World's Wickedest Wednesdays: Ancient Adversaries Again!

The World's Wrinkly-est is more like it... as in King Kull the ancient Beast Man who's technological yet savage race was defeated in prehistoric times by the ingenuity of mankind. Awakening from suspended animation, the master of ancient sciences and physical brutality tried to subjugate modern man until he faced the Big Red Cheese, aka Captain Marvel! After a dozen attempts in the early 1950's upon his revival, Kull lied dormant until such time as he could seek his revenge upon his foes the Marvel Family. After assembling various thugs from three Earths, his ultimate goal of securing the Rock of Eternity almost succeeded until his trio of triumphant terrors, Cap, Mary and Cap Jr aided the combined heroes in a final assault on their wizened old opponent. After which, he was never more than a pawn of another villain, be it Doctor Sivana or Mister Mind.

Over at Charlton' Earth-Four, a more evocative and eloquent elderly evil was on display there, as Evila was revived by the Hooded One and transformed into a modern day threat. However, after but one case she was aged to ancient dust by Peter Cannon the Thunderbolt!

True, both were hairy and, ahem, busty, but definitely you'll want Evila instead of smelly old Kull crashing your party.

Eterno was a brilliant ruler of ancient pre-deluge Atlantis who, much like King Kull, brought technology into a modern era to clash twice with the Mighty Crusaders.

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In 1954, aspiring comic book publisher Charlton purchased the rights to several prominent characters from the expiring Fawcett Comics, such as Ibis, Golden Arrow and Lance O'Casey. In 1980 and 1985, DC Comics purchase Fawcett's Marvel Family then Charlton's Action Heroes, and the two were linked once more, now on parallel Earths, Four and Shazam.Now the MLJ has been added to their stable of characters, we examine the parallels in this series.

Battling Blondes: Round 3 - Cover Boys

Returning to comparison of those battling blondes, John Raymond aka the Web and the Peter Cannon aka Thunderbolt, so far we have a 3-1 lead from round 2 (round 1 ended in a draw). Our next area of focus are the covers portraying the pair in action. We've picked four...let's get started!

Pete going tet a tet against vicious apes...while John gets spanked by a common thug who is turn scared by bread roller! Pete takes this. Definitely not John's finest hour but the future Pow-Girl is showing some potential.

Although John shares billing with his Fly friends, he's definitely standing erect and ready for battle...unlike John who's tasting the potent power of that poisonous princesses of Ptolemy, Evila. I think John would have a shot against that gal considering he faces Rose every morning, noon, and night.

Once more John shows that he's isn't afraid to tackle solid girth. Those sumos no doubt eat guys like Bolt for breakfast. Meanwhile, it looks like the Fly is doing most of the work with John coming just in time for to bull rush the non-descript felon. We'd give it to the Fly, were he in this contest,  just for the sound effect alone.  This is the "POW" age, after all. You know he means business. Otherwise, this is ALL Petey for manning up.

Two fire-breathing baddies...now we're talking! Pete seems to have his oppenent, this time the Dragon, on the ropes. However, John has taken a tactical advantage..getting the drop on a villain, Inferno, imitating a hero who himself was a villain and foe of Steel Sterling. Anyways, since Dragon seems to be smirking despite encountering this might of the Bolt while Inferno seems to be in panic mode, will give a slight nod to the Web.


Battling Blondes Rating

1.) Story Drama: Or, at least, Cover Drama? It would seem that Thunderbolt wins out since his covers are serious while typically there are comical elements strewn in Web's appearances. Although Pete's static and stilled poses do not convey quite as much action as John's fluid motions. Pete gets this by a nose.

2.) Imaginative Use of Abilities: Not much imagination in these covers. Flying fists are fairly typical. As are leaping through windows.Thankfully category 4 touches on this (see below) in a creative way.

3.)Adversary: Inferno beats Dragon since he has style points for his costume and legacy connection. The Wayne women beat Evila as we mentioned last week and Rose...as a foe or ally...wins every time hands down simply due to her dogged persistent and character motivation...preservation of her fool husband's life.

4.) Intangibles that Worked: Heed the Web's words "The Web will not only thrill you...it'll make ya laugh, cry, and mebbe even sneeze..you'll sneeze when...oh go buy the mag". Sneezing is a powerful incentive in our book. Pete's reply? "I can do it...I must do it...I will do it". Yawn! John wins.

To sum up, John wins Round 3! We'll resume Battling Blondes in a few weeks, after we introduce Dueling Ditko: Bugged-Out Bouts! Can't wait.

Battling Blondes: Round 2 - Femme Fatales

Last time on Battling Blondes, we ended in a tie between our contestants, The Web and The Thunderbolt. Once more we're using a four point grading system: 1.) Story Drama, 2.) Imaginative Use of Abilities, 3.)  Adversary, 4.) Intangibles that Worked. For Round 2, we introduce two femme fatales!

We now present Mighty Comics #45 amd Peter Cannon...Thunderbolt #51:

We've previously been introduced to Web's true arch-enemy, his mother-in-law! Mama Hardy truly is the epitome of ruthlessness as she is doggedly determined to ruin the career of Professor John Raymond, M.D.! Yet she is not the only ancient evil brunette menacing mankind...there is also Princess Evila!!! Revived after centuries if immobility thanks to the machinations of Thunderbolt's recurring nemesis, the Hooded One, she now uses her own indomitable will to create a tide of criminal activity to styme Peter Cannon. Who is stronger, the mommy or the mummy?

When faced one-on-one with these potent practioners of evil, our boys realize they are in BIGGGG trouble: The unearthly gaze of these haunting paralyzing pupils! GET OUT OF MY HEAD you beautiful, bemuse-ed, bellicose butchers. Un-trust... ing. Un-know... ing, Un-love... ed? Uh...huh?!?

Best to have a brief interlude in the story at this point to helps the Dudes reassess how they became THE BATTLING BLONDES to begin with!

Deep thinking young men confronted by other young men with potential yet bent toward a different path leading to a conflict between the two pairs forevermore.


Now back to the battle of wills with the horrible hags. Can these chicks get under a guy's skin or what? Looks like the bachelor has it all over married man in vanquishing his egotistical estrogenic enemy decisively!

Battling Blondes Rating

1.) Story Drama: Web's story is plain goofy as par for the course. Still, Thunderbolt's tale isn't a masterpiece of storytelling either. However, thanks in no small part to story length of T-Bolt's 20 pages to Web's 3 (he was hamstrung between features, this issue) plus a couple challenges faced by the former, this one goes to Pete.

2.) Imaginative Use of Abilities: Thunderbolt's reverse polarity of pulsating psyche to turn his foe into an elderly hag and out of the picture. And Web's...ummm...groveling at the feat of his own hag-in-law? No contest. Pete wins this hands down!

3.)Adversary: As far as raw power Princess Evila seems to have the upper hand, swaying the criminal community and reviving her once legendary infamy. However, she was a one-hit wonder while Rose's Mama Hardy would return for further bouts and held her own against costumed foes (see Madman). Yet at the end of T-Bolt's tale, Tabu reflects on the restoration formula and that Evila spelled backwards is Alive! Would she return one day? A big question mark in the last panel seems to indicate this.Until we see this story, John's foe helps him claim this category.

4.) Intangibles that Worked: A picture is worth a thousand words. Peter Cannon definitely has it where it counts in the multi-faceted skill set of all non-powered action heroes.

Johnny will eventually take on crocodiles of his own, although he'll do so aided by his pals he Mighty Crusader and the crocs in question are Crusaders! For THIS story, Pete takes this as well!


This round concludes with Thunderbolt winning 3 to 1! We may eventually have to jump ahead past the silver age of comics to give Web a fair chance, though there might be a surprise or two in store before we get that far in our epic Battling Blondes! Next up is Round 3: Cover Boys!