Here at Balladeer’s Blog I like to listen to you readers. Many of you have enjoyed my takes on the earliest adventures of Marvel Comics characters like the Avengers, X-Men, Captain America, Thor and the Hulk. The MOST popular so far was my look at the first 20 Iron Man stories in the 1960s, so here is a bonus I.M. blog post picking up where that original one left off.
TALES OF SUSPENSE Vol 1 #59 (November 1964)
Title: The Black Knight
Villain: The Black Knight (Nathan Garrett)
Comment: This issue of Tales of Suspense allows for a lot of side notes about the evolution of Marvel Comics’ particular iteration of the Black Knight figure AND the nature of the Marvel vs DC competition of the time.
The reason that Marvel Comics began pairing up some of its heroes in one particular comic book was because of a new agreement with their rivals at DC. Marvel had agreed to limit the number of titles they published per month for a time. Instead of having two separate comic books for Iron Man and Captain America, Tales of Suspense featured both heroes in individual adventures.
Similarly, instead of having separate comic books for the Hulk, Giant-Man & the Wasp and the Sub-Mariner, they shared Tales to Astonish in different combinations for a time. Strange Tales was likewise shared by Dr Strange, Nick Fury and the Johnny Storm Human Torch.
All of this stayed within the title-limitation arrangement made with DC while still allowing many of Marvel’s most popular characters to remain on newsstands along with Spider-Man, Thor, the Avengers, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four.
Synopsis: The Black Knight (Nathan Garrett), usually a supervillain opponent of Giant-Man & the Wasp, was in prison following the recent clash between the Avengers and Baron Zemo’s original Masters of Evil, of which he was a member. The Knight’s winged horse Elendil at last located its master’s cell window, allowing him to retrieve some chemicals from its saddle-bag. With those chemicals the Black Knight dissolved the bars of his cell, mounted Elendil and flew off, wanting revenge. Continue reading
The disputed election of 2020 is still rolling along. December 8th is the date for vote certification and the Electoral College meets on December 14th. It has ALWAYS been this way, but here in 2020 the Democrats and their media outlets keep acting like everything is over and done with. They didn’t think so in 2016, in fact some of them still claim Hillary Clinton was the real winner. They didn’t think so in the year 2000, when Al Gore didn’t concede until DECEMBER 13th. 
*** AMERICA’S DEMOCRATS DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THE WORDS “DEBUNKED” AND “DISCREDITED” MEAN. They seem to think that as long as there is ANY alternate point of view to any information or argument being put forth then that means the information has been debunked or discredited. 
For Balladeer’s Blog’s review of the first episode of this 1971-1973 series about London by Gaslight detectives from both the Victorian and Edwardian Ages you can simply click 
Episode: THE SENSIBLE ACTION OF LIEUTENANT HOLST (March 4th, 1973) 
John Thaw portrays Lieutenant Holst but neither boozes like Inspector Morse nor manhandles suspects like he did in his Sweeney days. Holst displays a casual savviness and a street-smart air, especially when dealing with a slippery hotel front desk employee. “Professional” is the defining adjective for Thaw’s Holst. 
With so many lawsuits and vote audits still up in the air regarding this tainted 2020 election and with the December certification of votes and the meeting of the Electoral College still weeks away, here is some positive action that voters can take. 
And don’t forget, there are still court cases winding their way through the system while the rest of this drama plays out. 
Barack Obama has often been called “The piece of dog crap stubbornly clinging to the bottom of history’s shoes.” And with good reason. In the midst of this disputed 2020 Election the country just looked down and noticed that we all just stepped in a pile of Obama again.
President Trump and his team are courageously fighting the good fight but the well-known spinelessness of the Republican Party’s office-holders may well cause that Party’s politicians to abandon the voters. If they do it will inevitably result in the 2020 presidential election joining the 2000 and 1876 elections as the most tainted in American history. As a minimum. 
FIRST RESPONDERS & MILITARY APPRECIATION DAY – The SAINT THOMAS UNIVERSITY BOBCATS (should be the Tomcats) welcomed the WARNER UNIVERSITY ROYALS yesterday. After a scoreless 1st Quarter the Royals led 7-6 at Halftime. That became a 10-6 edge in the 3rd Quarter before the Bobcats tied things up at 20-20 in the 4th. In Overtime STU won out 27-20. 
S.A.M. – SERVICE ACADEMY MANIA – Saturday saw the annual rivalry game between the UNITED STATES MERCHANT MARINE ACADEMY MARINERS and the COAST GUARD ACADEMY BEARS. A 7-7 1st Quarter tie became a 10-7 Mariners advantage at the Half. The 3rd Quarter ended with the USMMA up 17-7 before exchanging Touchdowns with the Bears in the 4th to win it 24-14. 
VIKING VALLEY – The VALLEY CITY STATE VIKINGS traveled to face the DAKOTA STATE TROJANS. The Vikings kept the Trojans off the scoreboard until the 4th Quarter as they led 7-0 in the opening Quarter and 14-0 by the midpoint. Neither team scored in the 3rd Quarter and Valley City State won by a final count of 14-6. 
While assorted legal issues are still working their way through the courts, especially regarding any certification of votes, today is the day across the United States for Trump Marches regarding the tainted 2020 election. 
