Origin Systems has announced an agreement with award-winning comic book producer Todd McFarlane to create characters for Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge, the next installment in its massively multiplayer role-playing game, Ultima Online. McFarlane is best known for creating the popular Spawn comic book series.

　　The new standalone expansion will take players into a dark world, where they will meet more than 30 powerful new characters created by McFarlane. The central character in the new game, Lord Blackthorn, has been featured in previous installments of Ultima Online, but he has now been transformed into an evil half-human creature in charge of an army of other fearsome monsters. The game will include new artificial intelligence, a new interactive storyline, and a new virtue system that rewards and punishes players based on their choices and behavior during the game. The game will also include more than 30 new items, a new help feature, and improved starting character templates.

　　Origin is also working with McFarlane and McFarlane Toys to create a line of six action figures based on the new Ultima Online, as well as two limited-edition comic books based on the game. Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge is scheduled for release in February.

　　Ultima Online was first launched in 1997, and it currently has more than 225,000 subscribers around the world. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game was created by Origin Systems, which is now an Electronic Arts development studio. For more information, take a look at our full review of the most recent standalone expansion of the game, Ultima Online: Third Dawn .