Weekends are the time for Balladeer’s Blog’s escapist forays into superheroes, who seem to be everywhere these days. This time around it will be a multi-week look at Iron Man and one of his most memorable story runs from the 1970s.
IRON MAN Vol 1 #52 (November 1972)
Title: Raga, Son of Fire
Villains: The Black Lama and Raga, Son of Fire
NOTE: This is still the decades-long period of time when Tony Stark covered up his identity as Iron Man by pretending publicly that the armored superhero was really his high-tech bodyguard. That explanation allayed suspicion about why Iron Man so often showed up wherever Tony Stark was at the time.
Synopsis: This issue starts off with Tony Stark in his Iron Man armor using his high-tech training room at Stark Industries Headquarters on Long Island. Our hero uses this hidden area as a testing ground for every upgrade he adds to his armor.
This afternoon all of the destructive devices and traps are overcome by Iron Man’s latest improvements. The test session over with, Tony Stark catches a flight to California. With his engagement to long-time girlfriend Marianne Rodgers called off recently our hero is off on a vacation.
He starts partying with other members of the Jet Set in the on-board lounge during his flight westward. With Tony once again available – and with his secret heart transplant working perfectly – he returns to his old playboy ways. The women on board vie with each other for Stark’s attention, smitten with his looks, brains and immense wealth. Continue reading
Superheroes continue to dominate pop culture right now, and as I’ve often said, I think hero tales work best when set in their original time period. 
HERO FOR HIRE Vol 1 #1 (June 1972) 
Using those powers, Lucas escaped Seagate Prison but misled the authorities into thinking he died in the ocean while trying to get away. With Carl Lucas pronounced dead, our main character settled in New York City under the name Luke Cage and became a literal Hero for Hire, using his superpowers to earn a living. 
CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON Vol 1 #183 (March 1975) 
Dialogue from the four combatants lets us know that Nomad came to Harlem looking for the Falcon and hasn’t been able to find him. Gamecock and his two underlings make it clear they were looking for Falcon, too, to kill him. 
CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON Vol 1 #180 (December 1974) 
GEORGES (1843) – Published just one year before The Three Musketeers, this novel is not only a rollicking adventure full of action, romance and double-crosses but it deals with racial issues in such a way that you would have thought it would have been adapted for film four or five decades ago. The title character uses his sword to fight slavery! 
CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON Vol 1 #176 (August 1974) 
NOTE: In spite of my joke above, I do recognize that THIS time that Cap quit let the Marvel Comics writers explore competing nationwide feelings of the time period. I would argue that this time also should have been the last time this gimmick was pulled. Everybody always knows that Steve Rogers will go back to being Captain America no matter how many times he quits.
A NARRATIVE OF THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF PAUL AERMONT AMONG THE PLANETS (1873) – I shortened the title when naming this blog post. Paul Aermont was the pseudonym of an unknown author, so full credit cannot be officially given. 
HELLSGARDE (1939) – Sadly, this is the last of C.L. Moore’s Jirel of Joiry adventures, but the character gets to go out on a high note. The handsome but treacherous Guy of Garlot ambushes twenty of Jirel’s soldiers and imprisons them in the dungeons of Castle Garlot. 
CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON Vol 1 #174 (June 1974) 
QUEST OF THE STAR STONE (1937) – It’s crossover time! C.L. Moore decided to do a story in which her two most famous pulp creations – 
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