The one day of the year that is the hardest to believe anything read on the internet is April 1st, known as April Fools' Day. Over the years, publishers have taken this opportunity to present some "news' that is unbelievable and some that have left many scratching their heads wondering if the news is even somewhat plausible.
The publishers have had many willing accomplices in selling these stories, such as the now-defunct Wizard Magazine, who even launched a few of their pranks to readers. Sometimes theses stunts backfired, and it was the creators who turned the tables on the readers.
10 Marvel Got Stan Lee To Play Along When Trying To Convince People That He Created The Sentry
In 2000, Marvel announced a new limited series introducing The Sentry created by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee with conceptual contributions by Rick Veitch. As an April Fools' joke, Stan Lee agreed to pretend that Sentry was a Silver Age hero character he created and forgot about until he discovered it years later.
Helping Marvel sell the prank was Wizard Magazine, reporting that the publisher had discovered the character sketches by a forgotten artist named "Artie Rosen," a reference to letterers Artie Simek and Sam Rosen of the superhero created by Stan Lee predating his first known creation, the Fantastic Four.
9 Top Shelf Productions Claimed That The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen Would Be Getting A Version With Characters From The 1980s
As an April Fools' prank in 2010, Top Shelf Productions released a cover teasing a new installment of Alan Moore and artist Kevin O'Neill's 1999 series staring some of literature's best-known characters in the steampunk-inspired The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
A cover of a comic called The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen America: 1988 teased a team featuring Back To The Future's Doc Emmet Brown; the A-Team's Bosco "B.A." Baracus; tech wizard Angus MacGyver; Big Trouble in Little China's transportation specialist Jack Burton; and Weird Science's artificially-created sexpot Lisa. Brown forms the team to avenge Keisuke Miyagi (The Karate Kid), a war-hero-turned-handyman found drained of blood by The Lost Boys and led by Scarface's Tony Montana, a resurrected drug kingpin who is now a vampire.
8 Wizard Magazine Claimed That Geoff Johns Was Writing A Captain Carrot Series For Vertigo Comics— And He Did
In 2005 the fan magazine Wizard ran a story claiming that Geoff Johns was planning to pen a Captain Carrot And His Amazing Zoo Crew story for the mature audience-focused Vertigo imprint. In the story, Captain Carrot and his fellow anthropomorphic superheroes from Earth-26 would be reunited by a new character, Bald Eagle, to investigate the murder of Little Cheese by one of their own.
Not wanting Wizard to have the last laugh, Johns wrote the story as part of his Teen Titans run, revealing that Ally-Kat-Abra was the culprit because she is a cat and hates mice. Yankee Poodle would later make a cameo appearance in the Justice League of America during the Forever Evil event as a program watched by Stargirl.
7 Geoff Johns Turns The Tables & Pulls His Own Rebirth Prank
Geoff Johns pulled another joke years later announcing the Rebirth of another of DC Comics' long-dead characters. Hot on the heels of his critically acclaimed miniseries Green Lantern: Rebirth and Flash: Rebirth, which brought back Hal Jordon and Barry Allen to their respective roles, he teased that his next Rebirth project was Vibe: Rebirth.
Johns claimed that Ethan Van Sciver would be providing the art for the series set to bring back Paco Ramone, who met his demise 20 years earlier. The duo even went so far as to do an interview about bringing this iconic character back into the DC stable and giving him the respect he deserved.
6 Kirkman Teased An Adaption of The Walking Dead For Kids
In 2012, Robert Kirkman pulled a prank by announcing that he would be introducing a new comic book to The Walking Dead series, The Walking Dead For Kids. According to Kirkman, artist Chris Giarrusso, known for his take on the Marvel Universe characters with his Mini-Marvels series, would be drawing the series.
In describing the project, Kirkman said that the series would bring all the violence and all the sex associated with the regular series, but for the kids. Giarrusso, who drew the cover to help sell the prank, added to Kirkman's description of the project that the series would be "adorable."
5 Wonder Twins: Form Of Water Would Have Featured The Shape-Changing Super Friends
Years before Mark Russell would do the impossible and bring Zan and Jan, The Wonder Twins to the DCU, Wizard once again was up to their old April Fools' Day tricks with an Alex Ross mock cover and synopsis for a soon-to-be-announced Wonder Twins series entitled Wonder Twins: Form of Water.
The synopsis blurb accompanying the fake cover teased a story that involved the young heroes using their powers to stop a drought and rescue Gleek, their monkey sidekick.
4 DC Comics Planned To Capitalize On The Popularity Of Superman Getting His Trunks Back Across The DCU
In 2018, Superman returned to his roots in Action Comics #1000 by bringing back his iconic red trunks. The announcement, welcomed by fans, inspired the publisher to run an April Fools' prank, posting on their webpage that a new line-wide initiative would be returning all characters to the classic trunks look— even those whose original designs never included the iconic outerwear.
DC said that everyone would receive a pants-lift, courtesy of DC's top artists during the big event. The redesigns were to be an integral component in a special one-shot, DC Universe: Infinite Trunks #1, a special Justice League Dark storyline titled "Unite the Trunks," and the Justice League Odyssey crossover "A Lot More Trunks," all supposedly tying into Scott Snyder's Justice League: No Justice event.
3 Marvel Announced That Spider-Man Was Joining The X-Men, Playing With A Long-Running Debate About Whether Or Not He's A Mutant
Spider-Man teaming up with the X-Men, though rare, is not unheard of in the Marvel Universe; however, in 1999, Marvel announced that they were bringing the two properties together. In their April Fools' announcement, Marvel teased that Spidey would be joining the merry mutants.
The debate as to if Spider-Man is a mutant or not is an old debate, but Marvel had opted to keep the two properties solo entities. Marvel even when so far as to release a mock-up design of Spidey's X-Men costume. Like any good April Fools' prank, it never moved forward, even though the two continue to meet occasionally.
2 Readers Of Newspaper Comic Strips Were Subject To A Comics Switcheroo In 1997
On April Fools' Day 1997, readers of the newspaper comics found something was probably not quite right in the comics section. The comic strip switcheroo— referred to as the "Great Comics Switcheroonie" or "The Great April Fools' Day Comics Switcheroonie"— was a massive practical joke in which cartoonists, without informing their editors, traded strips for a day.
The mastermind behind this event were creators of the Baby Blues daily newspaper comic strip, Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott. Participants included Mike Peters trading Mother Goose and Grimm with For Better Or Worse's Lynn Johnston; Scott Adams tackling Family Circus while Bil Keane drew Dilbert; and Jeff MacNelly swapping Show with Mort Walker's Beetle Baily. Charles M. Schulz was supposed to swap Peanuts with Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell, but the two backed out and didn't participate in the prank.
1 Wizard Magazine Takes On & Roasts King Kirby's New Gods Opus
Wizard Magazine took on Jack Kirby in one another of their infamous April Fools' issues swapping out the "Famous Firsts" feature for a "Famous Worsts." It was here that they ripped on Kirby's New Gods opus at DC Comics, sighting that the property was given four separate series but none that made it more than 28 issues.
The roasting did point out that some of the characters, such as Darkseid and Mister Miracle, but other than that, not much more good could be said about the rest of the New Gods. This prank may have backfired and some people speculate that it played a part in Wizard's decline in readership over the ensuing years that would lead to its eventual end in 2011.