In the latest Comic Book Legends Revealed, find out how a coloring mistake made an issue of Avengers make NO sense.
Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the eight hundred and ninth installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false. As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. Click here for the first part of this installment’s legends. Click here for the second part of this installment’s legends.
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COMIC LEGEND:
Marvel had to put in re-colored panels for fans to cut and paste into an old issue to correct a coloring mistake the made an Avengers issue’s ending make no sense.
STATUS:
True
This brings a close to perhaps the oddest Comic Book Legends Revealed theme ever – Marvel “cut and paste” corrections!
The most famous storyline in Roger Stern’s acclaimed 1980s run on the Avengers was “Under Siege,” a storyline where Baron Zemo slowly but surely put together a gigantic Masters of Evil roster and then systematically planned for the downfall of the Avengers, culminating with the villains actually attacking and taking control of Avengers Mansion itself!
The storyline was slowly introduced, as Stern showed Zemo recruit new members to the team and also spy on the Avengers to notice their various interpersonal issues that made the team weak. Avengers #271 is a good example of this, as Namor left the team abruptly, leaving them shorthanded and especially shorthanded in the power department. Meanwhile, Hercules is chafing under the leadership of the Wasp, as he clearly doesn’t really respect her.
Meanwhile, Black Knight is pining after the Wasp while she is oblivious to his interest in her. These fractures were all later exploited by Zemo in his attack on the Avengers (Hercules, for instance, ignores a command of the Wasp and tries to attack the Masters of Evil by himself and he is beaten nearly to death).
In the aforementioned Avengers #271 (By Stern, John Buscema and Tom Palmer), Wasp (along with the mercenary, Paladin, who she had been casually dating at the time) is visiting the new, villainous Yellowjacket, in prison, when she is sprung from prison by Screaming Mimi and Grey Gargoyle.
We see Wasp trying to track the escaped villains and she notes that she has a clue from some people in the hallways…
Black Knight was in the middle of doing some dangerous experiments on Captain Marvel when he heard that Wasp was in trouble. He ditched Marvel to come to the Wasp’s aide, hoping to prove himself to the Wasp (Dane is a messed up dude).
He arrives and takes down the Grey Gargoyle, although it sure doesn’t seem to make sense as to HOW he did it, right?
Well, the letter column for Avengers #277 (the finale of the “Under Siege” story) revealed what the deal was. As it turned out, the colorist made a mistake and forgot to color the people as statues earlier in the story and ALSO forgot to show that Black Knight’s sword had a sort of power-sucking effect on the Grey Gargoyle, turning him human and allowing Black Knight to knock him out. So the letter column had panels that you could cut and paste and put in the pages of #271 to make that story now make sense…
You can understand how it would be hard for a colorist to keep track of all of the people being turned into (or not being turned into) statues. I think there was even a similar mistake a few issues later, but it wasn’t quite as inexplicable as this.
CHECK OUT A TV LEGENDS REVEALED!
In the latest TV Legends Revealed – Did Warner Bros. executives really consider having a Static Shock live action television series starring Jonathan Taylor-Thomas from Home Improvement?
MORE LEGENDS STUFF!
OK, that’s it for this installment!
Thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo, which I don’t even actually anymore, but I used it for years and you still see it when you see my old columns, so it’s fair enough to still thank him, I think.
Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is [email protected]. And my Twitter feed is http://twitter.com/brian_cronin, so you can ask me legends there, as well! Also, if you have a correction or a comment, feel free to also e-mail me. CBR sometimes e-mails me with e-mails they get about CBLR and that’s fair enough, but the quickest way to get a correction through is to just e-mail me directly, honest. I don’t mind corrections. Always best to get things accurate!
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