Tag Archives: superheroines

May 9, 2017 · 12:00 pm

MANTIS: THE CELESTIAL MADONNA SAGA

MantisWith the release of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 last week and its introduction of the character Mantis to the Marvel Cinematic Universe I dove in for some research.

Luckily with the countless superhero web sites and the ready availability of archived collections of comic books from the 1970s and earlier it only took me til today to decide to take an extensive look at Mantis as she was originally presented in the pages of The Avengers – NOT the Guardians of the Galaxy – during what came to be called The Celestial Madonna Saga.

REASON ONE: I still have a soft spot for comic books because reading them as a kid served as a gateway to two of my adult passions: mythology and opera.

REASON TWO: I’m intrigued by the fact that so many of the stories brought to the screen by the Marvel Cinematic Universe and their related properties trace their original appearance to the 1970s like Mantis.

Mantis 2Hell, Gwen Stacy was killed by the Green Goblin around 1973. Magneto was ret-conned into his present personality in the 1970s. Adam Warlock got his Soul Gem, later ret-conned into one of the Infinity Stones. The Defenders debuted in that decade. Wolverine was also introduced in the 70s. Same with Luke Cage, Blade the Vampire Slayer, Iron Fist, Ghost Rider, Thanos, the Punisher. Even Howard the Duck. (Well, you can’t win them all.)  

REASON THREE: I’m genuinely impressed with the way Marvel’s writers in the 1970s anticipated today’s slew of serialized sci-fi and horror series’ with their expert handling of prolonged narratives. Sometimes over YEARS! Seriously. Continue reading →

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December 6, 2016 · 10:45 pm

MISS VICTORY: HOLYOKE SUPERHERO

Balladeer’s Blog continues to shamelessly pander to our superhero-crazed culture with this look at another neglected Holyoke hero.
miss-victoryMISS VICTORY

Secret Identity: Joan Wayne, stenographer

Origin: Believe it or not the Golden Age Miss Victory was never given an origin story explaining how she gained her super-powers. She supposedly trained in the circus when she was younger but that would not explain her paranormal abilities. 

All that is known is that in Washington, DC, Foreign Trade Committee stenographer Joan Wayne grew tired of the corruption among politicians and government contractors so she donned a colorful costume and a mask to fight crime – and later, German and Japanese supervillains – as Miss Victory. This costumed figure worked for the FBI.  Continue reading →

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November 14, 2016 · 11:44 pm

MORE HEROES ADDED FOR THE HOLYOKE PANTHEON

blaze-baylor-3Technical issues caused delays yesterday but I have added on to the Holyoke Comics pantheon for this superhero-obsessed society.

CLICK HERE

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November 13, 2016 · 11:22 pm

HOLYOKE SUPERHERO PANTHEON

This has become a superhero-crazed culture. Balladeer’s Blog’s previous looks at the superhero rosters of now-defunct comic book companies have been so popular I decided to examine the heroes and heroines of Holyoke Comics.  

doctor-diamond

Any of us could stick a drawing pencil up our butt and draw a better picture.

DOCTOR DIAMOND

Secret Identity: Drake Gorden, MD

Origin: While on a passenger ship in the South Seas Dr Drake Gorden was swept overboard during a typhoon. He washed ashore on an uncharted island inhabited only by a monk formerly from Tibet. The monk decreed Doctor Gorden to be worthy of the Egyptian black diamond he guarded. That jewel bestowed super-powers on Gorden, who returned to the U.S. and fought crime as Doctor Diamond. 

First Appearance: Cat-Man Comics # 1 (May 1941). His final Golden Age appearance came in 1942. 

Powers: The black jewel granted Doctor Diamond the strength of fifty men and an impressive degree of invulnerability. 

Comment: This hero’s foes included Najar the android and the mad scientist Doctor Borcia. Doctor Diamond is one of those Golden Age superheroes who had potential but whose career was tantalizingly short. In my opinion heroes with actual super-powers are preferable to that period’s endless array of ordinary people who simply donned a costume and fought crime.

kittenKITTEN

Secret Identity: Katie Conn

Origin: When she was eleven years old Katie’s parents died in a train accident. She was taken in by her criminally-minded uncle who trained her in acrobatics, unarmed combat and cat-burglary. By age twelve the girl was an expert thief until Cat-Man (Holyoke’s most famous original superhero) nabbed Katie’s nefarious uncle and adopted her. (And you thought Batman’s relationship with Robin was questionable.)

The strong-willed girl donned a costume of her own and – calling herself Kitten – was determined to fight crime as Cat-Man’s sidekick. The superhero tried to dissuade Katie but her independence and streetwise nature made that impossible. Deciding she was safer working at his side he accepted her as his partner.

First Appearance: Cat-Man Comics # 1 (May 1941). Her final Golden Age appearance came in 1946.

Powers: Unlike Cat-Man, Kitten had no super-powers. However, she was more agile than an Olympic gymnast and was in peak condition for a female her age. In addition her cat-burglary skills and street-fighting abilities made her a very capable superheroine. In a few stories her gloves were clawed.  

Comment: Kitten often teamed up in separate adventures with Mickey Matthews, the boy sidekick of the Holyoke superhero called the Deacon. The pair fought criminals and Nazi supervillains as the Little Leaders.   Continue reading →

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September 17, 2016 · 4:30 pm

BATWOMAN (1968) MOVIE REVIEW

This time around the subject is the 1968 Mexican film Batwoman (La Mujer Murcielago).

Batwoman 1For starters this should NOT be confused with the Jerry Warren film The Wild, Wild World of Batwoman, but often is because Warren was the stateside distributor for plenty of Mexican films in the 50s and 60s. This movie is purely a Luchadora film with Batwoman being a wrestler as well as a seasoned crime fighter.   

It’s not quite fair to call this a “bad” film, but it is a bit of a weird one. In my view it’s much tighter and more entertaining than most of the El Santo movies from Mexico. And I’m not just saying that because of how incredibly sexy the star Maura Monti is. She has an arresting (see what I did there) figure that’s perfect for her version of the Batwoman outfit: a bikini, boots, mask and cape. 

Batwoman 2Like the Turkish movie Three Dev Adam, which features Spider-Man, Captain America and El Santo, this little honey did not pay for character rights but slipped under the radar long ago thanks to its south-of-the- border origins. Maura Monti has a certain screen presence that was lacking in other Luchadora flicks like Wrestling Women vs the Aztec Mummy. And this movie is nowhere near the embarrassment that Halle Berry’s Catwoman was. Continue reading →

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May 13, 2016 · 11:49 pm

FOOLKILLER PART TWO

Welcome to the second part of Balladeer’s Blog’s alternate way of handling the Marvel Comics character the Foolkiller. Marvel has changed and rebooted the character many times since his first appearance in 1974, but never in a way that has made Foolkiller click with the public the way other Marvel characters have.

FOR PART ONE OF THIS ARTICLE CLICK HERE

Defenders 76 Little TriggersDEFENDERS Vol 1: Number 76 – LITTLE TRIGGERS (Oct 1979)

A. Synopsis of the “real” story – The Defenders (Valkyrie, Hellcat, Moondragon and the Wasp) get involved with Richard Rory, Amber Grant and the various unresolved plot threads left over from the premature cancellation of the comic book series Omega the Unknown. The Defenders search for precocious 13 year old James Michael Starling, who always had a link to Omega that not even he understood, and locate him at his old family home in Pennsylvania.

Foolkiller doorway red sash

Foolkiller (Greg Salinger), with his Purification Gun.

The alien race of Protarians, who have been pursuing both Starling and Omega for months, arrive in spacecraft and try to nab the boy. The Defenders battle the aliens to protect Starling and his female friend Dian. Meanwhile in Las Vegas, the Defenders’ old foe Ruby (the orb-headed woman on the cover) and her monstrous creation she calls the Dibbuk steal the dead body of the superhero Omega. Ruby plans to dissect the corpse to see what she can learn for her various inhuman experiments on the living.

In unrelated subplots Nighthawk, in his civilian identity of millionaire Kyle Richmond, is served a restraining order forbidding him to go into action in costume until his legal problems are resolved, and the Hulk battles a shapeless creature who serves the Unnameable, a really boring villain the Defenders will fight in the near future.

Back in Pennsylvania the besieged Defenders drive off the Protarians only to see a blinding light, after which they see that Starling’s body has somehow been replaced by the late Omega’s. This odd development is the cliffhanger ending for this issue. +++

B. Balladeer’s Blog’s Alternate Treatment – Continue reading →

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February 20, 2015 · 9:47 pm

PAT PATRIOT: FORGOTTEN SUPERHEROINE

Pat PatriotPAT PATRIOT – Last time around I examined the forgotten Golden Age superheroine Fantomah. Since Liberals and Conservatives have to inject their bickering into everything my look at Fantomah prompted Conservatives to accuse me of secretly being a Liberal because, after all, only ONE of Fantomah’s villains was non-white. For my look at Pat Patriot I’m sure Liberals will stage an “AHA” moment and accuse me of being a Conservative because of the heroine’s all-American, red white and blue nature.  

Pat Patriot 3Introduced in Daredevil Comics in August of 1941 Pat Patriot – “America’s Joan of Arc” – was, in reality, Pat Patrios, a Greek-American woman who by day worked on an assembly-line. By night she pursued her dream of show-biz stardom by appearing in a minor stage musical, costumed like a female Uncle Sam for a patriotic song and dance. One night Pat was walking home after the show with her boyfriend Mike Brown (no relation to the thuggish robber of convenience stores).

The pair stumbled across a plot by “European” conspirators (America had not entered the global war yet so even though the villains were clearly supposed to be German they weren’t openly identified as such) to steal airplane motors and smuggle them to the Axis Powers. Still clad in her stage outfit Pat used her fists and some brutal high kicks to thwart the evil plan. The press mistook her name for “Pat Patriot”, but our heroine happily embraced that as her nom de guerre.   Continue reading →

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February 4, 2015 · 11:37 pm

FANTOMAH: PART TWO

Fantomah 2Balladeer’s Blog’s examination of the neglected Golden Age superheroine Fantomah concludes with a look at the final eight stories penned by the one and only Fletcher Hanks under his pseudonym Barclay Flagg.

VII. JUNGLE ACTION #8 (August 1940)

Locale: The Temple of the Boiling Mud, hidden deep within Fantomah’s jungle territory.

Villain: Mister X, another Great White Hunter type, who plans to steal the sacred relic in the Temple of the Boiling Mud then ransom it back to the natives for a fortune.  

The Tale: Fantomah discreetly follows Mister X as he makes his Indiana Jones-ish way to the Temple. After he succeeds in crossing over the boiling mud pit that surrounds the tiny patch of land that the Temple stands on, he penetrates into the Temple itself. Fantomah appears to Mister X and warns him against stealing the relic. The natives believe that if the relic is removed the boiling mud will rise up and flood the entire jungle, wiping out all life. Continue reading →

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February 4, 2015 · 1:16 am

NEGLECTED SUPERHEROINE: FANTOMAH

latest (353×379) Balladeer’s Blog presents the first in my new series about neglected comic book superheroes and heroines of the distant past. With superhero movies and television shows being so popular right now it put me in the mood for some of the obscure and forgotten figures from the Golden Age. Here are my pithy story-by-story takes on our debut figure.

FANTOMAH – This superheroine was created in February of 1940 by Fletcher Hanks under one of his pseudonyms – Barclay Flagg. Hanks is a piece of work all by himself and is described as anything from “a primitive who created Outsider Art” on the good side to “the Ed Wood of comic books” on the bad side.

All of Fletcher Hanks’ comic book creations read like the chronicled psychotic episodes of a not particularly skilled ten year old artist, but his Fantomah stories are my all-time favorites. In the works of Hanks perspective, relative sizes and coloring can all change from frame to frame and the text often doesn’t even match what is being drawn. Continue reading →

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January 27, 2015 · 12:12 am

SEX-BOMB M*E*T*A*L IN MORE TALES OF THE MATRIARCH

Supermodel M*E*T*A*L, who models as Edward Wozniak's Neo-Pulp superheroine the Matriarch.

Supermodel M*E*T*A*L, who models as Edward Wozniak’s Neo-Pulp superheroine the Matriarch.

The gloriously beautiful model called M*E*T*A*L will be appearing in more upcoming adventures of Edward Wozniak’s Neo-Pulp superheroine the Matriarch!

2015 will see the sexy crimefighter clash with even more oddball and flatout bizarre supervillains to keep Las Vegas safe.

If you happened to miss out on the veritable “Matriarch-Mania” that swept the internet over the last two years you definitely want to catch up.

A good start would be to check out her Top Five Stories: https://glitternight.com/2014/08/19/the-matriarch-the-top-five-adventures-of-edward-wozniaks-female-superhero/

Balladeer's Blog

Balladeer’s Blog

FOR MORE NEO-PULP

ADVENTURES WITH M*E*T*A*L,

Teddi Barrett and

Summer Cummings

click here:  Continue reading →

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