CBI Archive
Marvel Comics Comic Book Urban Legends
Tuesday, March 8th, 2005 at 10:03 PM EST
Updated: Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 2:18 AM EST
* Mark Gruenwald’s ashes were mixed in with the printing of a comic book.
* Al Milgrom was fired by Marvel after sneaking an insult to Bob Harras into a comic book.
* Mark Bagley got his start by winning the original Marvel Try-Out Contest.
* DG Chichester left Daredevil with #332.
* DC dictated the format of Marvel comics for more than a decade.
* Thunderstrike was outselling Thor and Avengers combined when it was cancelled.
* Marvel killed off a Thunderbolts character because of a rights problem.
* Roger Stern left Avengers over Captain Marvel’s leadership of the team.
* Marvel HAS to publish a Captain Marvel comic book.
* In 1975, Marvel came up with four new titles in one lunch.
* Speedball was invented for the New Universe.
* Marvel UK turned Killraven into “Apeslayer.”
* Hank Pym appeared in comics BEFORE the Fantastic Four!
* Spider-Woman was created by Marvel to secure a trademark.
* Akira Yoshida is a pseudonym.
* Spider-Woman ended up getting Wolverine’s original origin.
* Frank Brunner and Steve Englehart faked a fan letter to themselves.
* The GI Joe series was partially based on a previous Marvel pitch Larry Hama made to Marvel.
*Stan Lee created the Black Marvel
* Jimmy Carter’s diplomatic policies led to the Contest of Champions.
* Jack Kirby sued Marvel Comics.
* Marvel changed the name of the Black Panther because of the political group by the same name.
* Dr. Strange has a daughter named Sofia.
* Steve Ditko once had a story censored for using the devil in a comic.
* Dave Cockrum’s resignation letter from Marvel was placed into an issue of Iron Man as a prank.
* Marty Pasko wrote a short prose story for Marvel Comics under the name “Kyle Christopher.”
* Terror, Inc. was a continuation of a previous comic from another line of comics.
* Paul Simon named some of the rhymes in “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” after the old Marvel bullpen.
* Jim Shooter and Dave Cockrum once shared an apartment.
* The second volume of Ghost Rider never had an ending.
* Yellowjacket II was originally going to be a member of the Thunderbolts.
* Neal Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys used to be an editor for Marvel Comics.
* Scott Lobdell was fired from Alpha Flight over controversy regarding Northstar “coming out.”
* In the 1970s, Marvel had a designated “first page” letterer.
* Grant Morrison and Mark Millar had a pitch for a revamp of Marvel’s 2099 line of comics.
* Due to Don Perlin, a profanity accidentally snuck into an issue of Defenders.
* Namor and the Human Torch had the first team-up in comic history!
* Marvel published a game tie-in years after the company that made the game was defunct.
* Marvel had another cross-promotion superhero/singer in the 90s.
* Kurt Busiek adapted his idea for Marvels II into Astro City: The Dark Age, years after the fact.
* Geraldo Rivera made an appearance in an issue of Count Duckula.
* Ghost Rider was originally intended to have no ties to the supernatural.
* Jim Starlin once had Pip the Troll drink a particularly offensive drink.
* The Hopi tribe tried to force Marvel to pull an issue of SuperPro from the stands.
* The original Secret Wars had only two sentences of dialogue end in a period.
* Namor the Sub Mariner was created as a movie tie-in.
* John Jakes wrote comics for Marvel.
* Daimon Hellstrom was a riff on Damien from The Omen.
* Scorpion was originally going to be the child of Viper and Silver Samurai
* The clone of the Guardian was originally going to be a member of the New Warriors.
* Jesus Christ was a supporting character in Ghost Rider.
* The second volume of Ghost Rider was not supposed to be an ongoing series./a>
* Steve Englehart’s Silver Surfer book was designed as the Surfer exploring outer space.
* Marvel Comics once had a line of female superhero comic books.
* Thor appeared in a Marvel Comic BEFORE the Silver Age!
* Marvel published a toy tie-in comic book without an actually toy to tie-into!
* Marvel had a line of female heroine comic books in the 1970s.
* Marvel took a British comic book character and basically just put her into Alpha Flight wholesale.
