Superheroes continue to dominate pop culture right now and Balladeer’s Blog’s readers let me hear it when I go too long without a superhero blog post. Here is my look at the Fox Features Syndicate heroes from the Golden Age.
DYNAMO
Secret Identity: Jim Andrews, electrical scientist
First Appearance: Science Comics #1 (February 1940)
Origin: Jim Andrews risked his life to contain a potentially deadly accident at the electrical lab where he worked, inadvertently gaining superpowers from the incident. He donned a costume and fought the forces of evil as Dynamo.
Powers: Dynamo could use his electrical powers to shoot electric rays from his hands, to fly, to surround himself with a force field and to magnify his own strength.
Comment: In his very first appearance this hero went by the nom de guerre Electro, but in his remaining 24 adventures called himself Dynamo instead.
BLACK LION
Secret Identity: George Davis, big-game hunter
First Appearance: Wonderworld Comics #21 (January 1941)
Origin: George Davis’ career as a big-game hunter had brought him wealth and fame. Having met all the challenges of hunting members of the animal kingdom he decided to go after the most dangerous game of all: human criminals. To that end he donned a costume and took on supervillains and Nazi agents.
Powers: The Black Lion was at the peak of human condition and had the agility of an Olympic gymnast. He was also an expert at unarmed combat and could outfight multiple opponents at once. His totem animal the lion gave him superhuman healing ability. Continue reading
Balladeer’s Blog’s love of quality horror ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) has been well established. In the past I’ve examined productions like Local 58, Claridryl and Jack Torrance (NOT the character from The Shining.) 
The eerie storyline revolves around the disappearance of a beautiful young Polish woman named Ania Slowinska and the dark, seemingly supernatural forces behind it. As the tale unfolds it becomes apparent other women have fallen victim to the same forces, with one having had all her teeth removed after being murdered. 
Organs and limbs seem to be stolen for transplant use and replaced with porcelain or papier mache substitutes. This practice extends even to the heads of the victims … sometimes while they’re still alive. Obviously this is for adults only. 
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! As always Balladeer’s Blog marks the event with a few looks at neglected conflicts from America’s past. The servicemen who fought in those actions are just as deserving of being memorialized as those who fought in more familiar wars. 
WILLIAM F LUKES 
Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television and the RLJ Companies, joined the chorus of African-American voices condemning Democrat Joe Biden for his blatant public expression of the Democrats’ view that they “own” the black vote as surely as they owned black people on their plantations. 
Note also that Biden condescendingly used the word “ain’t” the way so many Democrats do when talking to voters of color, as if it will endear them to those voters. Joe Biden’s career has been marked by draconian legal measures against African-Americans, sometimes in conjunction with the disgraced Hillary Clinton, who called African-American males “super-predators.” 
To help clarify all this for overseas readers and put such sentiments in their historical context: 
These patronizing dilettantes originally demonstrated a protective, or at least supportive, attitude toward African-Americans, who in turn rewarded the Democrat Party’s candidates with almost unanimous support.
A large portion of the Democrats’ power structure rested on the myth that all African-Americans were still Democrats. The mere existence of increasing numbers of African-Americans choosing their own political affiliation was a massive threat to the Democrats’ decades-old propaganda advantages: their false claim that they and they alone represented the wishes of all minority groups and their incessant accusations of racism aimed at all dissenting voices.
Episode: THE HORSE OF THE INVISIBLE (October 18th, 1971) 
Given that this program is titled The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes the best way to describe The Ghost of the Invisible would be as a hybrid of The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Speckled Band crossed with the John Silence series of occult mysteries. 
MAY ??, 1800: The Adams defeated and captured the French ship Grinder. 
Memorial Day Weekend is fast upon us with this topical post from Balladeer’s Blog. This one covers some naval actions from America’s undeclared, neither fish nor fowl, quasi-Naval War with France. Often called Stoddert’s War in reference to Benjamin Stoddert, America’s first Secretary of the Navy, this conflict was waged largely in the West Indies. 
