Comic Book Legends Revealed #550

Welcome to the five hundred and fiftieth 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 we almost see the Summers School of Mutants? Did Charles Schulz send secret messages to his mistress in Peanuts comic strips? And did the famous Spirit femme fatale Sand Seref almost debut in another comic strip entirely?

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 Xavier's School for Mutants nearly became the Summers' School for Mutants.

STATUS: True

In his return to the X-Men, Chris Claremont had Cable (Nathan Summers) join the X-Men for the first time, working alongside his father (Scott Summers)'s wife, Jean Grey, who was kind of sort of his mom...

Meanwhile, in an early issue of his run, there was a mysterious bad guy...

That bad guy was going to be revealed to be Stryfe, the evil clone of Cable! This was going to lead to a storyline where, in effect, the Summers take over!

Claremont discussed his plans after he left the series on his Cordially Chris forum, speaking of the mystery man...

It was meant to be Stryfe, as a precursor to the arc that would close-out 2000, wherein the X-Men and Xavier would be “evicted” by the Summers Clan (Stryfe, Scott, Cable, Alex, Jean and Rachel), who would present the school to the public as the Summers Scool For Mutants. They would control X-Men and the fugitive team (think about it, how would you – COULD you – fight adversaries who comprise four of the most powerful psis in creation, plus two (Cyke & Cable) of the pre-eminent tactical and strategic strategists?) would be on the run in Uncanny (X-Men). And that would be the status quo until Uncanny X-Men #400, when things would get really squirrelly.

Claremont, of course, never got to see those plans come to fruition as his run was cut way short, but can you imagine how weird that would have been? One book the Summers clan is in charge and the other book having the rest of the X-Men on the run? It was a bold idea, at the very least!

Thanks to Claremont for sharing his plans on his forum!

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

What celebrity was South Park not allowed to kill off in a first season episode?

How did Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show save the game of Twister from oblivion?

How did a character's NAME on ER save them from being killed off?

Did the bear from the Will Ferrell comedy, Semi-Pro, really kill its own trainer?

COMIC LEGEND: Charles Schulz sent hidden messages to his mistress in Peanuts comic strips

STATUS: More False than True, but surprisingly close to being True

A couple of years ago, reader Eric E. wrote in to ask about a weird rumor his wife had heard on the radio, that Charles Schulz would pass hidden messages through Peanuts strips to his lover.

When Eric first suggested it, I dismissed it, thinking it was like that weird story I did about the guy trading on stocks due to what he felt were hidden messages in Bringing Up Father or the FBI searching Pogo strips for hidden messages.

However, there is SLIGHTLY more to this than that.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Charles Schulz was having an affair with a young woman. This led to the end of Schulz's first marriage. A few years back, the woman in question, Tracey Claudius, auctioned off the letters and love notes Schulz sent her...

In the daily strips in July 1970 (roughly July 10-July 18), Snoopy goes through a love story...

That one strip about the long distance calls is probably the closest Schulz ever came to any sort of "hidden message," as around that same time, his then-wife had discovered his long distance calls, so that's a reference to that fact. Otherwise, though, besides using a couple of words in the letters with Claudius and then using them in the strip, there really isn't anything that anyone would fairly refer to as a "hidden message."

Thanks for the suggestion, Eric!

Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed at Spinoff Online: Learn the amazing story of the young woman who accidentally got a speaking role in Star Trek IV!

COMIC LEGEND: The famous Spirit femme fatale, Sands Seref, was intended to debut in another comic strip.

STATUS: True

A couple of weeks ago in an earlier Comic Book Legends Revealed, I discussed how Elektra was heavily influence by the famous Will Eisner Spirit femme fatale, Sand Seref.

Reader the Relic wrote in, though, with an interesting piece of the legend of Sand Seref herself. Here's Sand Saref's 1950 debut (as reprinted in DC's 2009 Spirit Special)...

Good stuff.

However, that was NOT where Sand was originally meant to debut! I wrote before about how Eisner tried to branch out with other comic strip characters. One of them, a detective named John Law, didn't work out so Eisner just recycled John Law strips as Spirit strips.

Amazingly enough, though, the first John Law strip would have also been the debut of Sand Seref!! Here is the original John Law strip from a 1980 Eclipse color print of the story...

Isn't it amazing how much of a role fate plays in these things?

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)...