September 6th, 1975 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

On this day in 1975, all sensible beings were trembling with fear - because BBC 2 was showing The Beast With Five Fingers.

Five fingers?

Hold on a minute. I've just checked - and I have ten fingers. In fact, everyone that I know has ten fingers. It's going to have to up its digit levels if it's going to strike terror into my heart. I demand at least twelve fingers from my monsters, not to mention eight elbows and fifteen toes..

But it wasn't alone in launching an assault on our sanity - because, directly after broadcasting that, BBC 2 treated us to The Maze, the tale of a Scottish lord who's really a giant frog.

How does this all tie in with what our favourite comic company was up to on the same day?

In no way whatsoever.

I don't know about the Beast With Five Fingers but Spidey's the man with slippery fingers, as the Green Goblin enacts his latest diabolical scheme.

Not only that but the webbed wonder's also mislaid the spider symbol from his back. Can things possibly get any worse for our hero?

Kang's well on his way to getting everyone's favourite super-team involved in a game of chess they'll never forget.

I'm not saying those apes are slow movers but they've been running away from the same scene on the cover for the last three issues now and they've still barely advanced by a foot in the intervening weeks.

I've never read this issue but it's clear that Drac's up against a foe whose conversational technique can only be called enlightning.

The Leader's still in control of the Rhino's body and still out to cause trouble for our hero.

Unless every issue of The Super-Heroes features the Silver Surfer attacking Doc Savage and the X-Men, I must conclude that recent covers of the mag have been very good at giving no indication at all of what actually happens in the comic.