With the movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings trickling out, assorted readers have been asking me if I’ll do a blog post about the character. I did one back in June, but the release of the movie wound up getting delayed. Below is the link to that blog post in which I examined the first twelve Shang-Chi stories in the 1970s.
For that post click HERE. For my blog post featuring Shang-Chi stories in which he fights alongside Iron Fist click HERE.
Filed under Pulp Heroes, Superheroes
With so many recent contemplations of potential alternate histories if various events had turned out differently, here are a few older examples from that burgeoning subgenre.
WHAT IF NAPOLEON HAD WON AT WATERLOO? (June 18th 1815) – In 1907 G.M. Trevelyan penned an essay on this topic. In Trevelyan’s take, Napoleon had been chastened by his temporary exile to Elba before escaping and regaining control of France.
Bonaparte’s health was failing badly. In fact, his erratic behavior during his ill-considered invasion of Russia has been attributed to a possible stroke in some theories. Feeling limited in his ability to once again lead armies of conquest to rebuild his continent-spanning empire, Napoleon decided to master diplomacy the way he had previously mastered warfare.
Dealing from his position of strength following his victory at Waterloo in this alternate timeline, the Emperor was astonishingly lenient in dealing with his defeated enemies. He imposed no harsh conditions on their surrender and ultimately emerged with his empire extending to the Rhine and with French hegemony of the Italian Peninsula recognized. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
UTTER FAILURE JOE BIDEN FLEEING BACK TO CAMP DAVID.
The corrupt, lecherous, rarely coherent Joe Biden slithered back to Camp David after his repulsive address to the nation about the atrocity he unleashed upon Afghanistan and the thousands upon thousands of Afghanis and Americans still trapped there.
Among the well-deserved disgust and contempt being heaped upon the execrable little man there also came reports from Politico.eu that “European leaders had considered Biden a foreign affairs expert” until this Afghanistan travesty. If Politico.eu is right about that, let me remind you that their overestimation of Senile Joe will be just one more reason so many Americans dismiss everything European leaders have to say.
Even Barack Obama, who tolerated the imbecilic Biden’s presence for eight years made the famous quote “Don’t ever underestimate Joe’s ability to f*ck things up.” And assorted U.S. figures had long pointed out that Biden “has been wrong on every major policy issue of the past forty years.” But apparently European leaders are as clueless as Biden himself. By the way, a link to today’s post will be the only response I will ever give from now on to overseas people who think they know our political figures better than we do. If Biden’s senile behavior during his non-campaign last year didn’t clue people in about how unfit for office he was then they’re not worth listening to.
British MP Tom Tugendhat talked tough about Biden’s cosmic levels of incompetence and discussed how the U.K., France and Germany should form closer ties since America is no longer a reliable partner. The damage Biden has done to relations with our old allies is immeasurable, but hey, at least he didn’t imply that your nations should pay your fair share of expenses in NATO, right, Tugendhat? Remember how unbearable you and your fellow clowns found that suggestion from our former president?
You fools over there wanted Biden. You got him. Get ready for more of this from him. At least for once pretentious Europols like you are experiencing some of the fallout from your snobbish ignorance regarding American politicians. Now you’ve tasted a little of how our suffering working class and poor feel because of Biden.
AND BIDEN KEEPS HIDING NOW LIKE HE HID DURING HIS NON-CAMPAIGN LAST YEAR. Fools.
And did anyone catch the Biden Regime idiots TELLING THE TALIBAN LEADERS WHAT THEY EXPECT FROM THEM like inclusive appointments to government positions? (Why not order them to “mask up” too?) HEY JOE, YOU LOST! YOU ARE IN NO POSITION TO TELL THEM WHAT TO DO! ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU JUST MADE THEM ONE OF THE WORLD’S TOP MILITARY POWERS BY WAY OF ALL THE EQUIPMENT YOU ABANDONED IN YOUR HASTY, ABHORRENTLY BUNGLED PULLOUT! Nobody in the Biden Regime is in touch with reality. And I mean nobody.
There are floating reports that Joe Biden rushed everything just so he could go on television and say he brought the troops home before the 20th anniversary of 9-11. That sounds like the kind of shallow, crass, brainlessly symbolic gesture you could expect from such a shallow, crass, brainless fool.
BIDEN HAS STILL NOT SPOKEN WITH OTHER WORLD LEADERS ABOUT THE CRISIS IN AFGHANISTAN. Hey European “leaders”, if our previous president behaved like this, hiding from other heads of state after a debacle of his own making, you buffoons would be making an even bigger deal out of it than when he withdrew us from some of your climate accords. Again, European leaders’ takes on U.S. presidents are worthless.
DEMOCRAT ORGANIZATION MEDIA MATTERS LASHES OUT AT TRAPPED AMERICANS IN AFGHANISTAN FOR REACHING OUT FOR SENATE HELP SINCE THE EMBARRASSMENT CALLED BIDEN IS HIDING. To 21st Century Democrats, nothing matters but “how something plays” and Media Matters was upset that terrified Americans trapped in Afghanistan because of Joe Biden tried to get help from Senator Tom Cotton. I am SO glad I stopped being a Democrat and became an Independent Voter long ago. #WALKAWAY
AND ANOTHER COURAGEOUS DEMOCRAT PUBLICLY CALLS OUT BIDEN’S COLOSSAL INEPTITUDE. Maybe Sleepy Creepy Joe should “be the change he wants to see” and resign so that Kamala Harris can take over. After all, if she was placed on the ticket with him despite not even winning her own state in the primaries that MUST mean Democrats felt she was capable of taking over, right? Right?
NEW ITEM: “The fact that the Taliban is using US-based servers to run its terror state and nobody in the Biden Administration has thought to disconnect it, even as U.S. forces flee in disarray, is a strategic blunder on par with Pearl Harbor.”https://t.co/Fp8RLgk2UN— Preston Byrne (@prestonjbyrne) August 15, 2021. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
EL MARIACHI (2014) – This Mexican television series directed by Salvador Cartas was loosely based on the 1992 Robert Rodriguez movie of the same name and its sequels, Desperado (1995) and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). It’s no secret that Rodriguez himself is not fond of this series. According to some sources Sony allegedly made a tentative notification of their plans to the writer/ director and then ran with it without further input from him.
Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know how much I love and praise the original El Mariachi movies. The title character, who starts out the trilogy as a struggling mariachi guitar player who winds up having to go all Die Hard on Mexican drug cartels, was played by Carlos Gallardo in 1992 and then Antonio Banderas in 1995 and 2003.
The series of movies certainly seemed to partially inspire the later Sicario films, but I much prefer Rodriguez’s flicks. The El Mariachi television program is, unfortunately, inferior to both franchises. That’s a shame because lead actor Ivan Arana certainly looks the part and Martha Higareda as the hero’s love interest Celeste is just the right mix of sultriness and butt-kicking badness. For some reason photos of Higareda don’t come close to capturing her full allure, but seen in motion she’s even more impressive.
Like in the Robert Rodriguez films, the up and coming mariachi player is mistaken for a Mexican criminal who is carrying a similar guitar case. From there he gets caught up in a battle with Mexico’s ever more powerful drug cartels.
Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television
Here at Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog I’ve been getting a lot of comments and emails asking why I haven’t been weighing in on Joe Biden’s utterly disastrous handling of Afghanistan.
Well, I haven’t been because for once even some Democrat media outlets were bashing the corrupt, mentally failing buffoon over one of his many failures. For just a few examples:
From the Democrats at the New York Times – “FINAL FAILURE IN AFGHANISTAN IS BIDEN’S TO OWN.”
From the Democrats at The Atlantic – “BIDEN’S BETRAYAL OF AFGHANS WILL LIVE IN INFAMY.”
Even the Democrats at USA Today weighed in.
Democrat Congressman Vicente Gonzalez had the courage to say on social media that “the situation in Afghanistan is another shame” on the Biden administration and there is now “no way to hide it.” Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
Balladeer’s Blog gives a shoutout to the show livestreamed from the Las Vegas Meetup this past week from Wednesday on. Here’s a nice short video sample of what Gary and countless others were up to while partying out there in Vegas.
I know a lot of people badmouth Gary and his ugly behavior, but I don’t know him personally, so I don’t know if what everyone says is true. However, it was good to see people getting together out in public again. Obviously, a better person than Gary would have been preferrable as a host but what can you do?
Filed under opinion
Readers want more Marvel more of the time! With their What If? cartoon series off to a widely-panned start (I didn’t watch it) let’s take a look at some of the best What If? stories from its original run.
WHAT IF? Vol 1 #1 (February 1977)
Title: WHAT IF SPIDER-MAN HAD JOINED THE FANTASTIC FOUR?
Pivotal Event: In Spider-Man #1 the web-slinger tried to join the Fantastic Four but was turned down. But what if they had let him join the team?
Synopsis: Uatu the Watcher, from his headquarters in the ancient city in the Blue Area of Earth’s moon, ponders the multitude of alternate time-lines which branched off from the main (Earth 616) Marvel Universe.
With Spider-Man a member of the popular Fantastic Four/ Five, he never becomes an enemy of J Jonah Jameson and is therefore never deceptively painted as a villain to the public at large.
Having a powerful and capable new member like Spider-Man on the team makes Reed Richards (Mr Fantastic) comfortable enough to act on his overly-protective attitude toward Sue Storm (Invisible Girl). In their next mission (Fantastic 4 #13), against the Soviet supervillains the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes on the moon, Reed makes Sue stay behind on the Earth to “monitor” the group’s lunar expedition.
In this divergent reality, since Invisible Girl did not go to the moon with her teammates, she is lured away from the Baxter Building by the Sub-Mariner, whom she was infatuated with after the team’s first few battles with him. In the original reality, this could not happen until the Fantastic 4 got back from the moon. Here it happens earlier since she is by herself and is resentful that Mr Fantastic made her stay behind. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
Joe Biden has been part of every American policy which the rest of the world has disapproved of for nearly 50 years now. Joe Biden has utterly destroyed all the help given to the working class and the poor over the preceding 4 years. Joe Biden has wiped out untold numbers of jobs for Americans and destroyed America’s energy independence that was formed over the preceding 4 years.
While pretending to be “green” by slamming down U.S. oil production Biden is actually willing to keep the oil industry in other nations churning out even more oil to make up for what we are no longer producing. Joe Biden’s inflation is shrinking real income for American workers by the day. Joe Biden, a career criminal and accused rapist, allows bribes to flow into the Biden Crime Family via his pathetic son Hunter’s “art sales.”
Under Joe Biden, Washington DC corruption has returned in full force. After 4 preceding years of no new wars, conflicts are flaring all across the world thanks to Joe Biden’s ineptitude and/or corruption.
DISASTROUS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION STILL PLANS TO DO NOTHING ABOUT THE FLOOD OF COVID-POSITIVE ILLEGALS INTO THE U.S. MORE HERE. AND HERE. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
KUNG FAUX (2003) – Created and crafted by Mic Neumann, this half-hour comedy series was basically a hip hop version of old movies and television shows that overdubbed non-comedies with comedic dialogue, music and sound effects. In Kung Faux‘s case it featured re-edited and highly stylized martial arts films from the 1970s overdubbed with contemporary music and a hip hop comedic sensibility.
Though Kung Faux brands this treatment as “dubtitling” as a nod to dubbed and subtitled dialogue, the approach debuted on vintage television shows like Fractured Flickers (1963), in which celebrities would dub improvised comedic dialogue over old silent movies.
The theatrical release What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), Woody Allen’s overdubbing of a Japanese spy movie to make it a battle over an egg salad recipe, is still the best known of these ventures. Not even serials were exempt from such treatment, with my favorite example being Firesign Theater’s production Hot Shorts (1984) featuring items like Sperm Bank Bandits in which the comedy team inserted comical dialogue over old serials like Canadian Mounties vs Atomic Invaders. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television, humor
Al Capone had to be brought down over his taxes even though he was guilty of far worse. Democrat Andrew Cuomo had to be brought down over his sexual harassment of women after the Biden regime shut down investigations about Cuomo’s alleged role in the deaths of thousands of elderly people in New York nursing homes.
The Democrat media outlet CNN is facing questions about the way their newsreader Chris Cuomo – Andrew’s brother – was allowed to do tongue-bath, softball “interviews” with Andrew during his many scandals. The New York Attorney General’s office had made mentions of looking into Chris’ strategy sessions with Andrew, in which the governor had allegedly made Chris privy to sensitive information about his brother’s accusers.
Needless to say, career criminal and accused rapist Joe Biden idiotically claimed that Andrew Cuomo did ” a hell of a job.” Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
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