'Spawn' Song

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Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson?
She surprised me. I thought they were going to go with the bimbo. They showed a little skin every now and then so that she's an attractive woman, but they didn't make her one-dimensional, which I applaud. It's easy to make the damsel in distress one-dimensional.

Is she close enough to the comic version?
The Mary Jane in the comic books is a pretty strong-willed and individualized person. Given that it took a while to get Mary Jane out of the Flash Thompson-dating, cheerleader-ish mode in the comic books, they pushed her forward in the movie very quickly into thinking, ''There are better things out there that I can strive for.''

Right, but it took her three boyfriends in one movie to get to that!
Yeah, I was aware of that too! And if you consider she fell in love with Spider-Man, she actually had four love interests in one movie. That was the only part where I had to say, ''I'm trying to give you 100 percent credit here, but come on.'' I don't know if I want my daughter with four guys in one week.

Were you ever approached to be a consultant for ''Spider-Man'' in any way?
Remember the scene where Spider-Man gets his costume blown up and it's half ripped off? I can show you my panels on that. I know where they got that.

Was a movie ever talked about back when you were at Marvel?
When I was doing ''Spider-Man'' was when the talks of doing a movie first started. James Cameron was attached. They were already talking about me doing some consulting. But then legal hell came.

Could it have been this good back then?
As a film, it now becomes better. The lawyers spent so long fighting over it and the technology ended up getting better from 1990 to 2002 such that we now get a more convincing visual movie. It's one of those few moments where I'd like to thank the lawyers for delaying the process.

Are you disappointed that you didn't get to work on it?
Well, there's going to be a ''Spider-Man 2'' or ''3.'' There's always a way through the back door. [''Spider-Man''] was released by Columbia and they have the screenplay that I just handed in for ''Spawn 2.'' So I say, ''I hear you're making another Spidey movie and if you like what you're seeing here on the 'Spawn,' let me see if I can squeeze in here some place.''

Can we get your top three comic movies?
I'd put ''Men in Black'' first only because ''MIB'' was a small, obscure comic book and it didn't come with any preconceived notions or baggage. There was no history to get bogged down in to disappoint you. I'd put ''Spider-Man'' two and then ''Blade'' as three for the same reason as ''MIB.''

Do you have any interest in drawing Spidey again?
At best, we've talked about whether I'd do a ''Spawn''/''Spider-Man'' crossover. That way I wouldn't have to leave my baby. I could just sort of play with both of them.

Who wins that fight?
In my mind, Spawn kicks the s--t out of everybody. That's just the way I set him up -- he's got that power. In my mind, he could take on Superman.