In October of 1964 Stan Lee introduced the new character to the Avengers; Wonder Man!
In the story he was created by the Masters of Evil to destroy the Avengers. The Avengers took him in as a full member but at the end of the issue, rather than betray the Avengers trust in him, he decided to sacrifice his own life to save them.
Well it seems that DC didn't like the name of Wonder Man. It was too close to their own very popular Wonder Woman so DC threatened a law suit against Marvel.
It seems Stan Lee didn't want any trouble and never used the character again.
Almost 10 years went by. It was 1972 and Shaft was a huge hit in the theaters. Marvel thought it was an auspicious time to give a black hero his own title. Luke Cage, Hero for Hire was born, later to be called by the more dynamic name of Power Man!
Fast forward four years to 1976. DC decided to relaunch their golden age characters of Earth 1 in the golden age title of All-Star Comics!
Power Girl was introduced .
Then-publisher of Marvel Comics Stan Lee, said in 1978 that when DC Comics created Power Girl after Marvel had introduced Power Man, "I'm pretty annoyed about that. ... I've got to ask the Marvel lawyer — she's supposed to be starting a lawsuit about that and I haven't heard anything. I don't like the idea. ... You know, years ago we brought out Wonder Man, and [DC Comics] sued us because they had Wonder Woman, and ... I said okay, I'll discontinue Wonder Man. And all of a sudden they've got Power Girl. Oh, boy. How unfair."
So guess what Stan did?
BUT.......
OR VICE VERSE.....
Well it seems that DC didn't like the name of Wonder Man. It was too close to their own very popular Wonder Woman so DC threatened a law suit against Marvel.
It seems Stan Lee didn't want any trouble and never used the character again.
Almost 10 years went by. It was 1972 and Shaft was a huge hit in the theaters. Marvel thought it was an auspicious time to give a black hero his own title. Luke Cage, Hero for Hire was born, later to be called by the more dynamic name of Power Man!
Fast forward four years to 1976. DC decided to relaunch their golden age characters of Earth 1 in the golden age title of All-Star Comics!
Power Girl was introduced .
Then-publisher of Marvel Comics Stan Lee, said in 1978 that when DC Comics created Power Girl after Marvel had introduced Power Man, "I'm pretty annoyed about that. ... I've got to ask the Marvel lawyer — she's supposed to be starting a lawsuit about that and I haven't heard anything. I don't like the idea. ... You know, years ago we brought out Wonder Man, and [DC Comics] sued us because they had Wonder Woman, and ... I said okay, I'll discontinue Wonder Man. And all of a sudden they've got Power Girl. Oh, boy. How unfair."
So guess what Stan did?
In October 1976, Wonder Man is reborn!
BUT.......
OR VICE VERSE.....
Oh, this is fun, thank you - I never knew that was why Wonder Man came back after so long.
ReplyDeleteI never heard this story! Cool post.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the ORIGINAL, (Golden Age) Wonder Man predated Wonder Woman, but was too similar to Superman, and was sued out of existence after only one appearance! http://www.squidoo.com/alex_ross_project_superpowers (bottom of the page)
ReplyDeletepic: http://i1.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/590/draft_lens1941462module37307582photo_1243915727WonderManI.jpg
Great bit of insight into comic book history.
ReplyDeleteThis is a gem the Untold Story of Marvel Comics left out. Thanks/
ReplyDelete