In the latest Comic Book Legends Revealed, learn whether an issue of Marvel's Avengers was recalled because it included a sex scene in it.
Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the eight hundred and sixth installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false. As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends.
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COMIC LEGEND:
An issue of Avengers was recalled because it included a sex scene between Yellowjacket and Wasp in it.
STATUS:
False
As you may or may not know, one of the most popular point of discussion in comic book fandom in the last few weeks was the revelation made by Justin Halpern, the co-showrunner of the HBO Max Harley Quinn TV streaming series, that there was a scene cut from the show's third season where Batman was performing a sex act on Catwoman, "It’s incredibly gratifying and free to be using characters that are considered villains because you just have so much more leeway. A perfect example of that is in this third season of Harley [when] we had a moment where Batman was going down on Catwoman. And DC was like, 'You can’t do that. You absolutely cannot do that.' They’re like, 'Heroes don’t do that.' So, we said, 'Are you saying heroes are just selfish lovers?' They were like, 'No, it’s that we sell consumer toys for heroes. It’s hard to sell a toy if Batman is also going down on someone.'"
That has led to a lot of debate about whether that was the right call or not (especially due to the use of the phrase, "Heroes don't do that") and has also led to some surprising responses by people with their take on the situation, from director Zack Snyder sharing an explicit drawing of Batman and Catwoman with it happening along with the word, "Canon," to Dave Cockrum's son sharing a drawing his late father made of Nightcrawler doing that act on Storm.
Anyhow, the debate has also turned to an old issue of the Avengers from 2003 where people seem to remember a comic book being recalled due to a scene in an issue that featured THAT act, as well.
In 2003's Avengers #71 (by Geoff Johns, Steve Sadowski and Andrew Currie), the issue opens with Janet Van Dyne saying, "No Hank! Not again!"
This was to make the reader think that Hank was abusing Janet, like he did when he struck her in Avengers #213 (leading to their divorce). It's actually specifically in the script that it is meant to make people think domestic violence is occurring).
In reality, Hank has instead used his superpowers to shrink down and apparently do what Batman was not allowed to do to Catwoman...
People are thinking back upon that issue now, in light of the Batman "banning" and are misremembering that the issue was recalled by Marvel to remove the scene when that was not what actually happened.
ICV2 had coverage of the incident at the time, and here's how they described Marvel's handling of the comic (which was released to retailers a week ahead of its official release as part of Marvel's "First Look" program, which allowed retailers an early look at certain comic books every week to see if they wanted to do reorders based on the events of the comic):
Marvel Comics has issued a statement to retailers announcing that the publisher is delaying the ship date of Avengers #71 by one week. The comic will ship on October 15 and will be returnable, because the publisher now classifies it as a 'mature readers' issue. Typically Marvel's Avengers comic book is rated 'Marvel PSR,' which stands for 'Parental Supervision Recommended,' suitable for readers 12 and up.
Two scenes in particular made Marvel change the rating for this issue. In one sequence a miniaturized Dr. Hank Pym (Yellowjacket) is pleasuring a surprisingly well-endowed Janet Van Dyne (the Wasp) in a bedroom scene, while in another sequence longtime Avengers nemesis Whirlwind beats up a prostitute, who is dressed like the Wasp.
and then later:
In its statement to retailers Marvel apologized 'for any inconvenience or difficulties that this situation may have caused,' and requested 'that all Marvel First Look retailers use discretion when deciding to display First Look copies of Avengers 71.'
In other words, the issue was not that the sex scene existed period, but rather that it existed in what was Marvel's super-confusing rating equivalent to a PG-13 comic book. And, more importantly, the issue was never actually recalled. It was just delayed a week and made returnable because Marvel retroactively determined that it was a "mature readers" issue despite being labeled PSR.
So yeah, there was no recall, so that's about that. People just remember that it was recalled because Marvel did make a bit of a "to-do" about it at the time. There's an interesting follow-up to this, though, that I'll likely feature in an upcoming Comic Book Legends Revealed.
Thanks to ICV2 for the coverage at the time!
SOME OTHER ENTERTAINMENT/SPORTS LEGENDS!
Check out some other entertainment and sports legends from Legends Revealed:
1. Did Deadpool Lose His Bag of Guns in the Taxi Because of Budget Cuts?
2. Was George Clooney Cropped Out of the Photo That Became the Famous Barack Obama ‘Hope’ Poster?
3. Did Tom Jones Really Faint While Hitting the Final Note on “Thunderball”?
4. Did the Cincinnati Reds Change Their Name at the Height of Anti-Communism in the U.S.?
PART TWO SOON!
Check back later for part 2 of this installment's legends!
Feel free to send suggestions for future comic legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com