Here’s the sixteenth and final part of Balladeer’s Blog’s look at Spider-Man 1970s Classics. For Part One click HERE.
SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #149 (October 1975)
Title: Even if I Live, I Die
Villain: The Jackal
NOTE: Of these two final installments of the lengthy Jackal/ Gwen Stacy saga, this first one wraps up the main storyline and the second one (below) provides a necessary epilogue to tuck away a major loose end.
Synopsis: We pick up right where we left off, on the rooftop where Spider-Man just defeated Tarantula, the Jackal’s latest cat’s paw against our hero. With the Gwen Stacy clone and the ear-plugged & blind-folded Ned Leeds nearby, Spider-Man is lapsing into unconsciousness from the slash he received on the back of his head from the drugged talons of the Jackal.
At last revealing why he has always been undetectable by Spider-Man’s spider sense, the villain removed his mask to reveal that he is really Professor Miles Warren, Peter Parker’s fatherly mentor and academic advisor for years at Empire State University. (Professor Warren had been a supporting character in Spider-Man stories since 1965.)
Peter finally succumbs to unconsciousness, and when he comes to, he is in the basement of an abandoned tenement building in lower Manhattan. He is bound to a table by specially-constructed straps and is alone with the Jackal, who is sitting on a nearby stool. Continue reading
CAROL’S CHRISTMAS (2021) – Balladeer’s Blog’s Twelfth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues with this independent flick filmed in Las Vegas for $500,000.00. Special thank you to reader Lee Anne, who in the past recommended 
Regular readers know I’m open to all kinds of dark interpretations of A Christmas Carol, but unlike efforts like the year 2000 Brazilian film in which Scrooge is a drug dealer, Carol’s Christmas is not a flawed but artful dive into a holiday story which gets distorted by grim realities. 
BEYOND THE UNIVERSE (1981) – My review of the tenth and final hilariously bad science fiction film from 1980 and 1981 by the Anne Spielberg, Robert Emenegger and Allan Sandler team. Yes, ten films in two years. 
THE REAL DIVIDE IN AMERICA: DEMOCRATS VS THE REST OF US – A piece about how the real divisiveness in America is not black vs white, rich vs poor, gay vs straight, etc. It’s really Democrats vs the rest of us. *** Remember, the people who call others White Supremacists do not speak for all black people, they speak for DEMOCRATS, some of whom happen to be black.
*** People who oppose voter i.d. do not represent all people of color, they represent DEMOCRATS.
ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – Remarkable Experiences In Another World (1899) 
WITH THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION IN SYRIA (1928) – A memoir from a Legionnaire about the war in Syria during the 1920s. Click 
MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1940s – When they were called Timely Comics. 
FUZZ (1972) – This movie is still marketed as if it’s a vehicle for Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch but in reality it’s an ensemble movie. And not a very good one. Fuzz is based on the 22nd book – of nearly 60 – in the 87th Precinct series of police novels by Ed McBain aka Evan Hunter. The books were set in the fictional city of Isola, but this movie is set in Boston.
Obviously, the science and public image of law enforcement has gone through many, many changes over the decades. The movie Fuzz and its source novel reflect the stylish cynicism and gritty realism of police stories from the period. 
EIGHT JAMES WOODS MOVIES – My reviews of James Woods films like Videodrome, Salvador, The Hard Way and others. Click 
QUALITY COMICS SUPERHEROES – A look at the 1940s and 1950s superheroes from Quality Comics. Figures like Phantom Lady, Margo the Magician, Uncle Sam, Black Condor, etc. Click 
AGON: ATOMIC DRAGON (1964) – The often forgotten giant Japanese kaiju monster. Click 
ANTIFA SETS FIRE TO OCCUPIED BUILDING – Hate squads are gonna hate squad. Click 
FIRST SEMIFINAL – The VALDOSTA STATE BLAZERS took on the COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES OREDIGGERS in this game. A 10-3 1st Quarter lead for the Blazers turned into a 24-14 advantage by Halftime. Valdosta State made it a 34-14 game to end the 3rd Quarter, then withstood an Orediggers rally in the 4th for a 34-31 victory. 
BR’ER RABBIT’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992) – Balladeer’s Blog’s Twelfth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues! Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, Br’er Bear, Br’er Gator and many other characters created by Joel Chandler Harris are featured in this animated version of the Dickens tale. 
All the characters live in a town in the American South, where a charity stage production of A Christmas Carol is being performed, with the proceeds going to benefit the terribly ill Timmy Mouse. No, not “Br’er Timmy” or anything like that, just Timmy Mouse as our Tiny Tim stand-in. 
SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #147 (August 1975) 
Leeds gives Peter copies of the long line of medical tests that the new Gwen has undergone in the past few days. Somehow the cloning process was accelerated, meaning she was created mere months ago, even though she is an adult as much as the real Gwen was when she was killed. 
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