50 Impressive Facts About Marvel Universe – Part 4

Godzilla, Transformers, Conan the Barbarian and Fu Manchu have all been part of Marvel Universe, until their license agreements lapsed.

27. Marvel’s Man-Thing and DC’s Swamp Thing debuted within weeks of each other back in 1971. Man-Thing co-creator Gerry Conway and Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein were roommates at the time.

28. In the Marvel Universe, Damage Control is the group responsible for rebuilding New York City between the fight scenes, so that everything looks normal again in time for the next fight.

29. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby appeared in comics at the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, but weren’t let into the ceremony because they didn’t have invitations.

30. Groot was originally an alien invader, ‘The Monarch of Planet X’, who was defeated by termites.

The shapeshifter Mystique is the mother of Nightcrawler, but writer Chris Claremont previously intended her to be his father.

32. Captain America’s shield is round because his original shield was thought too similar to the costume of a rival publisher’s superhero, The Shield.

33. Marvel’s X-Men and DC’s Doom Patrol, both teams of outcasts with strange powers led by a wheelchair-bound mastermind, debuted within three months of each other. The Doom Patrol were first.

34. Captain America co-creator Joe Simon claims in his autobiography that he got the inspiration for the Red Skull from the cherry on top of a hot fudge sundae.

35. Many of Marvel’s Asgardians are based on Norse mythology, but the Warriors Three Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg are based on Errol Flynn, Charles Bronson, and Shakespeare’s Falstaff.

DC and Marvel share the trademark to the phrase ‘Super-Hero.’

37. Marvel produced a short-lived series called The Human Fly, based on a real-life stuntman who kept his true identity a secret. He was billed as “The wildest superhero of all because he’s real.”

38. Shatterstar is his own grandfather. Longshot is also his own grandfather. They are each other’s father and son. It’s weird.

39. In the Six Part Saga “Man and Wolf”, Captain America was injected with a serum that turned him into a Werewolf.

40. In Pryde of the X-Men (the pilot for a never realized X-Men Animated Series), Wolverine was improperly dubbed with an Australian accent. Since Australian stuff was popular at the time, the error wasn’t corrected and it was instead suggested to change Wolverine’s nationality in the comic’s continuity.

Natalia Romanova a.k.a Natasha Romanov a.k.a Black Widow is almost 70 years old. She kept her young looks thanks to a variation of the super-soldier serum.

42. Marvel used to publish an annual swimsuit special featuring its heroes.

43. In his first stories, Bruce Banner didn’t turn into The Hulk when enraged, the transformation was simply triggered by sundown.

44. Squirrel Girl is a mutant with squirrel-like features and the ability to communicate with squirrels. In her first appearance, she managed to defeat Dr. Doom with the help of her squirrels and saved Ironman, who she was trying to impress.

45. After Punisher died, he was recruited by his family’s guardian angel (who had failed the family when they were gunned down) to be heaven’s assassin.

Marvel created Spider-Woman just to secure the trademark for her name. In the 70’s Filmnation had a cartoon called Tarzan/Batman Adventure Hour and would use new characters to avoid licensing fee. Marvel heard that an upcoming character was going to be named Spider-Woman, so in response, they rushed out Marvel Spotlight #32 and secured the trademark.

47. The X-Men Evolution cartoon was strongly influenced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The somewhat infamous dance Kitty and Rogue perform in “Spykecam” was a reference to the Buffy episode “Bad Girls.”

48. Once to protect his secret identity, Daredevil pretended to be his own (non-existent) twin brother, Mike Murdock, who isn’t blind.

49. When Black Mamba uses her powers to distract Deadpool by making him dream of his greatest desire, he had a homoerotic fantasy about cable in which he is rubbing sunscreen on Cable's back on a sunny beach.

50. X-Men No. 1 published in 1991, is the world’s biggest selling comic book. It sold close to 8 million comics.