In Pop Culture these days it’s Marvel Comics’ world and the rest of us are just innocent bystanders whose homes and places of business get destroyed.
In that spirit here’s a Christmas Season look at what I’ve learned was a milestone story in the Marvel Universe. It was from the very first issue of Marvel Team-Up (1972) and featured Spider-Man and the Human Torch taking on their mutual foe the Sandman on Christmas Eve.
Years later an unnamed black woman that the pair saved from a mugging got retconned into being Misty Knight, adding even more significance to the issue.
Synopsis: While photographer Peter Parker was covering the Polar Bear Clan’s Christmas Eve dip (yes, it goes back at least that far) the Sandman showed up on the beach after surviving his apparent death in battle with the Hulk months earlier. (For a long time it was a comic book truism that only Bucky stayed dead but apparently even that eventually fell by the wayside.) Continue reading
Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog! Marvel Comics’ Doctor Strange movie is coming out soon. 
As always October is one long celebration of Halloween here at Balladeer’s Blog. The hulking undead figure in the picture is Simon Garth, the title character in Tales of the Zombie from Marvel Comics. Marvel still hasn’t properly used their horror figures, with just Blade the Vampire Slayer (Debut Year 1973) and the Ghost Rider (Debut Year 1972) getting treatment on the big and small screens. 
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