In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

Today, based on a suggestion from my pal, Nathan Adler, we try to figure out who was the first superhero to have a psychic nosebleed.

A refresher course on the concept.

It didn't show up period in popular culture until Scanners...

and then it was in the film adaptation of Stephen King's Firestarter...

In comics, though, the go-to example to show psychic strain was TEARS, like Professor X during the Dark Phoenix Saga...

and Colossus when Phoenix is torturing him...

The basic idea, of course, was that the Comics Code would not allow blood to be used like that.

Thus, the first time anyone got a psychic nosebleed was in the NON-CODE approved God Loves, Man Kills...

The villainous Reverand Stryker actually builds a machine that attacks the brains of all mutants, first causing nosebleeds...

The first character to suffer a nosebleed from their OWN powers, though, was in 1987's Adventures of Superman #427...

But that wasn't a superhero and Nathan was wondering which SUPERHERO did it first.

Commenter Janos Lazar pointed out that it happened just a few months after the Superman incident!

In Incredible Hulk #336 (by Peter David, Todd McFarlane and Jim Sanders III), X-Factor fought the Hulk and when she pressed herself, Jean Grey's nose bleeds, something that Peter David introduced for Jean for the first time there, which is a fairly significant bit to be introduced in another comic book, right?

Thanks for the information, Janos!

Thanks for the suggestion, Nathan!

If anyone else has a comic book first that they would like to know, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!