This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will look at the stories that Marvel Comics offered up for the 100th issue milestone for its various titles.
AVENGERS Vol 1 #100 (Jun 1972)
Title: Whatever Gods There Be
Avengers Roster: Thor, Wasp, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Hulk, Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, the Swordsman, Black Widow, Hercules, Black Panther, the Vision, Black Knight and Captain Marvel (Rick Jones)
Villains: Ares and the Enchantress
Synopsis: This issue picks up where the previous one left off. Ares, the Greco-Roman God of War, has allied himself with the Avengers’ longtime foe the Enchantress. Ares has imprisoned the other gods and taken over Mount Olympus.
He and the Enchantress are about to unleash armies of monsters from Greek myths to conquer the Earth first and then Asgard. Thanks to the former Avenger Hercules our heroes were brought into all this over the previous two issues.
The Avengers summon every single hero who had ever served as an Avenger to a meeting at the Black Knight’s Garrett Castle home (at right) to plot strategy against Ares and the Enchantress. From the mystic brazier in Garrett Castle, Sir Percy, the ghost of the current day Black Knight’s ancestor (featured in Marvel’s 1950s comic books) addresses all of the Avengers, Force Ghost style. Continue reading
JULY 4TH, 1788 – The Constitution of the United States is starting to come into full effect this calendar year, instituting the government we are still officially ruled by. First elections are scheduled for later in the year.
It may be my fondness for mythology that makes me love to watch particular movies around particular holidays. I say that because many of the well- known myths were recited on ancient holidays when their subject matter was relevant to those festivities. The stories helped accentuate the meaning of the special events and that’s the reason I love holiday-themed movies. 
*** In general, we are all familiar with the original 13 Colonies that broke away from England during the American Revolution. Because Maine is not named among those 13 colonies, some people are confused when it is mentioned as the location for various battles of the Revolutionary War. 
Cratinus was one of the Big 3 in Attic Old Comedy along with Aristophanes and Eupolis, both of whom were much younger than he was. From the fragmentary evidence available on Dionysalexandros, it appears to be a possibly unique hybrid of Attic Old Comedy and traditional Satyr Plays. 
For the most part the silly conspiracy theories about the establishment of the United States are good only for laughs. One of my favorites, however, features a speech from a mysterious figure usually associated with Freemasons, Rosicrucians and/or the Bavarian Illuminati of Adam Weishaupt. 
“They (the British) may stretch our necks on all the gibbets in the land. They may turn every rock into a scaffold, every tree into a gallows, every home into a grave and yet the words of that parchment can never die!” 
APRIL 2nd – Off the coast of Delaware the British frigates HMS Perseus and HMS Roebuck spotted the South Carolina Navy’s schooner the USS Defense, captained by Thomas Pickering. Outnumbered, the Defense fled and the British vessels pursued her from roughly 6:00am to 1:00pm. 
Before MST3K we had The Texas 27 Film Vault! In the middle 1980s, way down on Level 31 Randy and Richard, machine-gun toting Film Vault Technicians First Class, hosted this neglected cult show which debuted Saturday February 9th, 1985. Balladeer’s Blog continues its celebration of the program’s FORTIETH anniversary year with this schlock film set on the 4th of July. 
SERIAL: Before showing Frogs our members of the Film Vault Corps (“the few, the proud, the sarcastic”) showed an episode of the 1950 Columbia serial Atom Man vs Superman. Kirk Alyn starred as Superman with Lyle Talbot as his archenemy Lex Luthor. 
MISS LIBERTY 
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