Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and fifty-third installment where we examine comic book legends and whether they are true or false.
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Martin Goodman insisted on coming out with a knockoff superhero of his own hit character, the Human Torch.
True
As I noted in the last installment, Marvel Comics #1 was put together by Funnies, Inc, which was a packaging studio, which means that it packaged comic book stories designed to be given to publishers so that they could print finished comic books without having to hire any artists or writers themselves.
The main character originally for Martin Goodman (the publisher of the comic) was the Human Torch (by Carl Burgos), who Goodman specifically picked to be given the cover slot of the first issue...
Bill Everett's Namor was the other big character...
Once Marvel Comics #1 was a hit, Goodman had a second issue put out, changing the title to Marvel Mystery Comics for, well, mysterious reasons....
The book was selling so well that Goodman soon decided that he wanted to get out of the packaging studio game. It was cheaper for him to just hire the writers and artists himself. So he hired away Funnies, Inc. top editor, Joe Simon, to be Timely Comics' new Editor-in-Chief.
Simon had just been working on a new superhero for Funnies, Inc. for Goodman and Goodman was so happy with the character that he launched a brand-new second title, Daring Mystery Comics, to star the character...
The character was dubbed The Fiery Mask and he had sort of kind of heat powers, just like the Human Torch...
When the character returned four issues later, now written and drawn by George Kapitan and Harry Sahle, the connection to the Human Torch was even more obvious...
Dude just flat out has fire powers!
The great comic book and pulp historian, Will Murray, in his brilliant tntroduction to the Marvel Golden Age Omnibus, quoted Joe Simon as explaining that Martin Goodman specifically asked him to come up with a fire-themed superhero, as Goodman's theory was that since other publishers would invariably come up with a Human Torch knockoff of their own, if Timely came out with one first, it could dissuade other companies from doing it, as well.
I don't know if that logic actually holds up, but it was a funny reason to introduce a new character.
Thanks to Will Murray and Joe Simon for the great information!
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In the latest TV Legends Revealed - Which Batman Beyond villain was originally created by one of the show's co-creators when he was just 10 years old?_______________________________________________________________________________
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