Comic Book Legends Revealed #572

Welcome to the five hundred and seventy-second 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 Marvel have a Spider-Man foe based on Prince? Did Peter David almost quit Incredible Hulk over Betty Banner's pregnancy being terminated? And learn why the Hulk wasn't allowed to crap out in Las Vegas!

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: Marvel had a Spider-Man villain/anti-hero based on Prince.

STATUS: More False Than True, but Some Definite True in There

Tragically, music icon Prince passed away this week at the far too young age of 57. The hit singer/songwriter was one of the most dominant musicians of the 1980s and his influence is still felt in popular music to this day. His striking visual style was almost as impressive as his music. Reader Darryl M. wrote in yesterday to ask a question about Prince, namely, is it true that Marvel introduced a Spider-Man foe that was based on the singer?

The character in question was named Ace, and he debuted in the 1985 Spectacular Spider-Man Annual (#5) in a story edited by Christopher Priest (then known as Jim Owsley), drawn by Mark Beachum and Joe Rubinstein with a script by Peter David.

He was a former gang leader drawn into a current gang shooting. Here he is his introduction...

Reporter Joy Mercado is sure that Ace witnessed a gang shooting and she and Spider-Man try to persuade him to do the "right" thing and testify. He refuses.

He even gets into a memorable fight with Spider-Man where he manages to hold his own and even cut Spider-Man with a knife!

In the end, he agrees to testify against his own brother.

Many fans saw the style inspirations between Ace and Prince, including the famous poster for Prince's film, Purple Rain, with Prince on a motorcycle...

I have no doubt that Priest was a big Prince fan at the time. Heck, I bet he had that very poster (Peter David has recalled that Priest DID have that poster in his office). So with that in mind, I find it hard to believe that there was not some influence of Prince and Michael Jackson upon the design of Ace.

However, back in 1996, Priest also went into fairly explicit detail into Ace's origins on Usenet:

"Ace" was a PPTSSM annual (I don't recall issue #). The sequel, "Ace II" was out the following year (1984 I think). Mark and I have wanted to do an Ace special, but we were never in the same place at the same time.

FTR-- the character Ace was pretty much a self-portrait of Mark, only toned down a little. Yes, I said toned down. It kind of answered the question (as Mark in real life did): "What If Michael Jackson Looked Masculine?"

and then noting:

He looked like Mark. He *was* Mark. Mark looks like a masculine Michael Jackson. An MJ that could kick your ass. He's tall and lean with a piercing gaze and funky hair. He *is* Ace.

Priest did note, though, that Mark drew Ace as more Prince-looking than Michael Jackson.

Some folks confuse the "Mark" Priest refers to as Mark Bright, Priest's long time collaborator, but it's Mark Beachum, co-creator of Ace.

The second Ace annual the following year was even MORE Prince/Michael Jackson-esque, as Ace returns to town to testify.

Here are a few examples...

When he enters the courtroom, he even comes in "Billie Jean" style!

By the way, Ace nearly stabs Spider-Man to death in the issue!

(He retracted the blade at the last moment)

The annual is actually a really sad story, as Ace is fed up with the justice system, and ends up leaving mid-way through the tiral, and his brother goes free. He is now branded as a traitor and it doesn't even help keep his brother off of the streets. He ends up leaving New York with his sister (I assume to go to Minnesota).

I don't have a photo of Beachum from the time, but looking at a more recent photo of Beachum, I can definitely see it:

There's enough there for me to go with it as "false," although obviously Prince and Michael Jackson WERE style influences on Ace, as well.

Thanks to Priest for the information!

Check out some entertainment and sports legends from Legends Revealed:

Why the Heck Was There a Talking Robot in Rocky IV?

Did John Amos Quit Good Times Over How JJ Was Portrayed on the Show?

Was “I Write the Songs” Written About Brian Wilson?

How Did Trying to Prove He Could Dunk a Basketball Ruin a Pitcher’s Career?

On the next page, learn what story change almost made Peter David quit his run on Incredible Hulk less than thirty issues into the run!

COMIC LEGEND: Peter David almost quit Incredible Hulk because of the termination of a Betty Banner pregnancy storyline.

STATUS: True

In Incredible Hulk #319, by John Byrne and Keith Williams, Bruce Banner and Betty Ross marry...

By the time Peter David took over the book, Bruce and Betty were estranged. David then had a storyline where the Leader captured some of the Hulk's friends, including his estranged wife, Betty in Incredible Hulk #342 (by Peter David and Todd McFarlane). He notices, though, something interesting...

The Leader allows her to escape and she lets Hulk in on the news in #344 (by David, McFarlane and Bob Wiacek)

The Leader's plan goes into effect and it looks like the Hulk is killed.

The following issue (by David, McFarlane, Erik Larsen and Jim Sanders), Betty debates whether she even wants to keep the baby now that Bruce is seemingly dead. It's an impressive discussion of abortion in a Marvel comic of the late 1980s.

However, this all led to a problem that nearly led to David quitting the Hulk entirely. He explained in a 2000 edition of his "But I Digress" column...

“If Bruce and Betty become parents,” I was told, “young readers are not going to care about them anymore. Many young readers see parents as the enemy, and they’re not going to want to read about Bruce and Betty if they seem like the enemy. Giving Betty a baby makes her a mom, and kids don’t want to read about a mom and dad. They want to read about what they see as extensions of themselves. Big kids. People who have babies are grown-ups.”

“But they’re already married!” I protested. “That barn door’s open, and the horse is long gone. By having them get married, we’ve already made them grown-ups! So why not simply follow the progress that’s already been made?”

“Because young readers are our core audience, and we count on them to be able to relate to the characters. Making the characters parents ages them in the eyes of the readers. It’s not fair to new readers to disenfranchise them by making the characters ‘old.’ It’d be like having Peter Parker get married.”

I came very close to walking at that point. The only thing that kept me around was the fact that I had other stories I wanted to do, which could be done without the Banners having a child.

So Bob Harras was brought in to do a fill-in issue with artists Dan Reed and Marie Severin where Betty loses the baby...

Fascinatign insight into the behind-the-scenes machinations of comics. Thanks to Peter David for the excellent information. Be sure to read the full column linked above.

Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed at Spinoff Online: Was Supergirl seriously going to be Superman's LOVE INTEREST in Superman III?

On the next page, see how this accidentally turned into a Peter David-themed edition of CBLR, as we learn why the Punisher wasn't allowed to crap out in Las Vegas!

COMIC LEGEND: Peter David couldn't use the term "crapped out" in a Hulk issue set in Las Vegas.

STATUS: True

For a time, fairly early in his Incredible Hulk run, Peter David had the Hulk (after he was presumed dead in the story I mentioned in the earlier legend) work as an enforcer in Las Vegas under the name "Joe Fixit." This stint added the character Marlo Chandler to the title's supporting cast, so it ended up being very important.

Anyhow, years later, when the Hulk was in his "combined mind of Banner with body of Hulk" period, the Hulk is pulled back to Las Vegas when his former boss is killed in Incredible Hulk #395 (by Peter David, Dale Keown and Mark Farmer) The Hulk investigates the murder along with some friends of his from the group he was then working for, the Pantheon. The Punisher was also investigating the murder and all he knew was that an old mob enforcer was in town, so he was tailing them when the Hulk's group turned the tails on him...

Still one of my favorite Punisher splash pages. Man, Dale Keown was in such a zone at the time.

Anyhow, notice the line? "Snake-Eyes, you lose."

Amusingly enough, there used to be another line there, a line that was actually approved by Marvel and then it was un-approved.

Here is Peter David, from his 1992 "But I Digress" column on "Bleepin' Comics"...

In an upcoming issue of “Hulk,” set in Las Vegas, I had a sequence where the Punisher was trailing someone, got spotted, and his van was rammed and knocked over. The Punisher bursts out the back of his van, guns cradled in either arm, and announces loudly, “Somebody just crapped out.”

Now my dictionary lists the term “crap out” as “to make a losing throw in the game of craps” and, in slang parlance, “to fail.” The sequence took place in Vegas, remember…gambling capital of America (with all deference to Atlantic City). No reasonable person could possibly think, in context, that I was doing anything more than making a pun off of a popular Las Vegas dice game. Certainly I wasn’t intending anything beyond that.

But the line of dialogue, after initially being accepted, was kicked back.

Why?

Because of alternate meanings of the word “crapped”…none of which had crossed my mind when I wrote it, but might occur to that woman who complained about “flicked,” or others like her. Then, of course, there’s concern that some chain store manager is going to get a copy of “Hulk” shoved in his face by some parent who decided to ignore the context so they could complain loudly about the filth in their kid’s reading matter.

Hilarious.

Be sure to read the column for David's hilarious "helpful" advice to Marvel to help them avoid any other possible problems, like "Do not, under any circumstance, have anyone eat shiitake mushrooms"

Thank to Peter David for the awesome information!

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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