FOR PART 1 OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF MARVEL’S SUPERHEROINE MANTIS CLICK HERE
THE DEFENDERS Volume 1, Number 9 (October 1973) Divide and Conquer
This worldwide clash between the Avengers and the Defenders was a crossover story covered in multiple issues of each of their separate comic books. Mantis gets to shine once again as the mystery surrounding her deepens.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
The Silver Surfer, fresh from his battle with the Vision and the Scarlet Witch in French Polynesia, arrives back at Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. He carries with him the fragment of the Evil Eye of Avalon that he outfought the two Avengers for.
The Surfer tells the good Doctor about how the Avengers seem to be opposing the Defenders’ plan to reassemble the Evil Eye in order to free the superhero called the Black Knight from the spell that keeps him trapped in stone form.
Neither the Avengers nor the Defenders are aware that they are being manipulated by Dormammu – an enemy of Dr Strange and the Defenders – and by Loki, an enemy of Thor and the Avengers. The Avengers think they are preventing the Defenders from enacting revenge against the world over their various grievances, a revenge that the reassembled Evil Eye of Avalon will make unstoppable.
For their part, the Defenders think that collecting the six scattered fragments of the Evil Eye will restore the Black Knight to normal. Dormammu tricked them into thinking that, but actually that Lord of the Dark Dimension wants the Eye so that he can destroy both superteams AND our universe. Continue reading
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THE COMIC (1985) – Virtually every film buff today knows the tale of Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Robert Tapert raising money from doctors, grocers and dentists in Michigan to finance their subsequent horror hit The Evil Dead. 
The Comic takes place “in another place and another time” according to one of the female characters. From appearances it’s a near-future police state in which fairly ambiguous laws are enforced by goose-stepping goons who wear their hair in ponytails. This film seems to be reaching for the heights achieved in cult films like Eraserhead and Café Flesh but falls so far short that it’s more like The Jar. 
DISTRICT 3-E – The storied CENTURY COLLEGE WOOD DUCKS took a pair of games to win this District’s title. First off the Wood Ducks battled the RAINY RIVER COLLEGE VOYAGEURS in an elimination game. Century College went up 1-0 in the 1st Inning and from there neither team scored until the Wood Ducks drove in 3 more runs in the 8th. Century won it 4-0. 
DISTRICT 3-C – The TYLER COLLEGE APACHES once again became District Champs after 2 final victories. The Apaches played their old rivals the EASTFIELD COLLEGE HARVESTERS and led them 2-1 in the 1st Inning. That became a 5-1 advantage in the 2nd and the rout was on. When all was said and done Tyler College bounced the Harvesters to the tune of 9-2. 
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THE AVENGERS Volume 1, Number 116 (October 1973) Betrayal
In the previous installment I examined Avengers #115 in which the team went searching for their long out-of-touch member the Black Knight. At his Garrett Castle headquarters our heroes found the Knight missing and an impenetrable mystic barrier surrounding the castle. 
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“Adam Ant IS Roy Thinnes in Jared Martin: A One-Man Show.”
DAY FOUR, GAME ONE: The 2nd seeded Defending National Champions of USCAA baseball – the COLLEGE OF SAINT JOSEPH’S (sic) FIGHTING SAINTS – did battle with the 5th seeded CLEARY UNIVERSITY PROWLING COUGARS. The winner would go on to face Newport News Apprentice School for the championship. 
