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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | I see his face every night. We share the same dream. The master told me what I had to do. He speaks to me and I know his name. He calls himself Malebolgia. | „ |
| ~ The cab driver |
| “ | The one you call Malebolgia, he can't be real? | „ |
| ~ Spawn asking Cogliostro. |
| “ | Malebolgia has tricked you again! It isn't you he wants! It's the child! | „ |
| ~ Cogliostro telling Spawn about Malebolgia's true plan. |
Malebolgia is the overarching antagonist of the 1997 HBO series Todd McFarlane's Spawn.
He is the mysterious demon lord and the supreme ruler of the eighth sphere of Hell, that made a deal with Al Simmons and transformed him into Spawn after Simmons's death at the hands of Jason Wynn. He was also the master and boss of Violator.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- While it wasn't shown on-screen, but it's known that he ruled Hell with an iron fist, by tormenting the souls of the countless people and tried to conquer Heaven multiple times by making the war with God.
- While he has no any dialogues or lines, it's made clear that he has clear moral agency and clear understanding of right and wrong and consciously wants to do evil and suffering to others. Also, he constantly plots to commit Armageddon and take over the universe.
- After Al Simmons was killed by Jason Wynn and Chapel, his former superior and comrade, Malebolgia made a deal with Simmons and promised him to send Al to the Earth. However, this was Malebolgia's most infamous moral event horizon because he turned Al into the Hellspawn and granted the poor colonel a fate worse than death, because the Devil transformed Al into the demon and prevented him from reuniting with his wife Wanda Blake, which tormented Simmons for the extremely long time and caused a mental trauma and grief onto him.
- He was never defeated and punished for his atrocities and is still at large and plots the end of days with the help of the child, conceived by Simmons and Wanda. Also, due to the cancellation of the sequel series Spawn: the Animation, the viewers will never see how this Malebolgia's evil plot would end and will Spawn manage to save the Earth and Heaven from destruction.
Season 1[]
- He tormented Spawn with nightmares while maniacally laughing on Simmons' horrible fate.
- He and Violator manipulated the serial killer and pedophile Billy Kincaid into kidnapping and trying to kill Simmons's stepdaughter Syan Fitzgerald, in order to force Simmons to kill Kincaid and lose the last remnants of humanity in him, and make Simmons the perfect general for Malebolgia's army. And while Simmons resisted and spoiled this plot by not killing the madman and instead leaving Kincaid to die, that was still a heavily vile plot, created by Malebolgia and Violator.
Season 2[]
- He manipulated Ku Klux Klan member into worshipping him and killing dozens of innocent people for him.
- He manipulates Simmons into trying to kill his murderer Jason Wynn, which would send Wynn to hell and bring Malebolgia another soul to manipulate into becoming his servant. However, thanks to Cogliostro, Simmons managed to resist the Devil's deception and didn't kill Wynn.
Season 3[]
- He manipulates Spawn into sleeping with Wanda, which gave birth to a child that would become Antichrist and serve Malebolgia into bringing Armageddon at the Earth and Heaven.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- His main preventions are the facts that he suffers from off-screen villainy, because most of his tyranny and evil acts were never shown on-screen and he also suffers from Fridge Horror, because all of his plots of recruiting the Hellspawns for his army were only briefly mentioned by Cogliostro and not presented entirely during the series itself.
- His personality is far too vague, because it's known very little about him and due to his lack of clear personality and motivations, he can't qualify as full Pure Evil. However, al, of these are still minor and weak preventions, because due to the information that is already known about his physical and psychological torment inflicted on Spawn and jis cataclysmic goals in mind, he still has clear moral agency and is by far the most dangerous villain in the series, therefore doesn't failing the heinous standard to any other villain in the animated series.
Trivia[]
- He is the first and currently the only version of Malebolgia to be Near Pure Evil. He is also the first and currently the only Near Pure Evil in the Spawn franchise.
- He is Near Pure Evil, while his original comic book incarnation was Pure Evil, due to possessing enough personality, lines and dialogues which were shown on-screen, doesn't suffering from off-screen villainy or Fridge Horror and crossing the Moral Event Horizon on-screen.
- It's unknown how Malebolgia would be developed if the series would continue, because if the sequel was made and his plot of Armageddon continued, he could appear and have lines and more clear personality, which could likely make him a full Pure Evil.