Spider-Man Creator Steve Ditko Once Turned The Undertaker Into A Cannibal

WWF Battlemania was weird...

Undertaker Man Flesh
WWE.com

On June 29th, 2018, Marvel legend Steve Ditko - who co-created Spider-Man and Doctor Strange with Stan Lee (and made Marvel and Disney a sh*t-load of money) - passed away at the age of 90, leaving behind a legacy of incredible artwork. He might have been notoriously resistant to interviews, but the time immediately following his death was filled with fellow comic legends talking about his influence and relating stories.

And while he's remembered as one of the most important figures in Marvel's formative history, one of the most interesting stories from his career - at least for wrestling fans - came in the period just after he mysteriously left Marvel. Down on his luck, he ended up taking work with Valiant Comics, who had the publishing rights to the WWF at the time.

There he teamed up with fellow comics legend and Marvel allumnus Jim Shooter, who related the story of them working together on his website:

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"I’d never before seen Steve looking…I don’t know. Worn down? Worried? Troubled? Hard to say, Steve doesn’t exactly show his feelings much, and was not the type to express despair or even its lesser cousins. But he didn’t look happy. He didn’t look well. And he needed work.I didn’t have the power to make something to suit him, and believe me, Steve is the kind who would starve rather than violate his principles, but luckily, I had WWF scripts waiting to be drawn! The WWF “faces” (short for babyfaces, good guys) were good enough and the “heels,” or bad guys, were evil enough to pass muster with Steve. I think that was the one time I was happy that we had the WWF."

The product of that relationsship was WWF Battlemania, which ran for 5 issues in the early 1990s, and included some quite incredibly weird stories. But because of the presence of Shooter and Ditko, they were more than just throw-away excuses for Vince McMahon to peddle 17 pages of adverts. Well, maybe they were that too.

Ditko's principles were based on him following Ayn Rand's Objectivism, which boiled down to him believing that people were either inherently good or inherently bad. So you can see why the binary dynamic of heels and faces would appeal to him.

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The most intriguing of the issues was number four, which included two stories focused on The Undertaker. At the time of their publication, 'Taker was still new at the time and hadn't yet beaten Hulk Hogan to kick off his meteoric rise to the top of the game. At this stage, he was feuding with Ultimate Warrior, and there wasn't much to set him apart from all of the other monsters aside from a good gimmick. His longevity was far from assured.

But for Ditko, Undertaker's supernatural gimmick was perfect for a villainous role in what amounts to a Scooby Doo story, with Big Boss Man - who had absolutely no rivalry with 'Taker at the time - playing the good guy.

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This strange story - titled "Pain Or Peace" for no fathomable reason - begins with Big Boss Man monitoring Undertaker's opulent mansion (while ordering FOUR pizzas to himself) because he's suspiciuous of 'Taker and Paul Bearer.

When local welcomer Mrs. Goodheart visits the mansion, Boss Man is certain she's going to end up in danger, and the creative duo have a lot of fun with the Scooby Doo set-up that takes full advantage of Paul Bearer's creepiness...

Undertaker Comic Ditko
Valiant Comics

Most weirdly of all, there are repeated gags about cannibalism, as Bearer basically suggests that his master likes to chow down on man flesh...

Undertaker Comic 2
Valiant Comics

Goodheart tries to leave and ends up stumbling on a meat locker, where some of the meat looks suspiciously like it belonged to a human. This prompts Big Boss Man to make his move and break in to confront 'Taker.

It's an odd little diversion in the history of the Undertaker's gimmick and while the story ties up with Big Boss Man disgracing himself by attacking 'Taker and ruining a man named Charles' funeral (who apparently would have been delighted, as a fan of WWF), there's a sting in the tail.

After Bearer and 'Taker are somehow cleared of any suspicion by Mrs Goodheart, Boss Man storms off in a huff and Goodheart talks to the pair about the suspicious-looking hunk of meat. Bearer reveals the pair also cater funerals and specialise in ribs and then invites her to stay for dinner. The punchline - and the clincher for the cannibalism thread - is that they're planning on having "ground chuck." Remember, the funeral Boss Man interrupted was for a man called Charles. Very clever.

So while he's being saluted by Marvel and DC fans the world over, wrestling fans owe a little nod to Steve Ditko for the time he took The Undertaker even further than WWE ever have. It might not have been the best story ever dedicated to him, but we can all be thankful it exists.

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