This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at the very first series starring Marvel’s alien from Zenn-La – Norrin Radd, called “the Silver Surfer” by the media. These are the Silver Surfer stories that Richard Gere talked about in the remake of Breathless (1983).
SILVER SURFER Vol 1 #1 (August 1968)
Title: The Origin of the Silver Surfer
Villain: Galactus
NOTE: After his impressive debut in the Fantastic Four story in which he turned against his master Galactus the world-devourer in order to help save the Earth, the Silver Surfer kept rising in popularity as he guest-starred in other stories. Now he got his own series.
Synopsis: The Silver Surfer saves astronaut John Jameson from the Spider-Man series when his latest space flight goes wrong. A misunderstanding causes the military to attack our hero, who simply flies away rather than risk lives.
This latest reminder that he’ll always be an outsider here on Earth, where Galactus exiled him to after the Surfer turned against him causes him to reflect on his past. Flashbacks show us his life back on his home planet Zenn-La. Continue reading
LEOPARD GIRL 
Powers: Leopard Girl employed her supernatural “cry of the leopards” to use a small army of leopards to help her fight the forces of evil in Africa. She could interact with the Dark Continent’s ghosts, who saw her as an ally. 
Comment: In her secret identity as “Gwen”, Leopard Girl worked with research scientist Dr. Hans Kreitzer. Her fellow assistant was named Peter, whom she once carried with one arm while swinging through the jungle. 
MARVEL PREMIERE Vol 1 15 (May 1974) 
NOTE: This K’un-Lun is not THE K’un-Lun from Chinese mythology but it uses the same name and many of the inhabitants go by names corresponding to Chinese gods. Yu-Ti is one of them, Lei Kung the Thunderer is another. This K’un-Lun is an enchanted city that appears on Earth only once every ten years before returning to its pocket dimension home for another ten.
FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #58 (January 1967) 
TALES OF SUSPENSE Vol 1 #97 (January 1968) 
Jasper Sitwell, S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison to Stark Industries, tries to revive the fallen hero while a crowd gathers. Iron Man (believed back then to simply be “Tony Stark’s high-tech bodyguard”) has a sleazy cousin named Morgan Stark. Morgan ran up a huge gambling debt with the Maggia (Marvel Comics’ version of the Mafia) and, to save himself from harm at the hands of their thugs, betrays Iron Man into their clutches by transporting the nearly motionless hero to where he told Sitwell that Tony Stark was waiting to repair the armor. 
JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS Vol 1 #1 (June 1977) 
This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at some of the early stories during the time when Daredevil and the Black Widow were a team, like 
DAREDEVIL & THE BLACK WIDOW Vol 1 #92 (October 1972) 
POWER MAN Vol 1 #48 (December 1977) 
Shades (at right) and Comanche, escaped cons who served time at Seagate Prison with Luke Cage back when he went by his real name Carl Lucas, were sent by Bushmaster to abduct Power Man’s girlfriend Dr. Claire Temple and her colleague Dr. Noah Burstein. They have done so and, per Bushmaster’s orders, they give Luke Cage/ Carl Lucas their boss’s ultimatum. 
They make it clear to Power Man that to gain the release of those two doctors he has been close to for years, he must capture and deliver to Bushmaster one of his foes, private investigator Misty Knight. The villain doesn’t just send Shades and Comanche (at left) to abduct her because Misty’s associates, her investigative partner Colleen Wing and the superhero Iron Fist, stand beside her. 
FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #44 (November 1965) 
Through a comic book coincidence, the Human Torch gets caught in the middle of a fight between the super villainess called Medusa and her fellow Inhuman called Gorgon. 
SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #1 (May 1963) 
