Each day in June you'll get an entry showing you the first appearance of seemingly minor characters, phrases, objects or events that later became notable parts of comic book lore. Not major stuff like "the first appearance of Superman," but rather, "the first time someone said, 'Avengers Assemble!'" or "the first appearance of Batman's giant penny" or "the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth" or "the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter." Stuff like that. Here is an archive of what I've featured so far.
Enjoy!
First "Spider-Man: Threat or Menace?" Headline
Reader Bill K. asked me about this recently. You see, interestingly enough, this was not something Spidey was called originally. In Amazing Spider-Man #4, he is labeled a menace...
but no mention of "Threat or Menace."
In fact, that particular headline did not show up until 1981 and Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15!
Weird, eh? It's possible that I missed an earlier instance of the headline. If I am, I'm sure you folks'll tell me!
First Batarang
This doodad first appeared in 1939's Detective Comics #31
One of the funny things about the story is that once introduced, Batman spends the whole story using the batarang, like, every other page!
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First Junior Woodchucks Guidebook
The Junior Woodchucks debuted in 1951 in the pages of Walt Disney Comics and Stories #125...
but I think their "guide to everything there is to know in the world" book is more interesting. It made its debut in Uncle Scrooge #5 in 1954. Scrooge has lost some coins in the ocean and he can't think of a way to find them (the story is INSANELY over-the-top creative by Carl Barks - Scrooge goes to great lengths just to come out ahead in a deal with Donald Duck). The nephews come in to help...
Good stuff.
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Feel free to send in ideas for future debuts I should feature here to bcronin@comicbookresources.com!