March 13th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

It was an arresting evening on BBC One on this day in 1976, as the channel was showing Dixon of Dock Green followed by She.

I must confess it's a bit of a shock to discover that the quintessentially 1950s Dixon of Dock Green was still going so late into the 1970s. It means it was still airing at the same time as The Sweeney, which seems an unlikely juxtaposition.

Apparently, Jack Warner, who played Dixon, was eighty when the 1976 series was filmed. I assume there wasn't a lot of running around involved in it.

As for, "She Who Must Be Obeyed," that sounds suspiciously like some sort of feminist thing.

And, "Some sort of feminist thing," can only mean one thing.

It means that...

...my favourite ever Defender makes her senses-shattering debut.

Sort of.

You have to hand it to the Valkyrie. There aren't many super-doers who could have three different alter-egos in their first three appearances.

Then again, on that cover are also the Vision who'd had two different personas, Clint Barton who'd had two different super-hero identities, the Black Panther who couldn't decide if  he was called the Black Panther or the Black Leopard, plus Medusa, the Black Widow and Quicksilver who started out as villains before they'd become heroes. It's like some sort of meeting of Schizophrenics Anonymous.

At least the Wondrous Wasp was there to add a lone smidgen of stability.

To be honest, it's not the most revealing cover of all time.

Seeing Spidey and Doc Strange like that makes me think of that scene in the Nicolas Cage Ghost Rider movie, where the current Ghost Rider and the original Ghost Rider set off together to confront the villain and then, when they finally get there, the original Ghost Rider, suddenly says goodbye and departs, leaving you wondering why he bothered to travel all the way there if he was only going to leave the moment he arrived.

I like to think that's what happens with Doctor Strange and Spider-Man in this comic.

I wonder what the free colour sticker was?

Going on the previous two weeks' obsessions, it was probably sea monkeys.

Things are all getting a bit shouty on the Planet of the Apes.

It's a little known fact that Shouty on the Planet of the Apes was going to be the title of the next film after Battle but, sadly, they changed their minds and it  never got made.

Apparently, Brian Blessed was going to play the main part; "WHAAAAAT! THERE ARE TALKING AAAPES?!!!!!!!?"

And that was just in the scene where he was whispering in order to hide from the apes the fact that he could speak.

Speaking of Dixon of Dock Green, it looks like he and two of his friends are on the trail of everyone's favourite vampire.

When Dixon gets his hands on him, no doubt he'll give him a clip round the ear and send him on his way with a warning not to let him catch him scrumping apples again.

Come to think of it, Dixon of Dock Green died at the end of his first movie appearance and then mysteriously returned to life to star in his own TV show. How could this be possible?

Unless.

Could it be?

Could it be that he was secretly a vampire?

I think it's the question we've all asked; "Who'd win a fight between the Hulk and the Juggernaut?"

This week, forty years ago, we finally got our answer.

Actually, come to think of it, the ending was a bit of a cop-out and we didn't really get an answer.

"Lo! The Eggs Shall Hatch!"

I'm not convinced that that's going to go down as one of the great story titles of all time.

I don't have a clue who the bloke punching Nick Fury is. He looks like he should be a member of Zodiac but I don't recognise him as one, unless he's Taurus in a whole other costume to the one we're used to him wearing.