NEGLECTED MARVEL SUPERHEROES

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at assorted overlooked Marvel characters.

DOC SAMSON – Leonard Samson, MD and PhD, used tightly focused Gamma Radiation drained from the Hulk himself to gain superpowers.

His hair turned green as a side-effect of the process but he gained strength almost equal to a calm Hulk while retaining his intelligence. 

Doc Samson was a sometime-friend and sometime foe of Bruce Banner’s alter ego and clashed with villains like the Leader, the Rhino, Unus the Untouchable, A.I.M. and Woodgod’s Animal-Men. Click HERE. 

IT, THE LIVING COLOSSUS – A figurative Marvel kaiju figure dating back to 1961. In the 1970s the giant stone entity animated by the mind of Bob O’Bryan got its own short-lived series. 

O’Bryan, a movie special effects master, had defeated invading aliens who used “It” as a rampaging weapon against the Earth.

When the retreating aliens left It behind, Bob kept dabbling with the giant and was able to send it into action via his consciousness. Click HERE.

BLOODSTONE – Ulysses Bloodstone posed as a modern-day big-game hunter turned monster slayer. In reality he had been alive since caveman times, kept alive and young by the fragment of a bloodstone lodged in his chest.

That fragment also granted him superpowers with which he saved humanity from all manner of creatures, especially the alien Ullux’yl, who needs the bloodstone fragment in our hero’s chest to complete the once-shattered gem. The complete stone will grant the alien untold power. Click HERE.

WEREWOLF BY NIGHT – Jack Russell aka Jack Russoff had inherited the family curse of lycanthropy and on his 18th birthday began transforming into a werewolf three nights per month. Pursued by a mysterious group called the Committee and wanting to free himself of his curse, Jack had a series of horrific adventures. 

He even sought out the Darkhold, hoping to find a cure within its pages. Click HERE.

PALADIN – This mercenary antihero was introduced as a sometime foe and sometime ally of Daredevil. Paladin possessed a degree of super-strength, wore body armor and wielded a ray-gun which shot stun-beams that affected living things but did no damage to mere objects.

Over the years this figure made multiple appearances and for a time joined Power Man and Iron Fist in their Heroes for Hire business. Click HERE. 

ADAM WARLOCK – First known only as Him, Adam Warlock was a cosmic adventurer whose saga took him throughout the Marvel Universe.

Warlock saved Counter-Earth from the Man-Beast and his army, saved the real Earth from the Fantastic Four villains called the Enclave (formerly the Hive), plus fought Thanos, Star-Thief and even his own evil future self the Magus. Click HERE.

SKULL THE SLAYER – Vietnam War veteran Jim Scully aka Skull was with other airplane passengers when their craft fell victim to the Bermuda Triangle.

They wound up in a bizarre dimension where people, dinosaurs, aliens and more were trapped in a deadly jungle. Anyone or anything, from the past, present or future wound up in that same jungle region and fought to survive. Click HERE.  

NOVA – Earth teenager Richard Rider was granted superpowers by a dying member of the intergalactic Nova Corps (famous now from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies).

Richard then lived a double life as a high school student and as a superhero taking on villains like the Condor, Powerhouse, Diamondhead, the Sphinx, the Corruptor, Tyrannus, Megaman, Photon and more. Click HERE.

THE SIMON GARTH ZOMBIE – Simon Garth, a cruel, callous plantation owner was killed by his abused workers and brought back from the dead as a shambling zombie.

Longing for the peace of the grave, Garth was forced to live on, encountering assorted monstrous figures and Voodoo mystics. As his ordeal dragged on, he earned some redemption for his evil ways when alive. Click HERE.

CAPTAIN TERROR – This hero from Marvel’s years as Timely Comics was introduced in late 1941 but his origin story provided the information that he had been in action against the Falangists and their Nazi allies during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

Millionaire yachtsman Dan Kane revives his Captain Terror identity from years earlier to take on the Axis Forces in World War Two. Captain Terror used assorted ships with high-tech gadgets in his crusade. Click HERE.

THE SILVER SURFER – Norrin Radd, called the Silver Surfer by Earth’s media, was a herald of the world-destroying entity called Galactus. He turned against Galactus to help save the Earth and was banished to our planet because of it.

The poetically sensitive yet immensely powerful figure struggled to understand humanity while saving us from countless menaces both extraterrestrial and terrestrial. His archenemy was Mephisto. Click HERE.

EL AGUILA – Alejandro Montoya was a Spanish-born mutant who used his powers to fight wrongdoers no matter which side of the law they were on.

As El Aguila he became a global enemy to criminals as well as corrupt politicians and corporations.

El Aguila often interacted with Power Man and Iron Fist but also encountered other Marvel characters as well. Click HERE. 

MORBIUS, THE LIVING VAMPIRE – “It’s Morbin’ time” to quote the flopped movie featuring this character. Michael Morbius’ serum intended as a cure for his rare blood disease instead turned him into a science-based vampire needing to feed on human blood in order to survive.

Morbius started out as a foe of Spider-Man but went on to have his own adventures ranging from intense horror to quasi-superheroics to outer space antics. Click HERE.

STAR-LORD – The original Peter Quill stories from the 1970s, when he had a sentient spaceship called Ship, traditional blasters, a father who ruled a space empire and a desire for revenge against the alien race who killed his Earthling mother.

Star-Lord encountered a planet with a hundred moons, a world inhabited by symbiotic beings, another that was home to winged humanoids and was called Heaven, plus a nomadic alien race who traveled the universe in a 93-mile-long spaceship. Click HERE.

JACK OF HEARTS – Jonathan Hart was the son of a scientist who had invented zero fluid, a liquid energy source. Accidental exposure to the zero fluid granted Jonathan superpowers that he used to fight crime as the costumed hero called Jack of Hearts.

This hero originally partnered with the White Tiger against the organization called the Corporation and later helped Iron Man against Midas, the Soviet Super-Soldiers and the Colonizers of Rigel. Click HERE.

ROM: SPACEKNIGHT – This Spaceknight from the planet Galador protected Earth from his organization’s deadly cosmic foes the Dire Wraiths, an offshoot of the Skrull race.

Rom also ended up fighting to save Earth from several menaces unrelated to the Dire Wraiths like the Missing Link, the Rocketeers, the Space Phantom, Galactus, the Mutant Brotherhood and others. Click HERE.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN – Brilliant graduate student Brian Braddock is granted superpowers and mystical weapons by enchanted figures from a realm called the Otherworld.

He uses those powers as the costumed hero called Captain Britain to protect the U.K. from supervillains, aliens and dark magical forces.

Among his colorful foes were the Reaver, Vixen, Hurricane, Nykkon, the Highwayman, the Manipulator and the Black Baron. Click HERE. And HERE. And HERE. And HERE.

LONGSHOT – The original 1985-1986 mini-series that introduced the mulleted superhero from the Mojoverse. Appropriately, even in his very first adventure he started out getting mind-wiped like he would go on to be over and over again in the years ahead.

Longshot’s scattershot collection of powers helped him take on Mojo, Spiral and other villains from the dimension ruled by Mojo. He also met characters like Spider-Man, She-Hulk and Dr. Strange. Click HERE.