Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the six hundred and eighty-third week where we examine comic book legends and whether they are true or false.

As always, there will be three different posts for each legend this week!

NOTE: I noticed that the the CSBG Twitter page was nearing 10,000 followers. If we hit 10,050 followers on the the CSBG Twitter page then I'll do a BONUS edition of Comic Book Legends Revealed during the week that we hit 10,050. So three more legends! Sounds like a great deal, right?

COMIC LEGEND:

Marvel retconned an instance of Spider-Man drinking to being a root beer

STATUS:

Appears to be True

A few months back, I did a Comic Book Legends Revealed about how Marvel currently has a deal where they will not let writers have Spider-Man drinking a beer in an issue.

The question I then asked, though, was had Spider-MAN EVER had a beer in the past?

You readers were awesome. You came at me with lots and lots of e-mails and the answer turned out to be, well....it's complicated.

First off, while Spider-Man has been drunk off of alcohol at least once (I will write about it very soon. Maybe even sometime this weekend!), that was an instance where he didn't know he was drinking spiked punch.

When it comes to Spider-Man (either as Peter Parker or as Spider-Man) drinking alcohol, there has only been one flat out instance of Peter drinking in "official" continuity, which was in Amazing Spider-Man #51 (by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita Jr. and Scott Hanna), where Peter is celebrating Mary Jane's return to his life...

He also drank in the out-of-continuity Tangled series.

In addition, in the back-up about Ben Reilly's time when he first came to life and went off on his own (reprinted in Spider-Man: The Lost Years #0), one of the first things he did was to get wasted off of beer...

Note how Ben even mentions how Peter DOESN'T drink.

He did ORDER a beer in Marvel Team-Up #75 (by Ralph Macchio, Chris Claremont and John Byrne), but he did not drink it...

In Amazing Spider-Man #601, we see Peter drunk off of champagne...

But that was revealed to be apple cider later on.

Similarly, in Spider-Man Unlimited #12 (written by Evan Skolnik), it sure seems like Peter and Ben are celebrating with a couple of beers at the end of the issue, right?

The letter column of the next issue, though, mollified a reader who asked about the beer by saying that it was probably root beer.

So, you see, somehow Peter Parker/Spider-Man has managed to avoid drinking a beer for the entirety of his comic book history! Even when he HAS had a beer, it has been retconned to root beer!

Thanks to Alberto Chavez, Rob London, Russell D., James, Sebastian T., Evan Skolnik (who doesn't remember it being an issue when he had Spider-Man drinking in Spider-Man Unlimited #12) and Spider-Man Unlimited #12 assistant editor Marc Bernardo (who also doesn't recall it being an issue either way, but it was 20 years ago, ya know?) for all the information for this piece!


Check out some legends from Legends Revealed:

Was Denise Crosby Fired From Stark Trek: The Next Generation Because She Posed Nude in Playboy?

Was the Assistant in Frankenstein Really Named Igor?

Was “Unchained Melody” Actually the Melody to the Film Unchained?

Was Crystal Bernard Part of an Evangelical Christian Singing Act When She Was a Child?


Check back Saturday for part 2 of this week's legends!

And remember, if you have a legend that you're curious about, drop me a line at either brianc@cbr.com or cronb01@aol.com!