This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at some of the early stories during the time when Daredevil and the Black Widow were a team, like Captain America and the Falcon or Power Man and Iron Fist.
DAREDEVIL & THE BLACK WIDOW Vol 1 #92 (October 1972)
Title: On the Eve of the Talon
Villains: Blue Talon and Damon Dran
NOTE: The Black Widow had been a guest star in the past several issues of this series, but the title was not changed to Daredevil and the Black Widow until this issue.
Synopsis: Unscrupulous San Francisco tycoon Damon Dran has a troop of his henchmen capture Black Widow and bring her to him. Dran wants to know what Natasha did with a very high-tech item that she recovered recently from the Top-Secret experiment called Project Four.
Meanwhile, Dran sends his martial arts mercenary Blue Talon to kill Daredevil. Blue Talon is unaware that Daredevil has had his old friend the Black Panther come to San Francisco to disguise himself as Daredevil, complete with white-skin makeup. Continue reading
FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL Vol 1 #12 (March 1976) 
POWER MAN Vol 1 #48 (December 1977) 
Shades (at right) and Comanche, escaped cons who served time at Seagate Prison with Luke Cage back when he went by his real name Carl Lucas, were sent by Bushmaster to abduct Power Man’s girlfriend Dr. Claire Temple and her colleague Dr. Noah Burstein. They have done so and, per Bushmaster’s orders, they give Luke Cage/ Carl Lucas their boss’s ultimatum. 
They make it clear to Power Man that to gain the release of those two doctors he has been close to for years, he must capture and deliver to Bushmaster one of his foes, private investigator Misty Knight. The villain doesn’t just send Shades and Comanche (at left) to abduct her because Misty’s associates, her investigative partner Colleen Wing and the superhero Iron Fist, stand beside her. 
ADVENTURE COMICS Vol 1 #461 (February 1979) 
Synopsis: Bill Jensen, a corrupt former D.A. just released from prison, has been gifted with superpowers like the ability to shoot mystic energy blasts, conjure up unearthly fire, walk up walls, produce a force field and more. He refuses to reveal how he has gained these powers. 
FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #44 (November 1965) 
Through a comic book coincidence, the Human Torch gets caught in the middle of a fight between the super villainess called Medusa and her fellow Inhuman called Gorgon. 
ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #70 (February 1978) 
Those villains are helmeted criminals known by numbers instead of names and led by the mysterious Number 1. Strike Force has over a score of members, and they wield high-tech weaponry and equipment. 
SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #1 (May 1963) 
ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #64 (February 1977) 
EERIE #57 (June 1974) 
NOTE: Warren Publications are fondly remembered for their horror and sci-fi magazines like Creepy, Eerie, 1984 and Vampirella (at right). As magazines and not comic books, Warren’s output was not limited by the comics code and could therefore delve into adult themes and intense violence. 
ADVENTURE COMICS Vol 1 #431 (February 1974) 
When situations demanding greater than human intervention arose, Jim could become the Spectre, his ghostly form in which he wielded vast powers that he used against earthly villains as well as supernatural menaces. 
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