Spawn #44
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeSpawn #44 marks the first appearance of Tiffany, a warrior angel from Elysium who enters the series as a direct consequence of Angela's fall from Heaven's grace — making her debut organically tied to one of the Spawn mythology's most consequential earlier storylines. Her arrival deepened the celestial hierarchy McFarlane had been constructing, establishing that Heaven maintained an entire phalanx of Hellspawn hunters ready to step into the void left by disgraced angels. The issue also carries an unexpected legal legacy: in a 2010 lawsuit, a US District Court judge ruled that Tiffany was derivative of the Angela character co-created by Neil Gaiman, classifying her among the characters found to capture the 'total concept and feel' of Angela — a ruling that underscores how much narrative and legal weight this single debut carries within the broader Spawn universe. Meanwhile, the Sam Burke and Twitch Williams subplot — the two detectives now fired from the precinct and working independently — advances the street-level crime procedural thread that gave the series much of its narrative grounding.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
By early 1996, the Spawn series had settled into a distinctive production rhythm in which Todd McFarlane scripted every issue while the penciling duties alternated issue-by-issue between Greg Capullo and Tony Daniel. Issue #44 was one of Daniel's turns in that rotation — he handled every other even-numbered issue in this stretch, specifically #38, #40, #42, #44, #46, and #48. The story titled 'Avenger!' was inked by Kevin Conrad, colored by Roy Young and Todd Broeker, lettered by Lois Buhalis, and edited by Tom Orzechowski. The issue was released in March 1996, directly following the brutal 'Curse' storyline that had left Spawn physically devastated and in the process of slow regeneration.
Trivia · 9 facts
- First appearance of Tiffany, a warrior angel from Elysium who attempts to claim Angela's vacated Priority A-1 angel status by hunting and killing Spawn.
- Written by Todd McFarlane; pencils and cover by Tony Daniel; inks by Kevin Conrad — part of a documented alternating-artist schedule where Daniel penciled even-numbered issues (#38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48) alongside Greg Capullo.
- The story is titled 'Avenger!' and published by Image Comics with a cover date of March 1996.
- Tiffany catches Spawn in a critically weakened state following his ordeal at the hands of the Curse, and nearly decapitates him — the only method known to permanently kill a Hellspawn.
- Sam Burke and Twitch Williams, having been fired from the police precinct, appear pursuing their independent investigation into why Banks took the fall alone despite others being implicated — a key development in their ongoing subplot.
- The Violator (Clown) appears, observing Tiffany's assault on Spawn from the sidelines.
- In 2010, a US District Court judge ruled that Tiffany (along with Domina) was derivative of Neil Gaiman's Angela character, describing her as a 'kick-ass warrior angel' whose 'total concept and feel' derived from Gaiman's co-creation — a ruling central to the broader McFarlane-Gaiman intellectual property dispute.
- Tiffany later appeared as a playable character in the Capcom arcade/Dreamcast video game Spawn: In the Demon's Hand, and as an enemy in the PlayStation game Spawn: The Eternal, extending her footprint beyond the printed page.
- The issue has been collected in Spawn: Origins Collection Vol. 7 and the Spawn Compendium (Color Edition), which gathers issues #1–50.
Cast · 7 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Spawn #22 (1998), Spawn #22 (1999), Spawn Origins Collection #7
Key issues in Spawn
Variants (1)
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