Comments on: Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #57

By: Anthony Durrant

Anthony Durrant — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 03:13:16 +0000

I thought it was nice of Cole’s editor not to tell him another reason why he should not use the name “India Rubber Man” – a character called “Robby the Rubber Man” was being published by Timely at around the time that Plastic Man originally came out.

By: Paul Saether

Paul Saether — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 14:45:44 +0000

The first Beano annual (Published in the U.K. in 1939) featured ‘PING! The Elastic Man’

By: Thenodrin

Thenodrin — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:17:36 +0000

The way I heard it was that the creator of Elongated Man wanted him to be a new character, and that the recently secured rights on Plastic Man were planned to be used elsewhere.

I agree that some debunking spelunking may be needed.

Theno

By: The_Unnamed_One

The_Unnamed_One — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 05:40:02 +0000

Bill Reed said: “Wow. â€œIndia Rubber Manâ€ is a worse name than â€œElongated Man.â€”

Interesting comparison there. I’ve heard it said that DC had a hard time coming up with a name for Elongated Man when he was introduced. Someone wanted to use “Plastic Man” as a name but DC thought they couldn’t due to copyright issues when in actuality, DC had already bought the Plastic Man character rights so they really could use it. Of course, that may just be fodder for another Comic Book Urban Myth…

By: Michael Bailey

Michael Bailey — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 18:32:49 +0000

Wow, is that Superman rumor still going around? Good God, I thought that was debunked like ten or twelve years ago.

By: Stephen Cade

Stephen Cade — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 08:06:19 +0000

Plas is one of my all time favorites–I even like some of the DC versions…

By: Paul Jones

Paul Jones — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 13:29:21 +0000

And while I’m here, is there any truth in the rumour that DC’s Plastic Man revival in the 70′s (good cartoony art but not gret stories) was te lowest selling of all DC books then?

By: Paul Jones

Paul Jones — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 13:27:15 +0000

Over in the UK (and from the 40′s up unitl the 70′s) we had “Janus Stark -the India rubber Man”

By: CutterMike

CutterMike — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 00:44:22 +0000

…No; I’d have to agree with DH’s comment… But I’ll modify it a bit, if I may, Mr. Hands:

“ONE of Darkseid’s legs is badly proportioned.”

Easy test: stand in front of a full-length mirror and try to get the lower half of your body into that position. The right leg (bent) doesn’t really look as though it’s attached to the hip, which is almost in a right-profile view, while the left (straight) seems too short by comparison to the bent and (presumably) foreshortened right leg. The only way that the segments of the legs would be the same length would be if he were squatting and the left leg were drastically foreshortened. But then his left heel should be off the ground.

Let’s just say that John had an off day on this one, and leave it at that. (Heaven knows I’VE had days when a drawing got away from me!)

By: Michael Heide

Michael Heide — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 01:33:57 +0000

Darkseid’s leg looks okay to me.

But I’d like to know if Byrne really is AJ Lieberman, writer of the upcoming Martian Manhunter series. I think the rumor started when Byrne told somebody on his Message Board that he was writing for DC under an alias and nobody bashed that work, only the work he did under his real name. So… stuff for an upcoming Urban Legends Revealed?

By: yo go re

yo go re — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 05:34:36 +0000

Is it true that the story that eventually became “Fall of the Mutants” was originally supposed to be the mainline Marvel introduction of Marvel UK’s Crooked World/Jim Jaspers Warp? I always wondered why Roma showed up in it at all, but if you replace the Adversary (or whatever he was called) with Jaspers, it makes a bit more sense. As I recall, JJ “first” appeared at the trial of Magneto in #200, which would have been enough build-up time on the Claremont Plot Development Scale for him to become a major baddie by #225. And when he first appeared, Nimrod was sort of filling the hero-killing robot role of the Fury.

By: Omar Karindu

Omar Karindu — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 01:13:48 +0000

In fairness, Galactus’ outfit seems to be a piece of Roman armor filtered through Kirbytech.

Byrne’s idea that he looks like whoever’s perceiving him is a good one for explaining the chest emblem, too, since he was first spotted on Earth by a bunch of superheroes in costumes with chest emblems.

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:59:03 +0000

“Byrne used the ORIGINAL design for Galactus.”

Don’t forget the giant “G” emblem on his chestplate. Yeah, just in case you confuse him with some OTHER world eater out there.

AND his skin tone used to be green.

As for the last great Byrne comic? I have to give that nod to BATMAN/CAPTAIN AMERICA for OGN, and SUPERMAN/BATMAN: GENERATIONS for series.

By: Ditko Hands

Ditko Hands — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 10:00:27 +0000

That Byrne G/DS cover is terrible! DS’s leg is really disproportioned: it looks like a bit like (horrors) a Liefeld cover to me.

I knew the first one; interesting to hear about the third. I remember Wizard pushing that issue; I had happened upon Man of Steel #17 (cover with him battling Underworld demons), and I thought that was the proper first appearance, so to speak, of Doomsday. It was just him in a green suit.

I thought Wizard’s innovation of adding “I:” for “Introduction” in the price guides was quite a good one–as this kind of first appearance, to my mind, is more of an introduction –this would’ve been a good place for it.

By: Matthew Craig

Matthew Craig — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 09:30:01 +0000

That would explain why Galactus’ helmet has handles on it.

//\Oo/\\

By: Pack

Pack — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 03:46:18 +0000

I think any world devourer with dyed-blonde hair looks like a hooker….

By: Apodaca

Apodaca — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 22:17:01 +0000

Galactus looks like a prostitute.

By: josh

josh — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 20:27:12 +0000

Here’s another little known fact about Galactus Vs Darksied.
Byrne used the ORIGINAL design for Galactus. That means that the leg segments were flesh colored, not purple.
Meaning the Galactus was wearing a big skirt.
In one scene, he is battling some forces of Apokolips and nearly collapses. As he is fending them off from a crouched position, you can see up his skirt to a flesh colored curve which can only be The Butt Cheek of Galactus.
First nude appearance of the Butt of Galactus. Too bad it is an “alternate universe” story.

Josh

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 18:49:02 +0000

Don’t forget, too, there were rumors that it was STILL going to be revealed that it was this storyline where Doomsday first appeared when the Panic in the Sky TPB came out, since there was going to be an extra page added to the story.

By: yo go re

yo go re — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 18:09:31 +0000

Well hey, I hear he’s single now.

I remember that Superman hype back in the day – fortunately, the confusion only lasted briefly. Like a week or two (okay, a month, when the next issue of Wizard came out)…