For this weekend’s escapist superhero post Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at the way the Marvel Comics writers became so enamored of the alien menace in the first Alien movie that they did their own imitation/ homage of it in the form of an insectoid alien race called the Brood.
The Brood could implant embryos inside captives and as those embryos matured, they would transform the host into another Brood creature. The X-Men eventually fought bunches of the Brood all at once but remember – as derivative as the Brood were that X-Men serial came BEFORE the movie Aliens in 1986.
First up, however, comes the earlier story in which the writers “paid homage” to Alien by way of a member of the Lovecraftian race of demons called the N’Garai (Marvel’s imitation of Cthulhu & company). They made this N’Garai resemble the xenormorph in Alien and used the single word title Demon. Kitty Pryde even made subtle references to Alien during the story.
X-MEN Vol 1 143 (March 1981)
Title: Demon
Villain: An unnamed demon of the N’Garai race
Synopsis: This odd Christmas story opened up with a flashback to the end of the X-Men’s very first encounter with the N’Garai back in X-Men #96 (December 1975). It skipped over Iron Fist’s clash with the N’Garai as well as Satana’s battle with them.
Somehow another N’Garai demon has gotten loose in upstate New York and is roaming the forest on Christmas Eve. A romantic couple show up to chop down a Christmas tree for themselves but fall victim to the demon.
Cut to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, where Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Angel go off on dates with Mariko Yashida, Amanda Sefton and Candy Southern, respectively. Storm, Colossus and Professor X leave in the professor’s Rolls Royce to pursue their plans for the evening and this leaves the newest member of the team – Sprite (Kitty Pryde) – alone for a few hours.
Sprite winds up being attacked by the nameless N’Garai demon. It pursues her throughout the mansion and the creature’s resemblance to the menace in Alien reminds Sprite that the crew in that movie used flamethrowers against the monster. Continue reading
FOUR QUARTERS WEREN’T ENOUGH – This bizarre game pitted the WEST LIBERTY UNIVERSITY HILLTOPPERS against the home standing FAIRMONT STATE FALCONS. Neither team scored in the entire 1st Half, then the Hilltoppers went on top 21-0 in the 3rd Quarter. The Falcons proceeded to score 21 unanswered points in the 4th to force Overtime. In the Extra Session, Fairmont State notched a Field Goal followed by a Touchdown for West Liberty U in a 27-24 win. 
DOUBLING UP ON THE COMPETITION – The ASSUMPTION UNIVERSITY GREYHOUNDS hosted the FRANKLIN PIERCE UNIVERSITY RAVENS. The Greyhounds kept the Ravens off the scoreboard until the 4th Quarter while putting up 7 points in all 4 stanzas. The final tally was Assumption U. 28 Franklin Pierce U. 14. 
Next we have a series of scenes featuring some of the more sinful citizens of the deep southern town. Adultery, bigotry, covetousness, greed and outright murderous passions lurk behind every corner of this Mayberry-turned-Sodom and Gomorrah. These scenes go on so long even Larry Buchanan would scream “Pick up the pace, dammit!” at the screen.
DEVIL-BUG
THE NIGHTMARE ENDS ON HALLOWEEN (supercut) – Back in 2004 Chris R. Notarile wrote and directed one of the most acclaimed fan films in the horror genre with The Nightmare Ends on Halloween. Following the comparative disappointment of Freddy vs Jason the previous year, Notarile produced a short film pitting Freddy Krueger of Nightmare on Elm Street fame against Michael Myers from the Halloween franchise.
For this weekend’s escapist superhero post Balladeer’s Blog will go with a Halloween theme and examine the Marvel Comics character Gabriel, often called an exorcist and demon or devil hunter. 
HAUNT OF HORROR Vol 2 #2 (July 1974) 
Father Lazar goes to the Empire State Building and pushes the button for the 13th Floor, which does not really exist but IS the way to enter Gabriel’s other-dimensional office. That office is cluttered with occult tomes on exorcism and once Lazar enters, he is greeted by Gabriel’s sultry assistant Desadia. 
GALLOPING TO A WIN – The KENTUCKY STATE THOROBREDS scored 4 rushing Touchdowns on the road against the SAVANNAH STATE TIGERS. A 7-0 1st Quarter lead for the Thorobreds turned into a 21-6 advantage by Halftime. Each team added another TD to their tally in the 3rd Quarter before a scoreless 4th as KSU won out 28-13. 
TIGER ON TIGER VIOLENCE – In this game the EDWARD WATERS UNIVERSITY TIGERS got off the schneid for 2022 against the visiting MOREHOUSE COLLEGE MAROON TIGERS. The Tigers were on top of their Maroon opponents 28-7 by the Half and kept up the pressure from there. The final score was Edward Waters 49 Maroon Tigers 20. 
MR. GRUBBE’S NIGHT WITH MEMNON (1843) – Written by Albert Smith and republished in 1857, this tale centered around one Mister Withers Grubbe, an elderly inhabitant of the western part of London. Grubbe is an enthusiast when it comes to ancient history among other topics and visits a London Museum to see their new exhibit of Egyptian antiquities. 
After spending time marveling at assorted statues of various sizes and a mummy identified as Memnon, Withers finds a quiet corner to sit down for a rest. He falls asleep and when he wakes up, he discovers it is long past closing time and somehow he was overlooked when the museum was locking up. 
THE MINI-MUNSTERS (1973) – This children’s cartoon version of The Munsters originally aired on October 27th, 1973 as one of the hour-long (including commercials) episodes of the second season of ABC’s Saturday Superstar Movie. That version was 44 minutes long without commercials. ABC later edited it down into a VERY incoherent 22-minute version that they proceeded to combine with commercials to make a half-hour Halloween cartoon which they would broadcast into the 1980s. 
Not that the 44-minute version is a masterpiece, but it holds together much better than the edited version. You can judge for yourself because no less than THREE versions of The Mini-Munsters are available online: The original 44-minute version in color, the 22-minute version in color AND a black & white version of the 44-minute original. 
SAMSON IN THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS – Samson was born the son of Manoah, a man of the Dan tribe and his wife Zelalponit aka Hazelalponit of the tribe of Judah. 
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