The 10 Most Obscure Facts About Comic Books – Listverse
Comic books. People have been obsessed with it since the days of World War II. From the first Action Comics to blockbuster events like Infinity Wars and Endgame, fanboys and girls around the world have commented, complained and compared superheroes and superhero stories. Everyone is an expert these days.
With that in mind, and with all due respect to the millions of avid comic book readers out there, it's impossible to know everything about this ever-expanding medium. Although many facts are known, we have researched the ten most obscure facts about comic books and now present them to you.
Related: Top 10 Movies You Didn't Know Were Based on Independent Comics
10 The Indiana Jones Boulder scene
Many people know the Disney TV show The Scrooge McDuck series “Ducktales with the character Scrooge McDuck. Likewise, many people are familiar with the opening boulder scene Raiders of the Lost Ark. Fans of the first might remember that Duck Tales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, there is a parody scene involving a boulder. That scene has been parodied in numerous films and television shows over the years and is believed by most to be from the Indiana Jones movie.
However, the scene is taken from a comic book starring none other than Scrooge McDuck. In Carl Banks' seventh issue of his 1954 Uncle Scrooge comic series, The seven cities of Cibola, Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck and their three cousins embark on a new adventure, in which the original “Boulder Scene” takes place. Stephen Spielberg paid tribute to his favorite childhood comic in his iconic film, leading many to believe it was his idea.[1]
9 An original American art form
It is the consensus among most Americans that jazz is the only truly original American art form. However, according to David Jay Gabriel, executive director of the New York City Comic Book Museum, that's not entirely true. His research has yielded five purely American art forms: jazz, musical comedy, the mystery novel, the banjo and comic books. While the very first comic book was published in England in 1897, it was a compilation of children's comics that had appeared in newspapers. The yellow boy inside McFadden's Flat coined the term 'comic book', but this was the first step in the evolution of the art form.
The superhero-based comic book didn't exist until just before World War II and was made in the US. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, characters such as Captain America, Superman and Wonder Woman began to emerge as propaganda for the war. These early titles are considered the Golden Age of Comics and still exist today. Thanks to the film industry, they are more popular than ever. The NYC Museum of Comic Books claims that comics are an original American art form.[2]
8 Royalty
Throughout the history of comic books, there have been many conflicts over copyright, especially between the two giants of the industry, Marvel and DC. The most famous of these conflicts was over the name Captain Marvel. Although it is a long and complicated story, the result is relatively simple. Although DC's Captain Marvel first appeared in 1939, he was usually referred to by his magic word 'Shazam'.
Marvel's Captain Marvel, which didn't appear until the late '60s, has kept the name. The original Captain Marvel is now known solely as Shazam. If only to make it less confusing at the box office, since both characters have had recent big movies and we all want to go to the right movie.[3]
7 Elvis loved comic books
Elvis Presley loved reading comic books, and that was his favorite Captain Marvel Jr. (a DC title). He discovered the superhero when he was twelve and quickly became obsessed. “It is known that he got the original inspiration for his jet black hair, with the curl hanging down in the middle of his forehead, inspired by the superhero. Presley's Lauderdale Court Apartment from his youth has been historically preserved and there is a 1949 edition of it Captain Marvel Jr. #51 is on his old desk.
Captain Marvel Jr.'s alter ego. is Freddy Freeman, the foster brother of Billy Batson (Captain Marvel). He transforms by using the magic words Captain Marvel, his hero's name, unlike Captain Marvel, who uses the word Shazam. While it may be a bit complicated, it was Elvis's favorite title, and he had a huge collection.[4]
6 Guest stars
Over the years, a barrage of real-life celebrities and politicians have appeared in comic books. Here are a few examples. There was a time when Muhammed Ali fought Superman to save the world from mind-controlling aliens (Ali won). During Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009, Marvel released a Spider-Man comic in which the villain Chameleon had taken the form of the newly elected president so that he could be sworn in as president. The Secret Service didn't know what to do when two identical Obamas showed up. Spidey arrives on the scene and interrogates them both. When someone fails to remember the nickname of Barack's high school basketball team (Barry O'Bomber), the Chameleon is discovered and arrested.
In a special issue of The punisher, Frank Castle is eliminated by rapper Eminem. Other notable people to have appeared in the pages of Marvel and DC comics include John F Kennedy (Superman), Anderson Cooper (Black Widow), David Letterman (The Avengers), and Stephen Colbert (Spider-Man). Additionally, Charles Barkley fought Godzilla in a Nike-produced comic book series, and Geraldo Rivera appeared in one Count Duckula funny.[5]
5 Original words and sentences
Believe it or not, some everyday words and phrases come from the funny pages. Although the term 'Brainiac' apparently did not originate in a Superman comically, it made it famous. The word was initially used for a do-it-yourself computer kit, and consequently the supervillain became a computer personality. The Popeye character “Alice the Goon” is supposedly why the term goon has subsequently been used to describe hired thugs or henchmen.
Not surprisingly, “security blanket” comes from Charles Schultz's character Linus from the Peanuts series. 'Back to the drawing board' comes from a literal drawing board that cartoonist Peter Arno used in 1941. Shazam was the first to say the phrase “holy moly.” Other words and phrases that cartoonists and comics writers coined include “McCarthyism,” “for crying out loud,” and “Jeep.”[6]
4 The first female superhero
Although many believe it was Wonder Woman, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, was the first female superhero. Her first appearance was almost four years before Wonder Woman's. She was the 'guardian of the jungle' and possessed a series of superpowers. Sheena wasn't the only superpowered lady to appear before Wonder Woman; there were almost a dozen.
Many say Fantomah Jungle comics was the first; others say it was Miss Fury (created by a woman). Marvel's Black Widow and Black Cat came out before DC's Amazonian Princess. While Wonder Woman may be the most successful and popular female superhero of all time, she was far from the first.[7]
3 Inspiration from real life
It is said that the most important fictional characters in literature are based on real-life people. The most notable comic book example of this can be seen in X Men. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the iconic series in the early 1960s, at the height of the civil rights movement. The series is a famous commentary on that movement, as the fate of mutants parallels that of people of color in America.
With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that the peaceful and tolerant Professor Martin Luther King Jr and his counterpart, the intimidation that Magneto advocated based on Malcolm his role in the classic The man who laughs. Conversely, famous actor Nicholas Coppola, not wanting to use his famous uncle's name to make it in Hollywood, adopted the stage name Nic Cage from his favorite comic book series, Luke Cage.[8]
2 The Spider-Verse
Anyone who reads comics knows the 2018 animated blockbuster Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. In this film, audiences are introduced to a group of Spider-Men in an alternate version. Anything from Spider-Ham (not Spider-Pig from The Simpsons), aka Peter Porker, to Spider-Gwen (Gwen Stacy) and even Spider-Man Noir.
However, some versions of Spider-Man are even more obscure, such as Sheep-Boy. Yes, in a parallel universe, Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive sheep, turning him into the super-powered Sheep-Boy… with all the powers of a sheep. Spider-Man was perhaps Stan Lee's favorite of all the characters he created. In both cartoons and comics, the two met and had an adventure together. He wrote himself into the comic, just as he made movie cameos. All in all, Spider-Man is currently the most popular superhero in the world.[9]
1 The lie detector
William Moulton Marston is one of the three men responsible for creating the polygraph, but that was far from Marston's only claim to fame. Although Marston only lived to be 53 years old, he had an extensive list of achievements. He was a lawyer, psychologist, the creator of the DISC personality classification system, and the creator of the comic character Wonder Woman.
Born on May 9, 1893, William grew up in Massachusetts and attended Harvard University. He subsequently taught at American University and Tufts University and developed his version of the polygraph machine. However, it is not the same type of machine used today. Marston became a somewhat famous public figure in the 1930s, using his device to promote branded products such as Gillette.
In 1940, he began working as an educational consultant for All-American Publications, which later merged with another company to form DC Comics. The following year he wrote his own comic, creating Wonder Woman for issue #8 of All-Star Comics. It seems only fitting that the creator of the 'Lasso of Truth' would also invent a lie detector machine.[10]