By: Hal Shipman

Hal Shipman — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 16:00:05 +0000

Shooter told me exactly the opposite. About ten years back, I had lunch with Shooter at the Chicago Comicon (before it became WizardWorld) when he was working with Broadway Comics. A friend of mine was shooting a documentary about gays and comics and Shooter was one of his interviewees.
What he told us then was that he wanted to be able to kill a Legionaire, but guessed DC wasn't going to let him (the story was his first and written/illustrated on spec), so he introduced the Shooter Four (Ferro Lad, Princess Projectra, Nemesis Kid and Karate Kid). Ferro Lad was the deginated victim. He decided he liked the character and got the idea about making him black. He was to one day take off his mask rather non-chalantly, be shown to be black and the Legion were to not react at all. Mort killed the plan for the reason cited above and he went with the original plan.
So, he was cannon fodder that almost got a reprieve.
I actually doubt BOTH versions of the story. That night, I got out my Archives (which reproduce coloring errors, btw) and back issues. His hands and skin around his eyes are white from the first appearance.
His death was also obviously the entire point of his character. He only made one appearance between his introduction and death - in the Satan's Dozen/Sir Prize and Miss Terious story. There, he is shown his future as a pile of ash, "predicting" his incineration by the Sun Eater.
Shooter also believes the Rampaging Hulk story where Banner was almost raped in the YMCA shower was "gay-positive," so his view of history is not exactly reliable.
That being said, he's a really nice, interesting guy whom I really enjoyed spending time with.

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 14:47:59 +0000

great, the supposed first major black hero makes his debut MASKED. AND he gets killed.

Comments on: Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #30!

By: Hal Shipman

By: Ben