Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed History

Here are quick descriptions of each of the previous editions of Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed.

To see if they are true or false, you have to click on the link!

#1 - Jim Shooter wrote comic books when he was 13 years old.

Mark Gruenwald's ashes were mixed in with the printing of a comic book.

DC must publish at least four issues of Wonder Woman a year or else lose the rights to the property.


#2 - Youngblood was a reworking of a pitch Rob Liefeld made to DC for Team Titans.

Jim Steranko was the inspiration for the escape artist character in Michael Chabon's Kavalier and Klay as well as Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle.

Fawcett Comics had to stop publishing Captain Marvel because it lost a copyright lawsuit brought by DC Comics.


#3 - Al Milgrom was fired by Marvel after sneaking an insult to Bob Harras into a comic book.

Wonder Girl was added to the Teen Titans by mistake.

Swamp Thing is a rip-off of Man-Thing/Man-Thing is a rip-off of Swamp Thing.


#4 - Artist Joe Jusko dressed up as Captain America for the cover of a comic book.

DC changed the outcome of a comic book because the original ending had been leaked to the public.

Nicolas Cage took his last name from Luke Cage, Hero For Hire.


#5 - All-Star Comics #3 was an inter-company crossover.

Marvel changed the names of X-Force, Deadpool and Cable to avoid paying Rob Liefeld royalties.

Woody Allen was once featured in an issue of DC's Showcase.


#6 - After the Captain Marvel decision, DC bought Fawcett's characters.

DC had a Superman storyline set during the Holocaust that did not mention the word "Jew" or "Jewish."

Mark Bagley got his start by winning the original Marvel Try-Out Contest.


#7 - DC had an ongoing comic that simply repackaged old TV tie-in comics.

The woman on the cover of House of Secrets #92 (Swamp Thing's first appearance) is Louise Simonson.

Superman once got into trouble for spilling American nuclear secrets.


#8 - Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, the Daily Planet and Kryptonite all appeared on the Superman radio show before they ever appeared in the comic book.

C.C. Beck based Captain Marvel's appearance on a movie where Fred MacMurray daydreams about being a superhero.

A DC comic character invented in 1964 did not make his debut until 1992.


#9 - Marvel and DC own the trademark of the word "Super Hero."

DG Chichester left Daredevil with #332.

Christopher Priest killed off a character in a comic because of ownership rights.


#10 - DC dictated the format of Marvel comics for more than a decade.

Thunderstrike was outselling Thor and Avengers combined when it was cancelled.

Charlton printed its comics using a cereal box press.


#11 - Marvel killed off a Thunderbolts character because of a rights problem.

John Byrne left Jack Kirby off of the 20th anniversary cover of Fantastic Four.

Roger Stern left Avengers over Captain Marvel's leadership of the team.


#12 - Marvel HAS to publish a Captain Marvel comic book.

Lisa Marie Presley made Nicolas Cage sell his comic collection.

Aquaman's first cover appearance was with the Justice League, nineteen years after he first appeared!


#13 - Justice Society of America was cancelled for a reason other than sales.

The Protector was created to co-star with the Titans in the pages of their Anti-Drug comic book.

In 1975, Marvel came up with four new titles in one lunch.


#14 - Destiny and Mystique were intended to be Nightcrawler's parents.

Marvel Comics licenses the use of the name "Hulk" to Hulk Hogan.

For almost a decade, there were born again Christian comics produced starring the Archie characters.


#15 - Walt Simonson based the concept of the Time Variance Authority in his Fantastic Four run on the Time Lords from Doctor Who.

Kevin Smith killed off Mysterio without permission from the Spider-Man office.

Mickey Spillane wrote comic books.


#16 - Steve Skeates reworked an unused issue of Aquaman as an issue of another comic for ANOTHER company - TWICE!

The Human Torch was replaced by H.E.R.B.I.E. in the Fantastic Four cartoon because the network was afraid that kids would, inspired by the Torch, set themselves on fire.

Steve Englehart brought a character with him from Marvel to not one, but TWO other comic companies!


#17 - Steve Ditko does not use the original art that Marvel has returned to him, except sometimes as CUTTING BOARDS!

Robert Loren Fleming is dead.

The first Marvel/DC crossover was The Wizard of Oz.


#18 - The recent Norman Osborn/Gwen Stacy relationship in Amazing Spider-Man was never intended to occur!

The Golden Age Green Lantern's name was originally Alan Ladd.

Elliot S! Maggin's big break came from a story he got from Jeph Loeb!


#19 - Dave Cockrum once sold the same character to both DC and Marvel...at the same time!!!

Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston invented the polygraph test!

John Byrne wrote TWO separate first issues of Blood of the Demon!


#20 - The characters in Watchmen were originally meant to be based on a defunct line of superheroes.

When Len Wein created the "All New, All Different" X-Men, he created Thunderbird with the intention of killing him off two issues later, which is what he did.

A character once escaped from X-Men custody in 1977 and did not have the plot resolved into another comic book...thirteen years later!!


#21 - Wolverine was initially intended to be a genetically mutated wolverine.

Superman's secret identity was made up by combining the first names of two popular pulp heroes.

Dazzler's life was saved by Marc Silvestri.


#22 - Joker was originally killed off in his SECOND appearance!

Marv Wolfman created Black Cat as a foil for the Amazing Spider-Man

Renee Montoya was invented for the cartoon show before she appeared in the comic books.


#23 - Bruce Banner got a new first name due to Stan Lee's forgetfulness

The recently killed off Phantom Lady, Human Bomb and Black Condor are in the public domain and are not actually owned by DC, therefore with their deaths, anyone can now come along and publish stories about them

Speedball was invented for the New Universe.


#24 - Marvel UK turned Killraven into "Apeslayer."

James Robinson decided to kill off a group of superheroes to show how deadly Jack Knight's ememy, The Mist, was.

Joe Orlando illustrated the famous depictions of Sea Monkeys.


#25 - DC was forced to change La Renard Rouge ("The Red Fox")'s name to "Crimson Fox

Grant Morrison's script for BULLETEER didn't actually request that level of cheesecake, and certainly didn't ask for the lead character to spend most of the issue in her underwear.

The film Hardware just took the movie's story from a 2000 AD comic.


#26 - US Postal Laws made for some interesting comic title transitions.

Hank Pym appeared in comics BEFORE the Fantastic Four!

The DC character Triumph was gay.


#27 - Firebreather was originally the son of Fin Fang Foom

Devin Grayson named herself after Dick Grayson.

John Byrne's 2112 was initially designed as a launch of Marvel 2099.


#28 - Spider-Woman was created by Marvel to secure a trademark.

Akira Yoshida is a pseudonym.

Spider-Woman ended up getting Wolverine's original origin.


#29 - Kurt Busiek came up with the idea for Jean Grey's return.

Triathlon was gay.

Kurt Busiek was NOT the first choice for Untold Tales of Spider-Man


#30 - Frank Brunner and Steve Englehart faked a fan letter to themselves.

Mike Deodato used to draw four books a month during the mid-90s.

Ferro Lad was originally meant to be black.


#31 - Frank Miller's lack of interest in Batman continuity ended up with Barbara Gordon being adopted.

Jack Kirby drew the very first cover featuring Spider-Man.

Steve Englehart protested an editorial decison by Marvel by using the pseudonym John Harkness.


#32 - The GI Joe series was partially based on a previous Marvel pitch Larry Hama made to Marvel.

The famous "Silent Issue" of GI Joe was originally meant to have dialogue in it, but it was left out due to some sort of error.

One of the G.I. Joes was based upon Larry Hama himself.


#33 - Marvel is sitting on an unpublished Peter Bagge Hulk comic book.

Stan Lee created the Black Marvel

Aquaman was not from Atlantis for his first eighteen years of existence.


#34 - Jimmy Carter's diplomatic policies led to the Contest of Champions.

Kieron Dwyer is John Byrne's son.

DC produced a completely different version of Emerald Twilight before it was scrapped.


#35 - Elliot S! Maggin's first comic book work was originally written for a college class.

Wolverine's costume was patterned in part on the uniforms of the Michigan Wolverines football team.

Ernie Chan had to be credited under a different name for years due to a typographical error.



#36 - Rob Liefeld once drew a book in landscape style without being asked, leading to the book having to be cut and paste to look like a normal comic book.

Simon Bisley once drew a penis on Lobo's arm on a comic cover.

Batman and Superman began to team-up because of inflation



#37 - Elvis Presley based his famous hairstyle upon Captain Marvel, Jr.

The character Nightveil had to take her name because of violating a DC Comics trademark.

Steve Ditko once had a story censored for using the devil in a comic.


#38 - Electronic ankle bracelet monitors were created based on a Spider-Man comic strip.

Frank Miller coined the term "The Dark Knight"

Green Lantern lost the cover of his own comic book to his dog.


#39 - An artist who wrote and drew a comic book adventure of fighter pilots became an actual flying ace himself during World War II.

A change in postal laws led to the elimination of letters pages in DC comic books.

The Comics Code Authority once banned not the content of a comic, but the art style of the artist.


#40 - The Hulk is green because of poor color separations.

Chuck Austen was J.D. Finn

William Gaines pretty-much single-handedly destroyed 3-D comic books.


#41 - Jack Kirby sued Marvel Comics.

Marvel changed the name of the Black Panther because of the political group by the same name.

Blue Beetle was originally going to star in a weekly comic anthology BEFORE DC came up with Action Comics Weekly.

#42 -
Gerry Conway did not intend to include the "snap" in the death of Gwen Stacy

The woman who was the titular basis for Kitty Pryde has since changed her name due to unwanted comic book fan attention.

Apocalypse was originally going to be the Owl.

#43 -
Julie Schwartz once had to write a comic story in a day because of an mistaken cover instruction

When Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Steve McNiven began work on their Fantastic Four run, it was intended to appear in the pages of the regular Fantastic Four

Dr. Strange has a daughter named Sofia.

#44 -
The original ending of Marvel vs. DC involved the two companies swapping two characters, but this ending was changed due to external pressure.

Almost all the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club were based on famous actors, both visually and titularly

Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe was held back for five years because of Justice League of America vs. The Avengers.

#45 -
She-Hulk was created based upon a rumor.

Mad became a magazine because of the Comics Code.

Alan Scott intentionally created a garish costume.

#46 -
Dave Cockrum's resignation letter from Marvel was placed into an issue of Iron Man as a prank.

Orson Welles once teamed up with Superman.

Michael Fleisher's Spectre issues had so many problems with script continuity that they needed a separate writer to keep the continuity straight.

#47 -
Marty Nodell created the Pillsbury Doughboy.

New editions of Grant Morrison's Zenith tradepaperbacks were printed but are currently stuck in a London warehouse due to rights issues.

Marty Pasko wrote a short prose story for Marvel Comics under the name "Kyle Christopher."

#48 -
Dazzler was created as a cross-promotion between Marvel and Casablanca Records.

DC stopped letting writers edit their own titles in an attempt at squeezing Jack Kirby from the company.

John Byrne's first Fantastic Four work as writer/artist originally was meant for a Coca-Cola giveaway."


#49 -
In the comic books, Superman was declared 4-F because he accidentally read the eye chart in another room with his X-Ray vision.

The Spectre had a comic relief sidekick.

Wildcat was inspired to become a superhero by the comic book character Green Lantern."

#50 -
John Romita broke into comics pretending to ink for penciller, while the penciller was actually inking Romita's pencils!

The Super-books were not going to marry Clark and Lois until the TV show got involved.

Venom was originally going to be a woman.


Ta da!