FOR PART 1 OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF MARVEL’S SUPERHEROINE MANTIS CLICK HERE
GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS Number 2 (November 1974) A Blast From The Past
Call me crazy, but since this story includes that rarest of things: a superhero death that is final I would have gone with the title Death of an Avenger instead of a cliché like A Blast From The Past.
Anyway … THINGS GET “TIMEY-WIMEY” FROM THIS POINT ON AS THE CELESTIAL MADONNA SAGA CONTINUES!
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
Synopsis: Nighttime in New York. The former Avenger Hawkeye, who has also quit the Defenders since the last time we dealt with him, opens up this installment by capturing a gang of jewel thieves.
When he turns them over to the police those cops tell Hawkeye (who probably slept the day away after a night of partying) about the day’s big news: Kang the Conqueror is back and he kidnapped the Avengers that morning. Kang boasted of his plans to wage war against the entire planet while waiting for something called “the Celestial Madonna” to reveal herself.
Hawkeye rushes off to Avengers Mansion where – even from several blocks away – he can see the incredibly bright artificial satellite called the Madonna Star still blazing away. Anxious crowds still surround the area, drawn by fears that the star means the end of the world and by rumors of some kind of “Madonna.”
Inside the mansion Hawkeye finds the Swordsman, the butler Jarvis and Pharaoh Rama Tut – Kang’s other self. (Explanation below.) The three bring Hawkeye up to date on everything from our last installment, including the increasingly tense international situation after the slaughter of Egyptian troops at the hands of Kang’s creation. Continue reading
Professor Camille Paglia – another of us former Democrats (like President Trump himself) who have grown disgusted with how low that party has sunk – weighed in on the circus that the Democrats’ corporate media has reduced itself to. 
The Frontierado Holiday is about the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality. The Danites – the gunslinging Knights of the Mormon faith – are an underutilized and underappreciated element of Old West fiction. 
In Deseret itself there were conflicts with Mexican raiders after the end of America’s war with Mexico (1846-1848). Danites would also be called upon to battle various Native American tribes in Deseret, in the role of oppressors rather than oppressed much of the time. 
Ragnar the Dog is a nut for college football!
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) 1. MONTANA TECH OREDIGGERS ### 2. BAKER UNIVERSITY WILDCATS 3. UNIVERSITY OF SAINT FRANCIS (IN) COUGARS (Defending National Champions) ### 4. REINHARDT UNIVERSITY EAGLES (Should be the Rottweilers) ### 5. EASTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY MOUNTAINEERS ### 
6. ARIZONA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY FIRESTORM ### 7. LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS ### 8. MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS ### 9. MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS ### 10. DOANE COLLEGE TIGERS ### 
Even the cops who weren’t on the take practiced omerta and refused to talk about the way all the others WERE on the take. 
Our de facto Third Party President Donald Trump is a political Serpico – hated by the crooked because he’s not part of their bought and paid for club. 
ADA CURNUTT
AVENGERS Volume 1, Number 129 (November 1974) Bid Tomorrow Goodbye
Balladeer’s Blog presents another edition of “Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead.” This time around it’s to Wang Chung, for their memorable soundtrack for the INCREDIBLY underappreciated movie To Live and Die in L.A. 
Here at Balladeer’s Blog I am STILL fascinated with so much of the political realignment going on in this country. The latest word is that some of the DemoKKKrats have at last realized that their ridiculous slogan “Resistance” just isn’t working out like they’d hoped. 
DEMOCRATS: BEFORE REPUBLICAN JOSEPH MCCARTHY THERE WAS DEMOCRAT MARTIN DIES! 
Balladeer's Blog 