8

In the DC-Marvel crossover comic Superman/Spider-Man #1 (2026), specifically in the "Jimmy con Carnage" story, Jimmy Olsen finds himself working at the Daily Bugle. In the panel where J. Jonah Jameson demands photos of Spider-Man, two other characters appear alongside Jimmy. One is Peter Parker, the other is a gray-haired man who appears to be sleeping in both panels in which he appears.

I am wondering whether the sleeping man is meant to be a reference to anything in Marvel Comics or DC Comics.

panel 1
panel 2

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    He's older and has an eye patch, which suggest Nick Fury. Commented yesterday
  • 1
    I also have to call out the line "set paws on the moon", a delightful hat-tip to Jonah's son being Man-Wolf. Commented yesterday

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
10

Judging by the eye patch he's wearing beneath his glasses, that has to be Phil Sheldon, or a variant of him.

He worked as photographer for the Daily Bugle for decades, covering the earliest public appearances of the original Human Torch (Jim Hammond) and Namor the Sub-Mariner in 1939, and later beating out fellow nominee, Peter Parker, for photographer of the year, before dying of lung cancer. He was also the protagonist of two Marvel miniseries — Marvels (1994) and Marvels: Eye of the Camera (2009–2010) — the former being the series in which he first appeared and the latter being the series in which he died.

Marvels Vol. 1 #4, page 39.

Marvels #4 (April, 1994)

Interestingly, the Golden Age Superman/Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Billy Batson appeared to make unofficial cameos in Marvels (in the part of the story that was set in 1939), and Phil seemed to make an unofficial cameo of his own in the DC miniseries, Kingdom Come (1996). So, in an informal sense, he already has a history of appearing in DC/Marvel crossovers. Both series were drawn and coloured by Alex Ross, known for his distinctive, painted art style.

Marvels Vol 1 #1, page 15.

Marvels #1 (January, 1994)

Kingdom Come Vol. 1 #2, page 12.

Kingdom Come #2 (June, 1996)

Given Phil's current status on Marvel Earth-616, the comedic nature of the story your images are from, and the fact that he appears to have been laying stiff as a board on that couch for an extended period (hence Jonah's change of shirt in the second panel), I don't think he's merely sleeping there...

Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    Note that although this character canonically worked at the Bugle for decades, he wasn't introduced until the 1994 Marvels miniseries, so his long history with the Bugle was established retroactively and he has relatively few appearances compared to more familiar Bugle staffers like Joe Robertson or Betty Brant. Also, his lifespan is increasingly problematic in continuity terms, since he was shown to be a young man in 1939 in-universe, yet was still alive after the original X-Men had rebranded themselves as X-Factor, in stories published during the 1980s but set no more than ten years ago. Commented yesterday
  • 2
    Clearly he's just a perfectly normal old man who is just really tired. That's it. There are normal people in comics, right? Commented yesterday

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.