The Curse

"You'll not be forgotten when I receive The Power. I will not shun you, as I have been. So promises THE CURSE!"

- The Curse

The Curse (real name Phillip Krahn) is a green-armored villain in the Spawn series. He seeks a place in and knows far more about the war between Heaven than most on Earth.

History
The Curse, born Phillip Krahn, seeks a chance to lead Heaven's armies against the armies of Hell. When he was a boy he removed his own left eye and scarred his face with a large, deep scratch from a rusty metal fence running horizontally over his right eye. When he was older, he removed his right arm to show his dedication to God. He grew to become wealthy and studied the occult. He used technology to rebuild his arm, far stronger and better than it was before.

He sought to gain Spawn's powers, believing him at first to be a soldier of Heaven. He is first introduced blowing a massive hole through Spawn with his futuristic arm-cannon. After Spawn's easy defeat, The Curse begins to doubt this thought of Spawn being endowed by God. He leaves the alley, accusing Spawn to be a minion of Satan instead. Spawn displays that he is not so easy to defeat, destroying his bionic arm and beats him severely, leaving the Curse crucified on a wall in Rat City to teach him and others that the alleys belong to Spawn. The Curse realizes that God has forsaken him, and makes a decision to now fight his 'own' battles, starting with Spawn. He remains pinned to the wall, where he is found and tortured by the demon hunter, John Sansker. John wanted to know the horrible things Spawn did. The Curse lied and said that Spawn performed heinous acts to stop the torture John was inflicting.

The Curse escaped from the alleys and returned to his mansion, where he began to plot his revenge and recuperate from his many injuries by combining cybernetics with demonic parts. Feeling his place in Heaven forever denied to him because of his failure to destroy Spawn he sought to gain all the knowledge of Hell so that he might overthrow Malebolgia and recreate Hell as his own Kingdom.

He appeared later in the book, Curse of the Spawn, aiding and ultimately betraying Tony Twist before another apparent brush with death. He was hit by Twist's car and shot by numerous weapons, as the volatile chemicals around his lab were also hit and the resulting explosion engulfed everyone involved. Given his penchant for survival, and the fact that he has never been shown to be in Hell as other Spawn villains before him (Kincaid, Freak, etc.) it is unlikely that The Curse is actually dead.