Welcome to the four hundred and ninetieth 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 eighty-nine. This week, how did a scene in a soap opera give us Harley Quinn? Did Captain America creator Joe Simon also play a role in the creation of Superman? And finally, what was NBC's problem with Firestar's ass?

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: Paul Dini was inspired to create Harley Quinn based on an old episode of Days of Our Lives.

STATUS: True

Reader Steve B. wrote in asking about whether Harley Quinn was really based on an old episode of the soap opera Days of Our Lives. The answer does appear to be yes, Steve.

Actress Arleen Sorkin was on Days of Our Lives as the popular wacky character Calliope Jones. Here's a scene from Sorkin as Calliope...

Sorkin had been friends with writer Paul Dini since college. When Dini was working on Batman the Animated Series, he came up with the idea of the Joker having a female sidekick. Dini has said that he was specifically influenced by an episode of Days of Our Lives featuring a dream sequence where Sorkin dressed up as a court jester. Awesomely enough, a YouTube user actually found the precise episode in question (along with the clip of the scene is a clip from Dini telling Kevin Smith on Smith's podcst about how the scene inspired Harley Quinn)...



Sorkin was then cast as Harley Quinn's voice and her personality played a huge role in the development of Harley's personality...



A SLIGHT issue I have with the whole story is that Sorkin left Days of Our Lives in 1990. She did do a return stint in 1992, but I am pretty sure that the dream sequence in question took place during her initial stint on the show, so when Dini says that he was home watching the episode while working on the script for Batman, that doesn't really work, time-wise. More likely, Dini just happened to recall the earlier sequence (he was, after all, friends with Sorkin and such a sequence must have been quite memorable, as it was so out of place compared to the standard soap opera fare).

Thanks to Steve for the question and thanks to Dini, Kevin Smith and Arleen Sorkin (who have all repeated the story a few times) for the answer!

Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed at Spinoff Online: Did Black Widow really almost beat Iron Man to the big screen?

COMIC LEGEND: Joe Simon helped with the development of Superman.

STATUS: False

Reader Fermin Reyes tweeted me the other day (freyes2014) about something he came across in this Creem Magazine article he found on the Big Glee! archive written by future comic book writer Mike Baron...



Specifically this section:



Fermin wanted to know if that snippet was true.

It is not.

Most likely, Baron was thinking of Captain Marvel, as Joe Simon and Jack Kirby were specifically brought in by Fawcett Comics to help launch Captain Marvel's ongoing series in 1940...



(Simon would later testify in the DC/Fawcett lawsuit that they basically WERE told to make Captain Marvel as much like Superman as they could)

But Joe Simon had nothing to do with Superman's creation or development at all. Heck, Joe Simon did not even begin working with comic books at all until AFTER Action Comics #1 came out and he didn't do any work for DC Comics until 1942 (three years after Superman #1 came out).

Sorry for such a simple answer, Fermin, but there ya go!

On the next page, did NBC try to censor Firestar's ass?

COMIC LEGEND: NBC insisted that Firestar's ass be altered on Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.

STATUS: True

A few weeks back I discussed the origins of Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends and whether fear over kids setting themselves on fire kept Human Torch out of the series. The answer was no, but animator Ferd Appleby stopped by in the comments to note that the networks WERE concerned about stuff like the depiction of fire in the series, specifically when it came to Firestar (like it had to be made clear that she just emanated HEAT rather than actual FLAMES).

Another amusing incidence of the networks censoring the show came with Firestar's body itself.

As you might recall, Firestar wore a full body suit...



And when you come to drawing a full body suit, you're basically just drawing the character naked, only colored in. So the network censors had some issues with how Firestar was drawn.

The great website Spider-Friends.com had an interview with Rick Hoberg, who worked on the show, and the issue came up:

Q) I’ve heard stories that the network requested that Firestar’s breasts be toned down after the first season because her yellow jumpsuit would make her appear to be naked at times.

Rick Hoberg: They were really cautious. It actually had to be toned down quite a bit during the first season but every season they wanted it toned down more. Not as much on her breasts, because those we pulled back on right off the bat, but on her rear end. We actually had to take any semblance of a crack line out of it. So they didn’t even want to see a separation between the buttocks…which is how the legs work, y’know? It looks kind of silly if you can’t animate that.

Spider-Friends even put together a handy dandy "ass guide" based on how her ass was drawn over the length the series...



That's hilarious.

That reminds me of a funny old Comic Book Legends Revealed about how Jim Steranko went through the same "ass concealing" censoring on his run on Nick Fury.

Thanks to Spider-Friends and Rick Hoberg for the information!

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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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!