S2E22 - Issue 22 - Spawn

It's our second Patreon President selected episode - SPAWN! Find out what happens when an atheist becomes an agent of Hell! Plus references to the Simpsons, Annie Duke, and Pascal's Wager! Listen now! SHOW NOTES: IntroductionBackground (08:54) Created by Todd McFarlane in Spawn #1 (May 1992)Al Simmons, former Marine and CIA black operative, killed by a partner and sent to Hell - made a deal with Malebolgia - in exchange for his soul, he can see his wife againReturns to human world 5 years later - wife has now married best friend Terry and they have a daughter, CyanAttacked by Violator, another demon and lackey of Malebolgia, who tells him he's an agent of HellMeets bum Cogliostro, who knows history of HellspawnsAttacked by Angela, agent of Heaven who hunts HellspawnsFinds out order to kill him was given by Jason Wynn, his former boss, who is given heavenly powers to become Anti-Spawn/Redeemer - Spawn comes out victoriousFights the Freak, tortured by nightmares of his pastMeets Harry Houdini, who's a real magicianFinds out his suit is a living being known as Leetha of the 7th House of KGets caught up in battle between Heaven and Hell - uses power of Greenworld to become more powerful - he & Angela go to hell to fight Malebolgia - Angela dies, and Spawn kills Malebolgia in retaliationGets offered chance to rule Hell and declines - finds out Cogliostro is really Cain, who wants to control Hell and use Spawn to do itRejected by Heaven & Hell, he is on Earth in a warehouse with a rotting, maggot-infested corpse - his body ends up in Hell, and he, along with Sam & Twitch, have to escapeDiscovers that Wanda has given birth to God and Satan (Jake and Katie) - lots of allusion to 12 disciples of Jesus, the 4 Horsemen, Armageddon happens but gets reset after Spawn eats fruit from the Garden of Eden, and gets resurrected as an angel on the same level as God and Satan - forces them to fight each other without armies and shuts them off from EarthReturns to Earth as Al Simmons, but can't reconcile with Wanda because he beat her into a miscarriage the day before he died, so he once again becomes a HellspawnEncounters his brother Richard, who is being tortured by his own sins - finds out Mammon introduced Richard to drugs and convinced young Al to torture animals - then discovers their mother slept with Mammon to create a great evil - Richard sacrifices himself to save worldEndgame - Spawn's symbiote is fighting him because he rejected the godlike powers - Cyan stabs Spawn with a mystical knife that wounds K7-Leetha, who leaves Al Simmons - moves to new host, Morana, the miscarried child, who was restored by Mammon - Al & Cyan team up to trap Morana in Hell, and Al kills himself againReborn on Earth as Jim Downing, who has powers of HellspawnIssues (27:02) Atheist as agent of hell caught up in religious battle - makes deal with devilGuilt over what Al Simmons did before he diedTorn over Wanda moving on after he died, and marrying his best friend and having childrenTreatment (43:35) In-universeOut-of-universeSkit (57:15)Ending References: "The Devil and Daniel Webster" - Anthony - 11:19"Treehouse of Horror IV" from The Simpsons - Anthony - 11:24"Illusions, Michael" - Arrested Development - Anthony - 18:15"Yakety Sax" by Boots Randolph - Dr. Issues - 24:06Watchmaker analogy - Dr. Issues - 28:00Pascal's Wager - Anthony - 32:22Nuremberg defense - Anthony - 33:16Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke - Dr. Issues - 48:39 The Walking Dead listener poll iTunes: here Google Play: here Stitcher: here TuneIn: here iHeartRadio: hereTwitterFacebookE-mailPatreon