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.

Reader Rick wrote in to simply ask, "when did Bizarro don the reverse "S" shield for the first time?"

It is interesting to note that when Bizarro first showed up in 1959 (after a brief prototype version in other media), he had the same chest shield as Superman...

Even when the idea of Bizarro World was introduced in Action Comics #263, everyone wore the same chest symbols as before (although now the original Bizarro got to wear his iconic "Number 1 Bizarro" tag)...

DC quickly went ALL IN on Bizarro, featuring him constantly in the early 1960s. He eventually got his own regular feature in Adventure Comics with 1961's Adventure Comics #285, and the symbols were still all the same...

Wayne Boring drew that one, but even when John Forte took the feature over, he kept the symbols the same, until Adventure Comics #294, where the symbols were reversed for the first time...

And it stayed that was with the next issue and that was now just the new look for Bizarro and has been ever since...

It's interesting that it took them three years to make what you would think would have been a rather obvious design choice for the reverse character.

Thanks for the question, Rick! If anyone else is curious about notable comic book firsts, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!