BALLADEER’S BLOG
This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog provides another look at Marvel’s publications – this time from January of 1977.
Reading superhero stories as a kid served as a gateway to some of my adult passions like mythology and opera, so I will always have a soft spot for them.
MARVEL TEAM-UP Vol 1 #53 (Jan)
Title: Nightmare in New Mexico
Villains: Major Del Tremens and the Tranquility Base troops
Synopsis: This issue picks up from Spider-Man and the X-Men’s shared adventure against the Lords of Light and Darkness in Marvel Team-Up Annual #1. Still in New Mexico, Spider-Man and the current roster of X-Men (Wolverine, Storm, Phoenix, Nightcrawler, Banshee, Colossus and Cyclops) try to check out the deserted town of Liberty.
The mutants are driven away by the deadly nerve gas that killed all of the town’s inhabitants in the origin story of Marvel’s fairly new hero Woodgod (Marvel Premiere #31). Spider-Man proves immune to the nerve gas so he investigates further.
The genetically engineered human/ animal hybrid creature Woodgod (at right) – also immune to the nerve gas – is still being contained in the depopulated town by Major Del Tremens and his troops at Tranquility Base, who caused the nerve gas leak.
Hulk arrives in Liberty and winds up fighting Woodgod, his near-equal in strength. Major Tremens and his forces decide to seize the opportunity to kill Hulk, Spider-Man and Woodgod all at once and unleash all their remote-controlled military hardware and aircraft on Liberty.
The three misunderstood heroes are victorious, but an enraged Hulk still wants to fight Woodgod and Spider-Man in the cliffhanger ending. Continue reading
MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN Vol 1 #1 (Jan 1973) 
That chunk is brought on board Walton’s vessel and stored in the hold. While the captain relates to a crew member the tale told to his ancestor about the monster’s creation and history, the rest of the crew plot a mutiny over being kept in the frozen north for so long just to recover a monstrous corpse.
GHOST RIDER – Daredevil biker Johnny Blaze makes a deal with the devil: Johnny’s soul in exchange for Satan curing the cancer in the body of Blaze’s mentor “Crash” Simpson. We all know how deals with the devil go, and not only does Crash die anyway, but Johnny Blaze is cursed to periodically transform into the flame-headed monster called Ghost Rider.
MYSTIC COMICS Vol 1 #1 (Mar 1940) 
B. Dynamic Man – Scientist Dr. Simon Goettler creates 
DEFENDERS Vol 1 #17 (Nov 1974) 
MARVEL PREMIERE Vol 1 #25 (Oct 1975) 
VENUS
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #25 (Aug 1974) 
RED NAILS – I always like to emphasize that – despite the way Marvel Comics’ 1970s and 1980s Conan stories kept the character’s name alive and introduced new generations to him – the Cimmerian was not a mere comic book figure. Iconic author Robert E. Howard introduced Conan on the printed page in his 1930s stories featuring the character. 
I. This first installment introduces readers to a blonde female pirate – Valeria of the Red Brotherhood. She is the only female pirate among them and is as notoriously deadly as the others. NOTE: Yes, this is the character that Sandahl Bergman played in the 1982 Conan the Barbarian film. That movie made her a standard thief instead of a pirate and – sadly – gave her the “ghostly return” scene that actually belonged to Conan’s true love Belit (Bay-LEET) from 
DEFENDERS Vol 1 #12 (February 1974)
Dr Strange, Hulk and Valkyrie are the only Defenders available who can be rallied to save the world from Xemnu. (I’d have thrown in Clea, too, myself.) Our heroes battle the alien, who is defeated and again seems to be destroyed in the explosion of a spaceship he made the enthralled citizens of Plucketville construct for him. 
Balladeer's Blog 