RAENIUS THE HELLSPAWN
There are two official versions:
April 1999 Series 13 Original: Raenius
Released as part of Series 13: Curse of the Spawn II in April 1999. Those who are not privy to the comic series Curse of the Spawn would no doubt be scratching their heads in wonderment as to how this creature is a Spawn. Moreover, McFarlane Toys did not titled him as Spawn on the card and the symbiont represented by “M” is not on the body...but no worry mate, he is a Spawn.
In the 7th story-arc of Curse of the Spawn, he appeared as a Hellspawn in issues #20 "Dark Future" (May 1998) and #21 "Dark Myth" (June 1998). He is a terribly ugly Spawn, one of the ugliest in the Spawn Universe. He was killed by his half-brother Zeus when he was only a small boy. Like Zeus, he is the son of Cronus, one of the Titans but born to a mortal mother Ariena. Zeus killed Cronos to become the King of the Gods and in the process destroy Raenius so that he would not be a challenge to his throne.
And 'naturally' he returned to seek vengeance.
I supposed the messiness of the drawings play a part in his unappealing appearance but no matter how ugly a beast is, fairy tales demand that he be loved by a woman – in this case, Medusa.
June 1999 Series 13 Variant: Raenius
Two months after the official release, an official variant appeared.
Differentiating the Original and Variant
The best way to differentiate is not the skin colour of yellow and brown; the colour fades over time and start to resemble each other. Rather it is to look at the muscles (or is that sores) of the two figures: Original has red muscles all over his body and Variant has green muscles. These differences are especially pronounced on the thighs.
This display pic from the official spawn website shows the figure having a much lighter paint scheme as compared to that received by the consumers. To the left of the picture, you should be able to see a yellow figure attached to Raenius, she is a fairy and in the story, a gang of fairies egg him on in his quest for vengeance.
