This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at Marvel’s pre-Secret Wars miniseries collecting a huge assembly of their heroes in a competition for the fate of the Earth.
CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS Vol 1 #1 (June 1982)
Title: Gathering of Heroes (No matter what the cover says.)
Villains: The Grandmaster and Death
Synopsis: The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum in the movies), one of the Elders of the Universe, the very first intelligent species to evolve after the Big Bang, challenges Death’s female incarnation, the same being wooed by Thanos during his attempts to wipe out all life in the universe.
They both agree that since Earth has the greatest concentration of superbeings it will be the site of their mysterious contest. The two villains abduct every single superhero in Marvel Comics at the time, plus several new ones from around the world who were just introduced in this story.
The Grandmaster and Death address the captive heroes and explain the circumstances. The duo have placed the entire Earth in a state of stasis in which it will remain unless the figures agree to participate in a contest of champions between the two villains. Continue reading
IRON MAN Vol 1 #169 (Apr 1983) 
Tony’s personal pilot and friend Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes, who had been a supporting character in the series for years at this point, catches Tony drinking even more after the meeting. Iron Man’s old supervillain foe Magma, his tank and troops attack Stark’s Long Island HQ. 
FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #158 (May 1975) 
The pair fight it out, fueled largely by their former romantic rivalry for Crystal. The Thing (Ben Grimm) and his girlfriend – the blind sculptress Alicia Masters – arrive back from a night at the Metropolitan Opera and the Thing joins the Human Torch in attacking Quicksilver. Mr. Fantastic calls a halt to the fighting and asks Quicksilver why he invaded the Baxter Building. 
GOLDEN GIRL 
Just a light-hearted post about a non-serious topic but one which I’m seeing both sides of the political aisle making silly talking points about. In the new Marvel movie Thunderbolts Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays the character Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. 
This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will conclude my look at Marvel’s 1943-1948 heroine from when the company was known as Timely Comics. For Part One and her origin click 
MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #64 (Jun 1945) 
MISS AMERICA
That night, during a violent thunderstorm, the fascinated Madeline snuck back to the laboratory to more closely examine the equipment. At one point a lightning bolt struck the lab and Madeline, destroying the equipment but granting her superpowers. Adopting the nom de guerre Miss America, she donned a costume and went into action.
TALES TO ASTONISH Vol 1 #49 (Nov 1963)
Meanwhile, an interdimensional villain called the Eraser has been abducting Earth’s greatest scientists via his hand-weapons that teleport them to his home dimension. Because the process looks like he’s erasing them bit by bit the media dubs him “the Eraser.” 
SUN GIRL 
SUN GIRL Vol 1 #1 (August 1948) 
Our heroine outfights and outshoots the entire gang and hauls them into a police station. Expository dialogue reveals this is the latest in a rash of bank robberies and Sun Girl vows to lure out the secret leader of the gangs. 
SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #36 (May 1966) 
She makes a point of showing up at an astro-science exhibit that Peter is visiting and is exasperated once again as the fragments of meteorites and other displays capture Peter’s attention instead of her blonde hotness. (Save your own life and just walk away, Gwen!) 
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