Comic Book Legends Revealed #540

Welcome to the five hundred and fortieth 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 was the strange origin of Spider-Man's first Clone Saga? What was Juggernaut's bizarre original look? And why did Todd McFarlane change the name of his toy line?

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: The Clone Saga began because Stan Lee wanted Gwen Stacy back.

STATUS: True

COMIC LEGEND: Stan Lee wanted Gwen Stacy returned to the cast of Amazing Spider-Man

STATUS: False

The Death of Gwen Stacy was a major turning point in Marvel Comics history, as it was a particularly dark moment for the Spider-Man character, to have his girlfriend murdered by the father of his best friend.

There was a tremendous backlash to the death, which was a huge shock to the writer of the storyline, Gerry Conway, who was in his very early 20s and had only become the regular writer on Amazing Spider-Man a year earlier. Compounding the problem for Conway was the fact that Marvel publisher Stan Lee was going around telling everyone that he had no idea Conway was planning on killing off Gwen Stacy and that HE never would have done such a thing. It's a story Lee tells to this day, as seen in this Comic Book Legends Revealed from last year.

Lee ultimately got so upset about all the grief he was getting over the death of Gwen Stacy that he just told Conway to bring her back by any means necessary (outside of "It was a dream! It was an imaginary story" that sort of thing).

Conway recalled to Karen Walker in Back Issue #44:

[I]t was not something that I - or anybody else! - wanted to do, except for Stan, who was bending to what he perceived as pressure from fans at conventions where he was speaking.

So Conway had her come back via a clone in Amazing Spider-Man #144.

Conway, in those days, was very loose with the overall plot, letting it sort of come to him, as it were (earlier today, I wrote about another one of those Conway "let's see where the plot takes me" ideas with the Wedding of Aunt May and Doctor Octopus). So the basic idea of Gwen Stacy being cloned ultimately resulted in what is now referred to as the original Clone Saga, as Spider-Man faces off against a clone of himself by the evil Jackal!

The fact that Lee asked Conway to bring Gwen back to life, however, has led to some misconceptions about Lee's intent from some fans. There have been rumors that Lee's intent was for The Death of Gwen Stacy to, in effect, be erased. You know, have Gwen just back as part of the supporting cast of the comic. In that same issue of Back Issue, though, Conway explains the truth of the matter:

Part of my deal with Stan when he insisted that we bring her back was, 'Look, I'm willing to bring her back just to take the heat off of you, but if I bring her back, can I write her out of the book again?' And he said, 'Sure, no problem, just bring her back, please.' So I brought her back and I wrote her out of the book.

On Conway's second-to-last page of his run, in Amazing Spider-Man #149, he wrote Gwen out of the book...

(Over the years, this led to a whole bunch of retcons to explain how we have a clone of Gwen Stacy just wandering around the Marvel Universe).

Isn't that awesome? "No, you don't have to actually DO anything with her, just bring her back so I can shut these annoying fans up!"

Thanks to Gerry Conway and Karen Walker for the info!

Check out some entertainment and sports legends from this week at Legends Revealed:

Was Spock Originally Going to Have Red Skin on Star Trek?

Did the Real Life Troy From Reality Bites Sue Over His Depiction in the Film?

Was Neil Young Sued By His Own Record Label for Not Making “Commercial” Music?

How Did an Injury at a Poker Game at the Age of 29 START A Pitcher's Hall of Fame Career?

Where Did the Liberty Bell in Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Square Come From?

COMIC LEGEND: The original design for Juggernaut was so over-the-top Marvel had it redrawn in his first appearance.

STATUS: True

By late 1963, Marvel Comics were in an interesting place. Their new superhero line, now about two years old, was a big hit with readers and things were beginning to look quite rosy, sales-wise. Stan Lee was then able to slowly but surely not only hire back all of the artists he had to part ways with during the down years in the 1950s, but Marvel was now a place where the top comic book artists of the day could be compelled to actually work.

The issue, of course, was whether these other artists would LIKE to work for Marvel. Wally Wood, for instance, balked at the "Marvel Method" of doing comics (where the artist delivers most of the plot of the comic). But Stan Lee was continuing to see if he could get other great artists to join Marvel, and in X-Men #12, he gave a try-out to comic book legend Alex Toth.

Toth penciled the issue over Jack Kirby layouts. The issue is a memorable one. It involves the X-Men being besieged by a seemingly unbeatable foe. While they hunker down and wait for him to arrive, they learn the origin of the Juggernaut!

At the end of the issue, he arrives!

Kirby designed the Juggernaut's classic look. However, Kirby's design was actually a REPLACEMENT! It was re-drawn over Alex Toth's original design and Toth's design? Well, it was a doozy!

In an amazing article about the interesting things that can be found by examining Jack Kirby's original artwork, Mike Gartland was able to use a lightbox to show what Toth's original blue pencil design of the Juggernaut was in X-Men #12, which Kirby then covered over.

Isn't that amazing? I love that Toth tried that design out. Dude's got spikes on his breasts! That is a crazy design.

I like the published version better, but damn, that is an inventive design.

Toth ended up not liking the Marvel Method either, which is understandable, but boy, it'd be nice to see more Marvel comics by such a master! Werner Roth ended up taking over X-Men instead.

Thanks to Mike Gartland for that amazing piece of comic history!

Check out my latest TV Legends Revealed at Spinoff Online: Did It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Sneak the Real Name of the Waitress Into an Episode?

COMIC LEGEND: Todd McFarlane changed the name of his toy company because of a conflict over Barbie's...brother?!

STATUS: True

Todd McFarlane got into toy making in 1994 in an interesting way. He was working with Mattel to do a Spawn toy line and he just didn't like any of their designs. So he got the rights to the toys back and he just did them himself!

His Spawn line was revolutionary at the time for its detail, and he only got better at making toys after that!

However, Mattel wasn't exactly thrilled that he was starting up a competing toy company, and they found an unusual way to show their displeasure. He originally called his company "Todd's Toys."

Well, as he recalled to Bleeding Cool's Ian Melton:

you know Barbie right? And you’ve heard of Ken? Well Ken has a friend named Todd so Mattel thought my toys could be confused for their character ‘Todd’ and sent a cease and desist so I just changed the name to avoid the headache, and I think the name is a better choice anyway.”

Todd was actually Barbie's little brother. Here is a Happy Meal toy from that era...

McFarlane Toys has certainly worked out for Todd, so it's all good, but what a petty thing for Mattel to do.

Thanks to McFarlane and Ian Melton for the info!

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)...