But Simmons had left behind a wife he dearly loved, so he made a deal with the Malebolgia, master of the 8th circle of hell: he would return to earth in exchange of becoming a leader of the army of Spawns in their war against heaven. True to form for a devil, Malebolgia twisted the deal, returning him to Earth five years after he died, with the scarred face Chapel had inflicted on him. He discovered that his wife Wanda had remarried, to his best friend Terry Fitzgerald, who had comforted her after he was killed, and that they had had a daughter. Not wanting to hurt them, Al decided not to let them know who he was, instead taking up residence in an alley amongst the detritus of humanity.

Al renounced his deal with Malebolgia, feeling that the devil had broken their pact and having been made a better man after his stint in Hell. Malebolgia refuses to let him go so easily, the first Spawn he has created this century and a major part of his war against Heaven. Now Spawn uses the powers he has been given to try and protect the people he loves and to battle the minions of his master.

Malebolgia:

Thought to be the equivalent of the devil in the Christian bible, he is responsible for the creation of Spawn. It is eventually revealed that Malebolgia is one of Hell's many rulers, a being from the "eighth circle of Hell" who has been around for 70,000 years or so, forming an army in its war against Heaven and God. Malebolgia was respected and feared as the most powerful of the rulers, and thus the de-facto grand master of Hell. His powers include energy projection, matter manipulation, enormous physical strength, recouperative abilities, and the abilities to morph and induce hallucinations. His standing in Hell's hierarchy gives him nigh unlimited power while in the 8th sphere. His mastery of necroplasm gives him the exclusive ability to create Hellspawn and during his rule he created an army larger than anything Heaven could handle.

The true devil, Satan himself, has not been revealed yet in the Spawn comics, but it has been confirmed that he exists, and is a power far, far beyond Malebolgia. It has been noted that Malebolgia was constantly at war with the rulers of the other spheres of Hell, as well as at odds with Mammon.

Malebolgia was slain by Spawn in issue #100. Spawn was offered the crown of the eighth circle, and though he declined, Spawn still received vastly enhanced powers and a command over Hell itself. It has become known that Mammon was a far more commanding presence in Hell than Malebolgia and though he was given self-determination and rule over Hell he was far from the most powerful being in The Pit.

Malebolgia's Entry in the Spawn Bible

Hell has had many rulers. They have all been ruthless... terrifying... powerful. Yet, they have all been enslaved or died as newer demons have ripped them bloodily from the throne. The Malebolgia is but one in a long line of these demons. However, he is different. He is more cunning than all those previous. More vicious. More cruel. And he, above all, can see into the long term. He has made his own army to protect him, even as he trains them to attack Heaven someday. Born, or rather, forged in the fires of Hell's eighth plane, the Malebolgia had his first conscious thought seventy millennia ago. His creator, Leviathan, a Grand-Mal Demon and total ruler of Hell, sculpted his pet, infusing him with rivers of necroplasm and charging him with energy from the most loathsome and hideous acts any being can perform. True to his nature, shortly after reaching complete sentience, the Malebolgia turned on his master and slew him before his startled court during a three-year blood feast. After imprisoning his creator's surviving essence, he ecstatically placed the crown of rule upon his head and became the supreme master of Hell.

Now, as he has done for more than 70,000 years, the Malebolgia schemes sublime horrors from his throne. An innovator, he has managed to stay one step beyond the grasp of the other demons that covet his title. While he did not invent the Hellspawn, they are his greatest warriors; those creatures built from murder in the same way he had been made from evil. They are his puppets, his entertainment and toys. He uses them on occasion to torment his weaker rivals. But most importantly of all, he uses them to form the officer corps of his Hell-born army: his officers of the damned. In our time, the Malebolgia has raised one particular officer who's made him more proud than the ten before him. In life, this Hellspawn was known as Lieutenant Colonel Al Simmons, and his soul's torture has been Malebolgia's great pleasure. For unlike the hundreds preceding him, this Hellspawn sold his soul for a pittance: the love of his wife Wanda. In him, level upon level of torment has intricately intertwined to form the perfect destructive force. This Spawn performs evil acts for noble reasons - the truest damnation for any man.