Tag Archives: superheroes

December 27, 2025 · 12:00 am

WONDER WOMAN: YEAR ONE

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the first year of Wonder Woman stories in the 1940s. 

ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #8 (Dec 1941)

Title: Introducing Wonder Woman

Villains: Nazis

Synopsis: When a pair of Nazi spies hijack an experimental American aircraft, U.S. Army Captain Steve Trevor pursues them and seizes control of the vessel from them.

The Nazis are driven off, but Captain Trevor crash-lands and washes ashore at Paradise Island in the Mediterranean Sea. 

The island is inhabited by THE Amazons from Greco-Roman myths and they are still ruled over by Queen Hippolyta. The Queen’s daughter Princess Diana nurses Trevor back to health and falls in love with him but while he was recovering, Hippolyta used magic to probe Steve’s mind.

She learned about the ongoing World War and felt that a champion from Paradise Island should accompany Steve Trevor back to the human world to help combat the Axis Nations. Diana won the all-Amazon tournament to become that champion.

Hippolyta bestows on the princess her paraphernalia like her wrist bands, tiara, invisible plane and costume based on the flag of Steve Trevor’s homeland (but not yet her lasso). The queen also granted her the title Wonder Woman. She and Captain Trevor left Paradise Island together for human lands. Continue reading →

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December 20, 2025 · 12:03 am

THE HUMAN FLY: HIS 1977-1979 SERIES

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here on Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel’s series The Human Fly. This figure encountered Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Daredevil and others.

THE HUMAN FLY

Secret Identity: Rick Rojatt

First Appearance: Human Fly Vol 1 #1 (Sep 1977)

NOTE: The Human Fly was an embellished version of the real-life Rick Rojatt, a Canadian stuntman and daredevil in the mold of Evel Knievel. This comic book series presented Rojatt as his celebrity daredevil self the Human Fly. As in the fictional exploits of costumed Mexican wrestling heroes like El Santo, Blue Demon, Neutron and others, this costumed figure fought crime and other menaces in addition to performing in his capacity as a daredevil.

Origin: Rick Rojatt was given a fictional origin story for this Marvel Comics series. He was a young man who was severely injured in a car crash that killed his wife and children. After much reconstructive surgery, roughly 60% of Rojatt’s bone structure was replaced with lightweight steel.

That made Rick able to endure levels of punishment that would kill normal human beings. Though he was warned he might never walk again, Rojatt applied himself to the point where he not only walked but had greater agility and stamina than professional athletes. He donned a costume like Evel Knievel and became a celebrity stunt man and daredevil, thus making a fortune as well as engaging in heroics when needed.  Continue reading →

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December 13, 2025 · 12:01 am

MARVEL ISSUES: JANUARY 1978

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog looks at every Marvel issue published in January 1978.

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #176 (Jan 1978)

Title: He Who Laughs Last …

Villain: Green Goblin III

Synopsis: Peter Parker’s Aunt May has joined the Grey Panthers and has her 987th heart attack at a demonstration. Peter and Mary Jane Watson visit her in the hospital.

Seeing that she is recovering just fine, the pair leave. Peter stops by the office of psychiatrist Dr. Bart Hamilton, who has been treating Peter’s friend Harry Osborn ever since Harry’s drug problems made him become the second Green Goblin. The office has been trashed.

Peter becomes Spider-Man and gets to the apartment that Harry shares with Flash Thompson. He finds Flash unconscious on the floor and the Green Goblin ransacking Harry’s bedroom. Spider-Man attacks the villain, assuming it’s Harry in the costume, but in a few issues it will turn out to be Dr. Hamilton himself, who manipulated his patient Harry Osborn to find his late father Norman Osborn’s Green Goblin costume and weaponry.

For the cliffhanger ending, the hard-pressed Goblin grabs Flash’s unconscious form and throws him out the window, seemingly to his death. Continue reading →

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December 6, 2025 · 12:01 am

HOURMAN: HIS EARLY STORIES

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at some of the Golden Age stories of DC’s Hourman.

ADVENTURE COMICS Vol 1 #48 (Mar 1940)

Title: Presenting the Hourman

Villains: Jewel thieves Randall and Kennedy

Synopsis: At Bannerman Laboratories, chemist Rex Tyler secretly concocts a new drug he calls Miraclo. That drug grants him the strength and speed of 10 men for one hour. Rex adopts the costumed identity Hourman and advertises in the paper that people can seek him out if they need help.

In this debut story, Hourman recovers a woman’s stolen jewels and brings down the two-man theft ring. The city in which he operates is named Appleton.

NOTE: Over the years, changes would make it so that Miraclo granted Rex Tyler the strength of 50 men. Due to parental concerns about promoting drug use since Rex popped Miraclo pills, for a time it was changed to a Miraclo RAY that would increase Hourman’s strength. Other times it was retconned so that Hourman’s costume was enchanted and it was the source of his powers.

        Ultimately, it always came back to Miraclo being a designer drug that Rex Tyler had concocted. In modern DC stories it is even said that the formula powering Batman’s foe Bane is an offshoot of Miraclo.      Continue reading →

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November 29, 2025 · 12:06 am

SPIDER-WOMAN: MORE OF HER EARLY STORIES

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist blog post about superheroes looks at more Spider-Woman stories from her early years. For her first post click HERE.

SPIDER-WOMAN Vol 1 #17 (Aug 1979)

Title: Deathplunge

Villain: Wax Man (1st appearance)

Synopsis: Fully recovered now from her long war with the mutant Nekra and her cult of worshippers, Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman) treats herself to a night out at Monte Disco. She meets a young man named Eric and the two grow closer over drinks and dancing.

In the Ladies Room, another patron of the disco (lol) accidentally takes Jessica’s purse instead of her own, identical one. That purse contains Jessica’s compressed Spider-Woman costume, which the inebriated woman slips into and becomes a hit on the dance floor. 

Our heroine slips away from Eric to try getting back her costume without exposing her secret identity. At one point, the drunken woman dressed as Spider-Woman falls off the deck of the mountaintop disco. Jessica uses her powers to save the woman and recover her costume before the drunk knows what’s what.

Later that night, Eric and Jessica are making out, when Eric mutates into his supervillain form of Wax Man. Continue reading →

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November 21, 2025 · 7:10 pm

MARVEL COMICS ISSUES FROM JANUARY 1977

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 →

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November 15, 2025 · 4:11 am

AUSTRALIA’S SUPERHEROES: 1970s-1980s

SORRY I’M LATE. Real life intervened. Just in, so here’s a 2015 look at Australia’s superheroes mostly from the 1970s to the 1980s. The success of this post inspired me to go on to cover the superheroes of several other countries and time periods.  

Dark NebulaDARK NEBULA

Debut Year: 1982

Secret Identity: Mark Medula, an astronaut in Australia’s fictional space program.

Origin: Returning from a flight to Mars, Colonel Mark Medula docked at the Threshold Space Station, which had just been seized by the alien warlord Cerellus.

Medula tried to stop Cerellus and the resulting chaos killed Medula’s body, but, amid all the cosmic energies being unleashed, that body became inhabited by both Cerellus’ soul and Medula’s soul.

Mark Medula’s body gained incredible superpowers and went on to battle Earthly and interplanetary menaces as the superhero called Dark Nebula. Cerellus often challenged Mark for control of their shared body, further complicating Dark Nebula’s adventures. 

Powers: Dark Nebula has super strength and can fly, both in space and in a planet’s atmosphere. He is invulnerable and wields a combination of potent cosmic energy and dark mystical energy. Those combined scientific/ supernatural forces can be used to fire Darkfire energy beams from his hands and employ force fields. He also has psionic abilities like telepathy and ESP.  

Comment: Dark Nebula’s adventures combine the cosmic head-trips of Jim Starlin’s Adam Warlock/ Magus storyline with some of the surreal mysticism of Dr Strange at his best.

Dark Nebula Southern SquadronArguably the greatest Dark Nebula story arc was the one where he was off in deep space having a “deep” adventure while back on Earth his archenemy the Grandstander (Think of the Joker but with powers on Sinestro’s level at least) was impersonating him to ruin his reputation.

It endangered his marriage, too, since his wife had no idea why the man she thought was her husband never came home anymore after his public escapades. When Dark Nebula at last returned to Earth he had to tangle with the Aussie superteam the Southern Squadron who were out to bring him down for the crimes the Grandstander had framed him for.

When the misunderstanding was finally straightened out the Southern Squadron joined forces with Dark Nebula to tackle the Grandstander. This crossover was as much a milestone in Australia as the Avengers/ Defenders War in the 1970s was in the U.S.   Continue reading →

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November 8, 2025 · 12:01 am

SUPERHEROES OF RURAL HOME-CROYDON-ENWIL PUBLISHERS

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the 1940s publishers at Rural Home, Croydon and Enwil.

Captain WizardCAPTAIN WIZARD

Secret Identity: Joseph Preston

Origin: Joseph Preston was unjustly suspected of a murder he did not commit. While fleeing the police he took shelter in a haunted wax museum where he encountered a wax figure who was really the magician Theophrastus.

The magician’s powers told him Preston was innocent so he gave the man a mystical cape, costume and mask which granted him superpowers. Calling himself Captain Wizard our hero caught the real murderer and went on to fight the forces of evil on a regular basis.

First Appearance: Red Band Comics #3 (April 1945). His final Golden Age appearance came in 1946. 

Powers: Thanks to his enchanted costume Captain Wizard had super-human strength, could fly and was invulnerable. He also never required sleep. In addition he could switch from his street-clothes into his costume and vice-versa simply by saying “Abracadabra.”   Continue reading →

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November 1, 2025 · 11:25 am

FOX FEATURES SUPERHEROES

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the neglected characters from Fox Features. 

Dynamo Fox Features picDYNAMO

Secret Identity: Jim Andrews, electrical scientist

First Appearance: Science Comics #1 (February 1940)

Origin: Jim Andrews risked his life to contain a potentially deadly accident at the electrical lab where he worked, inadvertently gaining superpowers from the incident. He donned a costume and fought the forces of evil as Dynamo.

Powers: Dynamo could use his electrical powers to shoot electric rays from his hands, to fly, to surround himself with a force field and to magnify his own strength.

Comment: In his very first appearance this hero went by the nom de guerre Electro, but in his remaining 24 adventures called himself Dynamo instead. 

Black Lion picBLACK LION

Secret Identity: George Davis, big-game hunter

First Appearance: Wonderworld Comics #21 (January 1941)

Origin: George Davis’ career as a big-game hunter had brought him wealth and fame. Having met all the challenges of hunting members of the animal kingdom he decided to go after the most dangerous game of all: human criminals. To that end he donned a costume and took on supervillains and Nazi agents.

Powers: The Black Lion was at the peak of human condition and had the agility of an Olympic gymnast. He was also an expert at unarmed combat and could outfight multiple opponents at once. His totem animal the lion gave him superhuman healing ability. Continue reading →

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October 18, 2025 · 12:00 am

HALLOWEEN HEROES AND ANTI-HEROES FROM MARVEL

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog looks at Halloween-themed characters from Marvel during the 1970s.  

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.

This horror figure outlasted all of the other 1970s Marvel horror characters, lasting until June of 1983 in his initial run. Along the way he and Roxanne faced Satan himself, a long line of demons, a Native American witch-woman, the eyeball-helmeted biker called the Orb and even other Marvel figures like Son of Satan, Hulk, Black Widow and Dr. Druid.

FIRST APPEARANCE: Marvel Spotlight Vol 1 #5 (Aug 1972) Continue reading →

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