January 31st, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

On this week in 1976, ABBA went to Number One on the UK singles chart, with Mamma Mia.

I can think of no link between this fact and the comics Marvel UK were bestowing upon us in that very same week.

I can, however, say that I hated Mamma Mia the movie.

On the other hand, I loved Muriel's Wedding.

On the other hand, I've never seen Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

I haven't seen ABBA: The Movie in at least twenty years but I remember Lou Carpenter being in it, so it must have been good.

Thus concludes my review of movies that wield ABBA songs like Obi Wan Kenobi wields his lightsabre.

Anyway, Marvel UK in this week of exactly forty years ago.

Were our heroes calling out, "S.O.S."?

Or were their foes instead meeting their Waterloo?

To be honest, despite what it says on the cover, I don't remember demanding the return of Iron Fist. But I would have done if it'd occurred to me, as I was always partial to his adventures.

Then again, I was always partial to Shang-Chi's adventures as well.

Shang-Chi? Iron Fist? How could I possibly be forced to choose between them?

As for the main story, I'm not altogether sure just what a wolf is going to do against the combined might of the Vision, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. I think Red Wolf might be being a bit over-ambitious there.

The story's clearly the Dr Strange/Flash Thompson/Vietnam one but I have a feeling that this cover is a reworking of one originally done for a story that featured the Red Skull.

What a rather belting cover. I seem to remember including it in my post listing what I thought were the twelve best Planet of the Apes covers.

In other news: for a moment, I got all over-excited there. I misread the cover blurb as saying, "Apeslayer gone berserk!" You can't help feeling Conquest of the Planet of the Apes would have ended dramatically differently if Apeslayer had been around.

That's a very strange portrayal of the Bi-Beast. In fact, other than him having two faces, it bears no resemblance to him at all.

More excitingly, I think there were now only two weeks to go before my Mighty World of Marvel drought finally ended and my local newsagent started stocking it again.

I assume the, "Them," in question are the organisation otherwise known as AIM?

I seem to recall that robot turning up in the pages of Captain America as well. It might have looked a bit silly but it clearly knew how to cause trouble.

I think I may have read this Bloodstone tale in the back of The Rampaging Hulk comic of which I was a big fan.

The family drama runs deep in the pages of Dracula Lives.