Why did Marvel comics refer to the Mafia as the Maggia?

**Aaron Kashtan** · 12-17-2006, 10:40 AM

Does anyone know the answer to this?

Was it because the Mafia was secretly running the comics distribution business, and Marvel didn't want to offend them?

**Kaos** · 12-17-2006, 10:48 AM

Swear its just a mafia family like Corleone

**Aaron King** · 12-17-2006, 11:14 AM

I also thought it was a particular family or organization. Sort of "a mafia named Maggia." But gangsters did run the comic companies.

**Cei-U!** · 12-17-2006, 11:29 AM

If memory serves, at that time ('65 or so) the Italian-American Anti-Defamation League was claiming "the Mafia" was a government and media fabrication and was sueing folks who used it as a synonym for "organized crime." Don't hold me to that, though.

Cei-U!
I hedge my bets!

**Lone Ranger** · 12-17-2006, 11:50 AM

I've always wondered this, too - so the more information, the merrier.

**Scott Shaw!** · 12-17-2006, 11:57 AM

I was employed by B. Dalton, Bookseller in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and I can confirm that comic book, magazine and paperback book distribution was Mafia controlled. The Number One rule I was told by my boss, time and time again, was NEVER to irritate or annoy the local distributor...or "accidents" might happen to the store and its employees. (I've also been told by a VERY reliable source that the Kinney Corporation -- which briefly owned DC Comics -- was Mafia connected, to say the least.)

But "Maggia"? Hey, that was just a made-up name in Marvel funnybooks! Who could get offended by that?

Aloha,

Scott!

**Scott Shaw!** · 12-17-2006, 01:29 PM

Now, here's the BAD news...

The Mafia has just bought the Internet!

Man, we are all SO screwed...

Aloha,

Scott!

**dan bailey** · 12-17-2006, 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by Cei-U!

If memory serves, at that time ('65 or so) the Italian-American Anti-Defamation League was claiming "the Mafia" was a government and media fabrication

J Edgar "Mary" Hoover was himself part of the chorus insisting that there was no such thing as "organized crime."

It's enough to make you think they had pictures of him in compromising positions, or something ...

**Red Oak Kid** · 12-17-2006, 05:00 PM

When was the term Maggia used in a Marvel book? What title was it?

I don't recall this word, but if I saw it in a Marvel book I probably wouldn't have known what they were talking about.

**benday-dot** · 12-17-2006, 05:30 PM

Originally Posted by Red Oak Kid

When was the term Maggia used in a Marvel book? What title was it?

I don't recall this word, but if I saw it in a Marvel book I probably wouldn't have known what they were talking about.

Hey ROK... do you remember such Marvel luminaries as Hammerhead, Silvermane, and Man Mountain Marko? Those guys were all proud to call themselves members of the mafia, er maggia... Check out Wikipedia's entry, the similarities are striking... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggia_%28comics%29 . Until Sir Tim jogged my childhood memory, having not read these books for some time, I always just grouped the maggia in with such spidery, internatiional criminal organiztions as HYDRA or AIM.

There is a classic Romita era run where the maggia was given prominence, but I think they first appeared in Fantastic Four.

**MilkManX** · 12-17-2006, 05:53 PM

Interesting. I always thought that was just some generic Mafia Family that was a large part of the Marvel U NYC.

**Cei-U!** · 12-17-2006, 09:03 PM

The Maggia, headed by Count Nefaria, first appeared in The Avengers #13.

Cei-U!
I summon the Nosa Costra!

**swinebread** · 12-18-2006, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by MilkManX

Interesting. I always thought that was just some generic Mafia Family that was a large part of the Marvel U NYC.

Yeah, me too!

**Rob on the Job** · 12-18-2006, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by Red Oak Kid

When was the term Maggia used in a Marvel book? What title was it?

I don't recall this word, but if I saw it in a Marvel book I probably wouldn't have known what they were talking about.

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