Character Spotlight: Mitchell Ellison

I don't know why it happened, but the stories of Spider-Man and Daredevil are very intertwined. Perhaps it's because they're the two most prominent street-level heroes at Marvel. Whatever the reason, they're very close friends and they share villains (such as Kingpin) and supporting characters (such as Ben Urich).

As you might imagine, this caused a bit of a snag when the movie rights for the two characters were split. It wasn't as much of a headache as, say, the Maximoff twins, but it did cause Ben Urich to no longer work at the Daily Bugle. For Daredevil's Netflix series (2015), the writers decided to have him work at the recently introduced New York Bulletin instead of the longer-established Daily Globe. I can only assume that's because the Bulletin was more of a blank slate. They could introduce characters and ideas surrounding it as they wished.

Enter Mitchell Ellison, the editor.

Ellison is an interesting character because, in the first season, he was a bit of a secondary antagonist. He kept seemingly interfering with Urich's work, and it was implied that he was secretly working for the Kingpin. But after it was revealed he wasn't working for Kingpin, and genuinely had the best interest of the paper at heart, he's been one of the purest forces on the side of good.

Although he hasn't actually appeared in the Marvel Universe yet, he was confirmed to be editor of the Bulletin in Kingpin #4 (May 2017).

Spider-Man's Marriage

This is one of those tricky ones where an idea was created for an adaptation, then they decided to introduce the idea in the comics as well, before the idea appeared in the adaptation. What makes this trickier is that they tried to have the two storylines coincide.

Since 1977, Stan Lee has written a daily newspaper strip called The Amazing Spider-Man. At some point he decided Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson should get married in it, and he approached Marvel Comics about them doing the storyline in the comics as well, ideally having them take place the same week.

They didn't happen in the same week, but they did happen close together. In the comic strip, the marriage took place on June 21, 1987:

In the comics, they got married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (August 1987):

Of course, they're no longer married, which is unfortunate. But it still counts!

Nickname Spotlight: The Last Son of Krypton

I've addressed some of the common phrases attached to Superman before, such as "strange visitor from a distant planet," but this is one I'd never even considered might be an immigrant: did you know "Last Son of Krypton" first appeared outside of comics?

According to CBR, Elliot S! Maggin had been trying to get the moniker into comics for a long time, but he was always told he couldn't use it. When Maggin got a gig to write a tie-in novel for the movie, however, no one could stop him. Hence, we got an origin story titled Superman: Last Son of Krypton (1978).

I don't know the exact first time it was used in comics, but I know it definitely appeared by 1993 on the cover of Action Comics #687. And the way it was used, alongside other phrases like "Man of Steel" and "Man of Tomorrow" - each Superman replacement used one of his nicknames - makes me think it was already well-known to comics readers by then.

Character Spotlight: Selena

I love when I'm surprised by a canon immigrant. This one is one of the more surprising ones I've seen.

Selena first appeared as the villain of Supergirl (1984). She started out as a would-be witch working with a warlock named Nigel, but she developed real powers when she discovered an object called the Omegahedron. The movie was not well received, so it didn't have much impact on the comics (though it also didn't have NO impact, as seen here).

That is, until now. Thanks - I'm guessing - to the new cachet all things Supergirl has because of the show, Supergirl #10 (June 2017) featured the debut of a new version of Selena. This one seems to have always had powers, and has ties to Limbo Town (where Klarion the Witch Boy is from). She appears as part of a new Fatal Five, which - despite the name - seems more like a Supergirl Revenge Squad. This is a revealing choice in my eyes, because it instantly ranks her as one of Supergirl's greatest threats.