Comic Coverage

Super-Bloopers: Tangled in the Web of Alliteration!

Despite chronicling the adventures of superhuman beings, comic book creators are prone to the same all-too-human foibles the rest of us are. However, unlike most of us, their gaffes, goofs, and bloopers were published for all the world to see. Sure, the errors are usually fixed if the stories are reprinted, but the originals live on as an endearing testament to demanding deadlines and human fallibility.

My goal is to make an ongoing series out of these delightful little slip-ups (so email me your suggestions!), but to get things started, here's a doozy from none other than The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (1963). Granted, there was a seven month gap between his debut in Amazing Fantasy #15 and this first issue of his solo series...but of all the details a writer can get wrong, the name of the main character shouldn't be one of them. Instead of "Peter Parker", the alias of Spider-Man (for two panels, anyway) was...Peter Palmer??!

Considering the surplus of alliterated names in superhero comic books (Reed Richards, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Martian Manhunter, etc.), it's understandable Stan blanked out on Pete's last name. Further muddying the waters was an actor named Peter Palmer, the star of both the Broadway play (1956) and film adaptation (1959) of the Lil' Abner comic strip, something a comics guy (and future Hollywood pitchman) like Stan Lee certainly must have been aware of.

Regardless of where "Peter Palmer" came from, this Super-Blooper is definitely one for the ages.

Super-Bloopers: Paging Doctor Blake...

Despite chronicling the adventures of superhuman beings, comic book creators are prone to the same all-too-human foibles the rest of us are. However, unlike most of us, their gaffes, goofs, and bloopers were published for all the world to see. Sure, the errors are usually fixed if the stories are reprinted, but the originals live on as an endearing testament to demanding deadlines and human fallibility.

This edition of Super Bloopers comes to us courtesy of reader David Morefield. Back in Avengers #2 (1963), teenage sidekick Rick Jones encountered the Incredible Hulk (actually the shape-shifting villain known as The Space Phantom). Considering Rick was the one responsible for Doctor Bruce Banner's transformations into the Hulk...and had been a constant companion of Banner/Hulk ever since...he apparently couldn't remember good doctor's name.

"Doctor Don Blake" was, of course, the human alter-ego of Thor, Asgardian god of thunder and the Hulk's fellow Avenger. Well, look at it this way: By giving the wrong name, Rick's error actually protected the identity of Bruce Banner from the wily Space Phantom, right?

Thanks for the tip and the scan of the panel, David! If any of YOU have some great super-blooper suggestions, send 'em to me.  Or, better yet, send me a scan of the panel and I'll post it here!