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Upcoming comic features real-life Pennsylvania marriage proposal
Friday, February 15, 2002 By Charles Sheehan, The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH -- Biff! Pow! Crash! Will you marry me?
A story line in an upcoming DC Comics edition of Wonder Woman features the out-of-this-world exploits of a super hero and the real world marriage proposal of Todd McDevitt.
McDevitt, 33, who owns New Dimension Comics in Cranberry, Ellwood City and Butler, convinced DC Comics to work his proposal of marriage into upcoming Wonder Woman issue No. 179.
While a fight taking place during the proposal comes from the mind of DC Comics illustrator and writer Phil Jimenez, the proposal is real -- and has been accepted.
McDevitt presented an advance copy of Wonder Woman No. 179, due in newsstands next month, over the weekend to his girlfriend Maribeth Castelli and asked for her opinion.
When she saw page 20, Castelli shouted, "Oh my God!"
A likeness of McDevitt on one knee is asking Castelli to marry him.
But before she can answer ... "CRAASH ... UNNH!", Troia, Wonder Woman's younger sister, crashes through the wall, thrown by the dastardly Fury.
Before leaping back into battle with Fury, Troia tells Castelli it would be best to accept the proposal.
Of course, McDevitt was the author of much of the dialogue for the scene.
"It was a long shot and I thought it was probably something they were not in the position to do," he said. "But back in March I talked to (DC Comics President) Paul Levitz during a meeting with other retailers and gave him the idea."
Click here to see McDevitt's proposal as portrayed in the upcoming comic book.sidebar text
Levitz said likenesses of living people have been used by DC Comics before, but McDevitt's case is a rarity.
"We're a pretty small family, really," he said. "The cartoonists know the retailers from signings and also we really try to make our work feel realistic."
Artist and writer Phil Jimenez said he was excited to add an interlude of reality to the scene, which takes place on Wonder Woman's stronghold, Paradise Island.
"It works out to be such a sweet and funny moment," he said. "And this really worked into a twist that had occurred on Paradise Island before No. 179."
As it turns out, McDevitt would not have been allowed to step foot on the Paradise Island two issues prior. Only Amazon women were allowed in the stronghold until issue No. 177, when Wonder Woman decided letting men in would allow for a freer exchange of ideas.
"He just slipped in there," Jimenez said.
Castelli, an art teacher for the Rochester Area School District in Beaver County, said she was looking at the art first, and read the proposal after she saw her likeness.
"When I saw the pictures of us I just stopped reading," she said. "I thought it was a wonderful thing."
Castelli said she loved the proposal idea and she and Todd may take their wonder couple romance a step further.
"I'm keeping an open mind, but I'm leaning toward doing a super hero wedding," she said.
Castelli said she would be Wonder Woman to McDevitt's Superman.
A wedding is tentatively planned for spring of 2003.
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