Comic Book Legends Revealed #514

Welcome to the five hundred and fourteenth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the first five hundred (I actually haven't been able to update it in a while). This week, what is the secret origin of the Super-mullet? Plus, what was the REAL "original" Batmobile? Finally, see what Justice League scene needed to be re-dialogue and re-drawn after it was finished because a dead character was no longer dead!

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: Superman got a mullet to tie in with Dean Cain's original haircut for Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

STATUS: False

During the storyline Reign of the Supermen, when four different Supermen showed up, with one of them becoming evil, a mysterious Kryptonian device was found, which contained the resurrected Superman!

As you can see, he had long hair.

He kept it for the rest of the storyline...

And in the end, when he returned into costume as Superman, he kept the long hair (for actually nearly three years)...

This is now known as the "Super-mullet," although to be honest, it really wasn't MEANT to be a mullet, it was just drawn that way by certain artists.

Anyhow, as the story goes, the mullet look came about due to Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Here's one site talking about it:

For those of you who don't know, in the 90's DC gave Superman long hair in an attempt at corporate synergy. DC saw that incoming "Lois & Clark" star Dean Cain had a shaggy man of long hair in his headshot and promptly altered Superman accordingly. In a wacky mix-up, the proudcers of "Lois & Clark" had Cain get a haircut to look more like the comic book character. You would think at this point that DC would've blinked, but you'd be wrong. DC put their foot down. The long hair stayed.

I've seen that story a few other places.

Is it true?

Well, the Superman comics certainly WERE affected by Lois and Clark. When the comics wanted to have Lois and Clark get married, they couldn't because of the upcoming TV series (as seen in this old Comic Book Legends Revealed), so instead they had to this...

and when the TV show abruptly decided to marry Lois and Clark off, the comics (where the two weren't even DATING anymore) had to do this...

But that was not the case here.

Dan Jurgens has discussed this a number of places, but let me plug an interview he did with a pal of mine, Todd Matthy...

Matthy: Who decided he should have a mullet?

Jurgens: We never decided on a mullet. We said “longer hair”. Some guys drew his hair longer than others. For example, I never gave Clark a ponytail. I felt it was out of character. Jon and Tom both went for the ponytail. Jon gave Superman a wild mane while mine was more reserved.

But we all liked the idea of longer hair because it looked a bit different and helped signify the return.

That matches what I've seen Jurgens say a number of times over the years, that they gave him long hair as a sort of "hey, SOMEthing is different now!" thing.

Plus, the kicker is that here is Dean Cain right before he got Lois and Clark...

Thanks to Todd Matthy and Dan Jurgens for the information!

Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed at Spinoff Online: How did Harrison Ford accidentally audition for Han Solo?

On the next page, learn what the REAL "Original Batmobile" Was!

COMIC LEGEND: There was a licensed Batmobile before the 1960s Batman TV series.

STATUS: True

For years, the George Barris Batmobile designed for the 1960s Batman TV series has been dubbed "The Original Batmobile," but amazingly enough, there was one years before it!

In 1960, Forrest Robinson took the chassis from a 1958 Oldsmobile 88 with a 324-cubic-inch Rocket V8 in front. He then covered it with a unique body based on the Batmobile in the comics.

He used it on his own for a few years before he was hired in 1963 to use the car to promote All-Star Dairy Products, which had a Batman line of dessert products at the time...

Isn't that just amazing?

Up until that point, just regular cars were used in all of the Batman film serials, so this was the first officially licensed Batmobile!

After the promotion was finished, Robinson sold the car and it had been left in a field for forty years before it was sold in early 2013. Mario Borbon of Borbon Fabrications in California restored it.

It went up for auction a few months ago, I don't know how much it sold for.

On the next page, learn how the late, great Dwayne McDuffie had to re-dialogue (and have the artist re-draw) a scene because a newly dead character was suddenly not dead!

COMIC LEGEND: DC had to re-draw and re-dialogue a scene in an issue of Justice League set in a cemetery at the last minute because the newly dead character had already been brought back to life.

STATUS: True

It is a given in the world of modern day superheroes that writers are going to have to deal with a good deal more editorial guidance on their comics when it comes to team books like the Avengers of the Justice League. The individual characters' main books are the most important, so there will be things that happen in the individual books that interfere with the team book. Dwayne McDuffie's run on Justice League of America, though, was an extreme example of this sort of thing.

Here is the team that McDuffie took over when he took over writing chores on Justice League of America from Brad Meltzer with issue #13...

In less than twenty issues, literally TEN of those twelve characters would no longer be on the team, and of the ten absent members, EIGHT of them (maybe even nine, I am not sure about Geo-Force) were due to editorial taking a character away from the book.

Superman is going to Krypton. Batman is dead. Red Arrow is needed in this book. Hal Jordan is needed in this book. Black Lightning is needed in this book. And so on and so forth.

He also had to constantly adapt his stories to crossovers like Countdown to Final Crisis and Final Crisis.

But one of the most hilarious examples of continuity messing with McDuffie was with the Hawkgirl/Red Arrow relationship that he inherited from Brad Meltzer. Here's Meltzer with the pair in Justice League of America #12...

Here's McDuffie with the characters from Justice League of America #30...

Originally, McDuffie was planning on an arc where Hawkgirl and Red Arrow would break up and Roy would leave the team, and everyone would sort of resent Hawkgirl for hurting their friend (as they all know Roy better than her) but eventually get over it. And then he would return to the team, as well.

However, McDuffie then learned that Hawkgirl was set to die in Final Crisis.

So in a BACK-UP story by A DIFFERENT WRITER (Len Wein), Red Arrow and Hawkgirl break up...

Then Final Crisis #7 happens, where Hawkgirl and Hawkman seemingly die...

So McDuffie writes Justice League of America #31, where Roy has to grieve the death of the woman he just broke up with.

However, a funny thing happened, Geoff Johns didn't want Hawkgirl and Hawkman dead just yet, because he wanted them alive for Blackest Night #1 (so that he could kill them THERE...

With the intent to return them to life, of course.

So the very issue he is supposed to have Roy mourn Kendra at her grave, Roy now has to, well, not do that. But the issue has already begun with the scene in the cemetery!! So here is what McDuffie came up with...

He spoke about the issue on his website:

I wrote JLA #31 months ahead of time to be ready for what was the then-scheduled end of Final Crisis. The scene was not only pencilled, but inked and colored when I did the re-dialoging. I thought I could get the backgrounds re-done, so I set the scene in a park for minimal redrawing (replace Hawkman and Hawkgirl's headstones with the "Kitchen" door, change the other headstones to plain grass), but I think there was a communication error.

He included his original script...

Page Thirteen

St. Roch, Louisiana, it’s raining. We’re at the side-by-side graves of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, the headstones are large statues of the two of them. Hawkgirl’s, which renders her as Winged Victory, is prominent. Roy Harper is standing there, dressed in a black suit, paying his respects. “Roy?”

Closer. Black Canary is there. “I’m sorry for your loss. Kendra meant a lot to all of us.”

On Roy, confessing. “I don’t know why I keep crying. I had just broken up with her, you know.” “It doesn’t matter, you still loved her.”

Wide again to include the statues. “Look at this. Even in death, they’re always together. I couldn’t compete with that.”

Closer, they hug. Roy buries his head in Canary’s shoulder.

Page Fourteen

They’ve broken the hug. Roy asks, “What are you doing here, emergency?” “We’re shorthanded. I’d like you to reconsider coming back to the team.”

New Angle. “You don’t need me, You just picked up Dr. Light, and Zatanna.” “Zatanna was here as a favor to Batman, I’m not sure she’s staying.”

Closer on Roy. “You could make Firestorm a full-timer.” “He’s not ready, yet.” “Jeff could take over his training, he’s a better teacher than Bruce was, anyway.”

Favoring Canary. “Black Lightning’s already gone. He’s taking over the Outsiders. It was one of Batman’s last requests. Roy, I”--

Wide. “Dinah, I’d do anything for you. So please don’t ask me to come back.

Hilarious.

Thanks to the late, great Dwayne McDuffie for all the valuable insights he gave about his Justice League run back in the day!

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).

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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)...