Welcome to the four hundred and tenth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous four hundred and nine. This week, when was Batman first deputized? How did the reveal of the Green Goblin in Spider-Man 2099 echo the original reveal of the Hobgoblin? Finally, learn the strange origin of the Archie Comics character Ginger Lopez!
Let's begin!
NOTE: The column is on three pages, a page for each legend. There's a little "next" button on the top of the page and the bottom of the page to take you to the next page (and you can navigate between each page by just clicking on the little 1, 2 and 3 on the top and the bottom, as well).
COMIC LEGEND: Batman was first deputized in the 1960s TV Series.
STATUS: False
As I've mentioned in the past, Frank Miller has long disliked the Batman TV series. One of the things he especially disliked was how chummy Batman was with the police.
Miller noted in an interview in Legends of the Dark Knight: The History of Batman a few years back:
The worst thing they did on the old TV show was give Batman a badge. You don’t deputize Batman.
It is clear in Miller's work that he likes it when Batman is juuuuuuuuuuust a bit outside of the law, and in many of Miller's Batman works, Batman is at odds with the police department...
However, Batman was deputized waaaaaaaaaaaay before the Batman TV series. He here is from 1941's Batman #7...
And he wore a badge many times.
So Miller was mistaken.
Thanks to commenter PB210 for the suggestion!
Check out some Entertainment Urban Legends Revealed!
Were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Army of Darkness?
Did Steven Spielberg Win a Percentage of the Profits of the First Star Wars in a Bet?
Did Don Ameche’s Name Used to be Slang for “Telephone”?
Did Jean Acker Sue For the Right to be Referred to as “Mrs. Rudolph Valentino”?
On the next page, learn how the Goblin 2099's identity was not who Peter David wanted it to be!
COMIC LEGEND: The Goblin in Spider-Man 2099 was revealed to be someone other than who Peter David intended it to be.
STATUS: True
In Amazing Spider-Man #289, Peter David was given the unenviable task of revealing the identity of the Hobgoblin, a reveal that was different from each of the two previous writers to write the Hobgoblin (his creator, Roger Stern, and Tom DeFalco, who took over Amazing Spider-Man from Stern - read an old Comic Book Legends Revealed I did on the topic for more info)...
Oddly enough, years later Peter David would be on the other side of this situation, as he introduced a mysterious Green Goblin character into his Spider-Man 2099 series...
A few issues later, Spider-Man punches the Goblin...
And in the next issue, supporting cast member Father Jennifer has suspicious bruises...
However, in Spider-Man 2099 #44, an issue credited to David (his last issue on the title), it looks like he is revealing that Spider-Man 2099's brother is the Green Goblin and not Father Jennifer!
While credited, though, Peter David did not write that dialogue! Here he is on usenet back when the issue was released...
I did not write that dialogue. I repeat...I DID NOT WRITE THAT DIALOGUE. Those are not, and never were, my words. Gabriel was not, and never was, the Goblin (I mean, how freakin' *obvious* would that have been?) I always intended Father Jennifer to be the Goblin. My scripting simply read, "Go in peace, my son. We were fortunate to escape the deluge," etc." The clumsily tossed in line of dialogue... was not mine. It makes no sense. Why in God's name would Gabe shlep the thing to Father Jennifer and leave it with her? That comes out of absolutely nowhere...whereas the notion of Father Jennifer being the Goblin (right down to her having bruises after the fight with Spider-Man) was carefully set up.
It is pretty funny how Jennifer's reaction does not match her dialogue at all.
Later on, David had the opportunity to fix this change. That's a matter for another day and another column, though!
Thanks to Peter David for the info!
Check out some classic Comic Book Legends Revealed related to Peter David!
Was Peter David planning on making Supergirl a team book?
Was Peter David's Aquaman run delayed due to a religious misunderstanding?
Was Peter David given special permission to use Death in an issue of Incredible Hulk?
On the next page, learn the weird origins of the Archie character Ginger Lopez!
COMIC LEGEND: In early 2000s reprints of Cheryl Blossom appearances, Archie Comics edited Cheryl into the new character Ginger Lopez.
STATUS: True
Ginger Lopez was a new character introduced into Archie Comics in 2002. She was basically a replacement for Cheryl Blossom (a rival to Betty and Veronica for Archie's affection)....
only as she was Hispanic, she added some diversity to the Archie cast.
However, the whole "replacement" aspect of her was taken to an extreme in reprints from the era, when stories featuring Cheryl from the 1990s were literally re-colored in reprints to be Ginger!
Check it out (the reprint is of a story where Jughead's charming identical cousin shows up)...
and then the reprint...
I like the idea of adding in Ginger, but that's just kind of odd.
Cheryl and Ginger, by the way, eventually ended up becoming BFFs recently...
If you have any other examples of Ginger being edited into a Cheryl story, feel free to e-mail me some scans at bcronin@comicbookresources.com!
Check out the latest edition of my weekly Movie/TV Legends Revealed Column at Spinoff Online: Was Die Hard With a Vengeance Originally Written as Lethal Weapon 4?
Okay, that's it for this week!
Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!
Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com. And my Twitter feed is http://twitter.com/brian_cronin, so you can ask me legends there, as well!
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Also, be sure to check out my website, Urban Legends Revealed, where I look into urban legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can find here, at urbanlegendsrevealed.com.
Here's my book of Comic Book Legends (130 legends - half of them are re-worked classic legends I've featured on the blog and half of them are legends never published on the blog!).
The cover is by artist Mickey Duzyj. He did a great job on it...(click to enlarge)...
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Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed
See you all next week!