Ed Piskor
The hubbub from Pittsburgh regarding comic book figure Ed Piskor has resulted in several of Balladeer’s Blog’s readers asking me some questions. I can put everybody’s minds at ease.
Not only had I never even heard of this guy before the allegations and screenshots regarding his alleged grooming and sexual misconduct with underaged girls became news this week, but I can assure everyone that I have NEVER done a blog post about any of this guy’s material. Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog looks at some of the long-running characters from Indonesia.
PUTRI BINTANG (Star Princess)
Secret Identity: Yati Suryanegara
Debut Year: 1954
Powers: Putri Bintang was one of the greatest martial arts fighters on Earth. She could outfight multiple opponents at once, whether armed or unarmed.
Comment: This costumed superheroine was engaged to fellow superhero Garuda Putih (White Garuda). Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog will look at the world of Iberia Inc. Since the 1990s those Spanish-made superheroes and the detailed world surrounding them have made them – in my opinion – Spain’s premier home-grown comic book I.P. since 1996. Sadly, there’s been no new material since 2009.
TRUENO (Thunder)
Secret Identity: Miguel Angel Roldan
Debut Year: 1996
Origin: Miguel Roldan was a two-time winner of the Nobel Prize in physics. After a laboratory accident destroyed both his hands and part of his arms, he designed cybernetic replacements that he customized with potent superweaponry. From then on he went into action as the superhero Trueno.
Powers: Trueno’s cyborg parts possess superhuman strength and can shoot energy blasts of varying levels. They can also generate a force field around him. If he is separated from his artificial arms he is able to control them remotely.
Comment: This hero was the leader of the superhero team called Iberia Inc. (Named, of course, for the Iberian Peninsula.) The group was headquartered on Isla de la Cartuja in Seville. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
This weekend’s light-hearted and escapist superhero blog post looks at the early stories featuring the Femizon called Thundra, who started as a villainess before reforming.
FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #129 (December 1972)
Title: The Frightful Four – Plus One
Villains: The Frightful Four (The Wizard, Sandman, the Trapster and Thundra)
NOTE: This was Thundra’s first appearance.
Synopsis: The Wizard, Sandman and the Trapster are still at large after their recent clash with Spider-Man and the Human Torch in Marvel Team-Up #2. Meanwhile, at the Baxter Building headquarters of the Fantastic Four, the Human Torch drops a bombshell on his teammates – he is quitting the team to go live with his true love Crystal of the Inhuman Royal Family.
Crystal, Johnny Storm’s longtime girlfriend and former member of the Fantastic Four, was forced to move back to the Inhumans’ hidden city of Attilan due to her body’s negative reaction to air pollution in the human world.
After a fierce argument in which Invisible Woman (Johnny’s sister) sides with the Torch, Johnny flies off in the Fantastic Four’s plane to reach Attilan. The arguing is reignited by Agatha Harkness (still in the years BEFORE she tutored the Scarlet Witch) who tells the Fantastic Four that she has urgent business and they must come pick up Reed and Sue’s son Franklin Richards at her Whisper Hill home. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
For this weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog, I will review the final few crossover stories involving DC’s Justice League and Justice Society. For my review of their 1963-1969 crossovers click HERE.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Vol 1 #183 (October 1980)
Title: Crisis on New Genesis
Justice Society Roster: Dr. Fate, Power Girl, the original Huntress and the original Wonder Woman (Diana Prince-TREVOR)
Justice League Roster: Firestorm, 2nd Superman, 2nd Green Lantern and 2nd Batman
New Gods Roster: Orion, Mr. Miracle, Big Barda, Metron, Lightray, Highfather and Oberon
Villains: Darkseid, the Fiddler, Icicle and the Shade
NOTE: This crossover has the JLA and JSA teaming up with the New Gods, Jack Kirby’s creations which were kind of the third version of the X-Men and the Inhumans. His fourth version, the Eternals, had been introduced back at Marvel during his 1970s return there.
Synopsis: The planet called New Genesis is the home of the superpowered figures called the New Gods. Their arch-foe is Darkseid, ruler of the planet Apokolips. As the story begins, Darkseid is still presumed dead following his previous clash with the New Gods.
The remaining evil forces on Apokolips – led by Granny Goodness (a Kirby creation, needless to say) – have raided New Genesis and abducted most of the inhabitants, then taken them as slaves back to their own planet. They did it with the help of three Earth-Two villains – Icicle, Shade and the Fiddler – so the New Gods use the annual get-together of the Justice Society and Justice League to recruit the two teams to help them recover their kidnapped population. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
This weekend’s light-hearted and escapist superhero blog post here at Balladeer’s Blog will examine the unjustly overlooked character the Heretic, a NON-Marvel and non-DC character.
THE HERETIC
Secret Identity: Dominic DeMarco
First Appearance: The Heretic #1 (November 1996)
Origin: Much of the Heretic’s past remains shrouded in mystery. In his early adult life he left the seminary and joined the Brotherhood of Cain, a covert order of religious assassins who presented themselves as righteous warriors crusading against evil.
That turned out to be a lie, so the disillusioned figure left the order and was branded a heretic, a label he embraced as his nom de guerre. Acting independently, he used the skills and abilities he learned from the order to begin his own war against the crime and corruption at all levels of society, including government and organized religion.
Gaining bizarre superpowers, the Heretic also battled the infernal forces behind all Earthly evil, from the lowest street crimes to the bloodiest wars. He learned that God and Satan exist. Heaven and Hell exist. And there’s no predicting which side the rest of us will end up on. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero blog post will examine the early years of Marvel Comics, which was called Timely Comics back in 1939.
Their first superhero series was titled Marvel Comics, which was changed to Marvel MYSTERY Comics beginning with the second issue.
MARVEL COMICS Vol 1 #1 (October 1939)
Title: The Human Torch
Synopsis: A human-looking android is created by scientist Phineas Horton and made known to the public. Bizarrely enough, the android’s body bursts into flames upon contact with the air (it’s the little things, really) so this misnamed Human (Android) Torch is sealed up tight to prevent it from running amok.
This figure escapes, learns to control its ability to “flame on” and “flame off”, and defeats the crime boss Anthony Sardo and his gang. When Phineas Horton hints at using his android creation to make money, the Torch rebels and flies off to function in the world on his own. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
For this weekend’s escapist superhero post Balladeer’s Blog will take a Halloween Season look at Marvel Comics’ character Lilith, the daughter of Dracula.
GIANT-SIZE CHILLERS Vol 1 #1 (June 1974)
Title: Night of the She-Demon
Villain: Dracula
NOTE: In the 1970s Marvel Comics launched several horror titles, most of which I have reviewed previously here at Balladeer’s Blog. One of those horror titles dealt with Dracula being on the loose in the present day. Lilith’s tales took place in that same continuity.
Synopsis: In England, Dracula visits one of his human thralls, Lord Henry, to order him to pursue diplomatic immunity for an alias that Drac will adopt.
The undead count’s presence in England has supernaturally triggered some stirring in a grave outside London. It is the grave of Dracula’s daughter Lilith, who was put there 30 years ago by vampire hunter Quincy Harker, Marvel Comics’ descendant of Jonathan Harker from the 1897 novel Dracula. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, Superheroes
For this Saturday’s light-hearted and escapist superhero post, here’s a look at the gamma-powered Doc Samson, a potentially great character that Marvel Comics never quite managed correctly.
Almost as strong as the Hulk, possessed of an MD and a PhD, this guy should have been placed in the Defenders the minute they stopped having the Hulk as a regular team member. Say, around Defenders #103 (January 1982).
INCREDIBLE HULK Vol 1 #141 (July 1971)
Title: His Name is … Samson
Comment: General Thunderbolt Ross is desperate to cure his daughter Betty from her current state of being trapped in an immobile glass form. (Betty wound up like that after a blood transfusion from the supervillain the Sandman 3 issues earlier.)
General Ross has called in the brilliant Doctor Leonard Samson (formerly Leonard Skivorski, Jr), as yet non-superpowered. Dr. Samson devises technology which can convert a certain type of gamma radiation into a cure for Betty, but the Hulk must be captured to obtain that radiation.
Samson is a psychiatrist on top of being a physicist, and he uses a psychiatric approach to revert the cornered Hulk back into Bruce Banner temporarily. Leonard explains his plans to cure Betty of her glass state AND cure Bruce of being the Hulk, and Banner agrees to cooperate.
In a laboratory, Dr. Samson triggers the restrained Bruce Banner’s transformation into the Hulk, and uses his Cathexis Ray Generator to drain all of that gamma energy from him, curing Bruce of being the Hulk permanently. Next, Samson uses a tiny fraction of the stored gamma energy to turn Betty Ross back into her normal human state.
After a few days of caring for both Bruce and Betty as his patients, Leonard uses the leftover gamma radiation in the Cathexis Ray Generator to turn himself into the super-powered Doc Samson. By controlling the radiation, Leonard kept his human form and intelligence, unlike Bruce when he became the Hulk. As a side-effect his hair grows long and green. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
While we all await further details and clarification from yesterday, let’s indulge in a look at an often neglected character from escapist fantasy – the superheroine Red Ann from Nedor Publications.
RED ANN
Secret Identity: Ann (last name never revealed). She was created by Jerry Robinson so Ann Robinson would make a good name for her.
Origin: When Ann was in her early twenties she was a beautiful lady pursued by several men. She married an older but not elderly man named Bart (no last name ever given). On their honeymoon in Maine (Maine?) a gang of thugs employed by a supervillain called the Voice murdered Bart before her eyes, then drove off, leaving her there in tears.
After Bart’s funeral, Ann’s desire for revenge against the Voice prompted her to cut all ties with her family and friends, even former suitors. She taught herself marksmanship with handguns and learned how to fight. Adopting the costumed identity of Red Ann she set out to take down the Voice’s criminal empire and kill him for the murder of her husband. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
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