By [ad_1]
In the latest Comic Book Legends Revealed, see how the Christmas meeting between the Ben Reilly Spider-Man and Human Torch had a crazy origin!
Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the eight hundred and twentieth 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.
NOTE: If my Twitter page hits 5,000 followers, I’ll do a bonus edition of Comic Book Legends Revealed that week. Great deal, right? So go follow my Twitter page, Brian_Cronin!
COMIC LEGEND:
The Christmas meeting between the Human Torch and the Ben Reilly Spider-Man was written years before Ben Reilly showed up in the Spider-Man books
STATUS:
True
Recently, as part of our look at 1990s Christmas comics all December long, I spotlighted the “first” meeting of the Human Torch and the Ben Reilly Spider-Man in “Merry Christmas, Mister Storm” from Spider-Man Holiday Special #1 by Sholly Fisch, Robert Brown, Josh Hood and Al Williamson
First off, here’s a recap of the story, from my initial write-up…
The story opens with Johnny wondering where Spider-Man was and sending off a Spider-Man-shaped flare to get his attention.
Meanwhile, he thinks back to the previous year.
This allowed for a cute bit by Fisch where he has Johnny recount all of the crazy stuff that he went through in the pages of the Fantastic Four in 1991-1993. It was quite a busy year as Tom DeFalco was doing everything he could to make Fantastic Four a “hot” book, and that meant lots of turmoil in the life of the Fantastic Four, most prominently being Johnny learning that his wife was actually a Skull and Reed Richards seemingly dying.
Peter then reveals to Johnny for the first time that he is married, making this a rather notable moment, really…
Peter tries to take the moment to an even bigger step by revealing his identity to Johnny, but Johnny tells him not to. They then exchange presents, with Johnny giving him a Venom action figure, which is pretty hilarious, and Spidey gives Johnny a seemingly simple gift, but the REAL gift is Spider-Man’s telephone number printed on the base of the gift that he says Johnny can call whenever he needs to talk.
Well, Spider-Man shows up in response to the signal (how Spider-Man gets to the top of the Statue of Liberty by webswinging is beyond me. There really isn’t anything to swing FROM, is there? Perhaps he made web-glider-wing?) and they suddenly have to face the fact that this isn’t the same Spider-Man that Johnny has known for all of these years, which leads to a conversation…
Again, though, the weird thing here is that they ARE friends, they are just friends who haven’t spoken in years. That’s really something that I would have liked to have seen explored a bit more with Ben Reilly, which is the fact that he actually DOES know most of the heroes who were still active in 1995, he just hasn’t spoken to them in years. The relationships are still there, though.
In any event, Fisch (who is always great) turns things around and now it is Johnny offering HIS phone number to Ben to talk to if he needs help. Very cool stuff.
The amusing thing, though, is that the story was originally NOT written as a meeting of the Human Torch and Ben Reilly, but just of Torch and Peter Parker’s Spider-Mam!
You see, Fisch originally did just the Spidey/Torch stuff and it was going to appear in I believe either the 1993 or 1994 Marvel Holiday Specials, but then the editor of those special, Renee Witterstaetter, left the project and the incoming editor didn’t know of Fisch’s story until it was too late. Fisch was already paid for the story, but he wanted to see it published, but it was too late for 1993.
Fisch then pitched the story to Danny Fingeroth so that it could possibly be included in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, who had begun to used back-up stories at the time, and perhaps this could be used as a back-up story. Fingeroth liked the story, but then he was out of being the editor on the Spider-Man books and so Fisch was out of luck.
Then he pitched it to Sarra Mossoff and she was putting together a Spider-Man special and it would be a perfect opportunity, but the problem was that now the story was out of date because Peter was the Spider-Man in the story!
So Fisch came up with a framing sequence involving the Ben Reilly Spider-Mand the rest is awesome Christmas history!
Thanks to Sholly Fisch for the information!
CHECK OUT A MOVIE LEGENDS REVEALED!
In the latest Movie Legends Revealed – See how Michael Caine’s tax status, of all things, led to him becoming Scrooge in The Muppets Christmas Carol.
PART THREE SOON!
Check back soon for part 3 of this installment’s legends!
Feel free to send suggestions for future comic legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com
About The Author
[ad_2]
