Tag Archives: Marvel Comics

August 20, 2022 · 12:13 am

SHE-HULK: HER FIRST TWELVE STORIES FROM THE 1980s

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero blog post from Balladeer’s Blog will look at the first twelve adventures of the She-Hulk.

sh 1SAVAGE SHE-HULK Vol 1 #1 (February 1980)

Title: The She-Hulk Lives

Villain: Gangster Nick Trask

Synopsis: Bruce Banner drifts into Los Angeles. Wearying of his life as a fugitive, he seeks out his cousin Jennifer Walters, an attorney. While Bruce is asking Jennifer for whatever legal help or advice she can give him, gangster Nick Trask has some of his goons shoot Jen because one of the clients she is defending is a man that Trask framed for murder. 

she hulk picJennifer is bleeding out and will die before any ambulance can arrive, so Bruce breaks into a nearby doctor’s office and uses some of the equipment inside to donate some of his own blood to Jen to save her life. An ambulance gets Jennifer and Bruce to a hospital and she stabilizes.

The authorities start to get suspicious of Bruce so he slips away before they realize who he is. Nick Trask has 3 more goons visit Jennifer’s hospital room to finish her off. Their attempt to murder her fuels enough of a metabolic change to trigger her first transformation into She-Hulk. Continue reading →

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August 13, 2022 · 12:09 am

ULYSSES BLOODSTONE: NEGLECTED MARVEL HERO

stan presentsFor this weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here’s a look at another Marvel Comics character that never became a hit for some reason.

bloodstone 1MARVEL PRESENTS Vol 1 #1 (October 1975)

Title: Dweller from the Depths (despite the title on the cover)

Villains: The Possessor and the Dweller from the Depths

NOTE: This story introduced the character Ulysses Bloodstone, a mysterious monster hunter who has been alive for thousands of years, sustained by the fragment of an alien Blood Gem lodged in his chest. With his custom-made weapons and the paranormal powers granted to him by the Blood Gem, he has hunted down and destroyed countless monsters for millennia.  

Synopsis: The Dweller from the Depths rises from San Francisco Bay, summoned by the otherworldly music from a blind flutist who is possessed by an alien entity. The Dweller rampages through San Francisco and suddenly a muscular man with blonde hair and wearing a Big Game Hunter outfit attacks it.

bloodstoneThat man’s thoughts tell us he is Ulysses Bloodstone and that the fragment of an alien gem in his chest unerringly leads him around the globe whenever monstrous creatures are about to strike. While television news crews and the police look on, Bloodstone battles the enormous beast.

Our hero’s superhuman strength, reflexes and a degree of invulnerability help keep him alive while he shoots the Dweller over and over again from many angles with the shotgun he carries in a holster on his back. The custom-made gun weighs nearly a hundred pounds and fires shells that strike with the force of cannonfire. Only Bloodstone’s extraordinary strength lets him wield the weapon so casually. Continue reading →

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August 6, 2022 · 7:03 am

IT, THE LIVING COLOSSUS: MARVEL KAIJU

Okay, this Saturday’s light-hearted, escapist superhero blog post will take a look at Marvel Comics’ neglected figure It, the Living Colossus.

it 1TALES OF SUSPENSE Vol 1 #14 (February 1961)

Title: I Created the Colossus

Villains: The Kigor, an alien

NOTE: It the Living Colossus was created by Stan Lee, his brother Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby

Synopsis: We are introduced to Boris Petrovsky in the Soviet Union. He is a dissident artist whose brother Ivan, a Party official, had Boris canceled for his pro-freedom views. Ivan also had his brother detained for “reeducation” and was forcing him to create a huge statue glorifying the Soviet Union to show that he had abandoned his insurrectionist beliefs.

Defiant to the last, Boris instead used the months-long period to craft a menacing, horrifying face on the mammoth statue to show how he REALLY perceived the communist government. Shortly before Ivan was due to arrive to inspect the finished statue a spaceship crash-landed near Moscow.

living colossusThe sole occupant of the alien vessel was a member of the Kigor race, large crab-like creatures of great intelligence who walked erect. Outnumbered on a hostile planet, the Kigor used its alien technology/ powers to transfer its mind into the enormous statue to try surviving.

Whether via technology or radiation treatments or some other method, the Kigor made the statue capable of movement as though it was a living being who had skin and muscles made of other-worldly stone. It’s a comic book, just go with it.

Ivan Petrovsky arrived to see the statue moving around on its own and called in the military. The statue, soon labeled It, the Living Colossus in languages around the world, fought back against the army, tanks and aircraft. It rampaged through Moscow like a kaiju monster stomping Tokyo. Continue reading →

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July 30, 2022 · 12:01 am

DOC SAMSON: NEGLECTED MARVEL HERO

doc samsonFor 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). 

hulk 141INCREDIBLE 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.

doc samson and girderIn 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 →

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July 23, 2022 · 12:01 am

CONAN THE BARBARIAN: QUEEN OF THE BLACK COAST AND AMRA

queen of the black coast smallerWell, after last week’s Curse of the Conjurer some of you wanted more of the 1970s Marvel Comics adaptations of Conan stories and some of you REALLY didn’t. As a compromise I’ll do just one more before moving on to another topic next Saturday.

conan 58CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol 1 #58 (January 1976)

Title: Queen of the Black Coast

Villains: The Black Corsairs

NOTE: Yes, with this issue Marvel finally got around to adapting one of Robert E. Howard’s greatest Conan stories. At last, Belit (bay-LEET), the pirate queen and the great love of Conan’s life, was introduced in this tale.

           Marvel fairly faithfully adapted the opening of the story in this issue, then, rather than just refer to the years that Conan and Belit sailed the seas together, their writers did dozens of stories depicting their adventures together. All of that culminated with Conan the Barbarian issue #100 when Marvel adapted the tragic conclusion of Queen of the Black Coast, a small part of which was ripped off in the 1982 Conan movie.

        queen of the black coastThis blog post will review the first meeting of Conan and Belit, then Marvel’s depiction of their first shared adventure (featuring an imaginative “fan theory” regarding why Conan was also called Amra) and finally, the sorrowful finale of the longest romance of our Cimmerian’s life.

Synopsis: Just like the original story Queen of the Black Coast from 1934, Marvel’s adaptation opens up with Conan being pursued by the authorities through the streets of the port city of Messantia, the capital of Argos. Conan’s latest clash with the law saw him kill a powerful man, leading to his current plight. Continue reading →

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July 16, 2022 · 12:01 am

CONAN THE BARBARIAN: CURSE OF THE CONJURER

conan jason momoaThe Marvel Comics run of stories based on Robert E. Howard’s Conan character from 1970-1993 helped maintain the character’s place in the public consciousness after the end of the Pulp Magazine era.

Here is a multi-part 1970s Marvel Conan story that was adapted from the Gardner Fox novel Kothar and the Conjurer’s Curse.

conan 46CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol 1 #46 (January 1975)

Title: The Curse of the Conjurer

Villain: Shokkoth of the Many Stones

Synopsis: While riding through the Border Kingdoms, Conan meets a wizard named Merdoramon. This figure, knowing that a Cimmerian’s word is their bond, pays Conan a pouch of gold to deliver a mystic amulet to Themas Herklar, the Regent of the kingdom called Phalkar. The enchanted item is called the Amulet of Blue Fire.

Conan accepts the gold and gives his word to deliver the amulet to Themas Herklar. Putting the amulet around his own neck for the journey, the barbarian rides west toward Phalkar.

conan meets stefanyaBefore long he passes through the village of Sfanol, where he sees the inhabitants about to burn at the stake a beautiful young woman named Stefanya.

She cries out to Conan for help, and he decides it is time for him to take action. 

shokkothOur hero saves Stefanya from this fate and learns she was being burned for her service to the late sorcerer Zoqquanor now that he is no longer alive to protect her. The panicked woman tells Conan that they must retrieve Zoqquanor’s body from the ruins of his castle, which was leveled by the same superstitious villagers who tried to burn her alive.

Stefanya insists that a spell cast by the sorcerer when he was alive binds her fate to his, and if his body is destroyed so will she be. In the ruins of Zoqquanor’s castle, Conan and Stefanya find the premises now being guarded by Shokkoth of the Many Stones, a monstrous creation of the late wizard. Continue reading →

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July 9, 2022 · 12:24 am

THOR VERSUS HERCULES

t vs hMarvel has let it be known that they will be doing a Thor vs Hercules clash for the next Thor movie as they at last move the Marvel Comics version of Hercules into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It’s a safe bet that they will mishandle it as badly as they’ve mishandled most of their film releases lately, so here’s a look at the original multi-part Thor vs Hercules story from the 1960s.

jm annual 1JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY ANNUAL Vol 1 #1 (October 1965)

Title: When Titans Clash

Villain: Hercules

Synopsis: This opening chapter of the Thor vs Hercules saga was set in the distant past, long before Odin had forced Thor to become the lame (as in limping) Dr. Donald Blake in order to teach him humility. The subsequent chapters are set in what was the present day of the 1960s.

Hercules from MarvelThe story opens up like a few other old Norse myths, with Thor and Loki on fairly friendly terms and traveling together in search of adventure. While trying to make their very first visit to the realm of the Greco-Roman gods on Mount Olympus they encounter a few Frost Giants and easily defeat them.

Collateral damage from the clash opens a rift in the ground and Thor discovers that the rift leads to a tunnel that takes him to the top of Mount Olympus. He approaches a bridge just outside of the city of the gods and plans to cross it when the headstrong Hercules arrives on the scene and insists that he be allowed to cross the bridge first. Continue reading →

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June 22, 2022 · 3:01 pm

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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June 18, 2022 · 5:13 pm

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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June 11, 2022 · 12:01 am

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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