# Which comic book characters have their own comics? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 20, 2005, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389 "2005-03-20T03:52:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/1 "2005-03-20T03:52:56Z")
I won’t even attempt to describe the meandering thought trail that led me to this thread, I’ll just plunge right in. In an old issue of _Fantastic Four_ (when Frankie Ray discovers her powers), Reed makes a comment about calling their friends at Marvel about changing the title of the comic to _Fantastic Five_. In an even older issue of _Amazing Spider-Man_, Spider-Man mentions a promo deal he entered into with _The Electric Company_ to produce a “Spidey” comic. Patsy Walker, a.k.a. Hellcat, showed her fellow Defenders issues of various comics in which she was featured (and which were supposedly created by her mother) in an issue of _The Defenders_. Any other comic book characters you can think of who are stars of comic books within their own continuity? I’ll hear discussion on whether to include She-Hulk on this list, considering that she was aware of her own existence as a comic book character in her second series (_Sensational She-Hulk_) but may not have been the star of a comic book within that series’ continuity. Same would go for the original Blonde Phantom (who starred in her own book in the 40s; I don’t recall from her appearances in _Sensational_ when BP became aware of her comic book status). She-Hulk also threatened to rip up people’s X-men comics if they didn’t buy her book but it’s unclear whether she ws referring to books that existed within her continuity or ours. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/2 "2005-03-20T04:04:01Z")
There’s a short Flash story (I think it filled out a special) in which Wally meets his writer (Mark Millar, IIRC) who’s having a bit of writer’s block. It seems that comics in the DCU are fictionalized accounts of the heroes’ real adventures. They chat about how Wally’s making his identity public was a problem since they had to explain away the fake secret ID they used in the books before that, and how they can’t just write up Flash meeting with his writer, since that had been done before, such as with Animal Man with Grant Morrison and Barry Allen with Julius Schwartz. Both of those of course, involved the heroes leaving their home dimension, so they don’t count. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/3 "2005-03-20T04:05:39Z")
I think most of Marvel’s publicly known/liked and heroes have books. I know Cap and Deadpool do. The Avengers probably do. The X-Men probably don’t, with the whole ‘not liking mutants’ thing. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/4 "2005-03-20T04:12:50Z")
One of the Astro City books revealed the super-heros in that world are featured in comic books. The story had a situation where a villain didn’t like the way he was portrayed in a comic book and attacked the publisher. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/5 "2005-03-20T04:16:06Z")
Semi-related, the pre-Crisis Superman series featured a character named [Gregory Reed](http://supermanica.info/wiki/index.php/Gregory_Reed), an actor who portrayed Superman in various film projects, as well as periodically standing in for Big Blue. And I’ll just take this opportunity to mention [_Grayson_](http://theforce.net/fanfilms/nonsw/grayson/), the mega-cool fan film about an older Dick Grayson, featuring a scene in which he trashes a stand of comic books because of anger at Superman over some unnamed and best-forgotten past offense. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/6 "2005-03-20T04:16:40Z")
Actually, **Menocchio** , that brings up an interesting question. The original explanation for the DC Golden Age heroes (secifically Jay Garrick’s Flash) appearing in comics within the Silver Age continuity was that the writer was somehow picking up “dreams” or “visions” or something of Jay’s adventures on Earth-2 and setting them down (presumably those same “dreams” were also picked up by the writers of the various other Golden Age titles). What with the Crisis, did the books of those characters who remained in continuity exist and if so would their stars belng on this list? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/7 "2005-03-20T04:25:30Z")
Well, in the DC world, pre-Crisis, there was Earth-Prime, which was, for lack of a better word, the “real” world that you and I live in. The conceit was that, just like in the real world, Earth-Prime had a company called DC which printed Superman comics, Batman comics, etc. However they managed it, the DC comics people are somehow in tune with Earth 1, Earth 2, or wherever, so that, while on Earth 1, Superman fights Lex Luthor, somebody at DC on Earth-Prime gets the idea, “Hey, why don’t I write a comic where Superman fights Lex Luthor”. I’m pretty sure this is what **Menocchio** is referring to. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/8 "2005-03-20T04:27:24Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Actually, **Menocchio** , that brings up an interesting question. The original explanation for the DC Golden Age heroes (secifically Jay Garrick’s Flash) appearing in comics within the Silver Age continuity was that the writer was somehow picking up “dreams” or “visions” or something of Jay’s adventures on Earth-2 and setting them down (presumably those same “dreams” were also picked up by the writers of the various other Golden Age titles). What with the Crisis, did the books of those characters who remained in continuity exist and if so would their stars belng on this list? I know Barry was still inspired to become Flash by reading about Jay in comics, so yeah. At least for Jay Garrick/Flash I. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/9 "2005-03-20T04:42:52Z")
She-Hulk eventually visits the Marvel Universe Marvel offices. There are mutant comics, but they don’t sell well compared to the FF and Avengers titles. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/10 "2005-03-20T15:49:54Z")
Back during Justice League International, the characters appeared in a comic-within-a-comic thanks to a licensing deal made by their money-grubbing benefactor Maxwell Lord. Most of the time they were portrayed as idiots within that comic (and Guy Gardner complained once), but the characters were often written for laughs and acted like idiots anyway. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/11 "2005-03-20T16:58:47Z")
There’s been post-Crisis talk of Superman merchandising, but I can’t remember specifically if comics were one of the items. She-Hulk’s most recent series has her encoutnering some comics fans complaining about the continuity gaffes in recent issues - so big yeah there. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/12 "2005-03-20T17:20:56Z")
In some versions, Sam Simeon in “Angel and the Ape,” was a comic book artist, though I don’t know if it was established that he drew “Angel and the Ape” cartoons. ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/13 "2005-03-20T18:56:39Z")
Plenty of examples in Marvel comics. The most famous is _Fantastic Four_ #4, where the Human Torch is reading an old Timely Comics issue of _The Sub-Mariner_ in a flophouse and recognizes Subby from his resemblance to the comic. Captain America actually drew _Captain America_ for a while. Steve Rogers quit his job as an advertising artist and took up drawing himself. There’s been several references to a \*Fantastic Four \*comic in the FF. Dr. Doom actually stops by the Marvel offices to visit Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in FF #9. John Byrne wrote himself into the “Trial of Reed Richards” and had the Watcher fetch him to observe the proceedings in what may have been Byrne’s biggest ego trip ever. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/14 "2005-03-21T11:27:10Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Well, in the DC world, pre-Crisis, there was Earth-Prime, which was, for lack of a better word, the “real” world that you and I live in. The conceit was that, just like in the real world, Earth-Prime had a company called DC which printed Superman comics, Batman comics, etc. However they managed it, the DC comics people are somehow in tune with Earth 1, Earth 2, or wherever, so that, while on Earth 1, Superman fights Lex Luthor, somebody at DC on Earth-Prime gets the idea, “Hey, why don’t I write a comic where Superman fights Lex Luthor”. It worked in both directions–Cary Bates thinks “Hey! Why doesn’t Luthor build a machine to turn Superman’s underpants into Red Kryptonite” and Luthor gets a flash of inspiration. In Flash 22x and JLofA 123-4, Cary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin travelled from Earth Prime to Earths 1 & 2 and found that they could plot and dialogue the super-characters in realtime. Of course the bad-guys wanted to take advantage of this. Also, Gerry Conway made a small career out of (and was one of the primary causes of The Crisis\*) by whining that Earth Prime != Our World. We (according to him) are on Earth Real: the difference? Flash (et al) never visited Julius Schwartz and co. on Earth Real. :rolleyes: Fenris \*When you read the promo stuff that appeared just before and during the Crisis, you’ll read the phrase “the situation was so confusing that it even confused people at D.C. Comics!”. The “people” (from what I’ve heard) was Gerry Conway who complained constantly about how confusing things were. Note that it _wasn’t_ that confusing. There were only two worlds that appeared with any regularity and that were tricky to keep straight. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/15 "2005-03-21T12:07:48Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > And I’ll just take this opportunity to mention [_Grayson_](http://theforce.net/fanfilms/nonsw/grayson/), the mega-cool fan film about an older Dick Grayson, featuring a scene in which he trashes a stand of comic books because of anger at Superman over some unnamed and best-forgotten past offense. Reminds me, in Ultimate Spider-Man, there’s a storyline where the real world Spider-Man movies are made (Tobey Maguire is mentioned by name). The real-life-in-the-comic Doc Ock attacks the set and Spidey saves the production - despite their not asking his permission or paying him for fictionalizing him. Now that I think about it, the movies in the comic book cannot possibly be identical to the ones that really exist. Hm. Now I’m curious about their storyline. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/16 "2005-03-21T12:17:49Z")
I bet Spidey’s secret identity in the movie was Ben Reilly. :eek: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/17 "2005-03-21T12:50:25Z")
The Hulk has met his writers and therefore by extension has a comic book in the marvel universe. The occasion I remember was back around issue 288 - 290 they had an “assistant editors month”. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/18 "2005-03-21T13:49:42Z")
Sam Simeon writes Deus Ex Machina Man, of course. As a matter of fact, I have several Marvel Universe comics. Several licensed, I think, (FF, Avengers), several unlicensed (X-Men, Spidey). There was a 5th Week Event a while ago. I completely forget when and why, it was utterly boring. 2000 at the earliest. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/19 "2005-03-21T16:34:33Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ll hear discussion on whether to include She-Hulk on this list, considering that she was aware of her own existence as a comic book character in her second series (Sensational She-Hulk) but may not have been the star of a comic book within that series’ continuity. Same would go for the original Blonde Phantom (who starred in her own book in the 40s; I don’t recall from her appearances in Sensational when BP became aware of her comic book status). She-Hulk also threatened to rip up people’s X-men comics if they didn’t buy her book but it’s unclear whether she ws referring to books that existed within her continuity or ours. Actually, leaving aside the fourth wall breaking gags, She-Hulk definitely had her own comic book during Sensational She-Hulk. Issue #50 dealt with John Byrne vanishing and she had to go to Marvel to view try-out pages from various artists in the industry to decide who would take over her book (and it was probably the funniest issue of Byrne’s run). ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389/20 "2005-03-21T17:10:27Z")
In “The Watcmen” the 1940’s original Silk-Spectre is quite aware of her exploits in Mexican porn-comics. She found it somewhat flattering. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-comic-book-characters-have-their-own-comics/295389.md?page=2)