Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the six hundred and forty-sixth week where we examine comic book legends and whether they are true or false.
As we’ve been doing it for some time now, one legend today, one tomorrow and one Sunday.
Let’s begin!
COMIC LEGEND:
There was almost an X-Men: Hidden Years Annual by John Byrne and Terry Austin teaming up the X-Men and Silver Surfer.
STATUS:
True
One of the coolest little bits back in old Marvel Comics stories was when they would toss in little asides to show how the rest of the Marvel Universe was reacting a major event. Like Doctor Strange perking his ears up, “Oh? Is something happening?” That sort of thing.
Well, when Phoenix became Dark Phoenix in X-Men #135, we got one of those scenes…
In the years to follow, people would occasionally ask John Byrne if that Silver Surfer panel was setting up a plot that never happened. It sure seemed like he was headed to go see Phoenix. As it were, it was just a throwaway panel and never intended to be anything more…until it almost WAS!
As it turned out, John Byrne was planning to do a special extra-sized X-Men: Hidden Years 25th issue with Terry Austin on inks that would show an untold tale of the X-Men with Silver Surfer set in that little moment.
Hidden Years was Byrne filling in the gaps on what happened during the period when the X-Men series had gone to reprint-only status…
It was going in chronological order, but #25 would have been its own little thing, set off from the main series.
Sadly, X-Men: The Hidden Years was canceled with issue #22, so we never got to see what sounds like an awesome story.
Maybe some day in the future, Byrne might come back to Marvel to do it! I doubt it (he doesn’t seem interested in returning to Marvel ever), but hey, ya never know!
Check out some legends from Legends Revealed:
Did Robin Williams Vow to Never Work for Disney Again Over a Dispute Over the Size of the Genie on the Aladdin Movie Poster?
Was Monopoly Once Ruled a Generic Term and Thus Not Protected by Trademark?
Was Mel Blanc, the Voice of Bugs Bunny, Allergic to Carrots?
Was AC/DC Named After a Slang Term for Bisexuality?
Check back Saturday for part 2 of this week’s legends!
And remember, if you have a legend that you’re curious about, drop me a line at either brianc@cbr.com or cronb01@aol.com!