In the latest Comic Book Legends Revealed, see how the mother of Namor's creator tried to help him come up with a superhero to match Superman

Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the eight hundred and seventy-seventh 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.This time around, all of the legends will involve Namor's creator, Bill Everett! Click here for the first legend of this installment.

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COMIC LEGEND:

Bill Everett's mother wrote to family members to see if they had any ideas for a superhero for Bill

STATUS:

True

Comic books were at a weird point in time during the mid-1930s, where they were selling a little bit, so there was clearly SOME sort of future in the industry, but not so much that they were easy money. Not only that, but some very smart people in the industry believed that the only money that there WAS in comics was in doing collections of newspaper comic strips, under the theory of, "We know what the public likes, and it's these comic strips, so why would we think we can outdo these comic strips that are read by hundreds of thousands of people every day?" Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson was the visionary who felt that original comic books WERE the future of comic books, but he famously couldn't afford to keep going and was pushed out by the business partners that he was forced to take on RIGHT before their company, National Comics, released its fourth comic book title, a book called Action Comics #1.

It sort of changed things just a teensy bit.

RELATED: Was Namor Created as a Response to the Human Torch?

WHAT DID SUPERMAN'S CREATION DO TO THE REST OF THE COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY?

Superman's success made it clear to the marketplace that original comic book characters COULD be just as good as comic strip characters, which was also highlighted by the fact that Superman was then syndicated into a national comic strip, thus essentially proving the point - the belief was always that original comic books could never be as good as comic strips, but here, a comic book literally BECAME a national comic strip.

Bill Everett had already been working on comic books for one of the rare comic book companies out there also doing original comics (again, as I noted earlier, there was clearly SOME market for them at the time). They were mostly pulp fiction-style adventurers, like Skyrocket Steele...

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So now everyone and their brother wanted to create a comic book superhero like Superman, and Everett's boss, Lloyd Jacquet (who was trying to start his own company with a studio of artists, with Everett probably being his top talent, but other guys like Carl Burgos also involved) had worked out a deal where he would continue having his studio create new comics for Centaur while Jacquet tried to work out his own deals, as well (ultimately, Jacquet remained as a comic book packager, meaning his artists would create comics for OTHER publishers) was pressing Everett to come up with a Superman-like character.

In Blake Bell's excellent Fire and Water: Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner, and the Birth of Marvel Comics, Bell has the following letter that Bill Everett's MOTHER wrote to a family member asking for ideas for a new superhero...

I'm going to spend all day tomorrow at the Public Library, doing some research work for Bill. He has to have a new character, for a strip which Jacquet wants him to do in competition with the new one being syndicated - called the 'Superman' I think. We've wracked [sic] our brains for a new kind of character; and all I can think of now is to go back over old folk tales, foreign ones if necessary, and try to find some unusual character around which we can build an unusual story for these modern times. Bill is rushing through another strip and two covers, so I am going to help him in this research. Of course I love to do it.By the way, the 'Superman' thing I spoke of above was considered so good that it was bought and syndicated before it was ever published. The people I know who have seen it are not impressed, but I suppose children would love it. It's a story of a man of superhuman strength in these modern times, who can pick up an elephant with one hand - lifts trolley cars off tracks, etc. If you have any brilliant ideas for a competitive strip, for heaven's sake let us know. Jacquet is on Bill's heels about this

Eventually, Everett came up with something! Read on to see what it was!

RELATED: Why You Don't Want to Treat a Comic Book Writer's Daughter Poorly

WHAT SUPERHERO DID BILL EVERETT ULTIMATELY INVENT FOR CENTAUR?

The superhero that Everett came up with was called Amazing-Man, and Centaur loved the idea so much that it changed the name of one of its comics to Amazing-Man Comics, which was obviously a rarity for the time period (I think Superman #1 was literally the first comic book named after the hero)...

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Amazing-Man was a man who (amazingly enough) was trained by Tibetan monks to have superhuman strength and speed...

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the ability to withstand great amounts of pain...

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and, because, well, why not, turn himself into green mist!

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Amazing-Man became Centaur's most successful superhero, running until 1942. Later that year, Everett also invented some dude named the Sub-Mariner, as well, and that guy was fairly popular, as well.

Thanks to Blake Bell for the amazing piece of comic book history that is that letter!

CHECK OUT A TV LEGENDS REVEALED!

In the latest TV Legends Revealed - Was Paul Lynde contractually guaranteed to be the center square on Hollywood Squares?

PART THREE SOON!

Check back soon for part 3 of this installment's legends!

Feel free to send suggestions for future comic legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com