Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and thirtieth installment where we examine comic book legends and whether they are true or false.

As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the weekly three legends.

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COMIC LEGEND:

Howard Mackie turned down Ultimate X-Men

STATUS:

Apparently True

Back in November, I talked to Howard Mackie about his time as "Writer X" on Marvel's The Brotherhood.

In that same interview, Howard went off on a brief tangent and I figured, hey, why not wait to make that its own legend? I didn't think I'd wait this long to run it, but here it is!

In 2000, Marvel launched the Ultimate Universe with Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley on Ultimate Spider-Man and Mark Millar and Adam (and Andy) Kubert on Ultimate X-Men.

The titles were huge hits and it is not surprise that a good deal of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was heavily inspired by the work that Bendis and Millar did on the Ultimate Universe, particularly, of course, the Ultimates (since Marvel Studios didn't have the rights to the X-Men and only got the chance to work on Spider-Man years later).

It certainly helped to make Bendis and Millar star writers in the comic book industry. They've both written many awesome comics since.

The interesting thing, though, is that the line was initially planned to be written by veteran writers, with Howard Mackie being offered the job to write Ultimate X-Men by Marvel President Bill Jemas!

Howard had just done a hit Astonishing X-Men miniseries the previous year, so it makes sense...

Here's Howard explaining it to me:

Howard: Side note: Ultimate X-Men was offered to me before Mark Millar.

Me: I've meant to ask you that in the past!

Howard: Yeah... I turned it down. It was a HORRIBLE concept.

Me: Was Ralph Macchio the editor at the time? Or did he take it over later?

Howard: At least that which Jemas pitched me on the phone while he was driving toward the Lincoln tunnel in his convertible. I'm not sure it had an editor at the time. This was at the inception of the "concept". I used Trumpian quotes on purpose. There was barely a concept at all. I could not figure out how what pitched to me was an X story at all. But... what did I know.

Fascinating stuff, huh?

Thanks so much to Howard for the head's up!


Check out some other entertainment and sports legends from Legends Revealed:

1. Did Heath Ledger’s Tragic Death Ruin Plans for the Joker to Appear in The Dark Knight Rises?

2. Did Lisa Kudrow Seriously Save Herself for Marriage?

3. Was Toy Story Nearly Canceled Because It Was Too Dark of a Story?

4. Did a Famous TV Director Get His Start on Buck Rogers as a Protest Over the Show’s Cancellation?


Check back later on 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!