Comic Book Legends Revealed #488

Welcome to the four hundred and eighty-eighth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous four hundred and eighty-seven. This week, who came up with Batman's origin? Bill Finger or Gardner Fox? Which artist's retirement opened the door for Frank Miller's legendary Daredevil run? Plus, did the French decide to make William Buckley the Kingpin of Crime?

Let's begin!

NOTE: The column is on three pages, a page for each legend. There's a little "next" button on the top of the page and the bottom of the page to take you to the next page (and you can navigate between each page by just clicking on the little 1, 2 and 3 on the top and the bottom, as well).

COMIC LEGEND: Gardner Fox wrote Batman's origin

STATUS: I'm Going With False

A couple of weeks back, reader Carl Cafarelli asked if I could try to get to the bottom of this one, and so I shall!

The issue is with Detective Comics #33, just six issues after the debut of Batman in Detective Comics #27. The issue involved an evil dude with a dirigible. That story was written by Gardner Fox. Fox, as I noted when he appeared on the 75 Greatest Batman Writers and Artists list, was quickly brought on by Bob Kane to write Batman stories once the feature was picked up by National Comics.

Here is how the first three pages of Detective Comics #33 went...

As noted by DC historian Steve Korté:

"The first time Batman’s origin story appeared was in DETECTIVE COMICS #33 in 1939 in a story called “The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom.” In THE BATMAN CHRONICLES VOL. 1, DC Comics credits Gardner Fox for writing that story. A later, revised version of that origin story appeared in BATMAN #1 in 1940, and that story was written by Bill Finger."

First off, here is the "revised version of the origin story" from Batman #1...

As you can see, the only revision is that it edited out the reference to the other story in Detective Comics #33.

I do not believe that Gardner Fox wrote the origin story for Batman. First off, the origin story is clearly distinct from the rest of the comic, secondly, Bob Kane himself has stated that the origin story was done by he and Finger (and Kane does not give out credit easily). Les Daniels credited the origin story to Finger in his history of Batman.

My pal Marc Tyler Nobleman, who wrote a great book about Bill Finger, details even more reasons why it is most likely Finger who wrote the origin here.

Finger, by the way, was back on the feature for good with Detective Comics #35, so it wasn't like he wasn't still involved with Kane at the time.

There are no official records for the story, so this not something that we can prove definitively, but I think it is likely enough to be Finger that I'm willing to go with a false here.

Thanks to Carl for the request and thanks to Marc for the extra info (I like that Marc was on the same exact page with me when it came to how you credit Kane's attribution - that dude did NOT like to share credit, so him being willing to do so says a lot).

Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed at Spinoff Online: How did an extra in The Avengers get a lead role in Joss Whedon's following film?

Which comic book artist's abrupt retirement gave Frank Miller his big break in comics?

COMIC LEGEND: Frank Miller got his start on Daredevil due to Frank Robbins retiring one issue into a run on the title.

STATUS: True

Few superhero artists were quite as divisive as Frank Robbins during the 1970s. Some loved his work and some hated it. Luckily for him during the late 1970s, two people that were very much in the "love" category were new Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter and Marvel's longtime Art Director John Romita Sr.

So in 1978, Robbins was given the ongoing assignment on Daredevil with writer Roger McKenzie (inked by Frank Springer) beginning with Daredevil #155.

Here are the first few pages of the issue...

And here's how it ended...

That first issue of his run ended up being the ONLY issue of his run. Robbins retired from both that comic and drawing comics entirely. He moved to Mexico where he concentrated on paintings exclusively for the rest of his life (he died in the 1990s).

After two fill-in issues by Gene Colan, #158 saw the NEW ongoing artist, a fellow who had been doing a few fill-in issues here and there named Frank Miller...

Can you imagine how history would have been different if Robbins HADN'T retired? Would Miller have been given a different book? Would Daredevil have been canceled (it was already a bi-monthly book by the time Miller took it over)? Would Miller never have gotten his big break (that last one seems unlikely - Miller was too good to not get a break eventually)?

There is some debate over WHY Robbins retired. I can't say for sure, but there were some rumors that it was as a result of the poor reception to his first issue in house (the love/hate take on Robbins existed in Marvel's staff, as well), so it might have been a "forced" retirement. I don't know if that's true or not. He might just have had enough of comics. Whatever his reasons, though, it changed comic book history in a big way.

COMIC LEGEND: Kingpin had a different name in the French version of the Spider-Man comic strip.

STATUS: True

As we've spotlighted a few times over the years, foreign reprints of Marvel comics take some license with the original works, including names changed in translation. One of the odder ones, though, is the Kingpin, who was given a REAL name in a 1977 translation of the Spider-Man comic strip before he had a real name in the comics...

As a few commenters have noted, the Kingpin wasn't given the Wilson Fisk name for a few more years, so it is amusing that the French beat the U.S. to giving him a "real" name. The name seems like it was likely a joke, both the whole "bulky" thing and, perhaps, a take off on the then-extremely famous American conservative commentator William Buckley...

But I can't say for sure - either way, it is awesome to note that the Kingpin has his own unique French identity! It's like a quarter pounder being called a Royale with Cheese!

Thanks to a really old issue of the Comics Journal for the head's up on this translation hilarity!

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

If you want to order a copy, ordering it here

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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...(click to enlarge)...