The middle guy? He's Shane Bettenhausen, and also a stereotypical college douchebag. That having been said, he gets better as the series goes on. Watching him play Night Trap is hilarious.
He seems more like a stereotypical extreme game nerd. He's always trying to shout down funny jokes because they're not PLAYING THE GAME RIGHT or some random stupid factoid about JAPAN!
McFarlane is a great artist, but he's kind of a jerk. I don't know how much input he had in this game, but whatever it was, he's still a jerk.
That said, I own this game...And I'm definitely a jerk, so it all balances out.
For some reason, the professor character can do an upside down spinning hurricane kick (if I recall correctly).
If drawing lots of folds in capes and clown demons that would scandalize my grandmother maybe, then you're right McFarlane is a freaking amazing artist.
Tell you what: I'm gonna go clench a pencil in my ass cheeks, squat down over a piece of paper and swivel my hips to draw a smiley face. Then we're gonna get McFarlane to do the same and see whose is better.
So yeah, he's kind of an icon of everything wrong with graphic art.
McFarlane's problem is simple: fame. He was a good artist and writer with good ideas when he first broke into comics. And he really did salvage Spider-Man out of the toilet it was in, which he doesn't get enough credit for. Also, Spawn really was one of the great launching off points for independent comics. But once his star of success got shinier, he turned into a colossal prick and he bought into his own image and fame. He likes to pass himself off as this Alan Moore style "Dark and edgy" figure who brought comics into the age EDGY DARKNESS, but of course it's all just shallow BLOOD AND CUSSING IS MATURE kind of stuff rather than actual, deeper work.
He's also a huge conservative blowhard now who's probably still giving sloppy blowjobs to Bush.
I spent 45 minutes a week ago searching for "A man" "A mayun" and "A man funny", trying to remember what it was from. It just suddenly pops into my head and I can't recall where I heard it. But then I always find it like a week later.