Welcome to the five hundred and forty-third 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, did Kraven's Last Hunt originate as a Wonder Man story? Why was Wonder Woman pulled from Justice League Europe? And was Bishop always meant to be Aboriginal?

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: Kraven's Last Hunt originated as a Wonder Man story.

STATUS: True

Kraven's Last Hunt is one of the most famous Spider-Man storylines of all-time. Written by John Marc DeMatteis and drawn by Mike Zeck and John Beatty, it is based on the idea of the old Spider-Man villain, Kraven the Hunter, taking his fight with Spider-Man to a whole new level (a level Spidey is clearly not prepared for) in a shocking scene...





Kraven then dresses as Spider-Man and "bests" him at that, too (well, in Kraven's mind, as well). Meanwhile, Spider-Man is buried alive. His love for Mary Jane, though, pulls him through, in a brilliant sequence...

Spider-Man tries to get himself free from the grave



Spider-Man is inspired by his wife



Spider-Man frees himself



As I've written before in an old CBLR, before the story was a Spider-Man story, it was a Batman story.

However, before THAT even, the idea originated as a WONDER MAN story!

You see, DeMatteis had an idea of a Wonder Man mini-series during the mid 1980s that would deal with Wonder Man and his brother, the villain the Grim Reaper. It would involve at one point Wonder Man being buried alive and digging himself out of the grave. This would sort of evoke Wonder Man's joining of the Avengers, where he first appeared as a zombie after "dying."





When editor Tom DeFalco turned the pitch down, DeMatteis reconfigured it as a Batman story and it ultimately became one of the most famous Spider-Man stories ever.

It's funny how stuff turns out, huh?

Thanks to reader Samuel for suggesting this one!

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

Was Robin Williams’ Character in Dead Poets Society Originally Going to Die at the End of the Film?

Did Edwin Booth Really Save Robert Todd Lincoln’s Life a Year Before Booth’s Brother Assassinated Lincoln’s Father?

Did Joe Namath Pose for His Topps Rookie Card While Still in the Hospital?

What is the Secret Behind Little House on the Prairie’s “Baby Battering Ram”?

On the next page, why did Wonder Woman quit Justice League Europe after just one issue?

COMIC LEGEND: Wonder Woman was removed from Justice League Europe because the Wonder Woman editors felt that she would be "sullied" by the title.

STATUS: True

In a recent Abandoned Love, I talked about how Wonder Woman was a member of Justice League Europe in their first issue (by Keith Giffen, J.M. Dematteis, Bart Sears and Pablo Marcos). She shows up late for the first meeting (which is interrupted by a dying man barging into and dropping dead in front of the League)...





Then a bunch of Parisian attack the embassy (an operative of the Queen Bee has controlled their minds), and Wonder Woman helps corral them...



In Wonder Woman's own comic, #28 (by George Perez, Chris Marrinan and Will Blyberg), her visit in Justice League Europe #1 is referenced...







In the 1989 New Titans Annual #5 (by Marv Wolfman, Chris Wozniak and Carlos Marzon), Justice League Europe is briefly shown, and she is with them...



And that's it. She's never shown as a member of Justice League Europe again. I wondered what had happened. Well, Keith Giffen stopped by and he gave the reason why she disappeared:

Actually, she was yanked because the Wonder woman people though we’d, and I quote, “sully her”.

I don’t even know what “sully” means!

But we’d probably have done it…

Thanks for the info, Keith!

Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed at Spinoff Online: Did Heath Ledger's tragic death alter plans for the Joker to appear in The Dark Knight Rises?

On the next page, was Bishop always meant to be Aboriginal?

COMIC LEGEND: Bishop was originally intended to be Aboriginal.

STATUS: Basically False



In our discussion of Bishop in last week's Comic Book Legends Revealed, the discussion came up of whether Bishop was intended to be an African-American or an Aboriginal Australian, as he was ultimately revealed in the comics by writer Chris Claremont. The question really is, "Was it a retcon that Bishop was an Aboriginal or was it always planned that way?"

The answer is that it was a retcon. However, as John Byrne so nicely put it when asked about it a few years back (Byrne was the scripter on Uncanny X-Men when Whilce Portacio and Jim Lee introduced the character), while the INTENT was that Bishop was African-American, there was nothing in the original comic that established that, so the reveal that Bishop was Aboriginal was not really in conflict with any of Bishop's established past - it was just not what Portacio originally intended (and even there, as we learned last week, Portacio only intended Bishop to be African-American because that's what his editor, Bob Harras, told him to do).

This one is for Blade-X, who has been asking me about this one for years now!

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!

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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)...



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

See you all next week!