This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel’s Astonishing Tales Vol 1 when it featured separate stories about Dr. Doom and Ka-Zar.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #1 (Aug 1970)
Ka-Zar Title: The Power of Ka-Zar
Villain: Kraven the Hunter
Synopsis: After several guest appearances in series like The X-Men, Daredevil, and Spider-Man, Ka-Zar got this tryout for a series of his own. He is a Tarzanesque hero who operates in Marvel’s Savage Land, a hidden prehistoric jungle in the middle of Antarctica – a jungle heated by geothermal sources. Kraven the Hunter arrives in the Savage Land to capture Ka-Zar’s saber tooth tiger Zabu.
After a clash with our hero in the dinosaur-ridden jungle, Kraven wins and flees with Zabu in a net. Ka-Zar trails the villain to his ship where he plans to transport Zabu in a cage to the U.S. Ka-Zar defeats all of Kraven’s crew members but falls to a sneak attack by the Hunter himself. He survives a fall into the ocean and resolves to follow Kraven to America to rescue Zabu.
Dr. Doom Title: Unto You is Born … the Doomsman
Villain: Andro the Doomsman
Synopsis: Marvel’s popular villain Dr. Victor Von Doom got this tryout for his own series. From his castle in the fictional nation of Latveria, Dr. Doom watches the latest American Apollo flight to the moon. He teleports one of his communication devices to the moon right in the astronauts’ way on the lunar surface. Through the device he taunts the world that his teleportation technology is superior to any country’s rocket tech.
Meanwhile, Prince Rudolfo, the rightful ruler of Latveria, leads an attack on Doom’s castle with his freedom fighters. This distracts Victor from his just-finished android creation called Andro the Doomsman. While Dr. Doom defeats Rudolfo and his forces, Andro comes to life and wanders off. Continue reading
JUNGLE ACTION Vol 2 #19 (Jan 1976) 
MARVEL PREMIERE Vol 1 #41 (Apr 1978) 
The crew members we meet in this debut story – 1. Captain Jordan Shaw (right), a decent man appalled at the way the Six have chosen to play God with who gets to escape and who gets left behind to die. He cooperates just so he and his wife can survive, so he bitterly knows he is no better than the oligarchs in the end. 
And 5. Phaedra (left), a mutant with telekinetic and telepathic abilities. She and Earth’s hundreds of other mutants live in prison camps at the Six’s command while their abilities are probed. They are all forced to wear facial tattoos to prevent them hiding their mutant status. 
CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol 1 #52 (Jul 1975) 
Conan finds the Ring of the Black Shadow, thus animating a huge statue of the Scorpion God which guards the ring to keep it out of human hands. Our hero fights the statue and renders it inert again with a sword through its “brain.”
MARVEL PREMIERE Vol 1 #31 (Aug 1976) 
Superstitious people in Liberty, NM get covert glimpses of the creature and decide to raid the Pace ranch to destroy Woodgod and any other such “monsters” being created there. David and Ellen are shot to death in the attack but our main character is super-strong and invulnerable, so he survives being shot multiple times.
This weekend’s belated superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at this Iron Fist adventure serialized in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. It was penned by Chris Claremont and though it features his X-Men foes the Demons of the N’Garai and a woman called the Firebird whose schtick resembles his later retcons to the Phoenix Force, the story ultimately sucks and is an incoherent mess. 
DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU Vol 1 #19 (Dec 1975)
Iron Fist attacks the pair, joined by Colleen, who is swiftly defeated. Our hero continues fighting the Messengers and when he uses the power of the Iron Fist to finish them off, that somehow causes him and Jade to be transported from Earth to Feng-Tu. They are in the throne room of Dhasha Khan (right), who affirms that he is the ruler of this afterlife and states that he plans to strip Jade of her soul and have it damned forever.
MARVEL PREMIERE Vol 1 #1 (Apr 1972) 
The High Evolutionary studied his creation from an orbiting headquarters, kept company by 
CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS Vol 1 #6 (Sep 1941) 
Story 3: Captain America Meets the Hangman 
SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #50 (Jul 1967) 
Over the next few weeks, the crime rate in New York City skyrockets with no Spider-Man getting in the way of villainy and only Daredevil fighting street-level wrongdoing. Our hero’s absence is noted in criminal circles, inspiring the Kingpin to at last operate openly. 
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT Vol 1 #32 (Aug 1975) 
Moon Knight arrives at Jack’s Los Angeles apartment, where Jack shows up shortly before the Full Moon rises and turns him into the Werewolf. The pair fight it out through the streets of L.A. while Moon Knight’s helicopter pilot Frenchie abducts 
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