This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel’s Avengers series – issues 114-135.
AVENGERS Vol 1 #114 (August 1973)
Title: The Night of the Swordsman
Avengers Roster: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, the Vision, Mantis, the Swordsman
Villain: Lion-God
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Synopsis: The villainous Swordsman rejoins the Avengers with a pardon and alongside his mysterious romantic partner Mantis, making her very first full appearance. Mantis is part Vietnamese and part unknown at this point.
The mysteries surrounding this superheroine will be resolved in this story arc that would probably be as famous as The Dark Phoenix Saga over at The X-Men if Marvel hadn’t pointlessly retconned so much of it decades later. Thanos, Kang, Loki, Ultron and Dormammu are among the villains. Continue reading
THE CAT – Greer Nelson caught on to a conspiracy to take over the world via armies of women clad in superpower-granting costumes. She donned the prototype and called herself the Cat before taking down the entire sinister organization. 
TIGRA THE WERE-WOMAN – After the Cat’s series got canceled from low sales Marvel added Greer Nelson to their 1970s horror characters as Tigra. The Cat was mortally wounded in a battle with Hydra, but Marvel’s race of cat-people saved her life by granting her an amulet that turned her into Tigra the Were-Woman. 
FLASH VS HIS ROGUES GALLERY – I looked at the 1960s to 1980s stories in which Flash did battle with many of his foes assembled during their Semi-Annual Convention of Flash Villains and its related mayhem. 
BLACK LIGHTNING – Beginning in the 1970s, High School teacher Jefferson Pierce became the costumed superhero called Black Lightning. He used his new powers to fight crime and other dark forces in Metropolis’ Suicide Slums.
BATMAN: THE REAL YEAR ONE 
MERZAH THE MYSTIC 
GARDIEN DE LA REPUBLIQUE (Guardian of the Republic) 
In a nice touch the Marquis de Lafayette was secretly the very first Gardien de la Republique (seen in costume at right) when he returned to France after America’s Revolutionary War. Since then, as mentioned above, the title and costumed identity have been passed down to other figures for nearly 250 years. 
CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #1 (October 1975) 
MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #1 (January 1977) 
The team name Sanduguan dates to the era of Filipino resistance to the Spanish colonial forces. Rebels would take an oath of blood to the cause. Sanduguan, the term for the oath ritual, has also been translated as One Blood and Blood Pact. 
SANDATA (Weapon)
THE SHADOW
Comment: Many of this hero’s villains were femmes fatale along the line of 
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