SCOTT: We hit ten thousand subscribers and it’s all because of you awesome people.
So I wanted to take this episode and dedicate it to showcasing your amazing ideas, your
trivia and, of course, your comments.
[MUSIC]
Welcome to Comic Misconceptions, the show that takes
you into detail about the things you know about comics. I’m your host, Scott Niswander.
Once again, I’m just super excited about us hitting our goal of ten thousand subscribers.
I made a video on Sunday about it, right here, thanking you all, if you want to go check
that out. There’s also going to be a link in the description. But also, in it, I talk
about how I only come back to do this show every week because of the amazing comments
that you guys leave on all the videos. So I thought it would only be appropriate to
make a video highlighting some of my favorite comments you guys have ever left. I’m gonna
stay away from all the compliments and all the nice things you guys say. Not that I don’t
appreciate it, but I want to focus on all the comments that add additional value or
some fun trivia, or even the comments that call me out and challenge the things that
I say, and make me go and research things even further. Also, really quick, apologies
for all of the names that I’m gonna butcher in this episode. It’s gonna happen. So,
let’s start off with a couple of fun ones. On an episode a while back that I did about
whether super heroes should have secret identities, Casey Jones points out a time when Spider-Man
couldn’t cash a check because it was specifically written out to Spider-Man, because Peter Parker
didn’t want to give away his secret identity. So, yes, this all goes back to Amazing Spider-Man
#1, the very first issue when Spider-Man is written a check as payment for his showbiz
work. Fun fact, if you didn’t know, I think we all remember Spider-Man’s wrestling days,
but he also got a job showcasing his powers on television before he hit his stride with
the Daily Bugle. Anyway, he goes to cash a check at a bank as Spider-Man, but he can’t,
because he has no form of identification as Spider-Man. As the bank teller points out,
anyone can dress up as Spider-Man, but you need a valid form of ID to cash the check.
So, maybe that’s another reason to go public with your identity, instead of remaining invisible.
In one of my favorite episodes about what Dr. Doom’s face looks like under his mask,
a lot of you guys commented a theory that I had heard about in doing my research, but
I didn’t realize it was as widespread as it apparently is. If you recall, I proposed
that Dr. Doom could have a psychological disorder known as body dysmorphia, which would explain
why he would go to such drastic measures after receiving a single scar across his face. L.
Lightward offers a counter-proposal that Dr. Doom isn’t suffering from a psychological
disorder, but a curse. If we remember that Dr. Doom received the scar because he was
trying to take back his mother’s soul from Mephisto, then we could easily say that Mephisto
put a curse on Doom to make him believe that his scar, was much, much worse than it actually
was. Which, yeah, that could totally make sense. But I’m going to leave that up to
you guys to decide for yourselves. Going back even further in time, EminentDoyen leaves
a comment on the video about weight loss stories in comic books, which I realize now is a really
weird topic to do a video on. But they say that originally, Alfred Pennyworth was a lot
rounder than we know him as today. So, there’s a really fun story behind this that I heard
a long time ago but completely forgot about. So, originally, Alfred looked like this. But,
when the 1943 Batman serial came out, he was played by William Austin, who looked like
this. The DC editors liked Austin’s look and wanted to bring that into the comics,
so, in Detective Comics #83, they had Alfred take a vacation, and, when he returned, he
was much slimmer, and had a mustache. And the rest is history. But not all history can
be so simple, my friends, as I pointed out in the video about the real origin of Superman,
which dates back to a short scifi story in 1933. hexum7 points out that the comic proposal
for Superman even just one year later is still drastically different from what we know of
the Man of Steel today. The story, which you can see outlined here, involves the last man
on Earth sending his infant child back to the year 1935 via time machine. The baby is
discovered by Sam and Molly Kent who give him the name Clark. Link in the description,
if you want to read the whole thing. And while we’re on the topic, that short story, The
Reign of the Super-Man featured one character named Professor Earnest Smalley. Michael Aregbesola
offers one of the most mind-blowing theories to ever grace the comments section. He theorizes
that Clark’s hometown of Smallville could have possibly been named after Earnest Smalley
because in the short story, Smalley is the person who literally creates the super man,
but in the comic books, Smallville is the place that figuratively creates Superman because
it’s a heavy influence in his formative years. Especially because Smallville is usually
the setting for Superboy comics as opposed to Metropolis for Superman comics, and that
is just…that just blows my mind, man, good, good work. I don’t even have an answer for
this, I just love it a lot. But if you guys know, if it was actually named after Earnest
Smalley, then let me know in the comments. I just…that’s incredible. And, lastly,
on a very recent episode about collecting comic books, Cesar Felix notes that his copy
of Venom Lethal Protector looks a little bit different than mind. Specifically, mine has
a barcode on it, and his does not. He said that his dad told him that comic books with
barcodes are less valuable than those without because they are found at grocery stores and
supermarkets and all sorts of places that aren’t comic book shops. So I did some research
on this and found that it’s kind of just a little bit true. So, before the late 70s
to early 80s when comic book shops starting getting more popular, publishers sent direct
market copies without barcodes on them to the comic shops, and still sent regular comic
books with barcodes to other places like newsstands and drugstores and just all over the place.
Those comic shop copies either had a barcode crossed out or had a small picture where the
barcode should be. And there was a couple of reasons for this but the main one being
that it made it impossible for the comic shop owner to return the comic books that they
didn’t sell to the publisher. If it doesn’t have a barcode, the publisher can’t scan
it back into inventory so now the comic shop owners are just stuck with all the copies
that they couldn’t sell. If the comic shops overestimated on how many copies that they
needed of a certain issue, then, well, too bad. You can’t return it to the publisher
to get your money back. As for which one is more valuable, it’s kind of a toss up. Most
collectors will tell you that it really doesn’t matter which copy that you have as they see
it as the same comic book. However there have definitely been cases where the direct market
copy is a little bit more valuable than the newsstand copy because those are usually treated
with a lot more care. Conversely, there also have been situations where the newsstand copies
are more valuable than the direct market one, and that’s because it’s really hard to
find a newsstand copy that’s in good condition. But yeah, I found that whole thing, researching
that, super fascinating. I hope you guys didn’t get bored with that…talking about barcodes…who
knew that we would do that in a video. But, how could I resist? It’s so interesting.
Links to this comment and all the others in the description below if you want to go check
them out, or have anything to add to the discussion as well. Which, I encourage you to do that.
So, thank you guys so much for leaving such great comments and awesome things for me to
go and research. And hey, if you think that you have a cool idea or topic or trivia or
theory for an episode, then please, don’t hesitate to leave it in the comments below.
I do a lot of the episodes based on what you guys suggest. So, don’t be shy down there.
And, hey, if I got something wrong in this video, then please let me know. Always happy
to be wrong. And let me know if you like these comment response videos. I might do it some
other time in the future. And if this is your first time hanging out with us here at NerdSync,
we do weekly comic book videos just like this every Wednesday and we don’t want you to
miss out on any of it, so please subscribe. Once again I’m Scott, and you can find me
on Twitter and Instagram and we’ll see you right here next week for more things that
you thought you knew about comics. See ya!