, too, in a slightly different scale, both companies had to step it up. Plus, Todd's got the license to make DC figures starting next year, and if they released something that didn't compete or exceed Mattel's offerings, it'd get dunked on hard.

[Glitch]

As many flaws as McFarlane has, he actually tells coherent stories and isn't constantly writing himself into a corner.
Hell, even with Rob Leifeld, at least he created characters that would later become liked by fans.

Russo just created filler while Stone Cold and Vince did the actual heavy lifting in their fued.

[Alexander The So-so]

Let me be perfectly clear: DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM.

RISE ABOVE IT ALL, bro.

[Sir Woodrow]

I don't think it's fair to compare Rob Liefeld or Todd McFarlane to Vince Russo, for one thing neither are egregious c***s like Vinnie is

[Glitch]

If anything, zack snyder is a better comparison. I can easily imagine the words "the thing you gotta understand, bro" coming out of snyder's mouth.