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Was Mister Spock Based Visually on Namor the Sub-Mariner?

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Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and fifty-fifth installment where we examine comic book legends and whether they are true or false.

As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends.

NOTE: If my Twitter page hits 5,000 followers, I'll do a bonus edition of Comic Book Legends Revealed that week. Great deal, right? So go follow my Twitter page, Brian_Cronin!

COMIC LEGEND:

Mister Spock was visually based on Namor the Sub-Mariner

STATUS:

I'm Going With False

Nick Perks drew the awesome featured image for an old Line it is Drawn. Here is Nick's website.

My pal Matt Adler shared the following Comic Book Historians bit on Facebook a while back...

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I told him at the time that it seemed fishy to me (pun unintended), as I've never seen any article on the topic and few pieces of pop culture have been researched quite as heavily as Star Trek, so I am suspicious whenever I see a generic "somebody said it" reference like that one.

Would it be shocking that someone would base a character on Namor?

Of course not, but there didn't seem to be a whole lot of there there, as it were.

Well, my pal Jamie Coville contacted Star Trek historian John Tenuto, and I felt so silly when I saw Tenuto's response.

You see, I had done a TV Legends Revealed years ago about how Mister Spock originally had red skin and yeah, looking at it with that in mind, it sure seems unlikely that the original design for Spock being a red skinned guy was based on Namor.

Really, looking at the original design for the character, the only thing that is similar to Namor is the pointed ears, and really, that's not a good enough reason, especially since no one has found this alleged article where they admitted to it. I'm feeling good with this as a false.

Thanks to Matt and Comics Historians for the idea and thanks to Jamie and John Tenuto for the information!

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Check out some other Star Trek legends from Legends Revealed:

1. Did Captain Kirk Never Actually Say ‘Beam Me Up, Scotty’ On Star Trek?

2. Did Red Shirts Really Die at a Greater Percentage Than Other Shirts on Star Trek?

3. Did Star Trek Never Show Scotty’s Full Right Hand on the Show?

4. Which Member of the Original Star Trek Cast Invented the First Klingon Language?_______________________________________________________________________________

Check back soon for part 2 of this installment's legends!

And remember, if you have a legend that you're curious about, drop me a line at either brianc@cbr.com or cronb01@aol.com!

Source: www.cbr.com

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