This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at Marvel’s superteams of the 1960s and 1970s.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
Debuted: January 1969
Comment: Yondu, Vance Astro, Charlie-27 and Martinex originally fought the alien race called the Badoon. Those alien invaders conquered 31st Century Earth and killed all but around 54 million humans to use as slave labor.
Over the years, the Guardians’ adventures came to involve time travel as superheroes from 20th Century Earth visited them in the future, like Captain America, the Thing, Sharon Carter, the Defenders and Thor. Eventually the G of the G moved to the 20th Century to fight their fugitive 31st Century foe Korvac alongside the Avengers.
Throughout it all, new Guardians members came along, like the woman Tarin, who ultimately became the President of Post-Liberation Earth of the future. Others were Starhawk, whose origin was later retconned to fit Starlord instead, and the woman Nikki, sole survivor of Earth’s Mercury colony in the 31st Century. Click HERE.
THE DEFENDERS
Debuted: December 1971
Comment: Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner and the Hulk banded together to save the world from the menace of the Omegatron, which wielded both science AND sorcery. Back in 1971 Marvel’s only other superteams were the Fantastic Four, Avengers, X-Men and the Inhumans so Dr. Strange and other heroes periodically joined forces to combat threats to the Earth, the universe or the multiverse.
At first Marvel pushed the notion that the Defenders were a “non-team” that had no headquarters, held no meetings and kept the group’s existence a secret from the world at large. Additional heroes came and went, like the Silver Surfer, Clea, Valkyrie, Namorita, Hawkeye, Nighthawk, Power Man, Son of Satan, Daredevil and many, many more. Continue reading
MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #11 (Nov 1977) 
GHOST OF FLANDERS 
In reality the young man was in a Prisoner of War camp until being released after the war ended on November 11th, 1918. 
RELAMPAGO (Lightning) 
LLANERA VENGADORA (Plains Avenger) 
DOC SAMSON – Leonard Samson, MD and PhD, used tightly focused Gamma Radiation drained from the Hulk himself to gain superpowers. 
FAULADI (Ironclad) 
KANGA 
AVENGERS Vol 1 #114 (August 1973) 
Synopsis: The villainous Swordsman rejoins the Avengers with a pardon and alongside his mysterious romantic partner Mantis, making her very first full appearance. Mantis is part Vietnamese and part unknown at this point. 
THE CAT – Greer Nelson caught on to a conspiracy to take over the world via armies of women clad in superpower-granting costumes. She donned the prototype and called herself the Cat before taking down the entire sinister organization. 
TIGRA THE WERE-WOMAN – After the Cat’s series got canceled from low sales Marvel added Greer Nelson to their 1970s horror characters as Tigra. The Cat was mortally wounded in a battle with Hydra, but Marvel’s race of cat-people saved her life by granting her an amulet that turned her into Tigra the Were-Woman. 
FLASH VS HIS ROGUES GALLERY – I looked at the 1960s to 1980s stories in which Flash did battle with many of his foes assembled during their Semi-Annual Convention of Flash Villains and its related mayhem. 
BLACK LIGHTNING – Beginning in the 1970s, High School teacher Jefferson Pierce became the costumed superhero called Black Lightning. He used his new powers to fight crime and other dark forces in Metropolis’ Suicide Slums.
BATMAN: THE REAL YEAR ONE 
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