Tag Archives: superheroes

July 4, 2026 · 12:00 am

THE SUPERHERO UNCLE SAM: FIRST TWENTY STORIES

Happy Fourth of July! I’ll have my FULL Independence Day blog post later, but we’ll start the day with this look at the earliest stories of the Quality Comics superhero Uncle Sam in the 1940s. For over 20 more Quality Comics heroes click HERE.

uncle samUNCLE SAM

Secret Identity: Ezra Smith (assumed name)

First Appearance: National Comics #1 (July 1940) His final Golden Age appearance came in 1944.

Origin: During the Revolutionary War, a dying American soldier named Sam (last name unknown) felt such a fervent desire to continue fighting for the new country that he assumed supernatural status. Over the decades he incarnated as Uncle Sam whenever the United States needed him.

In 1940 he appeared to young Buddy Smith, whose father Ezra was just killed for opposing a Fascist organization called the Purple Shirts. Uncle Sam defeated that group and became Buddy’s substitute father, pretending to be his late father Ezra to legal authorities.

uncle sam againPowers: This hero had Superman-level strength and invulnerability. He could fly in a sense by making enormous Hulk-sized leaps. He had a mystic ability to know where he would be needed. Due to his supernatural nature, Uncle Sam could not be photographed or filmed.

Comment: When he was no longer needed in a given time period, this hero faded away, to once again incarnate during the next period of crisis for the country.

national comics 1NATIONAL COMICS #1 (July 1940)

Title: The Coming of Uncle Sam

Villains: The Purple Shirts

Synopsis: The origin of Uncle Sam, including his “adoption” of Buddy Smith, the scrappy kid in short pants depicted on the cover. Uncle Sam wages war on the Purple Shirts army, which is being financed by an unnamed – but obvious – foreign power.

Our hero invades the Purple Shirts’ secret stronghold at Box Valley in the southern Rocky Mountains. Uncle Sam clobbers the villains and rescues the U.S. President, whom they kidnapped earlier in a commando raid. Continue reading →

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June 27, 2026 · 3:44 am

THE INHUMANS (1975-1977)

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel’s 2nd attempt to give the Inhumans their own spinoff series. 

INHUMANS Vol 1 #1 (Oct 1975)

Title: Spawn of Alien Heat

Villain: Blastaar

Inhumans Royal Family Roster: Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Karnak and Triton

NOTE: This series picks up after Medusa ended her temporary stint in the Fantastic Four and was back to living in Attilan, the hidden futuristic city in the Himalayas (at this time) where the thousands of Inhumans have lived for millenia. Ever since the alien Kree experimented on their caveman ancestors with the Terrigen Mists. 

Synopsis: Blastaar, a recurring foe of the Fantastic Four, is let loose from the adamantium prison in which he has been held for some time. His saviors are the Kree Empire, who once again want to try capturing those inhabitants of Attilan who have powers that would be effective in the millennia old Kree-Skrull War. 

Blastaar flies to Attilan, the Great Refuge and fights his way in past the airborne guards. In the Royal Palace, a long-buried device rises from the lowest depths below Attilan and sits, apparently waiting for a clearly missing component to complete it. Black Bolt and Triton dive into the watery depths below Attilan to see where the machine originated from.

Shortly after they depart, Blastaar bursts in and begins fighting Medusa, Gorgon and Karnak. Continue reading →

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June 20, 2026 · 12:00 am

FIRELORD: HIS EARLY STORIES

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the early stories of Marvel’s Firelord.

THOR Vol 1 #225 (July 1974)

Title: The Coming of Firelord

Villain: Firelord

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, Thor and Hercules defeat Thor’s recurring foe the Destroyer. The spirit animating the metal creation returns to the body of Professor Clement Holmes, leaving the Destroyer’s body motionless.

Time passes as Thor hangs out with Hercules and periodically turns into his human form as Donald Blake M.D. In that form he continues to tend to the hospitalized Asgardian woman named Krista, who was injured fighting the Greco-Roman god Pluto a few issues back.

Meanwhile, a being called Firelord arrives on Earth and enters Krista’s hospital. People attack Firelord, who injures them, prompting Hercules to fight him.

Thor joins Hercules in fighting Firelord, who eventually reveals that he is the latest herald of Galactus. He summons that devourer of worlds to Earth. Continue reading →

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June 13, 2026 · 12:54 am

24 PATRIOTIC THEMED SUPERHEROES AND SUPERHEROINES

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post at Balladeer’s Blog looks at some patriotic themed heroes and heroines here in the U.S.

THE SHIELD

Company: MLJ

Secret Identity: Dr. Joe Higgins, a chemist. 

Origin: On his deathbed Joe’s father Tom revealed to him the secret of a chemical formula he had been working on. That formula could convey superpowers on a normal human being. As Joe grew older he got his PhD in chemistry, finished his father’s formula and used it on himself, gaining superpowers. He devised a special costume and fought the forces of evil as the Shield, a super-powered operative of the FBI.

First Appearance: Pep Comics #1 (January 1940). His final Golden Age appearance came in 1945.

Powers: The chemical formula that the Shield rubbed onto his skin followed by bombardment with flouroscopic rays endowed him with super-strength plus invulnerability. The Shield also wore an indestructible costume which encased his torso like a shield.

Comment: The Shield was America’s first star-spangled superhero, beating Captain America into print by more than a year. He eventually had a youthful sidekick called Dusty and a private detective sweetheart named Betty Warren. Only J. Edgar Hoover knew the Shield’s secret identity. Continue reading →

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June 6, 2026 · 12:58 am

BLACK GOLIATH: HIS 1970s STORIES

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the early stories of Marvel’s Black Goliath (Bill Foster, PhD). 

POWER MAN Vol 1 #24 (April 1975) 

Title: Among Us Walks Black Goliath

Villain: Black Goliath

Synopsis: In California, Luke and his white friend D.W. find the missing Claire Temple, and the couple have a private talk while D.W. leaves them alone. Claire admits she left to help her ex-husband, Bill Foster, PhD, the former colleague of Dr. Henry Pym aka Ant-Man aka Giant Man aka Goliath aka Yellowjacket.

NOTE: Bill Foster had worked with Hank Pym since the 1960s and had appeared in old issues of the Avengers with him.

Since Pym has given up his Goliath identity, Bill experimented with Pym Particles to try to gain Pym’s old growing powers. A misfire caused Dr. Foster to be unable to shrink back down to normal size, stranding him at 25 feet in height. While working on a cure, Bill has been hiding with a traveling circus.

Claire says she cannot abandon Bill during a moment of crisis like this and was afraid Luke wouldn’t understand. Dr. Foster unexpectedly finds Power Man and Claire together and misunderstands the situation. Revealing to Luke that he is now the costumed figure Black Goliath, he attacks Power Man.

After a while, their clash is interrupted when the people who run the circus that Black Goliath has been hiding with reveal that they are really the longtime supervillain team called the Circus of Crime. (And who had battled Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Hulk, Thor and the Avengers up to this point.)  Continue reading →

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May 30, 2026 · 12:01 am

MARVEL’S KA-ZAR STORIES (1971-1973)

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog continues on from when Astonishing Tales became Ka-Zar’s title alone after Dr. Doom’s departure.

ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #9 (Dec 1971)

Title: The Legend of the Lizard Men

Villains: Queen Iranda and her Lizard Men

NOTE: The next part of the Neu Deutschland/ New Brittany storyline was not completed in time for publication, so this pre-prepared fill-in story was used instead.

Synopsis: Men and women are disappearing from various tribes across the Savage Land. Ka-Zar and his saber-tooth tiger Zabu investigate. He traces the disappearances to Queen Iranda and her army of Lizard Men.

Ka-Zar fights his way through Iranda’s guards and manages to steal the queen’s crown. This causes her to turn into her true lizard form and reverts all of her Lizard Men to their human forms as the missing villagers.  Continue reading →

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May 23, 2026 · 12:00 am

X-MEN: THE NEW TEAM IN 1975

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the first twenty stories of the “All New, All Different” X-Men beginning in 1975. I have a soft spot for superhero stories because reading them as a kid served as a gateway to two of my adult passions – mythology and opera.

new x-men 1

GIANT-SIZE X-MEN Vol 1 #1 (May 1975)

Title: Deadly Genesis

Villain: Krakoa

NOTE: This was the very FIRST appearance of the new team of X-Men who replaced the original, blander team launched in 1963. That team’s original series had been canceled and reduced to reprints (reruns).

Synopsis: The story opened with a series of vignettes featuring Professor X traveling the world rounding up a new batch of mutants detected by his invention Cerebro. Three of them had prior history in the Marvel Universe:

*** WOLVERINE (real name unknown at the time), who had fought the Hulk and the Wendigo in Canada. Wolverine willingly joined the X-Men and angrily resigned from Canada’s Department H, which had been sending him on missions up to that point. This would have repercussions down the road.

*** BANSHEE (Sean Cassidy), a sometime foe and sometime ally of the original team of X-Men. This Irishman had also fought Captain America and the Falcon.

*** SUNFIRE (Shiro Yoshida), a Japanese mutant who had fought the original X-Men as well as Sub-Mariner, Iron Man and Captain America.

The rest of the mutants Xavier rounded up were new:

*** STORM (Ororo Munroe), from Africa, where her weather-controlling powers had made her revered as a goddess by an isolated tribe.

*** NIGHTCRAWLER (Kurt Wagner), a German circus performer whose monstrous appearance made him the target of a mutant-hating mob from which Professor X saved him.

*** COLOSSUS (Piotr Rasputin), a Russian teenager working on a Collective Farm in the Soviet Union.

*** THUNDERBIRD (John Proudstar), a Native American mutant from a reservation in the American Southwest.

Once they were all assembled at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, the professor introduced them to Cyclops (Scott Summers), the leader of the original X-Men, who briefed them. He had led the original team – Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl, Polaris and Havok (Beast was joining the Avengers at this point) to investigate a new mutant detected by Cerebro on a Pacific Ocean island called Krakoa. The original team vanished and only Cyclops escaped in their aircraft, but with no memory of what happened there.

Continue reading →

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May 16, 2026 · 4:27 am

ASTONISHING TALES 1-8 (1970-1971)

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel’s Astonishing Tales Vol 1 when it featured separate stories about Dr. Doom and Ka-Zar.

ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #1 (Aug 1970)

Ka-Zar Title: The Power of Ka-Zar

Villain: Kraven the Hunter

Synopsis: After several guest appearances in series like The X-Men, Daredevil, and Spider-Man, Ka-Zar got this tryout for a series of his own. He is a Tarzanesque hero who operates in Marvel’s Savage Land, a hidden prehistoric jungle in the middle of Antarctica – a jungle heated by geothermal sources. Kraven the Hunter arrives in the Savage Land to capture Ka-Zar’s saber tooth tiger Zabu.

After a clash with our hero in the dinosaur-ridden jungle, Kraven wins and flees with Zabu in a net. Ka-Zar trails the villain to his ship where he plans to transport Zabu in a cage to the U.S. Ka-Zar defeats all of Kraven’s crew members but falls to a sneak attack by the Hunter himself. He survives a fall into the ocean and resolves to follow Kraven to America to rescue Zabu.   

Dr. Doom Title: Unto You is Born … the Doomsman

Villain: Andro the Doomsman

Synopsis: Marvel’s popular villain Dr. Victor Von Doom got this tryout for his own series. From his castle in the fictional nation of Latveria, Dr. Doom watches the latest American Apollo flight to the moon. He teleports one of his communication devices to the moon right in the astronauts’ way on the lunar surface. Through the device he taunts the world that his teleportation technology is superior to any country’s rocket tech.

Meanwhile, Prince Rudolfo, the rightful ruler of Latveria, leads an attack on Doom’s castle with his freedom fighters. This distracts Victor from his just-finished android creation called Andro the Doomsman. While Dr. Doom defeats Rudolfo and his forces, Andro comes to life and wanders off. Continue reading →

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May 9, 2026 · 12:00 am

FRENCH-CREATED SUPERHEROES

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at several superheroes created in France.

FANTAX

Debut Year: 1946

Secret Identity: Horace Neighbour

Origin: Horace Neighbour was a diplomatic attache at his country’s embassy in Washington D.C. He decided to fight international and purely American menaces by adopting the costumed identity Fantax. As Horace he was suave & sophisticated and as Fantax he was tough & streetwise. 

Powers: Fantax was in peak physical condition and was an expert at unarmed combat. He was also more agile than an acrobat and was skilled with a knife. This hero would periodically wield a gun or blunt objects. In addition, Fantax was a master detective.

Comment: Fantax’s wife Barbara sometimes assisted him, as did his butler Murph and muscular aide P’tit Louis. This hero’s foes included the Cobra, the Black Tigers, Nazi fugitives, the Gentleman Ghost, the Mafia, the Werewolf, the Ku Klux Klan and the Mikado. Later, Fantax’s son Horace fils became the costumed superhero Garcon Noir (Black Boy).

SALTARELLA 

Debut Year: 1980

Secret Identity: Priscilla “Bibi” Conway

Origin: The insectoid alien race called the Svizz wanted to conquer the Earth with an army of human slaves granted insect-related superpowers. As the costumed Saltarella, this heroine rebelled against the Svizz and helped defeat the interstellar invasion, then battled other evil forces afterward.

Powers: Saltarella could fly via the wings added to her body by the Svizz, possessed super-strength (say, the proportionate strength of a winged insect), was capable of long leaps and could shrink. Priscilla was a former Olympic gymnast and was very agile.

Comment: Priscilla Conway was a top-level research entomologist. Among her other foes were Psi, the Gondolier Noir, Microbios, l’Executeur, Cagliostro and Vaudou. Continue reading →

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May 2, 2026 · 12:01 am

ACE PERIODICALS SUPERHEROES

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog is a look at the neglected Golden Age superhero pantheon from Ace Periodicals.

CAPTAIN VICTORY

Secret Identity: Jack Wilson, Diplomatic Attache

Origin: Jack Wilson was serving as a Diplomatic Attache at the American Embassy in the fictional Central American nation of Centralvo. While there he gained superpowers but Ace Periodicals’ writers never got around to explaining how during this character’s brief run.

First Appearance: Our Flag Comics #1 (August 1941). His final Golden Age appearance came that same year.

Captain Victory smallPowers: Captain Victory (No relation to the Jack Kirby character of that name) could fly and had massive super strength. The upper limits of his flying abilities and his strength were never established before the character disappeared. 

Comment: Since America had not yet entered World War Two, Captain Victory’s adventures had to walk a fine line. The hero thwarted an Axis Powers attempt to trick Centralvo into entering the war on their side, stopped a Nazi sub from secretly sabotaging the Panama Canal and – in a prescient bit – defeated a Japanese sneak attack on the American Navy. 

Lightning GirlLIGHTNING GIRL

Secret Identity: Isabel Blake

Origin: Isabel’s Naval Officer father John was brainwashed by Lash Lightning’s supervillain foe the Teacher and forced to help the Japanese forces against the U.S. When Lash Lightning was in one of the Teacher’s death traps he transferred some of his power to Isabel so she could help him.

Her father was freed from his brainwashing and died a hero. Isabel vowed to continue fighting the Axis nations to avenge her father and became Lightning Girl, Lash Lightning’s partner.

First Appearance: Lightning Comics Volume 3 #1 (June 1942). Her final Golden Age appearance came in 1946.

Powers: Lightning Girl could fly at lightning speed, shoot lightning bolts from her hands, generate lightning-heat and track Lash Lightning through their shared electrical impulses.

This superheroine could recharge herself with any electrical outlet. Continue reading →

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