Brian Cronin

by Was Superman a Spy?

  DC had its more dramatic story planned first, but DC editorial did not want to run afoul of the Comics Code, so it held off on the story. Then Lee’s issues came out, and within a few weeks, the rules were changed and DC was free to publish its story line. The book proudly proclaimed on its cover that it was going to be about drugs, while the Spider-Man issues gave no indication, save for the lack of Comics Code approval on the cover.

  THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN comic strip, which is ostensibly written by Stan Lee (whether it is ghostwritten is a whole different story) and illustrated/cowritten by Stan’s brother, Larry Lieber, is probably the most successful superhero comic strip ever. It has been in print since 1977, which is an impressive tenure during the days when adventure comic strips are a dying breed. Its circulation is not as high as it once was, but it still appears in a number of papers. Luckily for law-enforcement officials, though, it still ran in New Mexico newspapers in the late 1970s, where it inspired the invention of electronic monitoring bracelets.

  The idea of monitoring bracelets had been around for years in the world of animal tracking: scientists would clamp little ankle bracelets on to animals so they could keep track of their migration patterns. In the 1960s, some researchers at Harvard University considered the application of this technology to monitoring criminal offenders, but it did not get past the academic level. In a Spider-Man comic strip tale during the late 1970s, the villain Kingpin placed an electronic device on Spider-Man’s ankle, which he used to monitor him. The strip writer (Lee, at that time) was certainly thinking of the bracelets they put on animals.

  Well, a New Mexico district court judge, Jack Love, read the strip and theorized that such a device would work in real life as well. Love struck up an arrangement with Michael T. Goss, a former Honey-well computer salesman, who developed the devices. They were first tested in New Mexico in 1983. The tests went well, so they expanded the devices for use in Florida. These tests were also successful, and within six years, the devices had spread to a number of states. Nowadays, over one hundred thousand ankle monitors are used daily in the United States alone.

  IN a RECENT story line in the Spider-Man comic book series, Peter Parker, who had been married in the comic books to Mary Jane Watson since 1987, had his marriage erased from existence by a supernatural character. Fans howled over the idea that simply because Marvel editorial felt Spider-Man should be a single hero they were willing to force the character to be single in the comic books (though he was married in the comic strip). However, most fans forget that the reverse happened in 1987 when Spider-Man was forced to get married despite the wishes of the comic book creative staff.

  It is still disputed who came up with the idea, Stan Lee himself or Marvel editor in chief Jim Shooter. But in any event, one of the two came up with the idea that Peter Parker should marry his longtime sweetheart, Mary Jane Watson, in the Spider-Man comic strip, and then, to make it a bigger deal, they should coordinate the marriage with the comic books and make a public-relations sensation out of the wedding.

  The problem in the comic strip was that while Peter and Mary Jane had dated in the past (Peter had even proposed in the late 1970s), Mary Jane turned him down and left town. The current Amazing Spider-Man comic book writer, Tom DeFalco, had recently brought Mary Jane back as a supporting cast member (along with the revelation that she had secretly known Peter’s identity as Spider-Man since they were both teenagers). But he had even more recently written Mary Jane out of the book. So Mary Jane not only had to make an abrupt return to New York in the comics, she and Peter had to get back together and get engaged, in the span of about three issues of the comic book, Amazing Spider-Man #290 through 292 (see pages 20-21 for the Superman version of this story).

  The end result was The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 in 1987, which was released at the same time that The Amazing Spider-Man comic strip was also featuring the wedding. In addition, a “wedding” was held at Shea Stadium, before a New York Mets game, between two actors dressed as Spider-Man and Mary Jane. Stan Lee was the justice of the peace presiding over the ceremony.

  So yes, twenty years later, Marvel editorial determined it was going to go the other way and have Spider-Man’s marriage erased from existence, but it was only undoing the order imposed on it in 1987. Note that in the ongoing comic strip Peter and Mary Jane are still married.

  VENOM, WHO WAS recently featured as the villain in the film Spider-Man 3, has an interesting lineage as a character. In the early 1980s, Spider-Man received a new black costume that turned out to be, in fact, an alien life form. The alien wanted to bond with Spider-Man, but the superhero managed to free himself of it. It sought out another host, ending up with a reporter named Eddie Brock whose career had been ruined when Spider-Man brought to justice a costumed villain that Brock had earlier identified as a different man entirely. The merged entity, calling itself Venom, became a frequent rival of Spider-Man over the years (and so popular that he even gained his own title for a while).

  However, things could have gone in a completely different direction if creator David Michelinie had gone with his original instinct, which was to make Venom a woman. The origins of the character would be fairly similar; it would still be someone who harbored a grudge against Spider-Man and would merge with the alien life-form. Michelinie’s original idea was to involve a pregnant woman who was rushing to the hospital with her husband to deliver her baby. They would be hailing a cab in the middle of New York while Spider-Man was fighting a super villain. A cab driver, distracted by the fight, would accidentally run over the woman’s husband. He would die in front of her just as she goes into labor. She would end up losing both her child and her sanity at the same time. After she got out of a mental institution, she would harbor an intense hatred for Spider-Man, making her a perfect host for the alien costume. When Michelinie pitched the idea to Amazing Spider-Man editor Jim Salicrup, however, Salicrup felt that readers simply would not believe that a woman could be the physical threat that Venom needed to be, even a woman with enhanced alien strength.

  Michelinie went back to the drawing board, and the classic form of Venom was born.

  AS MENTIONED, THE comic book story line about Spider-Man’s new black costume turning out to be an alien and then becoming the new villain Venom was the centerpiece of the plot of Spider-Man 3. It’s interesting to note, however, that had it not been for a comic fan who never had a single comic book story published, the whole story line would likely never have existed.

  In 1982 a young comic fan named Randy Schueller heard that Marvel was having some sort of competition for aspiring comic book writers and artists (the competition was published in 1983 as The Official Marvel Comics Try-Out Book), so he sent in a story idea. His concept was that Spider-Man would consider upgrading his costume, so he would go to Mr. Fantastic to help get a suit that was stronger than his cloth one. Along the way, he would decide to make the new costume all black. Marvel editor in chief Jim Shooter liked the idea enough to buy the story from Schueller for $220, and he would even allow Schueller the opportunity to write the story!

  He assigned Schueller to Marvel writer-editor Tom DeFalco, who worked with the young writer for a couple of drafts of the story that ended up going nowhere. The story went to the scrap heap, and Schueller moved on with his life. Well, a year later Shooter was producing a major crossover starring all the Marvel superheroes, called Secret Wars. Shooter wanted to have a few notable changes happen to most of the characters (for instance, the Thing leaves the Fantastic Four and is replaced by She-Hulk), and remembering the black costume idea, decided that Spider-Man would get a new costume in the course of the series.

  Spider-Man’s new black costume was quite a sensation at the time, and, as mentioned, the revelation that the costume was actually an alien led directly to the creation of one of Spider-Man’s most popular villains, Venom, who had his own series for almost four years and became the basis for a tremendously popular motion picture sequel.

  All that for $220—quite
a value!

  IN 1998 TOM DeFalco introduced a new superhero, May “Mayday” Parker, known as Spider-Girl, the daughter of Spider-Man. She originally appeared in a What If . . . ? comic book (a Marvel title that explored various possible futures, like, “What if . . . Spider-Man had a daughter who grew up to become Spider-Girl?”), but Spider-Girl soon became the centerpiece of a whole line of comics (headed by DeFalco) depicting the sons and daughters of famous Marvel characters. Within a year or two, all the other titles in the line were canceled, leaving Spider-Girl as the only survivor. Surprisingly, the book kept going.

  Spider-Girl flirted with cancellation a number of times, though, and ultimately, after around three years of publication, Marvel determined that the book would be canceled. Then something interesting happened: Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada received a fan letter from a little girl, pleading with him not to cancel Spider-Girl, because there were so few superhero comic books for little girls to read, and Spider-Girl was her favorite. The idea that this particular comic appealed to a demographic that Marvel’s other comics did not match added to the extremely heartfelt plea from the little girl (and a number of other Spider-Girl fans, who barraged Marvel with petitions to save the title), and caused Quesada to change his mind. Instead, Marvel would launch a new series of digests, reprinting older Spider-Girl stories, in an attempt to reach this new market of girl readers. So Spider-Girl was saved! Quesada thought he would celebrate this achievement by visiting the little girl who wrote the letter.

  The problem?

  There was no little girl.

  As it turned out, the letter from the little girl was actually written by an older male fan, who wrote it from the perspective of his infant daughter, feeling that everything the little girl said in the letter would be what his daughter would think if she were given the chance to read Spider-Girl when she was older. While presumably annoyed, this new bit of news did not affect the reprieve, and Spider-Girl is still being published today (the first series ended, and it was relaunched as The Amazing Spider-Girl), with the reprint digest selling particularly well.

  6

  THE INCREDIBLE HULK

  The Incredible Hulk first appeared in late 1962 in the pages of The Incredible Hulk, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. The concept was a simple Jekyll-and-Hyde tale. Scientist Bruce Banner is caught in an explosion of the gamma bomb he created, with the result that he becomes a violent, destructive green-skinned monster called the Hulk whenever he gets stressed or becomes angry. The army wishes to capture the Hulk, so Banner becomes a fugitive.

  The series was quickly canceled (see page 119) and for a few years the hulk was the lead feature in the anthology Tales to Astonish, but in 1968 that book was retitled The Incredible Hulk, and the series has been published by Marvel Comics ever since, in varying forms.

  In 1977 The Incredible Hulk television movie debuted, starring Bill Bixby as Bruce Banner and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk. The movie was successful enough to lead to a series the next year. The series brought the character to new levels of popularity, and the show is still popular in reruns today. The series lasted until 1982, and spun off a number of made-for-television movies featuring the characters.

  In addition to the live-action show and a number of animated television series, the Hulk also came to the silver screen in 2003, in a film directed by Ang Lee. A sequel, titled The Incredible Hulk, starring Ed Norton, was released in 2008.

  THE HULK IS one of Marvel Comics’ most popular heroes, so it is interesting to note that his original series was canceled after only six issues! A legend has been built around why Marvel canceled the series after six issues, but the most likely answer is relatively mundane.

  The Incredible Hulk was replaced on the Marvel schedule with Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, a war comic set during World War II and starring an elite team of soldiers. While Nick Fury has become a popular character in the Marvel Universe in his own right, he has never approached the same level of popularity as the Hulk, so it seems odd that the Hulk would be replaced by Fury’s book, especially after such a short period. Stan Lee has created a legend regarding what happened, and it involved, surprisingly, a wager between Lee and Marvel publisher Martin Goodman!

  The story goes that in 1963, running off a string of popular successes, Lee was riding high, but Goodman felt that the marketing of the comics using catchy titles like The Amazing Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, and The Incredible Hulk, was what was really selling the books. Lee countered that it was the strong work that he and Jack Kirby were doing, not the titles. Therefore the two agreed on a wager: Goodman would come up with the worst name of a book he could think of (and in a genre other than superheroes), and Lee and Kirby would have to create a new series based on that name. The pair ended the Hulk series to give Goodman’s title, Sgt. Fury its place on Marvel’s schedule.

  Now, Martin Goodman never spoke on the topic (and has been dead since the early 1990s), so there is no definitive proof that Lee is misremembering what happened, but there are a few pieces on information that make Lee’s version seem unlikely (not counting the fact that, as noted on pages 175-76, Lee made a plainly erroneous claim regarding his run writing Sgt. Fury).

  First off, Jack Kirby had pitched the basic concept of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos as a comic strip idea during the 1950s, so it seems hard to believe that Goodman happened to suggest a title that fit perfectly with a comic strip proposal Kirby had already made. Second, at the time DC had a popular series in Our Army at War, starring Sgt. Rock and Easy Company, a similar concept to Sgt. Fury, so it seems highly unlikely that Goodman would think Sgt. Fury was an absurd title and unpromising when Sgt. Rock was currently a popular series. Finally, there is the fact of the matter (as elaborated on pages 160-61) that Marvel was constrained in how many titles it was allowed to publish. So if it wanted to introduce a new title—and with the successes Lee and Kirby were having, they most likely wanted to keep trying to find new ones—some title had to come off the schedule. The Incredible Hulk was not a tremendous seller in its first six issues, so it would have made as much sense to replace it as anything else.

  The Hulk, though, quickly made appearances in other titles, including becoming a founding member of the popular superhero team the Avengers. Jack Kirby has said that Marvel began receiving fan letters that suggested the Hulk was a bit of a cult classic, so Lee changed Tales to Astonish from a book starring Giant-Man to a book costarring Giant-Man and the Hulk (Hulk would eventually take over the entire series, with the book being retitled The Incredible Hulk in 1968).

  ONE INTERESTING ASPECT of the way comic books are produced nowadays is that the majority of them are sold in the “direct market”: that is, directly to the specialty stores on a nonreturnable basis. The guaranteed sale of a certain number of copies enables publishers to spend more money on the comic books. Before the direct market existed, comic book companies were forced to publish more comics than they actually sold, because retailers (mostly news-stands) were allowed to return the unsold copies. Therefore, even when sales were good (selling out 50 percent of the print run was considered good), the publishers were producing twice as many copies of any given issue than they actually sold. If it cost two cents to make a comic, it effectively cost four cents, since the company had to publish four copies to sell two (with the unsold copies simply being trashed). With this in mind, companies had to be as stingy as they possibly could, and under this system books had to be very popular for the comic company to turn a profit.

  LATER (ON PAGES 212-13), I address another manifestation of this cost-cutting behavior: comic companies creatively retitling books to avoid having to pay additional registration fees with the post office. For the moment, though, let’s focus on another symptom of cost-cutting—the coloring process. Nowadays, comic books are colored via computer, and printed on fairly expensive paper. This was not always the case. In the 1960s, Marvel Comics used standard four-color separations. Four-color separa
tion is the easiest way to print colors. It entails taking four colors—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black—and layering them on top of one another, to seemingly create an infinite array of colors. Besides the simple coloring process, Marvel also used paper that was only slightly thicker than newsprint. This combination did not always bode well for certain color schemes. One color that caused trouble was gray.

  It was not that comics could not use gray—they could. The problem was that the color combinations needed to make gray, coupled with the poor paper quality, resulted in an unstable color. If gray was used, it would not always look the same.

  Therefore, when The Incredible Hulk #1 rolled around in 1962, Marvel had a problem. Dr. Bruce Banner is transformed into a monster called the Hulk by gamma radiation. The behemoth known as the Hulk is gray, but the gray proved to be inconsistent throughout the issue. Faced with this inconsistency, Marvel had to make a cost-effective decision. If gray would not print consistently, it would just have to be replaced with a color that would. That color was green. So, as of the second issue of The Incredible Hulk, the Hulk was green—the color he would maintain for the majority of his comic career.