MARVEL ISSUES: JANUARY 1973

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at the Marvel publications from January of 1973, excluding reprints.

DAREDEVIL AND THE BLACK WIDOW Vol 1 #95 (January 1973)

Title: Bullfight on the Bay

Villain: The Man-Bull

Synopsis: Matt Murdock has relocated his law practice to San Francisco in order to move in with his new lady, the wealthy Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow. Matt’s alter ego Daredevil has also made San Francisco his new home, but because this is just a comic book nobody makes the connection that Matt is Daredevil … even though DD has become the Black Widow’s crimefighting partner.

Back in New York, Daredevil’s old foe the Man-Bull has his gang break him out of prison so he can go to San Francisco and kill Daredevil. The unsuspecting Matt Murdock is settling in at Broderick & Sloan, his new law firm.

When the Man-Bull begins rampaging through Frisco in order to flush out our hero, the Black Widow and Daredevil swing into action against him. Eventually the villain renders Daredevil unconscious, leaving the Black Widow alone against him for the cliffhanger ending.

NOTE: Naturally, the Black Widow survives and the Man-Bull is defeated.

CAPTAIN MARVEL Vol 1 #24 (January 1973)

Title: Death in High Places

Villains: Dr. Mynde and Madame Synn

Synopsis: Dr. Leonard Mynde (pronounced like “mind”), a disgruntled scientist who has designed a vast arsenal of super-weapons for the Pentagon, is let go when he wants to keep the patents on his inventions, in violation of his contract.

Dr. Mynde outfits his body with cyborg weaponry and invades the Pentagon to steal back all of his weapons as part of a plan to launch a takeover of the United States. Captain Marvel (Kree Captain Mar-Vell) battles the villain during his raid of the Pentagon.

When an energy blast from one of Mynde’s wrist-blasters accidentally kills his partner in crime, the beautiful mercenary Madame Synn, the villain kills himself in his grief. And believe it or not, he and Madame Synn have stayed dead to this very day.

IRON MAN Vol 1 #54 (January 1973) 

Title: Sub-Mariner: Target for Death

Villain: Moon Dragon (Her first appearance) 

NOTE: This issue was co-written and co-illustrated by Bill Everett, who created the Sub-Mariner back in 1939 (BEFORE Aqua-Man), when Marvel Comics was known as Timely Comics. 

Synopsis: Tony Stark is on a business trip in Seattle, restructuring much of the Stark International corporate activities there to fit into his company’s new direction of no weapons manufacturing. 

Elsewhere, deep below the waters of the Pacific Ocean, a vessel constructed through the superior technology of the Eternals of Saturn’s moon of Titan travels like a submarine for the moment. This vessel launches a futuristic satellite into orbit, a satellite with cloaking tech and other capabilities.

On board that subaquatic vessel is Moon Dragon (Heather Douglas), currently using the idiotic nom de guerre “Madame MacEvil.” (LMAO) Besides the stupid name, Marvel’s writers had clearly not yet fully decided on her backstory or on what role she would play in the Thanos War being set up in this issue.

NOTE: I will ignore this future Avenger’s soon-to-be-retconned personality in this story and provide you readers with her actual background: Moon Dragon was Heather Douglas, an Earthling whose parents were killed by one of Thanos’ scout ships when she was a child.

           Mentor, the Eternal of Titan who was the father of Thanos, intercepted the dying soul of Heather’s father Arthur with the help of his own father Kronos and transformed it into Drax the Destroyer. He created Drax to one day kill his evil son Thanos if necessary.

           Meanwhile, Mentor and his fellow Eternals who live inside of Saturn’s moon of Titan, raised Heather Douglas, using their technology to bring out incredible psychic powers in her. They also taught her the kind of “super-martial arts” that Mantis was taught by the Kree-born Priests of Pama.

Back to our story, Moon Dragon interacts with her craft’s talking computer, making it clear to us readers that she wants to experiment on Earth beings, in this particular case, the Sub-Mariner (Prince Namor of Atlantis). She is doing this as part of her plans to find and/or create super-powered beings able to fight against Thanos in his current war with her and her fellow Eternals of Titan. 

Moon Dragon’s technology will let her override Iron Man’s armor at will, and her experiment today will involve using him to help her capture Sub-Mariner to use as a subject. To that end she now has her submarine fire a device at an iceberg near Antarctica.

The device causes the iceberg to explode and overwhelm a freighter passing by Sub-Mariner’s location. Namor uses his massive strength to save the crew and return their ship to its upright position. Next he begins following the orange trail in the ocean that Moon Dragon’s missile device left behind, thus luring him into the villainess’ trap.

With Sub-Mariner approaching her at high speed, Moon Dragon uses her tech to take control of Iron Man’s armor as he flies along above Seattle at the moment. She manipulates the armored hero like a puppet, making him attack and battle Namor. In the meantime, she has her submarine rise to the surface. 

The destructive fight between Iron Man and Sub-Mariner in the waters off Seattle goes on for quite a while. Eventually, Tony Stark figures out that his armor is being controlled by a transmission from Moon Dragon’s craft.

Fighting against Moon Dragon’s control, Iron Man manages to hold back until Sub-Mariner happens to be in between him and Moon Dragon’s vessel. He then purposefully fires his repulsor rays slowly enough to let Namor dodge them, but have them hit the vessel from Titan.

This damages Moon Dragon’s vessel enough to free Iron Man from her control. He immediately cuts off fighting Namor and flies back to land. For his part, Sub-Mariner’s distrust of people from the surface world has been reenforced, but he heads for home rather than pursue Iron Man into the streets of Seattle.

Moon Dragon has her vessel submerge again, vowing revenge on Iron Man in the future.

NOTE: Moon Dragon will soon appear in the pages of Daredevil & the Black Widow, where the super-soldiers she tries to create to fight Thanos’ agents will instead become supervillains opposed by DD and the Widow.

MARVEL FEATURE Vol 1 #7 (January 1973)

Title: Paranoia is the Para-Man

Villain: Para-Man

Synopsis: Fleeing the destruction of Dr. Hank Pym’s lab last issue during their battle with their old foe Whirlwind, Ant-Man and his wife the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) are captured by a mad scientist named Norman Boswell and his out-of-control A.I. robot Para-Man.

Ant-Man and the Wasp overcome their captors and destroy Para-Man. For the cliffhanger ending, a serum that the Wasp tested the previous issue transforms her into a wasp-humanoid hybrid.

NOTE: Naturally, Hank was able to devise a cure that turned Janet back to normal.

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #116 (January 1973)

Title: Suddenly, the Smasher

Villain: The Smasher

Synopsis: Amid New York City’s mayoral campaign, a supervillain called the Smasher begins destroying billboards for one of the candidates – Richard Raleigh, who has been promising to clamp down on crimes committed by superpowered figures if he is elected.

One morning, Spider-Man clashes with the Smasher when he is vandalizing another Raleigh billboard and nearly killing the workmen erecting that billboard. After Peter Parker takes photos to J. Jonah Jameson to sell, he then meets up with Gwen Stacy on a date.

Gwen consoles Peter over his Aunt May’s addled decision to stay on as Dr. Octopus’ mansion maid while he serves his prison term following his gang war with Hammerhead. That night, Peter and Gwen join Harry Osborn and Mary Jane Watson at a campaign rally for Richard Raleigh.

The Smasher attacks the event and damages the venue so much that the roof is about to collapse on all the attendees. NOTE: Needless to say, Spider-Man saves everyone and beats the Smasher in the following issues.

THE CAT Vol 1 #2 (January 1973) 

Title: The Owl and the Pussycat

Villain: The Owl

Synopsis: In this story the Cat found herself in battle with Daredevil’s frequent foe the Owl. Our heroine taught the Owl to stay out of her territory of Chicago by thwarting his plans for criminal supremacy of the Windy City and for extending his power over the rest of the country.   

The Chicago setting added a nice novelty to the tale just like it did in the previous issue. The quick tie-in to the rest of the Marvel Universe via this battle with a Daredevil foe was nice, but I would have preferred that she would be compiling her own individual Rogues Gallery of foes.

References to the Avengers or other Marvel Comics figures could have worked just as well.

CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON Vol 1 #157 (January 1973) 

Title: Veni, Vidi, Vici … Viper

Villain: The Viper

Synopsis: The Police Commissioner, who is aware that uniformed cop Steve Rogers is really Captain America, relayed a message to Steve to meet him in costume at the 13th Police Precinct building in Hell’s Kitchen as part of their covert probe of police corruption. 

On his way there, our hero gets ambushed by a trio of armed punks who say that someone called the Cowled Commander ordered them to prevent Cap from reaching his destination. Naturally Cap defeats all three of them.

In a private room at the 13th Precinct the Commissioner informs Captain America that the Cowled Commander is leading a secret group of criminals and crooked cops in an unknown plan. The Commish wants Cap to find out which cops really have gone bad and to clear innocent ones, like Steve Rogers’ antagonistic Sgt Brian Muldoon, who has been suspended pending investigation.

No sooner have the two men worked out their plans than the Commissioner leaves and a bomb explodes, leaving the precinct building a fiery ruin with no sign of Cap. Cut to the office of social worker Sam Wilson, who is secretly the Falcon. Sam and Leila Taylor are having another of their duels of insults, as Leila tries to get a rise out of Sam by implying she finds the Falcon more attractive because he’s a fighter, unlike Sam.

Wilson is annoyed, but is relieved that Leila is oblivious about his dual identity. After Sam and Leila part company, Sam slips into an alleyway and becomes the Falcon. He uses his falconing glove swing-line to swing on over to the plush pad of Morgan, Marvel Comics’ crime lord of Harlem.

On Morgan’s rooftop garden-lounge the Falcon drops in on the crime boss, one of his ladies and some of his gunmen. During their hostile exchange of dialogue Morgan again tries to convince Falcon to join his payroll and again the hero refuses. A phone call informs Morgan that Captain America is apparently among the dead in an explosion at the 13th Precinct. The alarmed Falcon swings over to that building.

At the 13th Precinct the Falcon and Sharon Carter join the police in sifting through the wreckage looking for signs of Cap. After a time, Falcon decides that, since there is no sign of Cap’s shield and since no explosion could have destroyed it, Cap must be playing dead while he tracks down the people behind the bomb.

Swinging around the city looking for clues, Falcon and his bird Redwing are attacked on a rooftop by a supervillain who identifies himself as the Viper. He is as agile as Falcon, wears viper “fangs” on the backs of his hands like Wolverine’s claws and also uses a blowgun with darts that are as poisonous as his “fangs.”

While the pair fight, the Viper mentions that he has been recruited by the Cowled Commander, who wants Captain America and the Falcon dead. The Viper also rants about how, in his secret identity, he is a master of the advertising business but longed for the supervillain life.

Eventually, the villain manages to hit Falcon by throwing one of his poisoned darts at him. As Falc falls to the rooftop in pain, Viper does a Villain Rant about how he spent years specially developing his viper venom that will kill Falcon in minutes.

Suddenly, Captain America arrives, shocking the Viper, who thought he was killed by the bomb he set off. The pair fight it out, with Cap insisting that Viper MUST carry the antidote to his venom with him just in case he accidentally got injected with it himself during a battle.

Our hero gets the upper hand on Viper, who immediately offers a deal. He’ll provide the antidote for Cap to save Falcon if he lets him go. Cap agrees and the Viper tosses the vial of antidote along the rooftop, forcing Cap to lunge for it. The villain uses his blowgun to shoot a poisoned dart into Cap’s back for the cliffhanger ending.

NOTE: Both Cap and Falc survived, and in fact the poison from the Viper’s dart mingled with the super-soldier serum in Captain America’s body. This granted him Spider-Man level strength from 1973 to 1978.

RED WOLF Vol 1 #5 (January 1973)

Title: The Man Who Gunned Down Red Wolf

Villains: Alvah Bradley and Fast John Silver

Synopsis: In the days of the old west, the Native American superhero Red Wolf and his lupine pet Lobo clash with Fast John Silver, a deadly gunslinger hired by crooked tycoon Alvah Bradley to kill the hero. Red Wolf survives the encounter and gets drawn into Bradley’s larger plan to seize Cheyenne land by provoking them into a war.

Red Wolf goes on to thwart Alvah Bradley and his hired guns, prevents a war between the Cheyenne and the U.S. Army, and turns Bradley and Fast John over to Cavalry Colonel Sabre to face justice. 

TOMB OF DRACULA Vol 1 #6 (January 1973)

Title: The Moorlands Monster

Villain: The Moorlands Monster

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, Dracula and his latest vampire lover Lenore emerge through the Demon Mirror, thus returning to the modern day from the 19th Century. They elude their pursuers who have followed them through the mirror.

Those pursuers: Rachel Van Helsing, the young blonde descendant of THE Van Helsing family from the novel Dracula; Frank Drake, an American descendant of Dracula himself, his family having Americanized Dracula to Drake; and Taj Nital, a muscular vampire hunter from India.

NOTE: I have often stated over the years that Marvel foolishly let their female vampire slayer Rachel Van Helsing go unused in other media, only to watch potentially millions of dollars fly away when Buffy the Vampire Slayer took off in the 1990s.

Dracula and Lenore, as well as the trio of vampire hunters chasing them, each have encounters in the moors with the shaggy mutant monster that lurks there. In a deserted chapel, Rachel kills Lenore but Dracula escapes.

The Moorlands Monster winds up being a misunderstood member of a local family who lives in hiding. He saves Rachel, Taj and Frank from suffocating in the tomb where the fleeing Dracula trapped them.

HULK Vol 1 #159 (January 1973)

Title: Two Years Before the Abomination

Villains: The Abomination

Synopsis: When the Hulk’s old foe the Abomination – another gamma-spawned monster – emerges from his long coma, General “Thunderbolt” Ross strikes a deal with him. In exchange for legal clemency, the Abomination must capture the Hulk for him.

The next time the Hulk is sighted, Abomination is unleashed against him. After the destructive battle goes on and on, the Abomination taunts the Hulk about Betty Ross having married Major Glenn Talbot recently. The enraged Hulk knocks out his foe and leaps off to search for Betty and Glenn.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #107 (January 1973)

Title: The Master Plan of the Space Phantom

Avengers Roster: Iron Man (Tony Stark), the Scarlet Witch (Wanda), Black Panther (King T’Challa), Hawkeye (Clint Barton), Captain America (Steve Rogers) and the Vision (not applicable)

Villains: The Space Phantom, the Grim Reaper and Hydra

Synopsis: Captain America tries to find the Space Phantom’s new hideout by searching for clues in his previous lair, when he was serving as the latest head of the villainous army Hydra. Meanwhile, picking up from last issue, the Space Phantom and his new ally the Grim Reaper, are addressing their captives – Hawkeye, Iron Man, the Scarlet Witch and the Black Panther. 

NOTE: The Space Phantom previously fought the Avengers when he tried conquering the Earth for his alien race from the planet Phantos. The Grim Reaper is scientist Eric Williams, brother of the late Simon Williams aka Wonder Man. The Grim Reaper blames the Avengers for Simon’s death and has tried to kill them multiple times by this point.

Elsewhere in New York City, the Vision continues walking the streets, contemplating the Grim Reaper’s offer to him. The late Wonder Man’s mental patterns were used for the Vision’s artificial intelligence just as Hank Pym’s mental patterns were used for Ultron’s artificial intelligence.

The Grim Reaper had convinced himself that the Vision hosted his late brother’s actual MIND, not just his brain patterns, and had offered to transfer Vision’s mind into a human body. This offer appealed to the Vision because he felt that – as an android – he wasn’t worthy of the love that he and the Scarlet Witch had begun to share.

As the Space Phantom and the Reaper prepare to take over the world via Space Phantom’s alien technology and the armies of Hydra, the Vision shows up to take the Grim Reaper up on his offer of a human body.

Pleased, Eric Williams tells the Vision that he can no longer bear the thought of implanting the android Avenger’s mind into the preserved dead body of his brother Simon. He tells the Vision that if he helps capture the at-large Captain America, he will transfer his mind into Cap’s body.

For the cliffhanger ending, the Vision says yes. NOTE: He only says yes because it’s a deception worked out by him and Captain America – who followed a tunnel from the Space Phantom’s previous lair to this new hideout.

CREATURES ON THE LOOSE Vol 1 #21 (January 1973)

Title: Two Worlds to Win

Villains: Ar-Hap and Jen-In

NOTE: This was the 6th and final part of the Marvel Comics adaptation of the 1905 novel which introduced Gullivar Jones. That novel, which pre-dated the John Carter of Mars books, saw an American Navy Lieutenant transported to Mars for sword and science adventures involving a beautiful princess. Balladeer’s Blog covered the minor controversy over Gullivar Jones vs John Carter HERE.

        Marvel changed Gullivar Jones into a Vietnam War veteran instead of a Civil War vet among other alterations.

Synopsis: Gullivar Jones and his winged ally Chak leave the unconscious enemy King Ar-Hap in his bedroom as they pursue Jen-In, who fled with Princess Heru his captive. Gullivar and Chak catch up with Jen-In and rescue Heru from his clutches.

Before they can travel much further, Ar-Hap and his army come upon them and Gullivar, Chak and Princess Heru engage in all-out battle with them. All seems lost when suddenly, Chak’s fellow Winged People arrive on the scene and help defeat Ar-Hap and his troops.

Gullivar Jones and Heru embrace and are glad their struggles are over. Years later Marvel launched their adaptations of the John Carter of Mars novels, but no more Gullivar Jones tales were done.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #130 (January 1973)

Title: Battleground: The Baxter Building

Villains: The Frightful Four (The Wizard, Sandman, Thundra and the Trapster)

Synopsis: In the Himalayan Great Refuge called Attilan, Crystal breaks it to Johnny that she is dumping him for Quicksilver, who recently left the Avengers after she and her huge dog Lockjaw rescued him from the latest versions of the mutant-hunting Sentinels.

Back at the Baxter Building, the Frightful Four use the high-tech ray key in the belt of the unconscious Thing to gain entry to Fantastic Four headquarters. They launch a surprise attack on Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman, who has returned with little Franklin.

Mr. Fantastic is defeated, and Invisible Woman surrenders when the Wizard seizes and threatens to kill her son Franklin, further outraging Thundra. Reed, Sue, the Thing and Medusa are bound by the Trapster while the Wizard plunders Mr. Fantastic’s lab for its incredibly valuable tech.

Little Franklin’s emerging mutant powers manifest themselves again as he uses his mind powers to force the Thing back into consciousness. The Thing breaks free of the Trapster’s restraints and frees Medusa, Reed, and Invisible Woman.

As our heroes clash with the Frightful Four, the battle eventually goes against the villains. Thundra leads her teammates to escape by way of the Wizard’s anti-gravity aircraft. 

In the aftermath, Reed and Sue argue again about Sue being expected to simply take care of Franklin whenever Agatha Harkness is not available. The argument reaches boiling point, with Sue saying she is leaving Reed and taking Franklin with her.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol 1 #22 (January 1973)

Title: The Shadow of the Vulture

Villains: The Turanian Army

Synopsis: As my fellow Robert E. Howard geeks know, The Shadow of the Vulture was the one and only story that author wrote featuring his fiery redheaded warrior Red Sonya (NOT Sonja). Even worse for purists, rather than keep Red Sonya of Rogatino in her own time period – the 1500s – Marvel Comics made her a Hyborian Age woman warrior who had more in common with C.L. Moore’s Jirel of Joiry than with the real Red Sonya.

As you would expect, the Turanian army stands in for the Muslim armies besieging Vienna in the actual Robert E. Howard story and Conan stands in for Gottfried Von Kalmbach. An uneasy, flirty alliance is struck between the she-warrior and Conan against their common enemies. 

HERO FOR HIRE Vol 1 #5 (January 1973)

Title: Don’t Mess with Black Mariah!

Villainess: Black Mariah 

Synopsis: When an accountant named Frank Jenks is found murdered in the Gem Theater, Cage informs the man’s widow about his death. When an illegitimate ambulance drives off with Jenks’ corpse, his widow wants Luke to recover his body for burial.

After we meet Luke’s informant Flea, making his first ever appearance, our hero gets to the bottom of things. A hefty villainess called Black Mariah (Mariah Dillard) runs a ring of illegit ambulances. They pick up a body here and there, take the corpse’s home address and keys, then steal all the valuables in the home of the deceased. (It’s a comic book, just go with it.)

Cage defeats all the men in Black Mariah’s gang and even captures Mariah herself.

NOTE: This villainess returned years later running her own drug ring. Black Mariah, in slimmed-down form, appeared on the Luke Cage streaming series.

MARVEL PREMIERE Vol 1 #6 (January 1973)

Title: The Shambler from the Sea

Villains: N’Gabthoth and Sligguth

Synopsis: This story was yet another Marvel Comics adaptation of characters and situations from the Cthulhu Mythos, but this time some of Robert E. Howard’s contributions to that mythos rather than H.P. Lovecraft’s original version.

The ancient entities called the Old Ones are trying to rise from the sea in order to rule the Earth as they did in the ancient past. Dr. Strange, Clea and Wong battle on various fronts to prevent the nightmarish return of those monstrous figures.

This issue ends with Strange defeating Sligguth and then N’Gabthoth, then planning to retrieve a map from England to help continue the struggle against the Old Ones.

NOTE: Marvel had a virtual fixation on Lovecraftian story elements. In addition to this Dr. Strange multi-part adventure, the Defenders clashed with the Undying Ones, pastiches of the Old Ones; and the X-Men battled the N’Garai, additional Old Ones pastiches.

        The Avengers foe Psyklop served Dark Gods who were so obviously homages to Lovecraft’s Old Ones that their first appearance came in The Summons of Psyklop, an echo of The Call of Cthulhu. You can add Ulysses Bloodstone’s VERY Cthulhu-like archenemy Ullux’yl. 

SUB-MARINER Vol 1 #57 (January 1973)

Title: In the Lap of the Gods

Villain: Ares the God of War

NOTE: This Sub-Mariner story is written and illustrated by Bill Everett, who created the Sub-Mariner back in 1939, two years before Aqua-Man came along over at DC Comics.

Synopsis: Prince Namor’s (Sub-Mariner’s) female cousin Namorita is, at this time, being raised on land by Sub-Mariner’s World War Two era girlfriend Betty Dean, now the widowed Betty Dean Prentiss. Namorita (at lower right) uses the name Nita Prentiss and passes herself off to her fellow college students as Betty’s niece.   

NOTE: Once again we see that the 1970s were still close enough to the World War Two years for a Marvel Comics/ Timely Comics character from back then – in this case Betty Dean Prentiss – to still be alive, albeit decades older. As time wore on, Marvel was forced to do many, many retcons for such characters.

        Sub-Mariner, as the mutant offspring of a human male and an Atlantean female, was possessed of an incredibly long lifespan, accounting for why he is still in his prime. Captain America had spent decades in suspended animation to explain why he was still in fighting trim.

Back to the story, Nita (Namorita) is very close to her professor Victoria “Vicki” Starr, who works for world peace. Vicki has disappeared recently following an accident that sent her car into the Atlantic Ocean.

Nita calls Namor to her and Betty Dean Prentiss’ home and pleads with him to see if he can find the missing Professor Starr. Sub-Mariner reflects to himself that she may be drowned by this point, but politely agrees to look for his young cousin’s beloved teacher.

To his surprise, Namor finds the missing woman clinging to a rock out at sea, and realizes she is really Venus (aka Aphrodite of course), the goddess of love, who sometimes fought at his side in the 1950s, when Marvel Comics was known as Atlas Comics. (Sheesh!)

NOTE: Venus’ adventures in the 1950s ranged from sci-fi to mystical to horror, and she periodically teamed up with Sub-Mariner as well as his adult cousin Namora (NOT Namorita. Sheesh again!) and the superheroine called Sun Girl.

        In those long ago stories, Venus used her Vicki Starr identity to pretend to be the editor of a fashion and beauty magazine. Now, per Namorita’s remarks, she teaches and works for world peace.

Ares attacks the rock outcropping, fighting both Namor and Venus because he demands that his wife Venus return to him and stop working for peace in the world of mortals.

Ares, who in Avengers #100 tried to conquer both Earth AND Thor’s realm of Asgard, does a Villain Rant about his new plan. He has been provoking a war between two mighty fictional nations (but which might as well have been the U.S. and Soviet Union given Marvel’s frequent Cold War themes).

Venus has been trying to bring peace to the two belligerent countries, infuriating Ares. After a lengthy battle between Ares and Sub-Mariner, Venus manages to use her powers as the love goddess to once again make Ares so lovesick that he submits to her demand that he stop the war raging between the two powerful nations.

Venus then frees Ares from the frenzied affection she instilled in him, and he flees the Earth completely. Sub-Mariner and Venus fly to Betty Prentiss’ house to share Vicki Starr’s secret identity with Namorita.

CHAMBER OF CHILLS Vol 1 #2 (January 1973)

Title: Spell of the Dragon

Villain: Valena the Witch

NOTE: This was the very first appearance by Marvel’s creation Brak the Barbarian. Brak was clearly intended to ride the coattails of Conan’s success, just like Marvel’s adaptations of Robert E. Howard’s Kull stories.

        Brak was a sword-wielding barbarian mercenary on an Earthlike planet, the science and culture of which were roughly equivalent to Earth around the 1st Century B.C. Sorcery was real and monstrous creatures abounded on this world.

Synopsis: Brak the Barbarian is hired by the father of the beautiful Jonel to kill a dragon which has been terrorizing their village. A hideous old witch named Valena pretends to ally herself with Brak.

In truth, it turns out she is manipulating the mercenary in her plot to kill Jonel, fueled by envy over her beauty. Brak kills the dragon AND Valena, putting an end to her evil. 

NOTE: Marvel continued the saga of Brak the Barbarian over at Savage Tales in 1974. They put a lot of effort into world-building for this character, even publishing a map of the sites where Brak’s adventures took place.

        Points of interest on the map included the Shining River, the Pillars of Ebon, the Dead Place, the Dark Sea, the Kingdom of the Two Bays, the Mountains of Smoke, and the Shrine of Yob-Haggoth. That last was yet ANOTHER Marvel imitation of a Lovecraft Old One, in this case Yog-Sothoth.  

THOR Vol 1 #207 (January 1973)

Title: Firesword

Villain: Loki

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, Loki has used Thor’s old enemy the Absorbing Man to lure him to Rutland, VT the day of its annual Halloween parade. Thor finishes off the Absorbing Man, following which Loki reveals himself and tells Thor that he had that villain lead the thunder god into this trap.

Loki uses his new weapon, a conjured-up firesword, to help him as he battles Thor, while the sun sets and the Halloween parade begins. 

NOTE: The Rutland, VT Halloween parade was used for a few years as a backdrop for Marvel Comics adventures. The writers and artists of Marvel and their competitors at DC would good-naturedly write and draw themselves into the stories as well as allow illustrations of the rival company’s superheroes in the tales because they could use the excuse that they were really just Rutland Halloween Parade attendees in costumes. 

        Such stories set at the parade over the years included the Avengers battling the Enchantress and Ultron’s Masters of Evil team (Radioactive Man, the Melter, Whirlwind and Klaw), this clash between Thor and Loki, plus the battle shown below between the Beast and the Juggernaut.

        The following year a fight between the Avengers and the Collector ended the Rutland Halloween Parade stories for years, and possibly for good, but I’m not sure. 

Back to this particular story, Thor and Loki fight it out as our hero maneuvers his foe away from the vulnerable bystanders at the parade. Thor ultimately wins the battle by striking Loki’s firesword with lightning to disarm him, but the blast also renders Loki temporarily blind and he falls into a mystic vortex.

NOTE: That vortex leads to Dormammu’s Dark Dimension and helps set up the crossover story in future Avengers and Defenders issues in which Loki and Dormammu team up to destroy both superteams AND the Earth.

AMAZING ADVENTURES Vol 2 #16 (January 1973)

Title: The Juggernaut Will Get You if You Don’t Watch Out

Villain: The Juggernaut

Synopsis: Passing through Rutland, VT the night of the Halloween Parade, the Beast and his alter ego Hank McCoy’s former girlfriend Vera Cantor get caught up in action around the town, just like Thor in the story above.

The X-Men’s old foe the Juggernaut emerges from a vortex formed by the supernatural energies around Rutland, especially on Halloween night. Dormammu had once used those energies to facilitate an attack on the Defenders (Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner, Clea and the Hulk).

        Juggernaut had been stranded in the Crimson Cosmos following a clash with Dr. Strange in the pages of his own series months earlier. When the villain rampages through Rutland, Hank McCoy becomes the Beast and battles him.

It’s a hopeless cause, since the Juggernaut is basically Hulk-levels of strength, but the Beast drags the fight out with delaying and dodging tactics for so long the mystic vortex closes, taking Juggernaut back into the Crimson Cosmos as it shuts.  

WEREWOLF BY NIGHT Vol 1 #3 (January 1973)

Title: The Mystery of the Mad Monk

Villain: Aelfric the Mad Monk

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, the spirit of the long-dead Aelfric the Mad Monk has been summoned by a priest that Jack Russell (Russoff) asked to translate certain documents from the cursed book the Darkhold into English.

NOTE: The Darkhold has for decades been the Marvel Comics imitation of H.P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon and has featured in many of Marvel’s horror and mystical comics. It was also featured in Wandavision and Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.

Jack Russell was hoping to find a cure for his family’s curse of lycanthropy in the Darkhold. Unfortunately, Aelfric’s spirit possesses the translating priest and does a Villain Rant to Jack that he is going to use the Darkhold to unleash the Grey Death on the human race.

The Grey Death is a supernatural fog that will gradually blanket the entire world, snuffing out all human life. While Aelfric is trying to complete the necessary spell from the cursed book, the full moon rises, turning Jack Russell into his werewolf form.

Aelfric conjures up a minotaur-dragon monster called Dragonus to fight the werewolf. As the battle rages, Dragonus accidentally kills Aelfric’s host body (the unfortunate priest), sending the Mad Monk’s spirit back to Hell, causing Dragonus to disappear and ending the threat of the Grey Death.

MARVEL TEAM-UP Vol 1 #6 (January 1973)

Title: … As Those Who Will Not See

Villains: The Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master

Synopsis: Spider-Man gets caught up in a plot by the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master, two old foes of the Fantastic Four, to lure the Thing and his blind sculptor girlfriend Alicia Masters into their lair.

Once at the shared island lair of the two villains, Spider-Man and the Thing fight to stay alive against the high-tech defenses of the deadly fortress. The Mad Thinker foolishly threatens Alicia, who is the step-daughter of the Puppet Master. Spider-Man helps the Puppet Master defeat the Thinker.

Meanwhile the Thing defeats the Mad Thinker’s android which was menacing Alicia Masters. The island fortress then self-destructs, making it seem that the two supervillains must have died in the explosion.

NOTE: Needless to say, both villains escaped and returned in the near future.

KULL THE CONQUEROR Vol 1 #6 (January 1973)

Title: The Lurker Beneath the Earth

Villains: Malakar and an enormous worm-creature 

NOTE: This is the Marvel Comics series adapting another of Robert E. Howard’s fictional characters – Kull the Conqueror, who lived long before Conan’s Hyborian Age. Kull was the king of Valusia, on the continent of Thuria, which ultimately broke apart and sank during the shifting of the Earth’s crust long, long ago. 

Synopsis: In King Kull’s court at Valusia, a dancing bear breaks loose and theatens the spectators, prompting Kull to grab his sword and help subdue the beast with the help of his Pict friend Brule.

NOTE: Robert E. Howard’s notions about the Picts did not correspond with the historical realities of the Picts.

Kull’s treacherous court librarian Malakar tempts the king into exploring for the lost treasures of Qar, an ancient civilization which once stood where Valusia now stands. Other members of Kull’s court advise against it, fearing that tampering with the ruins of Qar may revive the disease which wiped out that city-state’s inhabitants.

King Kull heeds that advice and nixes an expedition beneath Valusia. The evil Malakar uses an ancient, enchanted flute to summon an enormous wormlike creature from far beneath the Earth. (These story elements come from one of Howard’s James Allison tales.)

That monster, called the Lurker, devastates part of the royal palace and pollutes the water supply, prompting Kull to reluctantly lead an expedition beneath Valusia after all. He suspects Malakar’s hand in this, and the librarian does not live through the story.

In the days ahead, Kull, Brule and their troops find the subterranean ruins of Qar, where they are attacked by the Lurker again. This time Kull and his forces succeed in killing and burning the creature. Kull forbids his men to take any of the treasures or artifacts from Qar to avoid the possibility that they carry the unknown plague which destroyed Qar’s civilization. 

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