Shortly after returning to Earth after his war in Hell, Al Simmons joined the Southpaws Gym to retrain himself to fight without his powers, and to maybe find some allies. Earl was one of several fellow patrons that began to befriend Al, particularly over their shared military backgrounds.

Eventually, Al decided to invite Earl to join him on his crusade against evil, beginning with a drug cartel in the city. Spawn revealed to Earl his past and his powers.

Earl reluctantly agreed to help from time to time, particularly because Al offered to help pay for Earl's mother's medical care.

After silver was struck near the town of Bane, so-called businessmen like Ed Kemper moved in and started throwing their muscle around.

Kemper headed a gang of thieves that bought up most of the land in the area through intimidation and murder. When they murdered the family of Jeremy Winston, however, it was a fatal mistake.

Winston (or Ol' Job as he was known) came after Kemper himself and killed two of Kemper's men before being subdued by the marshal. He was hung for the attack, but after death he returned as a hellspawn to reap revenge upon the town of Bane.

Not only did he kill Kemper, he killed every last man woman and child in Bane for the deaths of his beloved wife Kimi and their children.

Alias: Garden of Eden

Mother tells Spawn that the Dead Zone the Disciple guards is not a portal to Heaven, but rather, a portal to the biblical Garden of Eden.

The Garden is a mystical place that exists not on Earth, but in a "world parallel to the Earth's physical dimension." According to Cog, Eden has existed longer than Heaven, Hell or Earth.

Mother went on to explain that man has always had the power to become a god, he need only enter Eden and eat from the Tree of Life. She assigned The Disciples to guard the entrance against all intruders, but told Spawn that he must enter to save mankind.

The Eighth Circle of Hell is a place representative of how most people think of Hell in general. Filled with fiery torture and torment, the Eighth Circle was ruled for centuries by Malebolgia.

It was from the 8th that Malebolgia created Hellspawn - by bonding souls with neural parasites from the 4th Circle, and then sending them back to Earth in order to train.

When Spawn killed Malebolgia, he became the defacto ruler of the 8th Circle whether he wanted to be or not. His reign was short lived, however, for the treacherous Cain tricked Spawn and usurped the throne.

After Cain disappeared into the Black Tower, multiple parties began vying for the throne once again. The Violator, who explained to Jim Downing that he was the only hellspawn created while the throne was empty, planned to use Jim to take the throne for himself.

Alias: The Shining City

Elysium is the heart of Heaven - the site of the throne of God and the home city of the angels. Also called the Shining City, Elysium is a beautiful metropolis made of glass and crystal.

It was within Elysium that Angela was trained to become a hunter angel, and where she would eventually be tried for high treason. During her trial, Spawn journeyed to the Shining City to testify on her behalf. His presence as a hellspawn in Elysium nearly started Armageddon.