Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the six hundred and thirty-fifth week where we examine comic book legends and whether they are true or false.
As we've been doing it for some time now, one legend today, one tomorrow and one Sunday.
Let's begin!
COMIC LEGEND:
A notable Spider-Man photo cover was meant as a tie-in to a proposed Spider-Man film of the time.
STATUS:
False
As Spider-Man returns to movie theaters this weekend with Spider-Man: Homecoming, people naturally are looking back at Spider-Man's earlier movie past (I'll have an article for CBR on Sunday going into detail on the pre-Sam Raimi failed attempts to turn Spider-Man into a film).
One of the items that people naturally think back upon is the cover to Amazing Spider-Man #262, which was to a fill-in issue by the great writer/artist Bob Layton (who has a really great website that you should visit here) ...
The fellow playing Spider-Man on the cover was none other than Scott Leva, who was then shown in a lot of promotional material for a proposed Spider-Man film by Cannon Films in 1985...
Naturally, then, fans have looked back and put the two events together. You know, Marvel was promoting the upcoming film through the photo cover or Marvel was pushing Leva for the role by featuring him on the cover. Stuff like that.
That was not the case. I asked Bob about it and he explained that it was simply a matter of Jim Shooter liking the idea of doing photo covers, so he figured that Layton's fill-in issue of Amazing Spider-Man was a good place to try one out. Leva was a stunt man who had done other Spider-Man work for Marvel for events, so they naturally used him. Almost certainly, that was the reason that Leva was considered for the role (although, as I noted in a Comic Book Legends Revealed years ago, he never officially got the role)
Layton even did a back-up pencil version of the cover in case the photo did not work...
Of course, the film never came about, with or without Leva (click here to find out what popular film Cannon was made through combining the sets and costumes from the unmade Spider-Man movie as well as the unmade Masters of the Universe sequel)
But good or bad, the proposed film had nothing to do with that Amazing Spider-Man cover!
Thanks to Bob for the information!
Check out some legends from Legends Revealed:
Was There Nearly a Love Triangle Between Spider-Man, Mary Jane and DOCTOR OCTOPUS in Spider-Man 2?
Did Johnny Carson Really Accidentally Cause a Toilet Paper Shortage in 1973?
Did the Star-Spangled Banner Have An Extra Verse Added During the Civil War?
Were Cyd Charisse’s Legs Really Insured for a Million Dollars Each?
Check back Saturday for part 2 of this week's legends!
And remember, if you have a legend that you're curious about, drop me a line at either brianc@cbr.com or cronb01@aol.com!