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When a writer leaves one comic company for another, that usually prevents them from continuing an ongoing storyline with a character from that universe.

Somebody forgot to tell Steve Englehart.

During his time at Marvel, Englehart created Mantis in the pages of The Avengers in 1973. When he came to DC in 1977, he secretly brought Mantis with him. Today, this would give corporate lawyers a headache, but in 1977, Englehart was able to do this without anyone but the readers noticing. In fact, he’s not even sure if his editor, Julius Schwartz, caught on.

“I was at the San Diego Comic Convention, and I had gone over to DC, and someone said, ‘Well, does that mean we’ll never see Mantis again?’ And I immediately thought, 'I’m going to make that happen.' So, I put her in the Justice League. She says, ‘I can’t tell you where I came from.’ Julie was cool. He had a reputation for being a very hands-on editor. A guy who would sort of control all books.”

Mantis made her DC Universe debut in Justice League of America #142. She called herself Willow, and was vague about what universe she came from.

“I really can’t tell you at this point exactly how much I told [Julius Schwartz] about what was going on there, but he went with it. There wasn’t a problem. For a while, I thought I’ll put her in every book I do. That lasted about five minutes before I thought that’s impossible. We were having fun and nobody was telling us, ‘You can’t do that.’”

Englehart continued Mantis’s storyline in the Eclipse Comic series Scorpio Rose, calling the character Lorelei. Image Comics later published a lost Lorelei story in the book Coyote Collection.

Hmmm, James Gunn has the opportunity to work with Mantis actress Pom Klementieff again and do something really wild at DC Studios.

Get ready for what's next with our guide to upcoming comics, how to buy comics at a comic shop, and our guide to Free Comic Book Day 2025.