Al Simmons/Spawn

Albert "Al" Francis Simmons was born in Detroit, Michigan as the second of three brothers to Esther and Bernard Simmons. Simmons was a very gifted officer of the United States Marine Corps, where he attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He later joined the United States Secret Service, which led to his transfer to the Central Intelligence Agency. In the CIA, Simmons was recruited by Director Jason Wynn into a special top-secret covert ops division known as the U.S. Security Group, an elite task force with jurisdiction in all domestic and foreign situations.

Jason Wynn and Simmons began to butt heads more often and Simmons planned to resign.

Simmons was murdered during a mission in Botswana for the USSG's Operation Knightstrike by fellow mercenary Bruce Stinson at the order of Director Wynn. Simmons was sent to Hell because of his life as an assassin. After arranging a deal with the being known as Malebolgia, Simmons agrees to become a Hellspawn in exchange for being allowed to see his wife Wanda Blake one last time.

Malebolgia returns Al Simmons, now a Hellspawn, to the world, but with little memory, a badly disfigured body, limited yet seemingly boundless magical powers, and a monitor, the Clown, AKA Violator. Simmons slowly realizes that five years have passed. When he decides to visit his former wife, Wanda Blake for his "one final visit", he discovers that his Wanda has since married his best friend, Terry Fitzgerald, and the two have a daughter, Cyan. Al shapeshifts his body, but chooses to take the form of Terry and makes love to her. She becomes pregnant which sets in motion a prophecy of the child that will decide the fate of reality.

Now known as Spawn, Al's first few adventures are anti-hero in nature: he takes down street gangs and organized crime, and he kills a child molester/murderer named Billy Kincaid. Most notable of all in his early adventures, Spawn would encounter Dave Sim's Cerebus the Aardvark. Spawn encounters Anti-Spawn, who is actually Jason Wynn, and the Redeemer. He survives an assault by Angela, an angel whose mission in Heaven is to hunt Hellspawns for sport and claims the Medieval Spawn as one of her trophies. As this occurs, he takes over the alleys that comprise "Rat City" and befriends the homeless within it, becoming their champion. In particular, an old bum named Cogliostro seems to know a lot about him. Cogliostro and the Clown act as polar guides for Al, trying to convince him to use his powers for good and evil respectively. The Clown shows that he can transform into his real form, a demon known as the Violator. Spawn also brings his friend Bobby back to life after he's been killed by Chapel. In a spin-off issue, Spawn encounters Batman who subsequently throws a bat shuriken at him, slicing Al's face in two. Even though Spawn could use his limited energy to heal, he turns to his loyal friend Bobby, who instead ties it shut with a shoe lace. This shoe lace would eventually be removed by Terry Fitzgerald, and later worn as a necklace by Terry's daughter, Cyan Fitzgerald. "Shoestring face" Spawn would remain one of the iconic visuals of the character.

And he is reprised by Keith David in the English dub and Akio Otsuka in the Japanese dub.