Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and ninety-second installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false.
As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. Click here for the first legend from this installment. Click here for the second legend from this installment.
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COMIC LEGEND:
John Byrne was asked to be the regular artist on Daredevil.
STATUS:
I'm Going With True
A fascinating aspect of John Byrne's iconic run on Fantastic Four (I wonder if we will see it in the current Top 100 Comic Book Runs countdown? Hint...yes, yes we will) was how Byrne made a point of showing how the Fantastic Four's New York was firmly the MARVEL UNIVERSE's New York. In other words, with all of the superheroes in the city at once, it would only be logical that these other heroes would get involved in some of the things that happened to the Fantastic Four in the city and so Byrne did a marvelous job at showing those connections. The most famous example of this is when Terrax and Galactus came to Earth and the various superheroes of New York got involved, with Daredevil and Spider-Man holding back and watching the other heroes take on Galactus directly.
A year or so later, Annihilus placed a forcefield around the Baxter Building and in Fantastic Four #255, the opening of the issue featured Daredevil reacting to the forcefield popping up out of nowhere...
Look at the masterful sequential work by Byrne depicting Daredevil reacting to colliding with an invisible wall while traveling across the rooftops.
Byrne did a great job on Daredevil there. However, did you know that Byrne apparently was almost the regular artist on Daredevil?
It all happened in mid-1976, when Byrne had only been working regularly for Marvel for a year as the regular artist on Iron Fist (Byrne's first real Marvel work was earlier in 1975 on a Dracula story in Giant Size Dracula #5).
The great Bob Brown had come over to Marvel from DC in the early 1970s (right before leaving DC, Brown co-created Talia Al-Ghul with Denny O'Neil in the Batman titles) to draw the Avengers. The veteran comic book artist then moved to Daredevil in 1974 for an extended run on the series with first Tony Isabella and then Marv Wolfman. It was with Wolfman that Brown co-created Bullseye in Daredevil #131...
However, by 1976, regular readers were noticing some problems with Brown's art. It wasn't quite as sharp as it used to be. People would even write into the series about it and in Daredevil #136, Wolfman responded to a fan's letter by revealing the sad truth, that Brown was dealing with a serious illness.
Not mentioned was WHAT the illness was. Sadly, Brown had been diagnosed with leukemia and his cancer treatments led to him having to come off of the series for a number of issues.
One of those issues that he missed was Daredevil #138, part one of a two-part crossover with Ghost Rider, and it was drawn by John Byrne and Jim Mooney (Byrne was inked by Don Perlin on the Ghost Rider issue).
The great Kuljit Mithra interviewed Byrne in 1998 for Kuljit's amazing Daredevil website and Byrne revealed a fascinating aspect about this fill-in issue...it was originally pitched to him as a regular gig! He recalled:
Byrne: DAREDEVIL was very early in my tenure at Marvel. Originally, I was supposed to become the regular artist on DD, and that crossover with GHOST RIDER -- one of the first crossovers, so blame me! -- was to have been the beginning of my assignment with the character.
Mithra: Honestly, do you remember much about that assignment?
Byrne: Mostly I remember what happened AFTER, as I sat and waited for the next issue's plot to arrive. And waited. And waited. And finally was told the book was so late it was going to have to be assigned to another artist. It was never quite made clear to me whether or not the Powers That Be thought its being late was my fault.
It's very possible that the editor on the book, Marv Wolfman, believed that Brown was going to be unable to return to the series and was looking for a replacement. However, Brown DID manage to return to the series at the end of Daredevil #141 (Gil Kane drew the first two-thirds of that issue), so perhaps Wolfman changed his mind? Brown then left the series for good with Daredevil #143, returning to DC for a gig on Wonder Woman.
Tragically, Brown passed away after finishing just his first issue of Wonder Woman. It was published two weeks after Brown passed away.
I tend to doubt anyone could forget being offered a gig like Daredevil, so I believe that Byrne was offered the gig, and I imagine that Brown's return led to the deal being rescinded. Can you imagine comic book history if Byrne had a long run on Daredevil? What happens to Frank Miller? Would he have revamped The Man Called Nova instead?
CHECK OUT A MOVIE LEGENDS REVEALED!
In the latest Movie Legends Revealed - Was one of Bruce Lee's fights in Enter the Dragon a "real" Fight because Lee was angry at the other actor for accidentally injuring him in an earlier scene?
MORE LEGENDS STUFF!
OK, that's it for this installment!
Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo, which I don't even actually use on the CBR editions of this column, but I do use them when I collect them all on legendsrevealed.com!
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