1)It seems to me that I saw the Maggia mentioned a lot in Marvel comics 40 years ago, but I haven't seen them mentioned in a while. Of course, I don't read as many Marvels as I used to, so maybe they're just not in the books I read.
2)Is there any truth to the claim I saw that Marvel came up with the Maggia because they didn't want to offend the actual Mafia, who allegedly had "influence" over the comics distributors of the time?
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Regarding #2, I don't know if that's true or not, but the "G" in Maggia is one letter removed from the "F" in Mafia.
TRIVIA: Arthur C. Clarke chose the name of his super-computer HAL-9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey as being one letter removed from IBM.
Yeah, it's like when I realized that "Volstagg" was a garbling of "Falstaff".
Jeff of Earth-J said:
With comics being produced in New York City, I'm sure Stan and Jack were well aware of the Mafia, despite all efforts to convince people that they don't exist.
This piece from Brian Cronin at CBR ought to answer your questions: "You Wouldn't Want Marvel to Offend the Mafia, Now Would You?"
There's more in this one: "When Did Marvel First Say 'Mafia' Instead of 'Maggia'?" (The answer? It's more recently than you might expect.)
I love how in the Marvel universe, the Mafia-like organization is under the thumb of "Count Nefaria" who lives in a castle, and their offices have a skull insignia on the wall.
But are the "the Mafia?" It has always been my understanding that (historically) the "Mafia" is in Sicily. Its North American counterpart is properly Cosa Nostra, "our thing." Of course, the word has long since been Kleenexed, so that we speak of "the Russian Mafia," and so forth.
ClarkKent_DC said:
Thanks, CK!
ClarkKent_DC said: