Welcome to the five hundred and ninetieth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. This week, learn the hilarious origins of Deadpool's evil emblem logo! Discover which two Avengers teammates almost got married! And find out whether Spider-Woman owed her creation at all to a Native American feminist theater group!

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND:

Deadpool's famous evil-eyed Deadpool emblem came about due to a mistake by the artist on Cable/Deadpool's title.

STATUS:

True

Last month, I wrote about how Deadpool's mask slowly began to have a point on the top of it. In that instance, artist Ed McGuinness came up with the change in Deadpool's design, and then later artists began to pick up on it, with it becoming a constant part of Deadpool's appearance during the "Cable/Deadpool" series by artists Mark Brooks and Patrick Zircher.

Well, Mark Brooks wrote in to tell me a hilarious story of how the famous Deadpool "evil emblem" logo came to be, a logo that is now world famous thanks to the popularity of the Deadpool film.

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When Deadpool debuted in "New Mutants" #98 by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza, his belt did not have any specific design on its buckle...

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That look continued through Deadpool's other appearances and his first two miniseries...

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In the "Deadpool" ongoing series by Joe Kelly, Ed McGuinness and Nathan Massengill, the belt buckle took on the Deadpool logo, but note that it was just a standard Deadpool face, with the "eyes" just white dots...

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Then when Mark Brooks took over the character for "Cable/Deadpool" #1, things changed again, and they changed due to a simple mistake. Mark explained it to me:

When I got assigned "Cable/Deadpool," I course looked at past artists to see how to draw Deadpool correctly. The black and red pattern, belt placement, etc. By the time I got to the belt buckle, I thought I knew how to draw it from memory so I just did what I thought was right. But for some reason, my faulty memory told me to draw it like this:

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Either I messed up or had been reading too many Spawn comics...

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But either way, it was a design mistake that I'm pretty happy I made.

As well you should be, Mark, as that design has obviously become very popular!

Thanks to Mark for the great story!


Check out some entertainment and sports legends from Legends Revealed:

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Were the Rights to the Board Game Operation Sold for Just $500?

Did the NBA Investigate Earl "the Pearl" Monroe For Point Shaving After He Scored On His Own Basket?

Did MGM Give Up Their Rights to Lassie Just to Avoid Paying Lassie’s Trainer Backpay They Owed Him?


COMIC LEGEND:

Wonder Man and Tigra were going to get married

STATUS:

Roughly True

Reader John C. wrote in to ask about a rumor he heard that had Roger Stern stayed on "West Coast Avengers" that he was planning on having Wonder Man and Tigra get married.

The story of Roger Stern and the West Coast Avengers is a fascinating one. Stern developed the idea for the West Coast Avengers during his run on "Avengers" in "Avengers" #243 (by Stern, Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott)...

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And wrote the miniseries establishing the team...

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However, Stern was under the impression that the West Coast Avengers would then become, in effect, supporting characters in the pages of the main "Avengers" title, so he could use all of the characters. Instead, it was given a spin-off ongoing series and Steve Englehart was given the nod to write the new series and not Stern (something Stern was obviously not thrilled with).

Anyhow, Stern made public a few years back his initial synopsis for the West Coast Avengers' appearances in the pages of "The Avengers," while also discussing future plans and yes, John, he sure does seem to suggest that Wonder Man and Tigra had wedding bells in their future...

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In "West Coast Avengers" (the initial miniseries) #3 (by Stern, Bob Hall and Brett Breeding), you can see the relationship begin...

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That would have been a very interesting turn of events, for the West Coast Avengers to have TWO married couples on the team!

Thanks to John G. for the suggestion and thanks to Roger Stern for sharing this neat piece of history!


Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed at CBR: Who was originally going to be the lead character of the hit Disney film, "Zootopia"?


COMIC LEGEND:

Marvel created Spider-Woman in part to prevent a theater from calling itself Spiderwoman theater.

STATUS:

False

A few weeks back, I discussed whether the novel "Kiss of the Spider Woman" had any influence upon Marvel creating a Spider-Woman character.

Reader Mike B. wrote in to say that he had heard that the Spiderwoman Theater also played a role in Marvel deciding to put out a Spider-Woman character.

Spiderwoman Theater Company is a Native American women's theater company based on the Hopi goddess Spiderwoman.

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They blend together traditional art forms with Western theater, with a specific focus on Native American-related topics. Here's their website.

Their first show, "Women in Violence," debuted in 1976, but had been workshopped as early as February 1975.

Spider-Woman debuted in late 1976...

However, I still do not believe that there is any indication that Marvel was actually responding to a small, independent feminist theater company when they were compelled to create Spider-Woman, particularly when Spider-Woman's origins have been well documented and that Marvel was pushed on the issue because Filmation was going to release a cartoon named Spider-Woman in 1977, so Marvel beat them to it by putting out their version and trademarking it, with Filmation naming their character Web Woman instead...

However, Mike is correct to note that a few years after Spider-Woman debuted and Marvel registered the name as a trademark, they did try to sue Spiderwoman Theater and get them to change their name. They specifically lost because Spiderwoman Theater had been using the name first. That, though, I think also speaks to the notion that Marvel did not create their comic as a response to the theater company, since the theater company was already in existence when Marvel made their character. I think it is pretty clearly just the stated Filmation story.

Thanks to Mike for the suggestion!

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!

Here's my most recent book, Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? The cover is by Kevin Hopgood (the fellow who designed War Machine's armor).

batshark

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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...



If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you all next week!