Welcome to the five hundred and eighty-eighth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the first five hundred (I actually haven't been able to update it in a while). This week, what other classic X-Men member was going to be a founding member of Excalibur? Did Marvel really sue Dave Stevens and Disney over the name "The Rocketeer"? And did Marvel call Venom's current book "Venom: Space Knight" so that they could trademark the name "Space Knight"?

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: Colossus was originally going to be a member of Excalibur.

STATUS: Basically True

The British-based superhero team by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis debuted in late 1987 ahead of it getting its own ongoing series the following year...



There was a bit of a delay in getting Chris Claremont and Alan Davis together on what was to be a follow-up of Captain Britain's British series, a series created by Claremont but had been worked on for a number of years by this point (to the point where he was drawing AND writing the book) by Davis. When the British series ended in December 1985, it was announced that Davis would be doing an American follow-up series, but that series, Excalibur, did not come about until late 1987, so two full years. In that time, various plans came and went for what that follow-up was going to be.

Meanwhile, during the Mutant Massacre in 1986, Chris Claremont pointedly had three X-Men injured during the battle with the Marauders. First Nightcrawler in Uncanny X-Men #211...





Then Kitty Pryde later in the issue...







And then the next issue, we learned that Colossus was messed up, as well...



In Uncanny X-Men #215, the three injured X-Men were removed from the team and left on Muir Isle to recover...



Initially, Chris Claremont planned to put the three X-Men on a new team, in part because he knew other writers would be quick to snatch them up if they were made officially available. So he had to get them for himself. However, when the new X-Men began to merge with the long-awaited Captain Britain follow-up, Claremont realized something, something he explained to Amazing Heroes in 1988 - Colossus was redundant on a team with Captain Britain on it. By the way, the "basically" part of the true for this one is that you could argue that there was never a time that Colossus was going to be on Excalibur specifically, as it seems more likely that there was the idea of the new team book and the idea for the Captain Britain book and then they got merged together and Colossus was omitted at that point. But I could be wrong, perhaps there was a brief point in time when Colossus was going to be on Excalibur proper.

So in Uncanny X-Men #225, Colossus returned to the X-Men...





Amusingly enough, Colossus eventually ended up joining Excalibur years later, at the tail end of the original Excalibur series.



He then came back to the X-Men along with Kitty and Nightcrawler...



Colossus didn't exactly get a whole lot of plotlines during that time period in the X-Men, so I wonder if things really would have been all that different had he remained with Kitty and Kurt. Maybe he and Kitty would have gotten back together sooner?

Thanks to Chris Claremont and Amazing Heroes for the information!

Check out some entertainment and sports legends from Legends Revealed:

Was a Contestant on Fear Factor Killed?

Did Josie and the Pussycats Not Receive Any Money for Product Placement?

Did the Original Winner of the 1904 Olympic Marathon Get a Ride in a Car During the Race?

Is Marge Simpson’s Hair So Tall Because It Hides Her Rabbit Ears?

On the next page, find out why Marvel sued Dave Stevens over the name "Rocketeer"!

COMIC LEGEND: Dave Stevens was sued by Marvel over the use of the name "Rocketeer."

STATUS: True

One of the surprising delays that came about Disney making Dave Stevens' classic 1980s comic book series, The Rocketeer, into a film involved a lawsuit from Marvel Comics.



Disney insisted on getting the lawsuit resolved before moving forward with the film and it all did get settled out.

But what was the lawsuit ABOUT? It is kind of nuts, honestly. Marvel was suing over the fact that they had characters named Rocketeers before Stevens did his Rocketeer character.

Here are the Rocketeers from 1975's Daredevil #131 (they were the most important characters by FAR to debut in that issue)...







And here, of course, is Stevens' Rocketeer..



Gary Groth and Stevens discussed the issue in 1987's The Comics Journal #117....

STEVENS: It’s a trademark issue. It has nothing to do with copyright, imagery, or anything like that because their Rocketeers, plural, is a group of six guys in green suits who are spacemen, villains, and are very, very minor — nothing remotely connected to what I’m doing.

GROTH: The dispute is over the name, “Rocketeer”?

STEVENS: The ownership of the name. From day one, I think it was nothing but a big mistake on their part to come after me because it doesn’t have anything to do with their characters and they’ve never used the name in a trademark sense. Now, I’m not a lawyer, but my personal feeling is that unless someone files for a trademark application, pays the money, publishes a book in the first place for several issues with that name prominent as the title of the magazine, they shouldn’t be able to come after somebody else saying, “You’re violating our trademark,” because, as Mike Hobson admitted to me over the phone, they’ve never filed for trademark or copyright on those characters. And yet, they won’t let go.

GROTH: How long has this been going on?

STEVENS: Since ’84; three years. Ask my pocketbook.

GROTH: So you’ve been fighting it. That’s my next question — it’s costly?

STEVENS: I don’t like to think about how much it’s cost me because it’s money being spent for no creative or productive purpose. It’s not money hat I can ever recover.

GROTH: But you felt strongly enough about this to not capitulate and change he name.

STEVENS: What for? I don’t believe they’re within their rights to come after me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s nothing but an aggravation suit. All they’re doing is flexing their muscles because they can. I think they were hoping that since I'm a little guy, they could bleed me dry very quickly. But I hung in there. I think at some point it’s going to be resolved in my favor. It can’t end any other way, really. I believe they have such a weak, weak stance, if any. If it weren’t so stupid it’d be hilarious.

GROTH: Yeah, that’s how I felt.

STEVENS: I feel sorry for some of the other people they have gone after. They’ve caused similar grief to others because they weren’t able to defend themselves financially. Luckily, I used most of my profits off the Rocketeer album to fight the thing. Unfortunately, now I’m in a position where I’ve had to work something out with Henry Holmes, my lawyer, regarding payment. I wasn’t going to back down, though, because it was my character. I built up a certain amount of credibility over the years with it, and it’s readily recognizable. Everybody who hears the name or sees the name associates it with me, not with Marvel. Their whole bone of contention was that it was causing confusion in the marketplace between my character and their characters, and I haven’t found anybody who has read, seen, or even heard of their characters.

It is not uncommon for big companies to throw their weight around when it comes to intellectual property, and to try to, in effect, bully smaller companies into backing down with IP rights (a famous example was Universal trying to force Nintendo to change the name of Donkey Kong despite Universal knowing that it didn't actually own most of King Kong's intellectual property rights), but it is still a bit of a shame when it happens like this. The Rocketeers? Seriously?

Thanks to Gary Groth and the late Dave Stevens for the information!

Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed at Spinoff Online: Did a science adviser on Thor come up with the idea of Jane Foster being a scientist in the film instead of a nurse?

On the next page, did Marvel name Venom's ongoing series Venom: Space Knight so that they could trademark the name Space Knight?

COMIC LEGEND: Marvel named Venom's ongoing series Venom: Space Knight so that they could trademark the name "Space Knight."

STATUS: I'm Going With False

Marvel recently launched a Venom: Space Knight series (I believe it's come to a close, though) starring Flash THompson's Agent Venom fighting for justicce in outer space...



Reader Hani D. wanted to know if Marvel titled the series "Space Knight" so that they could trademark the title and thereby prevent IDW from using "Spaceknight" as part of their upcoming Rom series...





It's clear that Marvel DOES value the trademark "Spaceknight" and since they came up with the spaceknight angle for the Rom comic, they own the copyright for that angle on Rom, so Marvel clearly DOES want to keep up on it. However, it actually already DID.

It had a Spaceknights mini-series in 2000...



And they trademarked the name then.

They then re-published the mini-series back in 2012, likely to make sure that the trademark was protected. Having Venom: Space Knight three years later is possible that it was intended to again refresh their mark, but even if that were the case, the initial trademark had already occurred, so that's why this is a false.

But you're basically on the right track, Hani, in that Marvel clearly DOES want to hold on to the name Spaceknight for themselves, and I don't blame them. It's a really cool name.

Thanks to Hani for the question!

Okay, that's it for this week!

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