December 27th, 1975 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Hooray! Santa's stuck in my chimney, Rudolph's eating my sofa and The Snowman's walking in my hair. It can only mean one thing.

It's more or less Christmas.

That means it's time to find out what tinsel-packed goodness Marvel UK was giving us on this very day of forty years ago.

Were they dishing out turkeys, left, right and centre?

Or were they giving us a veritable smorgasbord of crackers?

There aren't many Avengers tales from this era that don't grab me but, somehow, I've never been able to warm to the Cornelius van Lunt storyline. I think I just feel a need for super-villains in an Avengers tale.

Much as I might love Man-Thing and Werewolf by Night, I can't help feeling that, if Dracula really wants to take over the world, they'll prove more of a hindrance than a help, seeing as they tend to have a somewhat unfocused approach to life. In fact, when it comes to usefulness as partners, I'd feel happier about using Oddbod and Oddbod Jr from Carry On Screaming than those two.

Once more Cornelius finds himself up against people who took shooting training from the Star Wars Storm Troopers. Someone really does need to tell them that if you point your gun at the ground, you're not in any great danger of hitting anyone.

Spidey's still having trouble with the Spider-Slayer.

Hooray! It's the tale where the Hulk strip goes completely mad and Modok turns Betty Ross into the Harpy.

Meanwhile, I detect the return of Psycho-Man to the pages of the Fantastic Four.

The Super-Heroes is still quietly trundling along.

I finally got round to seeing Iron Man 2 the other night. I must confess I preferred Iron Man 1.

Of course, I'd have preferred it even more if Captain Marvel had been in it.