A Beloved Western Actor Helped Inspire Two Wildly Different Marvel And DC Characters

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Jack Palance is a true Hollywood legend who made his name in film noir and Westerns, charting a career that spanned almost six decades. As if that wasn't impressive enough, the star, who passed away in 2006, also happened to be part of the inspiration behind two major comic book characters: Darkseid from DC and Morbius from Marvel.

In the winter of 1988, shooting on Tim Burton's "Batman" was underway, with the film's crew working nights for three months straight. But three months of night shoots wasn't the only challenge Burton had to overcome while making the movie. At one point, the Hollywood legend that is Palance yelled at the young Burton during the filming of a scene involving his crime boss Carl Grissom. "I've made over a hundred films, how many have you made?" asked the actor, at least according to Burton, who must have been intimidated in a way most of us will never experience.

At this moment, Burton was being dressed down by a future Oscar winner — Palance won his Oscar for his role in the Western comedy "City Slickers" two years after "Batman," making him one of several Oscar-winning actors with the shortest amount of screen time. This was a man who had risen to fame in the 1950s with roles in noir films like 1952's "Sudden Fear" and the 1953 Western "Shane" and was a true titan of the industry. But what Burton likely didn't realize at the time was that Palance — this legend playing a Gotham City kingpin — was also the inspiration for two entirely different characters from comic book history.

After playing unscrupulous hired gunfighter Jack Wilson in "Shane," Jack Palance proceeded to work on numerous oaters. He starred opposite Anthony Perkins in 1957's "The Lonely Man" and later appeared alongside Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster in 1966's "The Professionals." He followed that with "The McMasters" before fronting "Chato's Land," "God's Gun," and, of course, the film that won him his Oscar, "City Slickers," all of which cemented Palance's standing as one of the great Western stars.

During that time, he even managed to influence some major comic book creatives. In a 2006 blog, writer Mark Evanier — who authored Jack Kirby's biography, "Kirby: King of Comics" — noted that the legendary comic book artist actually based aspects of the character Darkseid on Palance.

Darkseid made his DC Comics debut in "Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen" #134, which was published in 1970, the same year that Palance starred in "The McMasters." The ruler of the fictional planet Apokolips and one of DC's most evil villains (who could have easily been a Marvel comics character instead), Darkseid was one of Kirby's "New Gods." He represented the very embodiment of tyranny and oppression and sought the Anti-Life Equation, which would ultimately allow him to enslave every being in the universe. Not exactly the kind of thing you'd hope to inspire, then. But according to Evanier, Kirby used Palance as "a model" for his ruthless New God. 

According to the author, Kirby had been "impressed by one or more Palance screen appearances" and used that as the basis for many of Darkseid's poses, gestures, and even his voice. As Evanier put it, "When J.K. wrote dialogue for his comic book evildoer, he was 'hearing' Palance in some film."

It's not all that surprising that Jack Palance would provide such visual inspiration to comic book artists. His unique, angular visage stood out among Hollywood stars of the day, and the man had an undeniable screen presence that remained with him throughout his career. Still, he might not have been all that pleased to hear that his performances had inspired one of the most intimidating and downright evil characters ever to appear in the DC canon. Unfortunately, the other character he inspired isn't much more flattering.

Prior to "Morbius," the superhero movie that downright sucked, the vampire villain wasn't quite the laughing stock he's become since Jared Leto's regrettable portrayal. The character first appeared in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #101 in October 1971, and while writer Roy Thomas actually created Morbius, he was designed by penciler Gil Kane. While speaking to interviewer Steve Ringenberg (via Comic-Art), Kane once confirmed that he based Morbius' look on Palance. According to Thomas, however, Morbius was based on the 1957 black-and-white film "The Vampire," so it seems these two inspirations mixed to create the Marvel character.

Interestingly enough, Palance was also the basis for Dracula in Marvel Comics' "The Tomb of Dracula" series, published between 1972-1979. There, penciller Gene Colan used the actor as the basis for his version of the vampire, and soon after "The Tomb of Dracula" debuted, Palance actually played the Count in the 1974 British TV film "Bram Stoker's Dracula." For whatever reason, then, Palance seemed to have captured the imagination of comic book creators of the early-70s.