Xenorama #49 coming for next year!

 

Here is the beginning of the cover for the next issue of Xenorama.  It is a look at just the first Kamen Rider series, the one that started it all.  There are a lot of episodes here to examine, and so much action.  Rider punch!  It was fun re-watching the whole series again, though.  There's not that much more to say about the series, except it really is great.  I would not be surprised to learn that the success of this show caught Toei off guard, especially after Fujioka broke his leg before the first 13 episodes were finished.

Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War Official Trailer

                     

100 years of Stan Lee

 

Stan Lee would have turned 100 years old yesterday.  He, along with his vast array of co-creators, brought to life so many memorable characters that still live on.  The first character he created was the Mighty Destroyer, way back in the early 40s.  I knew none of this when I started reading comic books, but I did notice his name was all over the place.  I was happy to have met him a time or two over the years, but wish that I had thanked him for all the memories he provided.  He was a great man, and also a great showman.

Robot MOTW- Mechagodzilla 93

 

This is not the most fearsome looking version of Mechagodzilla (nothing will top the original) but it did manage to kill the second series monster.  At least for a few minutes, anyway.  It is loaded with weapons, but looks barely mobile.  Rodan and a baby Godzilla are running around the movie as well.  This MG is also a transformer, as it can pair with the Garuda and become Super Mechagodzilla.  The weapons are all beams, which allow it to stay away from Godzilla.  Part of the plan to kill Godzilla stems from a now discredited theory of dinosaurs having a second or hind brain to relay commands to their lower bodies.  This would not work today, obviously.

Blondie - Die Young Stay Pretty

                

Trailing the Pink Panther FIlms (2022)

What a labor of love this is.  John Lemay looks at all of the movies involved with the Pink Panther name.  I love that the Inspector is on the cover as well.  The cartoons were ubiquitous when I was growing up, and they were generally pretty fun.  The earliest ones were always my favorite, especially since many of them got released theatrically.  It was several years later that I learned of the the movies that brought the character to life.  At some point, one of the movies had to be on television, and then I saw one at the drive-in.  This was The Pink Panther Strikes Again, where Chief Inspector Dreyfuss blackmails the world to kill Clouseau.  My family loved it, and started looking for the other movies in the series.

Sven- Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)

 

Bud and Lou finally graduate from detective school.  They immediately get involved with a boxer on the run, the rather unlikable Tommy Nelson.  He's been framed, see, and needs the boys to clear his name.  Tommy's fiance, Helen Gray, has an uncle, Dr. Philip Gray, who has rediscovered Jack Griffin's invisibility serum.  Ol' Tommy boy wants to use it, but is denied since it can cause mental instability.  Guess who shoots himself up with it anyway?  This leads to Bud becoming a boxer, and many shenanigans in the ring.  Finally, Tommy gets cleared and turns visible.  Lou becomes invisible for a minute, then reappears with his legs on backwards.  Bud says he always gets things wrong.

Epic Collection- Avengers: Kang War

 

I began reading the Avengers comic book series in earnest at issue #101.  Then kind of stopped after #109, with sporadic issues after that, until about #141.  Somehow I missed the whole origin of the Vision and all the giant size annuals or whatever until #7.  This still astounds me, though my guess is that I had recently discovered GIANT MONSTERS and had to choose between an issue of Famous Monsters or various comic books.  Godzilla often won that battle, at least for a time.  I did not pay enough attention to what was going on in the book, since as regular readers know, I love the Vision.  ALL of these issues had something to do with the Vision and Wanda.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) Original Trailer

                     

Strange World (2022)

Jaeger Clade and his son, Searcher are out exploring a way over the mountains, to see what is on the other side.  No one has ever done that before.  Searcher finds a plant full of energy, and decides to harvest it and go home.  Jaeger is upset and continues his quest.  Some 25 years later "Pando" the energy source is not working, and the Clades go on a quest to save it.  Things are never quite as they appear, and surprises abound in the world beneath the surface.  Also, the family has to come to terms with each other so they can complete their mission.

Robot MOTW- The Colossus of New York

 

From Wikipedia- "Following an accident, Jeremy Spensser's brain is transplanted by his scientist father into the huge body of an unattractive, frightening cyborg, to save his brilliant son's mind so that it can continue to serve mankind. Soon, his son's brain becomes transformed by the experimental procedure, losing key attributes that make him human and define his personality."  It also develops death rays from it's eyeballs, and of course, runs amok before Jeremy's son manages to touch his lost humanity and shut the robot body down.

Strange World | Official Trailer

                       

Godzilla vs Biollante - English Trailer

                     

Sven- Invisible Agent (1942)

The Nazi powers want the invisibility serum made by Jack Griffin.  They accost Frank "Raymond" and let him know he is the grandson of Jack Griffin.  He refuses to sell to them, and manages to get away.  The US wants to use his serum, but he refuses them as well.  Then Pearl Harbor happens.  He then agrees to help, but on the condition he is the only one who uses the serum.  He parachutes down into Germany and finds the Ratzis looking for him.  He also runs into a beautiful blond, who may or may not be a triple agent.

Marvel's Hercules movie

 

Hercules was introduced into the MCU at the end of Thor 4.  He will be played by Brett Goldstein, and looks pretty close to his comic book counterpart.  I have some thoughts about how I would do his first movie.  Zeus has sent him out to kill Thor, or at least humiliate him in some manner.  Once he arrives on Earth looking for Thor, I would have him meet and battle some other menace for the majority of the movie.  This would be a way of introducing him to current Earth and his supporting cast, while looking for Thor.  I would only have the God of Thunder show up at the end of the movie, setting up the clash of titans that way, as well as the next movie.  That way Marvel wouldn't have to cram it all into another 3 hour movie.

Invisible Agent Official Trailer 1942

                       

Xenorama #48 is on sale now!

 

 "Guitars and Marshall stacks!"

Here it is!  A celebration of Josie and the Pussycats franchise.  We cover the cartoons, the comic books and the most excellent movie.  Josie's actual 60th anniversary is next year, as she debuted in in 1963.  She got her own mag soon after, and the Pussycats were formed about six years later, in preparation for the cartoons series.  The gang has been around since then, in one form or another.

Robot MOTW- Ultron 7

Ultron 7 took on the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and the Inhumans all at once, and nearly beat them all.  He had the use of the body of Omega, which granted him even more power, though it was not made of adamantium like his other bodies have been.  It also made Ultron gigantic, which does help when battling many different heroes.  It is a good thing that Agatha Harkness was tending to tiny, comatose Franklin Richards in Attilan at the same time.  Ultron's encephalo rays woke him up and he blasted the robot with his own mutant mind beams.  That was the last we saw of Ultron 7.  He would return later, and finally ditched the numbering.  Why advertise how many times you have been defeated?

Samurai Jack season 2 (2002)

This season has Jack looking for time portals, so he can return to his own past and undo the evil that is Aku.  In the first episode he was thwarted by not being able to jump high enough to reach the portal Aku was holding.  At the end of the episode he surprised Aku, since he had learned to jump real high.  He has also met the Scotsman again, and has battled robotic versions of himself.  There are a lot of other enemies and friends to encounter along the way of his quest.

The Queers - "Punk Rock Girls"

                

Emerald's "gotcha" Day

I have already reviewed Creature with the Atom Brain here, about eleven years ago.   My views haven't changed.  So let's talk about Emi again!

It was actually yesterday that I brought Emerald home.  She's been here four years now and has really come out of her shell.  She plays with Kaida all the time.  They do have their disagreements, but mostly get along.  Kaida has even tried to clean Emi on occasion, though Emi isn't that receptive.  She arrived at nine pounds and now weighs just under twelve pounds.  She lost a bit of weight do to the "getaway-chase" game the girls play.  A two year old cat has a LOT of energy.  I love you, Emi!

Trailer - Creature With The Atom Brain (1955)

                 

The Amazing 3 (1965)

 

Here's a rather unknown to the general public cartoon brought over from Japan in the wake of Astro Boy.  It was dubbed by Copri in Florida, and is pretty straightforward, like the other Japanese cartoon series they dubbed.  The basis is that three agents from Galactic Control are sent to Earth to see if the planet will be saved or destroyed.  They take the form of three animals, a duck with a Beatles hair cut, a horse and a rabbit.  They make friends with an Earthling named Kenny/Shinichi.  They help him and his secret agent brother Randy/Koichi defeat a host of vile villains over 52 episodes.  Then the moment of decision is upon them.

RIP John Lennon- Help!

                 

Wakanda Forever (2022)

 

In which Namor, the Submariner, prince of... Talokon, wants help from the Wakandas to protect the world's supply of vibranium from the surface dwellers.  Nations are demanding Wakanda shares it, and some are trying to steal it from Wakanda.  There is also a young scientist Riri Williams who built a vibraniun detector.  This leads to a battle between Namor and his Talokan warriors against the NEW Black Panther and the Wakandans.  Shuri finally comes to terms with being a ruler and the Panther, and they make peace with Namor.

Robot MOTW- Maria

 

A lower class worker, Maria, is copied into a robot, in order to crush a rebellion of workers.  This robot assumes Maria's identity.  Rotwang is her creator, and he more than lives up to his name.  The workers and the upper class fight, but eventually they are brought together.  It's a massive movie, and I have only seen most of it once.  Faux-Maria is not really a monster, she is only doing as she was programmed.  It is really Rotwanker that is the monster, and the upper class who look down upon the lower classes.

RIP Kirstie Alley

 Kirstie Alley passed on yesterday from a short battle with cancer.  She is perhaps best known as the woman who replaced Shelley Long as Sam's sort of love interest in Cheers.  I'll admit, I did not watch the show much after Long left.  This is not a knock at Ms. Alley, but the dynamic of the show had changed and it just didn't seem as funny to me.  I liked her best as Lt. Saavik in 1982's Wrath of Khan. She was a funny woman, and was quite successful.  Thank you for the memories.

Sven- The Raven (1935)

 

Wacky neurosurgeon Dr. Richard Vollin comes out of retirement to save a dancer.  He then falls in love with her, much to the chagrin of her father and fiance.  Vollin is a Edgar Allen Poe (Hi Dr. Nick!) devotee, and has a torture chamber in his basement.  Guess that makes it a dungeon, really.  He finds an escaped killer, ruins his face and makes him do the dirty work for him.  This eventually does not work out well for him, but he's not really a good person so no one minds at all.

Happy 7th Birthday, Emerald Sage!

 

Emerald Sage turns seven years old today.  She's been with us for almost five years now.  She is the senior cat now, and sort of tries to rule the roost.  Her ruling of the roost tends to be sleeping in her various spots and bossing us around in the evening before bed time.  She is a creature of habit overall.  She doesn't like being held too much.  Her toleration of being picked up is about 36 seconds, then she becomes a wiggle butt and wants to be set down.  She is very sweet, but a little shy around new people, or even sometimes people she knows well.  I'm so happy to have her in my life.  She has the loudest purr of any cat I have ever had in my life.

proposed Xenorama #15 cover

 

I was searching for a pressbook in my bins, and came across this cover I had made for the original Xenorama #15.  I didn't remember making it at all, though there was a lot of material prepared for this issue.  The issue was supposed to be about spores, molds and fungus, or any slimes and blob monsters.  Why Inframan and Kamen Rider are there I have no idea now.  I had started it back in 2001 or so, but it was sidetracked and eventually dropped for a different sort of issue altogether.  I do have some pages of this issue around... perhaps I could try do a similar issue over again.

The Raven (1935) Trailer

                    

Frankenstein titles

 

I have been looking for the German version of this movie, as they released the original US cut on DVD, as a bonus to Japanese cut.  The AIP version was slightly different than the Toho version, with some added scenes of Frankenstein being more aggressive at the start of the movie.  When the movie was released in the US, this version was no longer available, at least in this country.  The deleted scenes have been presented on other discs, not just including the octopus sequence.

RIP Christine McVie- Say You Love Me

               

MOTW- Robot Model B9

 

Planetary Robot B9 was a late addition to the crew of tje Jupiter 2.  It has a wide variety of capabilities, and tapes that can program it to do even more things.  It has electrical bolts as well as laser beams.  These are both offensive and defensive weapons.  At first, the robot was considered dangerous to the family, since Dr. Smith was controlling it.  He was using the Robot for his own devious ends.  After operating amongst humans for a time the Robot started developing a personality, which led the younger Robinsons to treat "him" as a part of both the crew and the family.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Mr. Heat Miser

              

Snoopy Come Home (1972)

 

Snoopy finds out his first owner, a girl named Lila, is sick and goes to visit her.  He takes off, with Woodstock in tow, and has many adventures while he get to Lilah.  In the meantime, Charlie Brown is heartbroken that his dog left.  

"You got a used dog, Charlie Brown."

The rest of the gang misses Snoopy as well.  He had been acting up, but all that is forgotten now.  Snoopy and Woodstock eventually get to Lila, but have to sneak in since there are "NO DOGS ALLOWED" in the hospital (not a bad, thing, really).  Lila then asks Snoopy to come live with her when she gets out of the hospital.  This leads to all sorts of emotional drama.  Snoopy leaves his home and friends (even Woodstock), but alas, Lila has a cat and her building has that dreaded sign on it...

Frankenstein Conquers the World (1966) - Restored US/German Trailer

               

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022)

 

It sure is a lot better than the other "Holiday Special" that was inflicted upon us in 1978.  Still hard to believe Disney hasn't actually released that thing to make more money.  Anyway, Kraglin tells Mantis and Drax how Yondu ruined Xmas for Quill.  Mantis reveals she is his half-sister to Drax, and then they decide to save the Yule for Peter.  This involves them traveling to Earth and bringing the hero Kevin Bacon back to Quill as a gift.  This does not quite go as planned, and after a lot of misadventures (and lovely destruction in Hollywood) Kevin does make an appearance on Knowhere.  It all works out in the end (as holiday specials are wont to do) and Mantis give Peter the best gift ever.  Also, Kraglin didn't know how the original story ended.

Josie's original spaceship

 

I was surprised to find this pre production drawing of the spaceship from Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space.  It is a more traditional rocket ship design.  It also looks a lot smaller than the designed that was eventually used.  It is never shown in the series where the gang sleeps, though we do see a galley in a few episodes.  Be that as it may, I think the ship they used in the series is better one overall.  The ball on the top gives it a different look.  This ship looks a bit like the Jupiter 2 from the HB version of Lost in Space.  This is a sleep ship, but it looks far too small to work for the series.

The Crawling Eye Trailer

                

Robot MOTW- Mechanikong (1967)

 

This amazing robot is the creation of Dr. Who, the international Judas.  It is one impressive robot.  It does have some bombs to use, but only for the mining operation.

Dr. Who: “He's exactly like the original Kong. With this, the world is ours.”

Madame Piranha: “It's still not the original. You sure you didn't just build a giant toy?”

Dr. Who: “A toy? That's an insult! How can you say that? It is the strongest thing there is in the world today!”

― Dr. Who reveals Mechani-Kong to his benefactor Madame Piranha (King Kong Escapes)

Xenorama #47 on sale soon!

 

This is the 11th new issue published this year!  How about that!  One more and I will have averaged one a month this year, and over thirty years that is about three issues per year.  I'm pretty impressed with my usual gang of geniuses that help me out!  I sure couldn't do it without you all!  This is the second in a series of three issue about Hanna-Barbera superheroes.  I have one more planned, but that may or may not get published until next year.  This one was a lot of fun to do, since the cartoons are some of the most action packed ones out there.  Of course, nearly all of the Saturday morning cartoons were this way.  Many of us of a certain vintage were spoiled by these cartoons, and when the inevitable cycle changed to comedies.  These were far less "violent".  It took a long time to get any kind of action on Saturdays again, and even then the censors could be quite ridiculous.

A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969)

 

MeTV aired this movie this past Sunday night.  It was to honor Charles Schulz' 100th birthday.  That is November 26th, 1922.  It is a little early, but next week they will show Snoopy, Come Home next week, which will also be fun.  The main plot is Charlie Brown enters his class (he is in second grade, so that places the oldest Peanuts about 7-8 years old, Sally and Linus would be younger).  He unexpectedly wins.  He also wins the school wide contest.  This leads him to the National Spelling Bee in New York City, which Lucy expects him to win.  Well, Chuck being Chuck, he does exceedingly well, but misspells the final word and ends up in second place.  In the whole nation.  That is still pretty impressive, but Chuck is despondent.  Good thing both Linus and Lucy, of all people, help him see the light.

Power Rangers - Tommy Oliver Tribute

               

RIP Jason David Frank

Jason David Frank passed away on 11-19-2022.  When it was first reported the cause of death was unknown, but now it is being reported as a suicide.  No reasons have been given at this time.  I hope he has found the peace he was looking for.  He is survived by four children.  Frank was best known for playing Dr. Tommy Oliver in the Power Rangers franchise.

Sven- Fiend without a Face

That darn atomic radiation- you mix it with lightning and telekinesis projects and suddenly brain vampires are killing the local people.  The living locals blame the radar installation that the US Army is running, in order to see if those dratted commies are about to let Gammera loose on the world.  Well, unless they have anti-electric wave paint, that is.  That is another story.  So Major  Jeff Cummings investigates, and meets Professor Walgate and his assistant, Barbara.  Walgate is working on increasing brain power, and guess what he has created?  Invisible fiends!  The fiends are smart, and they increase the radiation output so they can grow and feed more.  A fierce battle takes place, with the humans finally triumphing over the now visible Fiends.

Kamen Riders Ichigo and Nigo Return (Let's Go Kamen Riders)

                    

Let's Go Kamen Riders (2011)

 

This movie was released way back when, and I thought I had watched it.  I know I started to, but I don't remember if I ever finished it.  It involves Kamen Rider 000 and Den-O, along with a lot of time travel nonsense.  000 has coins that power him, or something, and loses one in 1971.  The loss of this coin gives Shocker a chance to come to power.  So the two Riders go back in time, and try to save the future.  I am about half way through the movie, and it is pretty entertaining.

Fiend Without a Face trailer (1958)

             

Robot MOTW- Creeper robot

 

Dr. Zorka invents an eight foot slave robot to do his evil bidding.  It roams through 12 chapters of The Phantom Creeps way back in 1939.  It hulks about doing the bad doctor's bidding, until it gets destroyed.  Dr. Zorka also does not fare well, but that is par for the course in serials.

Pussycat concert!

What a fun poster for a faux concert!  This it even mentions the headphones.  I'm just cynical enough to think some corporation might actually do this to their fans, or actually would try the subliminal messages in media.  Not a bit of that would surprise me.  And this movie was in 2001.  This is a movie I really wish I had seen in the theater, but for some reason in April of 2001 I was not even aware of it.  Or if I was, I thought it would be terrible.  I am glad to find out how wrong I was.

Godzilla: King Ghidorah's Counterattack 2

                  

RIP Kevin Conroy

 

Kevin Conroy passed away from a battle with cancer on November 10th, 2022.  A lot has already been written about him, what a kind and wonderful man he was, and I can't add much more to that.  There have been other animated Batman voices, but aside from Olan Soule, none of them were as good as Kevin.  That includes Adam West, since his voice as an animated Batman was just odd.  Kevin also got to don the Batman suit in real life in the Arrowverse shows, which is also quite nice.

Sven- X (1963) (the man with X-Ray eyes)

 Dr. James Xavier develops a serum to make people see beyond the normal spectrum of light.  Naturally, he chooses to use them on himself.  The serum works, and he can see through clothes and even flesh.  He keeps using the eye drops of course, which increase the power of his eyes.  After an accidental killing, he goes on the run.  This leads him to work as a mind reader in a carnival.  A grifter turns him into a "healer" but that goes awry.  A venture to Las Vegas also goes south.  Finally, he ends up at a revival tent, where that grifter tells him that if his eyes offend him to pluck them out...

Megalon and the dam

 

This is a great shot from a great sequence in a, let us be honest, not that great a movie.  I love Godzilla vs. Megalon, but one must not turn a blind eye to the movie.  It suffers from a low budget and a rushed filming schedule.  It is amazing the film is as fun as it is, really.  This is probably the best new scene in the movie, as Megalon destroys a damn.  It is well edited and well lit and filmed perfectly.  The miniatures all look great and the actor inside the Megalon suit (Hideto Date) handles the whole sequence perfectly in that big, bulky suit.

X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES (1963) Official Trailer

                   

Moby Dick coloring book

 

This coloring book was published in 1968.  I still have my copy, though it is not in good shape.  I found a new one several years ago, and it is in very good shape, and complete.  There are three "stories" here, one where Moby takes on a giant octopus, then saves the boys from mermen and carnivorous plants, and finally, a sea serpent is looking for a snack and the battle is on.  The first part of the book is introducing Tim, Tubb, the original Scooby and Moby.  There are a lot of pictures to color of sea life as well.  It is pretty close to the cartoon, all things considered.  It is pretty violent- Moby knocks a merman into one of the flesh eating plants, which presumably ate the poor critter alive.  He buries the octopus and, according to the writing, "destroys the serpent".  Then it is a happy ending.

Robot MOTW- The Automaton

 

This giant robot protects a powerful cartel.  It uses a deadly gas weapon called The Madagascar Madness.  Harry Houdini breaks the cartel up and exposes this robot as a human in disguise.  This is an early serial, and most of it has been lost to the ashes of time, but a few chapters are left for your viewing pleasure.  The robot doesn't look very threatening at all, but I am sure over a hundred years ago it was something to behold at the time,  Too bad it was just a dude in disguise.  The cartel would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for that darn Houdini!

Split Enz Dirty Creature Countdown 1982

           

ThingMaker- Eeeks!

Did anyone else have this ThingMaker toy?  I loved it when I got it, about first grade.  It had Goop that you poured into molds, then heated up with the hot and sometime painful stove thing.  This is probably part of the reason the toys got canceled, since hot plastic/rubber and metal trays could be dangerous, and everyone I knew that had this toy got burned at some point.  Nothing bad, mind you, but still OUCH.  The Goop came in many colors.  There were several body styles, and then different legs and wings that could be attached to the bodies.  I think there were different heads as well.   So you could mix and match to make endless Eeeks.

Go Go Kikaider (1972) - English Subs

              

Josie is on TV!

Since I did not gravitate towards "funny" comic books, I missed seeing this ad.  One thing the internet is really good for is saving all these historical documents so I can use them in Xenorama!  It is very thoughtful of those scanners.  I don't know now if I watched the original run of Josie and the Pussycats, or the second run a year later.  At this point it doesn't matter, does it?  It is too bad HB didn't do a couple more seasons of both shows.  I especially wanted to see more of the outer space adventures.  I will always wish HB ended some of their shows, instead of leaving them open ended like many of them.  We viewers wanted some closure!  How did the gang get back to Earth?  I am sure Space Ghost brought them back, what a story that would make!  Perhaps my powers can get DC to publish that story in a six issue mini-series.  I would buy that in a minute. 

cool lobby card

 

I love these old school lobby cards.  So many of them showed scenes that sort of occurred in the movie, but sometimes didn't occur at all.  Good ol' airbrushing.  Back then, fans didn't know if the scene would show up or not, of if there was even another movie with the same monsters in it.  There are lobby cards from Yog, Monster From Space and King Kong Escapes that have nothing to do with the movie at all, but sure look great.  They made a person want to go see that movie, I'll tell you what.

WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story Trailer (2022)

                    

Xenorama #42- on sale soon!

 

Finally, the long awaited 30th anniversary issue has arrived!  It is in review on Amazon and should be approved soon enough.  The reason for the delay was that I was (and still am) awaiting an interview of the publisher (he said modestly) but it has yet to arrive.  The deadline was 10-31, which has obviously passed.  The beautiful part about publishing on Amazon is that if the interview does arrive, I can add it no problemo.  Thus making this first version a collectable!  We will see if that happens.  However, this is a great issue, and I wish I could have had everyone who contributed to the zine over the years in it.  However, even in the age of internet searches, it wasn't easy. 

"Weird Al" Yankovic - I Lost On Jeopardy (Official Video)

                    

Robot MOTW- Gort

 

Robots really aren't monsters, though they can certainly cause damage.  Gort has a lot of power, including disintegrating beams.  These are used against artillery and the army.  Gort is one of the first robots that looks futuristic.  The mechanical men of the serials, while being cool, didn't always look great.  They were clunky, and definitely of the time they were created in.  Gort looks great today, with a sleek and powerful build.  It doesn't hurt that they filmed him being at least eight feet tall. 

The Golden Age of Movie Monsters

                    

Bionic Reconstruction (2007)

 

I have been watching the first season of The Six Million Dollar Man,  and have one other season set, plus the complete Bionic Woman.  She had to cost more than Steve did, right, inflation and all?  Anyway, there are a lot of guest stars in that first season of Six Mill and I wanted to know more about both shows.  Sure, there is wikipedia, but books are just so much easier to use and read. I looked about and discovered this book here.  It is almost 400 pages of bio-electronic goodness.  It is written by Herbie J. Pilato, who has written many other books about televisions shows.

Journey into Mystery 62

 

"Here Comes the Hulk!" Xemnu, the living Hulk, first showed up in 1960, a few years before the green (and more famous) Hulk appeared.  He was later renamed The Living Titan.  It is a convict from an intergalactic prison world.  It turns up on Earth, with its energy severely depleted.  Good ol' Joe Harper (who looks a lot like Dr. Robert Bruce Banner), your friendly neighborhood electrician, is hypnotized by the Hulk.  He helps it revive, and then it wants to take over the Earth.  It actually does, and makes the enthralled people build it a new spaceship.  Joe is not hypnotized, so Xemnu can gloat, but hubris is its downfall.  Joe crosses the wires and sends the Hulk on an endless jaunt around our sun.  The people of Earth are freed!  No one but Joe knows what happened.

ZATS - "Prom Night"

            

Sven- Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)

 

Or is it?  Count Yorga talks a lot during this movie.  He is a bit funny, which helps.  The rest of the cast talks a lot as well.  The narrator talks a lot.  The Count holds a seance and starts looking for more prey. He does like the ladies, and has two or three of them stashed away already.  It takes our heroes a while to realize that he is a vampire, and then they rush off without any preparation.  No garlic, no holy water, no crosses, not even any stakes.  And they go at night, each time.  They sure could have used Peter Vincent, or any horror fan from that time period for help.  Finally, the Count is destroyed, but alas, his last lady was not.

does whatever a spider can?

Spider-Man does a lot of things a spider does, sort of.  He can crawl on walls, spins webs, has the "proportionate strength" of a spider and that eerie spider sense.  Too bad spiders are not strong like ants.  Be that as it may, Peter must not have suffered from acrophobia, since he is always floating about in the air, or crawling up the sides of the many tall buildings in NYC.  The first time he jumped onto a wall, he didn't even think about how high up he was.  Now, perhaps the sudden strength increase helped, or the spider DNA took over, but he never had a problem with heights.

Black Adam (2022)

 

A long time ago, movies started with the title of the film.  No, that's not what happened here.  The Council of Wizards chose a hero to help save his land and free his people.  According to legend, Teth-Adam does that, but then disappears.  Some 5000 years later, Khandaq is still oppressed by invaders, and Teth-Adam returns.  This is sort of a mixed blessing to everyone, since he is full of rage and power.  No one should make him mad, though he seems to be mad all the time.  InterGang has taken over the country, and we all know who funds that group.  Amanda Waller, of Task Force X, sends the JSA to contain Teth-Adam.  This group consists of Dr. Fate, Hawkman, Atom Smasher and the Red Tornado.  After many battles, Teth-Adam finds and fulfills his destiny and defeats Sabbac.  The JSA departs and lets the newly christened Black Adam ponder his future.

Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) - Trailer

              

Batman and Captain America (1996)

 

There is a plot afoot in Gotham City in early 1945.  Batman and Robin are on the trail of the Joker and after he escapes, Batman finds some disturbing clues about what the Clown Prince of Crime's plan is.  Cap helps Rock and Easy Company dispose of a War Wheel (I think that is what is is) and gets summoned back to the States.  He and Bucky run into Batman and Robin during a rescue of Robert Oppenheimer.  The big brass suspect a spy on the Manhattan Project.  They think they spy is Bruce Wayne, and Private Rogers is set to watching him.  Steve and Bruce have a quick tussle, and Bruce figures out who he is fighting.  They join forces to stop the Joker, and find out the Red Skull is behind it all.  Big surprise there, right?