This is "The Book of Knowledge," a feature where I spotlight instances where notable revelations that affect comic book continuity were first made in texts outside of comic book stories themselves. In other words, times when stuff like the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe either introduced or resolved changes to continuity.

Today, in honor of Leap Day, we look at a revelation about Batroc the Leaper's first appearance that wasn't revealed until the mid-1980s!

In Tales of Suspense #75 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Dick Ayers and John Tartaglione), we meet a mysterious group of bad guys who want a powerful explosive that SHIELD has recovered from them...

Steve Rogers accidentally bumps into Sharon Carter while she is doing a transfer of the Inferno-42 cylinder, which is about to be attempted to be robbed by Batroc the Leaper!

Cap then fights against Batroc, who was an awesome character from the start...

During their fight, Batroc realizes that the cylinder was damaged and thus, Sharon is carrying a ticking time bomb and so Batroc and Cap have to work together to get the cylinder...

They do so in the next issue (with John Romita taking over on art)...

I love how pissed off Sharon is at the idea of Cap helping Batroc.

Batroc's mysterious employers note that they can cure the explosive problems of Inferno-42...

So Batroc seemingly defeats Cap and brings the Inferno-42 to his mystery employers...

Cap was playing possum, though, and so he followed Batroc there.

Batroc and Cap fight, but the bad guys escape (luckily, they had only had ANOTHER duplicate).

Clearly, with Lee and Romita taking over the story for the second part from Kirby, Lee and Romita didn't know what Jack was going to do, so there are some major inconsistencies.

Two issues later, Kirby, Lee and Frank Giacoia introduced THEM (who are basically AIM, who show up soon after this)...

Decades later, in Sharon Carter's entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition explains that THEM were Batroc's employers way back when...

Okay, folks, this sort of thing is something that happens all the time, so if you have any suggestions for future "The Book of Knowledge" features, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!