This weekend’s escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog looks at the first several stories of one of Marvel Comics’ most infamous villains: Dr. Victor Von Doom.
FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #5 (July 1962)
Title: Prisoners of Doctor Doom
Synopsis: At the Baxter Building, the Human Torch cruelly taunts the Thing that he resembles the monster called the Hulk who has run amok in the American southwest. (Hulk #1 was published in May 1962).
Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman break up the resulting fight between the two. Suddenly, their power and backup generators are knocked out and a high-tech netting of some sort isolates the top five floors from the rest of the Baxter Building.
Over a loudspeaker, the Fantastic Four hear demands issued by a voice that Reed recognizes as that of an old college acquaintance – Victor Von Doom, now a PhD. Dr. Doom threatens to start killing unless the Fantastic Four surrender to him and enter his massive airship.
To save any innocent bystanders from harm, our heroes do so. They meet the armored Dr. Doom, who explains that his experiment which went awry and caused his expulsion long ago left his face scarred, so he now hides it behind a steel mask.
NOTE: The old pulp magazine villain Steel Mask, a foe of G-8 and His Battle Aces, wore such a mask to hide his hideously scarred face beginning in 1937, so though Dr. Doom did indeed come before Darth Vader, Steel Mask came before Dr. Doom.
Victor blames Reed for causing the experiment to misfire, but all Reed did was try to warn Doom that his calculations were wrong. Reed was right, but rather than admit that, the crazed Victor Von Doom has always maintained that Reed sabotaged his college experiment. Continue reading
SWORDSMAN OF SIENA (1962) – In the Spanish-controlled Italian states of the 1500s, English mercenary Thomas Stanswood (Stewart Granger) is currently employed by the Italian nobles of Siena. The resented Don Carlos (Riccardo Garrone), Imperial Governor of Siena, is forcing a political marriage between himself and the beautiful Orietta Arconti (Sylva Koscina). 
Meanwhile, Orietta’s younger sister Serenella falls in love with the mercenary and can tell his sympathies really lean toward the rebels, like hers do. Amid action and intrigues in which Thomas saves Orietta from the rebels called the Ten, Serenella gets killed by Don Carlos’ men. 
THE NEW ADAM (1924) – Female author Noelle Roger (real name Helene Pittard) wrote this story in 1924. It was translated into English in 1926. 
SCORPIO (1976-1977) – From September 18th, 1976 to August or September of 1977 Scorpio (actor name unknown) hosted Thing Theatre at 1:00pm on Saturday afternoons. Thing Theatre aired on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s WPGH-TV, which was back after having declared bankruptcy years earlier when 
Losing interest, Barrett and the others wandered off, leaving the coffin sitting there. As one does, I guess. Suddenly, a man in tattered clothing with messy hair and sporting an eyepatch emerged from the coffin evilly laughing at how he had fooled the others. 
PART NINE – Ozidi’s character development will continue in this installment. It starts out like the previous part, with our main character being sought by another who has heard of the many powerful opponents that Ozidi has slain and wanting to see for himself how well the young man can fight. 
Tebesonoma roams the jungles near the Niger River until he comes face to face with Ozidi, who as usual stalks the land looking for adventure. The seven-headed giant speaks to Ozidi about how much he has heard about him and goes down a list of all the figures who have fallen in combat with him. He then challenges our hero to battle.
BANACEK (1972-1974) – George Peppard starred as insurance investigator Thomas Banacek solving seemingly impossible thefts in this rotating series from NBC’s Wednesday Night Mystery Movie. NBC launched the Wednesday Night Mystery series in an attempt to duplicate the success of its Sunday Night Mystery Movie which had launched iconic detective shows like Columbo, McMillan and Wife & McCloud. 
An insurance detective recovering the stolen item would save the parent company from having to pay the entire insurance policy amount. They would only have to pay a certain percentage to the detective solving the theft and recovering the insured object. 
Labor Day is the appropriate time to post this look at neglected working-class folk hero Joe Magarac. This figure was the Steel Mill equivalent of Paul Bunyan and John Henry. 
As a lame play on words since this is Labor Day season I’ll present Joe Magarac’s origin and then depict his tales as “Labors” like in The Labors of Hercules. 
NAIA OVER NCAA DIVISION TWO – The NAIA’s FLORIDA MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY LIONS traveled to face the higher NCAA Division Two team the ALLEN UNIVERSITY YELLOWJACKETS. Allen University parlayed their 10-7 1st Quarter edge into a 31-21 advantage by Halftime. From there the Lions shut out their opponents and came from behind for a 38-31 Upset. 
KNOCKING OFF NUMBER THREE – Down in NCAA Division Three, the 5th ranked team in the nation – the WHEATON COLLEGE THUNDER – played host to the number 3 UNIVERSITY OF MOUNT UNION PURPLE RAIDERS. The Thunder put Mount Union on Upset Alert with their 17-7 lead at the Half only for the Purple Raiders to tie things up at 17-17 in the 3rd Quarter. In the 4th, Wheaton College managed a 24-23 victory. 
Our heroes don their costumes and as Captain America and Bucky they find Mara’s lair and defeat all her Nazi troops and her booby-traps. Then Cap defeats the countess and her purse’s weaponry – grenades, a gas-gun and a regular gun. 
VIKING TOUGH – The VALLEY CITY STATE VIKINGS welcomed the DICKINSON STATE BLUE HAWKS last night. A 3-0 Blue Hawks lead in the 1st Quarter turned into a 10-7 edge at Halftime. A big 3rd Quarter for the Vikings put them up 21-10, but they had to hold on against Dickinson State in the 4th for a 28-25 win. 
UPSETS IN THE RANKINGS – The INDIANA UNIVERSITY (PA) CRIMSON HAWKS took it on the road against the number 12 team in the nation – the ASHLAND UNIVERSITY EAGLES and notched a 34-24 victory over them ### And the 24th ranked UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA AT DULUTH BULLDOGS toppled the visiting number 13 AUGUSTANA (SD) UNIVERSITY VIKINGS 30-23. 
