First Appearance: Spawn # 1.
What's the Story?:
There are guys like Sam because someone, somewhere, is trying to get away with something. He used to feel bad about catching them, but a lousy world helped him get over it.
Born and raised in Manhattan's lower east side, young Sam Burke developed the area's accent and sense of territory. Schoolyard discussions were pint-size versions of the prison yard experience they aspired to. Nobody gave an inch, ever. Sammy caught their discrepencies and caught hell for his troubles, but at least he knew what to expect. Then, his parents did the unthinkable: they enrolled him in a private high school over on the west side.
Suits. Ties. Enforced homework. And, he was as unwelcome now in his old world as in the new. The accent? Wrong. The body type? C'mere, fat boy. The army? Sure, I'm eighteen.
A peacetime army isn't the worst place to be, especially when you don't expect to be respected and your survival skills are glad for the challenge. In short order, he was promoted to corporal, given a clerical job and stationed in Germany for the duration of his enlistment. He was hated by as many officers as enlisted men, but Corporal Burke learned how the system works by playing them against each other. My, the things you can learn in those filing cabinets. He returned to the States a confident man, and not adverse to wearing a uniform.
Patrolman Burke did a good job, and in time took the tests and was promoted to Detective 2nd Class. Pulling some strings, he got assigned to the Bowery, near his old stomping grounds. Sadly, it had become a trendy area, full of coffee houses. His grim face became even more firmly set: he was now a stranger in his old neighborhood.
Detective Burke is dedicated to finding the truth, even if it takes a bit of heavy-handedness to get there. The accusations of brutality, all eventually dismissed, didn't bother him: the suspects he hounded were proven guilty beyond any doubt. He is paired with sharpshooter "Twitch" Williams, the only person with whom he feels at ease. Together, they give the area's felons -- and it's resident Hellspawn -- ample motivation to stay out of trouble.
Unfortunately, their disgraced Precinct Commissioner, before he committed suicide, fired the pair for insubordination. Rather than attempt to be reinstated, Sam decided they should go into business for themselves as private investigators. Now, at last, he can exhibit his miserable sense of humor and poor personal habits freely, for the most part.
