This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will look at Will Eisner’s iconic superhero the Spirit.
Superheroes have been huge in pop culture in recent decades. Will Eisner’s iconic superhero the Spirit – who debuted in June of 1940 – rose from the grave of his secret identity, Private Investigator Denny Colt, after his apparent death when he got saturated in some chemicals of the supervillain Doctor Cobra.
Fan arguments still rage over whether or not the Spirit had any superpowers beyond his initial chemically-induced state of suspended animation which let him survive and rise from his grave days later. I’m of the school of thought that says the Spirit DID have superpowers, largely because I grow bored with alleged “super” heroes who are just regular shlubs who slap on a costume and fight crime. To me that’s more of a Pulp hero.
I don’t think it’s outrageous to attribute paranormal abilities to the Spirit. Just going by Will Eisner’s original stories let’s approach it this way:
GREATER THAN HUMAN STRENGTH – Taking this hero’s origin story at face value with no ret-conning necessary, when Denny Colt came to in his coffin he dug his way to the surface. It would require much more than the strength of a normal human to burst through the coffin lid AND force his way upward through six feet of soil. For all I know The Big Bang Theory guys may have once done a calculation on how much actual strength it would take to accomplish this feat.
EXTRAORDINARY RESILIENCY/ HEALING ABILITY – Early Spirit stories often show his body taking the kind of punishment that no non-powered human being could survive. The villains occasionally point out how impossible it is that the hero just keeps coming after all the damage they inflict on him. And again, taking his 1940 origin at face value his body would have had to have “healed” from the invasive procedures of embalming or similar treatments, before he woke up in his coffin.
Many fans feel that Frank Miller’s 2008 movie The Spirit took that too far by making his durability front and center and more like Wolverine’s notorious Healing Factor. Personally, I’m okay with it.
ROGUES GALLERY Continue reading
KISS THEIR BUTTE! – Out in Butte, MT the 21st ranked MONTANA TECH OREDIGGERS welcomed the number 3 team in the nation – the GEORGETOWN (KY) COLLEGE TIGERS. A 7-7 1st Quarter tie became a 14-7 Orediggers lead by Halftime. The 3rd Quarter ended with Montana Tech up 21-14 and the 4th in a 29-22 Orediggers triumph! 
HISTORY WAS MADE – The WILLIAM PENN UNIVERSITY STATESMEN played host to the latest college playing its FIRST EVER intercollegiate football game – the WILLIAM WOODS UNIVERSITY OWLS. As usual, it wasn’t the kind of history that the newbies would have liked, as the Statesmen led 38-0 at the Half before winning the game 59-0. 
CITIZEN SOLDIER (1956-1957) – Also known as The Big Attack, this half-hour series depicted dramatic reenactments of real wartime incidents from World War Two, STARRING THE ACTUAL SERVICEMEN WHO TOOK PART IN THEM! 
Charles Marquis Warren directed and Ron W. Alcorn produced this syndicated program that lasted for one season of 39 episodes. 
IN THE DEEP OF TIME (1897) – This story was written by George Parsons Lathrop, who also wrote the libretto for Walter Damrosch’s opera version of The Scarlet Letter. Though Lathrop credited an interview with Thomas Edison for the scientific concepts in this tale, it is NOT an Edisonade. In the Deep of Time is instead one of the many 19th Century stories about “present day” characters waking up in the far future. 
The multi-step procedure begins with Gerald being administered a drug that prepares his body for suspended animation, followed by another drug (mortimicrobium) that renders his body germ-free at all levels. Next, Bemis is placed in a glass cylinder at body temperature to “sleep” away the centuries. 
*** FIRST, A COMMENT REGARDING THE WAY DEMOCRAT CONVENTIONS AND DEMOCRAT CONFERENCES OF ALL KINDS SO OFTEN START BY STATING THEIR EVENT IS BEING HELD ON “STOLEN” LAND. Hey, that also means that all of the Democrats’ mansions and multiple homes are ALSO on “stolen” land. I call for Democrats to take the initiative and give up all of those extra homes to set an example for the rest of us. As a minimum, before ANY MORE finger-wagging lectures from privileged one-percenter entertainers or athletes I want an admission from them that their many properties stand on stolen land. 
*** NEXT, A RELEVANT ANECDOTE REGARDING AN EXCHANGE BETWEEN CHARLIE CHAPLIN AND BUSTER KEATON, BOTH OF WHOM I’M A FAN OF. Chaplin was proclaiming “What I want is that every child should have enough to eat, shoes on his feet and a roof over his head.” Keaton’s reply was “But Charlie, do you know anyone who doesn’t want that?” 
*** I USED TO BE A DEMOCRAT YEARS AGO. That was when the Democrats believed in freedom of expression and other long-held Civil Liberty principles that they have completely abandoned after becoming the Political Correctness Police in the 1990s and evolving into the intolerant Woke Fascists that they are today. 
SAMSON AND DELILAH (1902) – This 6-minute short was directed by Ferdinand Zecca, Walter Pathe’s right-hand man. This film has survived and is an interesting historical piece. It’s the earliest surviving silent movie about Samson, the iconic Zecca’s first Samson film, plus Samson and Delilah is one of the silent era shorts that were tinted by hand – frame by frame. 
This 1902 effort opens with Samson’s “labor” of tearing off the gate of Gaza, then just dumping it rather than carrying it away. We get other standard bits from the tale of this Biblical Judge including, of course, the seductive Philistine woman Delilah learning that the secret of Samson’s strength lies in his uncut hair. 
FOURTH QUARTER FURY – The DALLAS WINGS (7-22) welcomed the LOS ANGELES SPARKS (6-24). 
INSTANT CLASSIC – The LAS VEGAS ACES (18-11) took it on the road against the CHICAGO SKY (11-18) in this game.
SUNSHINE STATE SHUTOUT – The WEBBER INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY WARRIORS hosted the UNIVERSITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE EAGLES (should be Flamingos). The Warriors achieved defensive perfection against UFL while leading them 7-0, 21-0 and 37-0 in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Quarters respectively. The 4th ended in a 40-0 shutout victory for Webber International University. 
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