MARVEL COMICS ISSUES FROM JANUARY 1977

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog provides another look at Marvel’s publications – this time from January of 1977.

Reading superhero stories as a kid served as a gateway to some of my adult passions like mythology and opera, so I will always have a soft spot for them.

MARVEL TEAM-UP Vol 1 #53 (Jan)

Title: Nightmare in New Mexico

Villains: Major Del Tremens and the Tranquility Base troops

Synopsis: This issue picks up from Spider-Man and the X-Men’s shared adventure against the Lords of Light and Darkness in Marvel Team-Up Annual #1. Still in New Mexico, Spider-Man and the current roster of X-Men (Wolverine, Storm, Phoenix, Nightcrawler, Banshee, Colossus and Cyclops) try to check out the deserted town of Liberty. 

The mutants are driven away by the deadly nerve gas that killed all of the town’s inhabitants in the origin story of Marvel’s fairly new hero Woodgod (Marvel Premiere #31). Spider-Man proves immune to the nerve gas so he investigates further.   

The genetically engineered human/ animal hybrid creature Woodgod (at right) – also immune to the nerve gas – is still being contained in the depopulated town by Major Del Tremens and his troops at Tranquility Base, who caused the nerve gas leak.

Hulk arrives in Liberty and winds up fighting Woodgod, his near-equal in strength. Major Tremens and his forces decide to seize the opportunity to kill Hulk, Spider-Man and Woodgod all at once and unleash all their remote-controlled military hardware and aircraft on Liberty.

The three misunderstood heroes are victorious, but an enraged Hulk still wants to fight Woodgod and Spider-Man in the cliffhanger ending.

CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FALCON Vol 1 #205

Title: Agron Walks the Earth

Villain: Agron

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, Cap and Falc fight it out with the escaped radiation-creature Agron as it rampages through New York City. Captain America’s love interest Sharon Carter (Agent 13) and Falcon’s love interest Leila Taylor are still on hand.

Not even our heroes are enough to stop Agron, but a squadron of S.H.I.E.L.D. paramilitary soldiers arrive and the combined forces manage to defeat the out-of-control creature.

DAREDEVIL Vol 1 #141

Title: Target: Death 

Villain: Bullseye

Synopsis: Daredevil saves former District Attorney Foggy Nelson from an assassin hired by Maxwell Glenn, the shady businessman father of Matt Murdock’s new romantic partner Heather Glenn. Matt, Foggy and Heather confront her father about the attempt on Foggy’s life, but he denies being behind it. 

Maxwell now hires Daredevil’s old foe Bullseye to kill Foggy Nelson. Daredevil interrupts the attempt but is defeated in battle by Bullseye. In a bit of idiocy similar to the 1960s Batman series, rather than just kill Daredevil while he’s unconscious, Bullseye sets up a giant crossbow and fires the bound DD at the New Jersey cliffs to kill him in the cliffhanger.

POWER MAN Vol 1 #39

Title: Battle with the Baron

Villains: Big Brother, the Baron, Chemistro and Cheshire Cat

Synopsis: Picking up from last issue, Power Man is still caught in the middle of the gangster war over control of Harlem’s rackets. The leaders of the black side are new supervillains Big Brother and Cheshire Cat, while the leaders of the white side are our hero’s old foe Chemistro and the new supervillain called the Baron.

The warring parties each try manipulating Power Man into wiping out the opposition. The Hero for Hire finally brings down Chemistro and the Baron this issue, then prepares to resume his battle with Big Brother and Cheshire Cat.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #178

Title: Call My Killer the Brute

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

Synopsis: The Frightful Four have the Fantastic Four plus Thundra and Tigra as prisoners and are still in control of our heroes’ HQ the Baxter Building. The villains demand 3 billion dollars (worth over 15 billion dollars now) ransom from the government for the Fantastic Four’s lives. The country has until 3:00am to reply before they kill our heroes. 

Through a fluke, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thundra and the Human Torch are able to free themselves and begin fighting the Frightful Four. While Invisible Woman, Thundra, Tigra and the Human Torch eventually defeat Wizard, Sandman and the Trapster, the Brute defeats Mr. Fantastic and traps him in the Negative Zone, from where Ben was freed. 

Turning back into his human form – Counter-Earth’s version of Reed Richards – the Brute convinces the other heroes on hand that he is the REAL Reed Richards of OUR Earth, and that they must all work together to free the defeated “Brute” from the Negative Zone. He can thus treacherously kill them all.

THOR Vol 1 #255

Title: The Quest Begins

Villains: The Kronan race of Stone Men

Synopsis: Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three are still searching for the missing Odin. The wise Mimir informs them that they can pick up Odin’s trail at something called the Doomsday Star.

To reach that far-off location, Thor and the others set out in their recurring space vessel called the Starjammer. NOTE: No relation to the Starjammer captained by Corsair, father of Cyclops over at the X-Men. Thor’s mystic Starjammer is like a Viking ship that is able to travel across interstellar space.

Eventually, far, far from Asgard, Thor and company encounter an asteroid belt and set down on an asteroid which turns out to be occupied by the thunder god’s very first Marvel Comics foes – the Kronans, stone aliens who used Saturn as their base for an invasion of Earth in Journey into Mystery #83.

After a brutal battle, our heroes win out and manage to fly off before the asteroid explodes, killing the Kronans. Thor and his allies resume their quest.

CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #10 

Title: One Man’s Son is Another Man’s Poison

Villains: The Rampagers (Crimson Dynamo III, Darkstar, Titanium Man and the Griffin)

Synopsis: The Rampagers leave Hercules, Ghost Rider, Iceman and Angel in a death trap within the San Andreas Fault. With California facing a massive earthquake that can’t be traced to the Soviet Union, the Rampagers load the captive Black Widow, her chauffer Ivan Petrovich and Alexi Bruskin into a jet.

Ivan’s son Yuri (Crimson Dynamo III) and his teammates are taking the trio back to the Soviet Union for punishment. The Champions all manage to turn the tables and defeat the Rampagers, but Alexi is killed and Yuri escapes. The supervillainess Darkstar defects to the U.S. and joins the Champions.

MASTER OF KUNG-FU Vol 1 #48

Title: The Bridge of a Thousand Dooms

Villains: Fu Manchu & Fah Lo Suee

NOTE: Marvel had licensed Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu characters and added their own creation – Shang-Chi, the son of Fu Manchu who rebelled against his evil father and joined Sir Denis Nayland-Smith’s intelligence unit that combats Fu around the world.

Synopsis: At Fu Manchu’s hidden city inside a mountain near the Arctic Circle, Shang-Chi, Sir Denis Nayland-Smith, Black Jack Tarr, Clive Reston, James Larner and Shang-Chi’s love interest Leiko Wu continue their clash with Fu and his daughter Fah Lo Suee’s rival factions of Si-Fan assassins. 

Amid all the action, our heroes learn Fu Manchu’s latest project – restoring life to his ancestor Shaka Kharn (Shaka Kharn … Shaka Kharn), whose mummified remains are on hand.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #155

Title: To Stand Alone

Avengers Roster: The Wasp, Iron Man, Captain America, Yellowjacket, the Scarlet Witch, Vision, the Beast and Wonderman

Villains: Dr. Doom and Attuma

Synopsis: This storyline continues as the Avengers battle Sub-Mariner’s old foe Attuma and his army. They simultaneously take on Dr. Doom, who has conquered Sub-Mariner’s allies on the artificial island called Hydrobase.

Both villains are fighting for mastery of the world. NOTE: Guest appearance by Marvel’s 1940s hero the Whizzer, who at the time was the father of the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver until it was retconned years later.

MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #1

Title: This Woman, This Warrior

Villain: The Scorpion

NOTE: Ms. Marvel’s secret identity was Carol Danvers, a character that Marvel first introduced in the supporting cast of their original male Captain Marvel series in 1967. Carol was introduced as the head of security at Cape Canaveral. 

Carol made regular appearances alongside Captain Marvel (Kree Captain Mar-Vell) through the cancellation of his first solo series in August 1970. She made a few guest appearances in the pages of The Avengers during the original Kree-Skrull War (1970-1971) and was even impersonated by the Super-Skrull.

Synopsis: Readers are caught up with Carol Danvers’ life via flashbacks. During one of Captain Marvel’s battles with Yon-Rogg she was exposed to Kree technology which accidentally endowed her with super-strength plus the power of flight and a large degree of invulnerability.

Due to the many alien attacks at Cape Canaveral she was fired but got revenge of a sort by writing a tell-all book about the government’s unethical activities during her time as an intelligence agent and then as Cape Canaveral’s head of security.

NOTE: That was a nice storytelling angle that reflected real world incidents from the 1970s in which former CIA and NSA agents exposed many covered-up U.S. intelligence agency scandals and debacles of the past. (Think of Agee, Marchetti, Snepp and the Congressional testimony of William Colby.) 

Back in Marvel’s fictional world, Carol’s exposure of intelligence agency scandals drew her into reporting and she eventually was hired by J. Jonah Jameson as the editor in chief of the Daily Bugle’s new sister publication Woman Magazine.

With Jameson, Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson and others guest-starring in her solo series debut, Carol became Ms. Marvel to save J. Jonah from the latest murder attempt by Spider-Man’s villain the Scorpion.

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #43

Title: This World is Mine

Defenders Roster: Dr. Strange, Hulk, Clea, Valkyrie, Nighthawk, Power Man and the female Red Guardian

Villains: The Emissaries (Egghead, Rhino, Solarr and the Cobalt Man)

Synopsis: The Defenders continue their battle with Egghead and his supervillain hirelings. He and his allies plan to take over the world through the mystic gem called the Star of Capistan. Ultimately, our heroes emerge victorious and Cobalt Man & Egghead appear to be destroyed.

NOTE: Naturally, they weren’t and they showed up alive a few years later.

HULK Vol 1 #207

Title: Alone Against the Defenders

Synopsis: The previous issue, the Hulk went on a rampage through New York City over his grief for the death of his love interest Jarella from the Microverse/ Quantum Realm. The cliffhanger was the arrival of the Defenders to try to get their teammate under control before someone got killed.

With Power Man off on a case, Dr. Strange, Valkyrie, Nighthawk and the female Red Guardian fight it out with the Hulk. At length, the inarticulate Hulk makes it clear what he is upset over.

When not even Dr. Strange’s magic proves able to help Jarella, the Hulk sadly resigns himself to her loss.  

NOVA Vol 1 #5

Title: Evil is the Earth-Shaker

Villain: Tyrannus

Synopsis: Amid family issues, an argument with his girlfriend, and trying to adjust to Nova’s surging popularity, our hero winds up on hand when the Marvel supervillain Tyrannus once again invades the surface world with his army of Tyrannoids and a kaiju-sized robot called the Earth-Shaker.

NOTE: Tyrannus previously fought the Hulk, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four on separate occasions.

He was a human from ancient Rome who became immortal and ruled over a subterranean race called the Tyrannoids, a sub-species of the Mole Man’s Moloids.

Nova takes action against the invaders. In the end he succeeds in destroying the Earth-Shaker, defeats the army of Tyrannoids and captures Tyrannus himself to win the day.

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #164

Title: The Final Hour

Villain: The Kingpin

Synopsis: Spider-Man once again faces his deadly foe the Kingpin. NOTE: This was back when the Kingpin was a recurring villain of Spider-Man. The villain’s many clashes with Daredevil were still in the future.

Kingpin and his thugs are trying to use a stolen invention to drain life from Spider-Man to bring the Kingpin’s son the Schemer out of the coma he has been in since the Schemer’s faction of Hydra was defeated by Captain America and the Falcon.

The Schemer is brought out of his coma, but Spider-Man wins out. Kingpin seems to have been killed, but naturally he turns up alive in the near future.

OMEGA Vol 1 #6

Title: A Tug of the Wrench

Villain: The Wrench

Synopsis: Omega’s friend, the elderly pawn shop owner “Gramps”, takes the unusual alien to a local bar for a few drinks with his friends. The expected Mork from Ork misunderstandings take place due to Omega’s unfamiliarity with Earth customs.

Meanwhile, James-Michael Starling, the 13-year-old boy being watched over by Omega for unknown reasons, takes a late-night walk in Hell’s Kitchen to contemplate his nightmares about Omega facing an army of androids on a planet dying in flames.

A deranged apparent mutant calling himself the Wrench kills Gramps’ female friend Mamie as the latest victim of his serial slayings. The villain nearly kills James-Michael and another woman as well, but Omega shows up and he is defeated.

DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU Vol 1 #32

Story 1 Title: Daughters of the Dragon

Villains: Emil Vachon and Chung

NOTE: This was the first time Marvel used the name Daughters of the Dragon for Colleen Wing and Misty Knight, who had been a team for years.

Synopsis: Iron Fist’s love interest Misty Knight and his dear friend Colleen Wing are in Hong Kong on the trail of a crimelord named Emil Vachon. It’s not a case for their investigative agency, Knightwing Restorations, it’s personal because Vachon recently killed Colleen’s grandfather.

The two ladies engage in martial arts battles with Vachon’s capo Chung and his mercenaries all over Hong Kong. Eventually they blow up an arms shipment that Vachon stood to make millions from but get captured in the process. Chung takes them to Vachon’s HQ warning Colleen and Misty they will regret ever being born.

Story 2 Title: The Tiger Sons Must Die

Villains: Killdragon and Bernie Klieg

NOTE: This is the latest chapter in the long, complex saga of the Sons of the Tiger, whose mystic jade tiger amulets were discarded when the trio of martial arts heroes split up. Puerto Rican teenager Hector Ayala acquired the three amulets and wore them all at once, giving him the strength of three men and incredible martial arts skills. He became the superhero White Tiger.

Synopsis: Two former Sons of the Tiger, white Bob Diamond and black Abe Brown, are mistakenly believed to be dead at present. The Chinese member, Lin Sun, is still alive and living with Lotus Shinchuko, who caused a romantic triangle which made the Sons disband.

Lin Sun and Lotus Shinchuko are set to inherit Bob Diamond’s wealth, but if they are killed, Bob’s company will get it all, meaning his sleazy business partner Berne Klieg gets it. Klieg tricks Chinese communist assassin Harmony Killdragon (woman on the cover) into murdering Lin and Lotus, but they survive her attack and prove that Bernie is a bad guy. 

THE ETERNALS Vol 1 #7

Title: The Fourth Host

Villains: The Fourth Host of Celestials

Synopsis: The Eternals were every bit as boring and pointless in their original series as they were in their movie a few years ago. Jack Kirby created them, but they were just a rehash of his previous characters like the Inhumans and the New Gods.

With Icarus and the other Eternals in New York City, Ajak stands alone at the City of the Gods in the Andes Mountains facing the newly arrived Fourth Host of Celestials including Arishem, Gammenon, Tefral, Jemiah and the One Above All. Ajak tries to save the three S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents on hand but fails as the Celestials spread out around the world to prepare to pass judgment on the Earth.

IRON MAN Vol 1 #94

Title: Frenzy at Fifty Fathoms

Villain: Commander Kraken

Synopsis: Iron Man’s clash with Sub-Mariner’s old foe Commander Kraken continues from the previous issue. Kraken plans on using his latest super-scientific submarine to provoke World War 3 by unleashing nuclear missiles on the U.S., Soviet Union and Communist China.

Kraken wants Iron Man to tell Tony Stark (who kept his double-life as Iron Man a secret back then) that unless he provides Kraken with high-tech armaments for the upcoming global conflict he will kill his hostages.

Those hostages are Stark’s executive aide Krissy Longfellow, whom he does not yet know is secretly his disguised old love-hate villain Madame Masque (at right), and Abe Klein, whom he does not yet know is selling Stark tech secrets to rival tycoon Midas Mordecai.

In the end, Iron Man frees the hostages and defeats Commander Kraken and his crew, who all seem to be killed in a collapsing underwater cavern.

But naturally they aren’t really dead.

MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE Vol 1 #23

Title: Death on the Bridge to Heaven

Villain: Seth

NOTE: Earlier in the 1970s Marvel tried incorporating Egyptian gods like Horus, Osiris, Isis and the evil god Seth/ Set into their continuity. Thor had adventures with them prior to this story.

Synopsis: Picking up from last issue, Thor and the Thing are fighting Seth, his army and now Siapep the Devourer from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The Devourer was unleashed by Seth as the previous issue’s cliffhanger.

Thor, Thing and eventually Horus defeat Seth and prevent the Devourer from killing Osiris, Isis, Geb, Nut and the rest of the Egyptian pantheon. 

CAPTAIN MARVEL Vol 1 #48

Title: Crucible

Villains: Sentry 459 and the Cheetah

Synopsis: Captain Marvel (Kree Captain Mar-Vell) becomes aware of the gigantic Kree android Sentry 459 being reactivated and for some reason destroying factories in Mexico. Cap flies down to battle Sentry 459.

It turns out the Sentry was being reprogrammed by using a Mexican man’s thought patterns as its operating system. Just as previous attempts at using human thought patterns in androids resulted in irrational behavior from the likes of Ultron, Jocasta, the Doomsman and others, so did this one.

Acting on the human donor’s anticapitalist thoughts, the Sentry was destroying businesses. As its battle with Captain Marvel continued, Sentry 459 bestowed superpowers on a Mexican man with similar anticapitalist feelings, and that man became the supervillain Cheetah. Both villains now ganged up on Mar-Vell. 

TOMB OF DRACULA Vol 1 #52

Title: Demons in the Mind

Villain: Golden Angel

Synopsis: Dracula continues using Anton Lupeski’s Boston cult of Satanists as human lackeys. One night Drac realizes he is being stalked by a costumed man with golden skin and realizes he is the figure who managed to destroy Dracula back in the 1650s and again in 1870.

The usually pompous vampire becomes fearful, convinced the being must be a demon sent by Satan to once again thwart his plans and destroy him. Mustering his courage, Dracula engages the entity in battle.

Their fight culminates in the being revealing it is no demon, but rather a Golden Angel, sent by Heaven to periodically eliminate Dracula over the centuries. Just when Dracula thinks he has killed the Golden Angel, it merely transports itself into the potent painting of Jesus which neither Drac nor the Satanists have been able to remove from their lair, a deconsecrated church.

Dracula screams with anguish, realizing now the Golden Angel will be watching him from inside his own home. NOTE: From within the Jesus portrait, the angel would foil Drac a few more times, ultimately incarnating within Drac’s Satanically conceived son Janus, using the vampire’s own offspring against him.