Welcome to the five hundred and forty-first 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, how did Swing Kids end up killing Superman? Did Marvel have an alternate ending to Transformers #4 in case the series never became an ongoing series? And did Joss Whedon write too much script for Astonishing X-Men #1 because he thought he had 32 pages to fill in issue #1 and he only had 22?

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: A director deciding to direct Swing Kids ended up killing Superman.

STATUS: I'm Going With True

Many moons ago, I wrote a Comic Book Legends Revealed about how the Death of Superman came about because the Superman titles had to delay their planned storyline, the wedding of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, because a new TV show starring the characters was debuting and Warner Bros. wanted to see if they couldn't sync the show and the comic up.



Because they couldn't do their wedding storyline, the Superman writers instead decided to kill Superman off.



However, the interesting thing is that the planned TV show, which didn't air until the fall of 1993, was actually in the works as far back as 1991, with a tentative title of either Metropolis or Lois Lane's Daily Planet, as the original idea was to spotlight the lives of reporters, with Superman just sort of a background character.

As Jerry Ordway wrote a few years ago, they were ready to go forward with that approach with TV writer/producer Thomas Carter running the show, but something happened. Here's Ordway on the topic...

The execs were developing the show with Thomas Carter as the perfect showrunner/ producer, based on his track record on tv with Hill Street Blues, The White Shadow, all great character driven shows. It would be a gritty drama, with an emphasis on the newspaper stuff, and the stories the reporters chased down. Sounded great to us, but suddenly we hear that Mr. Carter was going off to make the feature film "Swing Kids," and we were left scrambling to substitute a storyline for the wedding, knowing that the show was being delayed, the wedding had to be pushed back.



Swing Kids, by the way, a film about swing dancing teenagers in Nazi Germany, starred a young Christian Bale, a dozen years before he took on the role of Batman!

So had they worked out a deal with Carter, the show could have gone on much earlier and the wedding might have made it into the comics.

So Swing Kids, in effect, killed off Superman!

Thanks to Jerry Ordway for the great info!

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

Was Cinderella’s Castle at Disney World Designed to Have a Secret Apartment Inside for Walt Disney?

Did Paul McCartney Have a Hidden Message in an Episode of The Simpsons?

Why Were There No Spaceballs Action Figures?

Did a Teenage Female Pitcher Strike Out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig Back-to-Back?

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On the next page, how did Joss Whedon end up writing TOO much for Astonishing X-Men #1?

COMIC LEGEND: Joss Whedon's first Astonishing X-Men script was too long for the first issue because he thought he had 32 pages to write the issue, not 32 pages counting the ads.

STATUS: True

Towards the end of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men #2, there is this memorable exchange between Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde.







However, this exchange was originally intended for the FIRST issue.

In Wizard #159, Whedon explains how this was one of the first scenes he wrote for the comic but it fell afoul of a miscommunication...

This is one of the first things I wrote. It was actually meant for issue #1, but there was a miscommunication. Joe Quesada told me I had 32 pages and then said, "I meant with ads." And I was like, "Well, I'm not writing any ads, so what the hell am I supposed to do?" I sent him an e-mail with more cursing than I've ever written. "Alien 3" - which I didn't write - had less cursing. "Scarface" had less cursing. I was on page 30 when he said I only had 22 pages. I was so angry. I went ballistic."

Hilarious!

Obviously, it all worked out, but still pretty funny.

Thanks to Travis Pelkie for suggesting this one!

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Check out my latest TV Legends Revealed at Spinoff Online: Did George Lucas intend for Luke and Leia to be twins in Empire Strikes Back, even though they kiss in the film? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

On the next page, did Marvel have an alternate ending for Transformers #4 in case the series didn't become an ongoing?

COMIC LEGEND: Marvel had an alternate ending for Transformers #4 in case the series didn't get picked up as an ongoing.

STATUS: I'm Going With False

As many 1980s comic book readers know, Marvel's adaptation of the Transformers began as a mini-series...



but then just kept going with issue #5 onwards.

Here's how #4 ended...







There has long been a rumor that an alternate ending for the issue was prepared in case the book ended with #4. In fact, such an ending was used in Britain for a reprinting of the storyline...



However, there doesn't seem to be any real evidence that this was ever intended for U.S. publication, and it instead seems like it was a case of the UK publishers just condensing the storyline (they removed all mention of Shockwave) to make the story shorter. I do not believe that this is a legitimate alternate ending. But I'd love to hear from our Transformers aficionados out there to see if people have a different take on this one. But for now, I'm going with false.

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!

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Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you all next week!