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IRON MAN CHAPTER LINKS

With Balladeer’s Blog’s look at 1970s Iron Man classics over with, here are the chapter links.

im 55ONE – While Marianne Rodgers is plagued by psychic visions, Iron Man has his first clash with the enigmatic Black Lama. The Lama’s powerful disciple Raga the Son of Fire rampages through California. Click HERE.

TWO – Iron Man gets caught between the new menace called Thanos and his foes the Eternals of Titan. The Sub-Mariner, Moon Dragon and Drax the Destroyer guest star as Tony faces the Blood Brothers and more. Click HERE.

THREE – Iron Man’s archenemy the Mandarin returns with a new plan and a new ally – Tony’s old foe the Unicorn. Click HERE. Continue reading

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BALLADEER’S BLOG TURNS TWELVE YEARS OLD TODAY

masc graveyard smallerTHANK YOU once again to all of you readers for making Balladeer’s Blog so enjoyable to write. As I always say the unusual and controversial items I sometimes churn out here mean that readers have to be open-minded and very secure in their own beliefs not to just take offense and leave.

Here are some of my most popular blog posts from the past 12 months.

prime cutPRIME CUT (1972): Gangster movie review HERE.

TEN TELEVISION FLOPS – Ten resoundingly odd tv shows that failed. Click HERE.

EXPLAINING THE TAINTED AND CORRUPT 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION FOR OVERSEAS READERS. Click HERE.

MY REVIEWS OF WILL JORDAN’S RYAN DRAKE ESPIONAGE NOVELS. Click HERE

JOKER: THE 1919 PULP HERO – Click HERE.

MONDO MIKE HAMMER – I review some of the oddest Mike Hammer movies from America and Japan. Click HERE. Continue reading

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IRON MAN 1970s CLASSICS: RETURN OF THE MANDARIN

robert downey jr iron manSorry about this being late. I’ve had a bit of a relapse. Balladeer’s Blog’s look at 1970s Iron Man classics comes to a close with this review of the Return of the Mandarin storyline leading up to the hero’s 100th issue anniversary. For Part One of these Iron Man 1970s classics click HERE.

im 95IRON MAN Vol 1 #95 (February 1977)

Title: Ultimo Unleashed

Villains: Ultimo and the Mandarin

NOTE: We jump ahead to issue #95 from where we left off with issue #81 and the end of the Black Lama storyline. By this point in the 1970s Marvel considered it okay for Tony Stark to go back to selling “defense systems” to the government and the military. 

Synopsis: At the Long Island headquarters of Stark International, Iron Man tests his armor’s latest upgrades against an atomic piledriver. Witnessing the test are a few Stark employees, including the blonde Krissy Longfellow, Tony’s newest executive assistant and his replacement for the departed Pepper Potts-Hogan.

The atomic piledriver is destroyed and Iron Man switches back to Tony Stark and dives into his latest office work regarding his company. Soon he winds up pondering Krissy Longfellow’s enigmatic appeal and that leads him to contemplating some of the previous women in his life, like Pepper, the late Janice Cord and Roxie Gilbert, whom he has finally given up pursuing.

His reverie is interrupted by a phone call from Senator Andrew Jackson Hawk in Washington D.C. Hawk informs Tony that he and his committee have frozen all of Stark International’s new defense contracts because of evidence that Tony is selling classified information to the Communist Chinese and the Soviet Union.

NOTE: The “evidence” has all been faked by the Mandarin for reasons that will be made known below.  Continue reading

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USCAA COLLEGE BASEBALL CHAMPIONS

*** Sorry, I have been ill the past few days but am now getting better and should be back to posting regularly.

USCAA

newportnewsapprentice-school-builderNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The 5 seeds – the NEWPORT NEWS APPRENTICE SCHOOL BUILDERS (as in Shipbuilders) – faced the 4th seeded UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI-HAMILTON HARRIERS for the title in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.

Things looked bad for the Builders as the Harriers seized a 4-0 lead in the 1st Inning and made that an 8-2 advantage by the 3rd. Continue reading

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EXCELLENT ARTICLE ABOUT JOE BIDEN’S CORRUPTION

biden blood money(NOTE FOR OVERSEAS READERS: “C’mon, man! I heard you liked me” is what Biden allegedly said to the woman who accused him of rape, that’s why “C’mon man!” is so often used.)

As a former Democrat who left the party to become an Independent Voter years ago, I can say that the Biden Crime Family has come to embody many of the reasons I left that political party. An article titled High Plains Grifter nicely encapsulates career criminal Joe Biden’s shadiness. The link is below, but first some excerpts:

“In her book “The Laptop from Hell” Miranda Devine describes how Biden used whatever office he held at the time to trade favors for himself and wealth for his family members. Insider Tony Bobulinski is quoted in the book:

‘I don’t have a political ax to grind; I just saw behind the Biden curtain, and I grew concerned with what I saw. The Biden family aggressively leveraged the Biden family name to make millions of dollars from foreign entities even though some were from Communist-controlled China.’

“The most egregious and obvious abuse was Biden extorting Ukraine to fire the prosecutor zeroing in on Hunter Biden’s involvements in Ukraine or face the withholding (of) financial aid.”

“Biden has been able to keep secret his real wealth thanks to the loosie goosy financial regulations in Delaware, where many corporations seek to base.”

“… the details of how Biden, whose career has been partially dedicated to enabling financial secrecy in Delaware, made a significant portion of that money remains a mystery.” NOTE FROM BALLADEER: For overseas readers I want to emphasize that. It has long been the practice for corporations to want their base offices to be in Delaware, where the likes of Joe Biden have always helped the “big businesses” from whom they claim to protect the working class and the poor.

“The lies are catching up because Biden is at the top of the pile, all alone in the spotlight. He is used to lying and not being held accountable as he has had a highly compliant media covering for him.” Continue reading

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HAPPY BLOOM’S DAY 2022!

jamesjoyceYes, it’s the 16th of June, better known to James Joyce geeks like me as Bloom’s Day. The day is named in honor of Leopold Bloom, the advertising sales rep and Freemason who is one of the major characters in Joyce’s novel Ulysses. The novel also brings along Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist of his earlier novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

For those unfamiliar with this work, Ulysses is Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness novel in which he metaphorically features the events from the Odyssey in a single day – June 16th, 1904, in Dublin. (The day he met Nora Barnacle, the woman he would eventually marry after living together for decades)

Bloom represents Ulysses/Odysseus, Stephen represents Telemachus and Leopold’s wife, Molly Bloom, represents Penelope. Continue reading

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THREE MORE HARD TO FIND FILMS

Here is Balladeer’s Blog second look at some of the films I have thus far not been able to find and review. Any help anyone could offer would be appreciated. For the first list of five click HERE.

onceONCE (1973) – Written and directed by Morton Heilig, Once is a 100 minute experimental film with no dialogue, just pantomime performances by the lone three actors. Chris Mitchum of all people portrays Creation, Jim Malinda plays Destruction and Marta Kristen co-stars as Humanity. Some may describe the movie as a Biblical parable but actually it reflects concepts from Zoroastrianism, Iroquois myths and other belief systems in addition to Christianity and Judaism.

The story is set on what is supposed to be a desert island as Creation washes ashore and begins creating increasingly sophisticated life-forms. Destruction attempts to create life of its own but fails, so out of envy and spite it brings destruction on the life brought into being by Creation.  Continue reading

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PONY EXPRESS RIDERS: THE CLIFF BROTHERS

pony express stationIt’s less than two months until the major holiday Frontierado, so here’s a third blog post about Pony Express Riders – April 3rd, 1860 to October 26th, 1861. A few weeks ago came Balladeer’s Blog’s look at the first Pony Express riders.

As always, Frontierado celebrations are about the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality.

THE CLIFF BROTHERS

charlie cliffCHARLIE CLIFF – The younger of the two Cliff brothers to ride for the Pony Express was born in 1844 in St. Louis County, MO. Sometime in 1852 the family moved to St. Joseph, MO and by May of 1860 Charlie and his older brother Gus were Expressmen, the official title of Pony Express Riders.

Charlie’s rout passed through Kickapoo Indian territory but the tribe was peaceful and the young man never experienced difficulties with them. However, in 1861 he encountered a small company of nine covered wagons headed west and shared their plight of being besieged by over one hundred Sioux warriors. The siege lasted three days with periodic gunplay before a larger wagon train approached and the Sioux, realizing they were outnumbered, rode off. Continue reading

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NAIA COLLEGE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

NAIA

southeastern fireNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY FIRE did battle with the LEWIS-CLARK STATE WARRIORS (should be the Explorers) for the NAIA crown.

After a scoreless 1st Inning the Fire went up 1-0 in the 2nd and made that a 4-0 lead in the 3rd. Neither team scored in the 4th Inning but the 5th ended with the Warriors knotting things up at 5-5. Continue reading

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IRON MAN: 1970s CLASSICS 11: FINALE OF THE BLACK LAMA STORY

For Part One of these Iron Man 1970s classics click HERE.

im 79IRON MAN Vol 1 #79 (October 1975)

Title: Midnight on Murder Mountain

Villains: Dr. Kurarkill and her Neo-Apes

NOTE: Before moving on to the conclusion of the long-running Black Lama storyline, Marvel’s editors had to apologize yet AGAIN for the next issue not being ready and a fill-in story having to be run in its place. This one is set AFTER Iron Man’s final run-in with the Black Lama, presented below.

Synopsis: On a rainy night, Tony Stark, clad in his Iron Man armor, is flying back to New York from Cleveland, where he continued refashioning his company now that he will no longer be doing munitions work. Along the way, in western Pennsylvania, he comes to the aid of a man, a woman and their pet cat whose vehicle was pinned under a falling tree. Continue reading

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