In Abandoned an' Forsaked, we examine comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically "overturned" by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent).
Today, we look at how Alan Moore almost secretly retconned a major part of J. Jonah Jameson's history.
In a recent Book of Knowledge post, I wrote about how the Official Handbook for the Marvel Universe, 2005 Spider-Man edition, put into place a retcon that established that J. Jonah Jameson was not around at the Daily Bugle during World War II. That Official Handbook story is still significant for it established that the Jameson during World War II at the Bugle had no relation to J. Jonah Jameson.
However, my pal and longtime reader, Omar Karindu, sent in an interesting piece of history that showed that Alan Moore was actually the FIRST person to establish that J. Jonah Jameson was not at the Daily Bugle during World War II!
Year ago, in one of his classic "The" stories, Gary Friedrich and artists Dick Ayers and Vince Colletta did a story in Sgt. Fury #110 about a reporter and we see that the reporter works for a "Jameson" at the Daily Bugle...
Famously (well, famous enough that I wrote a Comic Book Legends Revealed about it), Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross had also featured J. Jonah Jameson in the World War II stories in Marvels. However, a Spider-Man editor objected, so Busiek just removed any mention of Jameson's name in the series...
Here is a great scene where he irritates the Human Torch...
and finally, here is "Jameson" at Phil's wedding...
Amusingly enough, though, as Omar Karindu pointed out to me, Alan Moore had actually retconned Jameson's time during World War II over a decade before Marvels was released!
A recurring feature in the Marvel UK comics of the 1980s was a sort of tribute to the Shadow called Night Raven (with Night Raven being a vigilante during the 1930s/1940s a la The Shadow)...
It would be written like a pulp fiction story, with spot illustrations by regular Marvel UK artists like Alan Davis and Paul Neary. Alan Moore wrote a few of these, including the story in Marvel Super-Heroes #394, with art by Paul Neary...
(Click here to enlarge the image)
In the story, the narrator is thinking back to the past, and the story notes "The Bugle never used to pay a hell of a lot back in those days. Not when old Jameson was running the show. What? No, not the Jameson who's editing the Bugle now. I'm talking about his father. He used to be a real tightwad. We never once got a check out of him on time."
So while the later Official Handbook story confirmed that the Jameson in the past was NOT J. Jonah Jameson's dad, it was still a notable retcon by Alan Moore and in the place of a prose story in a Marvel UK comic! Fascinating.
Thanks for the great information, Omar Karindu!
If anyone else has a suggestion for a future Abandoned an' Forsaked, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!
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