Marvel - you sneaky, sneaky bastards.
I knew that OHOTMU came out in 1983...
...and is Mark Gruenwald's greatest achievement by the way, yes I'm including Squadron Supreme...
...which in turn (Crisis on Infinite Earths aside) gave us DC's Who's Who.
But I thought that was all there was.
Turns out I was wrong. The origins date back to 1980.
I know, I know, but follow me through here...
The Summer Olympics were in Moscow that year, and the U.S. boycotted.
Which created a lot of panic at the time (to companies like McDonald's which lost a lot of money), and a lot of jokes in the future (most notably on The Simpsons). But Marvel found themselves in a pickle...
...because Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions was a planned Olympic tie-in.
They made the necessary changes plot-wise, and after putting it on the back burner for a few years, Marvel published issue #1 in June, 1982.
Still with me? Good.
When MSHCoC came out, it was hailed as a breakthrough comic for several reasons...
...it was the first time every super hero in a given company appeared in one story.
...it was the first Limited Series ever published (by Marvel at least).
...it laid the groundwork for 1984's Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars.
All of which are true.
So what's the connection to 1983's OHOTMU?
Well at some point along the way, editors Tom DeFalco and Mark Gruenwald (who also co-wrote) and editor-in-chief Jim Shooter realized that not everyone who reads MSHCoC would know all the characters involved. So what did they do? They took two of the last three pages in each issue (6 pages total) and gave a brief description - nothing much, maybe a paragraph - of every character, their powers and first appearance.
Sound familiar?
Now, I have no idea how involved Mark was with all this, but he is absolutely and unquestionably credited as the mind behind OHOTMU. Since there is no doubt that its beginnings started here, I'm tipping my hat in his general direction.
Cool, huh?
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