MARVEL’S 1950s CHARACTERS

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the 1950s characters of Marvel Comics – then known as Atlas Comics. 

leopard girlLEOPARD GIRL

Secret Identity: Gwen (no last name ever given)

First Appearance: Jungle Tales Vol 1 #1 (October 1954)

Origin: Gwen supernaturally bonded with a pack of jungle leopards as a little girl.

leopard girl 2Powers: Leopard Girl employed her supernatural “cry of the leopards” to use a small army of leopards to help her fight the forces of evil in Africa. She could interact with the Dark Continent’s ghosts, who saw her as an ally.

This heroine also had greater than human strength, agility and speed. Her senses were heightened as were her healing abilities.

leopard girl 3Comment: In her secret identity as “Gwen”, Leopard Girl worked with research scientist Dr. Hans Kreitzer. Her fellow assistant was named Peter, whom she once carried with one arm while swinging through the jungle.

In time, Gwen became a cook for Sandra Danning and her husband. Continue reading

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FEBRUARY 23rd ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

breaking presidentFrom Joe Biden’s corporate fascist kleptocracy, here’s the latest on current events from Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog.

BEYOND THE SPOILS SYSTEM OF OLD: BIDEN FOCUSING HIS ENTIRE REGIME ON VOTING ANTICS. Ignoring Voter I.D. laws is just the tip of the iceberg. And we lack a competent opposition party to fight this.

nancy pelosi is garbagePRIVILEGED WHITE ONE PERCENTER DEMOCRAT NANCY PELOSI SCANDALS REGARDING INSIDER TRADING STILL GOING ON AS SHE GETS OBSCENE PROFITS. But our DOJ is too busy pursuing non-crimes to care.

DEMOCRAT MEDIA OUTLET FIRES AND SEIZES THE FILES OF FEMALE REPORTER INVESTIGATING THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY SCANDALS. More HERE. Banana Republic America strikes again, this time against Catherine Herridge!

MAN CHARGED WITH ABUSING HIS STATUS AS AN FBI AGENT TO STEAL DURING HIS PARTICIPATION IN FBI RAIDS. FBI = Fuggeda Bout Integrity.

Slovenly judge

An arrested drunk? Nope, it’s the alleged judge.

EVEN MORE VOICES RAISED TO DENOUNCE ARTHUR ENGORON’S ABSURD AND UNFOUNDED KANGAROO COURT’S VERDICT AGAINST TRUMP. More HERE.

THE BUSINESSES WHO ARE NOW LEAVING NEW YORK AFTER THE PERVERSE VERDICT AGAINST TRUMP. Who can blame them? The Democrats have made it clear they will use the courts against any and all perceived political dissent.

REPUBLICAN GARBAGE PAUL RYAN AND MIKE PENCE DECLARE WAR ON POPULISM VIA THEIR NEW ORGANIZATION. And just who provided the 20 million dollars to launch this group? Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

JUNGLE JIM (1948)

jungle jim 1948JUNGLE JIM (1948) – Decades before Raiders of the Lost Ark, “Jungle Jim” Bradley, mercenary jungle guide and adventurer, was fighting Nazis, Communist Spies and other menaces while finding lost cities & ancient artifacts, all while romancing lovely ladies. Throw in the occasional dinosaur, giant spider or huge, man-eating eel and enjoy!

A modern Jungle Jim franchise could combine the best elements of Indiana Jones, Crocodile Dundee and Allan Quatermain. The Rock is too old now, but years ago his love of filming in jungles would have made him ideal for the role.

weissmJungle Jim, a former comic strip character, was featured in a 1937 serial, a series of movies in the 1940s and 1950s, plus a television series in that latter decade. Former Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller played Jungle Jim in everything but the 1937 serial.

At any rate, 1948’s Jungle Jim was Weissmuller’s first appearance as the character. Fifteen more movies and 26 television episodes would follow in all their fun, outdated, absurd and So Bad They’re Good glory.

THE STORY:  Continue reading

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COLLEGE BASKETBALL POSTSEASON UNDERWAY: LAST NIGHT’S RESULTS

The divisions of college basketball covered by Balladeer’s Blog tipped off their postseason conference tournaments last night.

NORTH STAR ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

mayville sROUND ONE: GAME ONE – The MAYVILLE STATE COMETS took the court against the VALLEY CITY STATE VIKINGS. By Halftime the Comets held a 39-32 advantage over their opponents. After the break, Mayville State got more and more separation from the Vikings for an 82-68 victory. Jamison Kramer led the Comets with 18 points while teammate Darren Jones logged a Double Double of 10 points and 13 rebounds. Continue reading

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FURIOUS (1984) – BAD MARTIAL ARTS MOVIE

furiousFURIOUS (1984) – It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a classically bad movie here at Balladeer’s Blog. To remedy that here’s a look at the wildly out there film Furious, one of the most joyously weird action/ fantasy movies ever made. It’s like the most incoherent dream that anyone ever described to you. 

Furious starred the (at the time) up and coming Rhee Brothers, Simon and Phillip, who never quite became martial arts superstars but certainly carved out their own special niche in action films. Unfortunately, this flick is undeservedly obscure. As of this writing there are only four user reviews at IMDb. Therefore, for the first time since Musical Mutiny I’m going to present a step-by-step breakdown.  Continue reading

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NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS ROUNDUP: FEBRUARY 21st

Here’s the latest on current events from Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog. As always, I come to you from Joe Biden’s corporate fascist kleptocracy where even our court system is so corrupt that defendants have to wait for the appeals process to play out before true justice is achieved.

Democrat rat

DEMOCRAT PARTY

FCC INSIDERS CALL OUT THE BIDEN REGIME’S DOJ REFUSING TO PURSUE THE FRAUD CASE AGAINST A WEALTHY DONOR TO THE DEMOCRATS. If the guy had been a political enemy of the Biden Crime Family, though, we know the DOJ would have found an accommodating judge like political hack Arthur Engoron to try him before. Nobody venue shops like the Democrats to get the verdict The Party wants.

ARTHUR ENGORON’S GROTESQUE MISCONDUCT BROKEN DOWN IN EXCELLENT ARTICLE.

BIDEN CRIME FAMILY’S INVOLVEMENT WITH FAILED HOSPITAL CHAIN CALLED OUT. More HERE. And HERE. Wow. The Bidens are utter filth. Their victims deserve justice but Crooked Joe has been given a pass with the claim that he is mentally unfit. He’s like the Mafia’s Vincent “The Chin” Gigante.

... AND EVEN MORE PROOF ABOUT HOW FRAUD-FRIENDLY “VOTE BY MAIL” IS

democrats gagging rfk jrROBERT F. KENNEDY WINS AGAINST THE BIDEN REGIME’S CENSORSHIP.

MORE FALLOUT FROM AMERICA’S GROTESQUE C.I.A. AND OTHER AGENCIES TARGETING TRUMP BEFORE HE WAS EVEN ELECTED. As I’ve said before, one of the reasons I used to be a Democrat before going Independent was that the Democrats USED TO be outspokenly critical of the ugly conduct of the intelligence agencies. More HERE

CONNECTICUT ELECTION REDO OVER VOTE FRAUD. Ballot harvesting is illegal in Connecticut (as it should be everywhere) but that didn’t keep their election safe. Ballot harvesting helped the Democrats’ vote fraud in 2020 and 2018 as well.

POLL: DE FACTO THIRD PARTY PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP IS AMERICA’S MOST RESPECTED LEADER. Gets twice as many votes as Biden and also leaves Hillary and Obama in the dust.

COURAGEOUS PROTESTERS DELIVER OVER 300 POUNDS OF WASTE MATTER TO THE MANSION OF PRIVILEGED WHITE ONE PERCENTER NANCY PELOSI. An appropriate statement about how things are in San Francisco. By the way, why doesn’t Pelosi open one or two of her mansions to house illegal immigrants? She once told several of them she “wished she could take them all home with her.” So do it, Nancy. Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

GEORGE ADAMSKI: UFO CULT LEADER

book of adamskiGEORGE ADAMSKI (April 17th, 1891 – February 26th, 1965) occupied a special place in the history of cults. In 1936 he claimed to represent the Royal Order of Tibet and preached “its teachings” in California (where else).

In the 1940s Adamski became interested in UFO reports and readjusted his Royal Order of Tibet teachings a bit. He then insisted he was in touch with Space Brothers whose philosophy he was revealing to the public. (Imagine if L. Ron Hubbard and this guy had joined forces!)

george adamskiThe readjustments started after George Adamski published Pioneers of Space in 1949, a general look at the infant Flying Saucer phenomenon, and in 1952 he claimed to be in telepathic contact with a being from Venus. Claims of additional contacts followed, including hieroglyphic writings from the Venusian.

Working with Leslie Desmond, Adamski published Flying Saucers Have Landed in 1953. He became a famous lecturer on UFOs and extraterrestrials and established his new following of suckers disciples. Continue reading

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BALLADEER’S BLOG RANKS THE PRESIDENTS

american flag revo warEvery Presidents Day, Democrat media outlets release their hilariously biased lists ranking the presidents – lists compiled by Democrats who call themselves “historians.” (LMAO) Remember, the past decades have seen Democrats drive most non-Democrats from the “educational” profession.

Democrats like to pretend those prejudiced historians’ opinions carry more weight than the opinions of other people as part of their overall philosophy that everyone must bow to so-called “experts.” Remember, Democrats idiotically think someone has to be a biologist to define what a woman is as another example of their “Only experts who subscribe to The Party’s talking points should be listened to” approach.

american flag picI’m presenting my own ranking of the presidents in this blog post, but obviously people are free to disregard it as readily as they disregard all other such lists. These lists are fun conversationally, but none of them – including mine – have any relevance in the real world.

FIRST, I AM DOING WHAT ANY SUCH LIST COMPILER SHOULD DO IF THEY ARE SUPPOSEDLY TRYING TO BE AS OBJECTIVE AS POSSIBLE: I am omitting the most recent presidents because of the way emotion (and hysteria in some cases) can color perceptions of them. Presidential rankings lists which go all the way up to the present year are used simply as partisan political propaganda, not as true assessments.

Here is my ranking of U.S. presidents: Continue reading

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RECENT U.S. PRESIDENTS: PROS AND CONS

It’s Presidents Day, so here are some sarcastic takes on the more recent presidents, with both political parties shown the irreverence they deserve.  

EisenhowerDWIGHT EISENHOWER

Character Type: Well-meaning but befuddled sitcom grandfather.

Military Service: World War One and World War Two

Motto: “FOOORE!” (Remember,  the traditional cry as you’re teeing off in golf? Oh, never mind!)

Nickname: Uncle Milty

Pro: Knew enough to distrust Richard Nixon long before it became the national pastime. 

Con: Was the first president to pronounce nuclear as “nucular”.

john f kennedyJOHN F KENNEDY

Character Type: Rich playboy who disdained both Liberals and Conservatives and played by his own rules.

Military Service: World War Two

Motto: “Thank God for television!”

Nickname: FDR  

Pro: The man was shrewd enough to distrust both liberals and conservatives equally. I can’t praise that attitude highly enough given our present circumstances. 

Con: I can’t find out what happened to this guy. Anybody hear anything?  Continue reading

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Filed under humor, Neglected History, opinion, Presidential Rap Sheets

BALLADEER’S BLOG’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL RESULTS: FEB 18th

USCAA

newport news apprentice school buildersUSCAA OVER NCAA – The number 1 team in the USCAA (United States Collegiate Athletic Association) – the NEWPORT NEWS APPRENTICE SCHOOL BUILDERS (shipbuilders) – traveled to take on NCAA Division Two’s CHEYNEY UNIVERSITY WOLVES. By Halftime the Builders were on top 39-28. After the break they floored it, trouncing the Wolves by a final score of 98-56. Adrion Wall’s 20 points led the Apprentice School.

stanton fighting elksCENTURY CLUB – The STANTON UNIVERSITY FIGHTING ELKS topped fellow newbies the SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LEADERSHIP UNIVERSITY RHINOS by a count of 103-60   ###   Meanwhile, the (4) BRYANT & STRATTON COLLEGE AT SYRACUSE BOBCATS triumphed 102-62 over the PAUL SMITH’S COLLEGE BOBCATS   ###   And the BRYANT & STRATTON COLLEGE AT ROCHESTER BOBCATS defeated the visiting MOHAWK VALLEY COLLEGE HAWKS 105-90. Continue reading

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