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
MISS LIBERTY 
TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR (1887) – Nearly eighty years before the movie Fantastic Voyage, this work of “ancient” science fiction detailed a party of shrunken heroes on an odyssey through a human being’s body. This cleverly-titled tale was written by Alfred Taylor Schofield under the name Luke T Courteney. 
CAPTAIN MORS VS HIS MORTAL ENEMY – The brilliant and deadly Ned Gully, Kapitan Mors’ archenemy, at last returns! Along with his female associate Nelly he is in the Rocky Mountains overseeing the construction of his newest airship – one capable of vertical take-off and landing. 
SILVER SCORPION 
Powers: The Silver Scorpion was in peak physical condition and excelled at jiu-jitsu and other martial arts. In addition, she was as agile as an acrobat. 
FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH (1907) – Written by Thomas William Lawson, a writer and stock manipulator who made a fortune from shady stock deals … in between advocating for cleaning up Wall Street to shut down those fleece jobs. The reforms Lawson campaigned for were taken up decades later when Franklin Roosevelt appointed future Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas to head the Securities Exchange Commission. 
Jim Randolph, one of the novel’s main characters, is in the T.R. mold: he may be a bloated rich pig but at least he’s a bloated rich pig with a sense of noblesse oblige. Jim shares Teddy Roosevelt’s disdain for the Trusts and for con men who use the stock market to rip off their clients. 
SECRETS OF THE METEORITE – Once again Kapitan Mors and his crew take off from their secret island base on a space exploration mission. Among the crew of Mors’ spaceship the Meteor are the regulars – Executive Officer Lindo of India, Engineers Stern and Schrecken, Ship’s Astronomer Van Halen, plus Science Officers Anita and Lucy Long. 
CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #1 (June 1982) 
They both agree that since Earth has the greatest concentration of superbeings it will be the site of their mysterious contest. The two villains abduct every single superhero in Marvel Comics at the time, plus several new ones from around the world who were just introduced in this story. 
A BATTLE BETWEEN AIRSHIPS – Word reaches our Air Pirate Kapitan Mors about French efforts to duplicate his Luftschiff in anticipation of the global conflict that many fear is inevitable. Still considering himself outside international law, Mors determines to nip in the bud any challenge to his aircraft. 
BATTLE BRICK ROAD IS NOT TO BE MISSED.
Get ready for Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion like you’ve never seen them before – as technologically and biologically enhanced warriors in a dystopian world that not even Mad Max could survive. 
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