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Fictional inventors in comics

  • BatmanIn September 2024, Batman became the first fictional superhero to receive a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
  • Iron ManIron Man, the armored Marvel Comics hero, first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39, released in December 1962 with a March 1963 cover date. His creator, Stan Lee, had set himself an awkward assignment during the Vietnam War. His readers…
  • Doctor OctopusDoctor Octopus, the Marvel Comics villain known as Doc Ock, began as a name before he was anything else. Stan Lee, who created him with the artist Steve Ditko, later described how the idea arrived. "For some reason, I thought of an…
  • Spider-ManMarvel's publisher told Stan Lee that Spider-Man would never work. The comic was being canceled anyway.
  • Lex LuthorLex Luthor has no superpowers, no secret identity and no alien heritage, yet he has outlasted nearly every other enemy of Superman. Writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster created him, and he first appeared in Action Comics #23 in April…
  • Ben ReillyBen Reilly first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #149, published in October 1975, and he was seemingly killed in that very same issue. He had no name yet. He was a nameless clone of Peter Parker, the man behind Spider-Man, grown by a…
  • UltronUltron first showed up in Marvel Comics in The Avengers #54, dated July 1968, and nobody reading it could have known his name. He appeared only under a borrowed title, the Crimson Cowl, in a brief and unnamed cameo. Within a single issue…
  • Scarecrow (DC Comics)The DC Comics supervillain known as the Scarecrow has given himself a title: the Master of Fear. Behind the stitched burlap mask is Dr. Jonathan Crane, and he is not chasing money or power. His crimes are experiments. He releases a…
  • Doctor DoomDoctor Doom is a comic book villain who answers to no court outside his own country. He rules the fictional eastern European nation of Latveria, and his status as head of state has historically shielded him from prosecution for crimes…
  • Brainiac (character)Brainiac made his debut in Action Comics #242, cover-dated July 1958, as a bald, green-skinned scientist who shrank Metropolis and sealed it in a bottle. Writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino created him for DC Comics. Few readers that…
  • Mister FantasticMister Fantastic, the comic book hero whose real name is Dr. Reed Richards, owes his stretching power to a borrowed idea. Stan Lee, who created him with Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics, once explained the choice in an interview. His words…
  • Prowler (Marvel Comics)The Prowler is a Marvel Comics alias, and no single person owns it. Over the decades, several fictional characters have pulled on the same costume, a green and purple battle suit with a cape and clawed gauntlets. Some of them wore it to…

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