Forty years ago today - June 1977.

June 1977 was the month ITV descended into madness when it broadcast the legendary documentary Alternative 3 which posited that, thanks to a secret base on the moon, America and Russia had achieved a joint landing on Mars in 1962 and covered it up.

"Why is no one doing anything about this?" we all demanded.

Well, we didn't really because ITV admitted all along that it was a spoof originally planned for broadcast on April the 1st but delayed by industrial action.

Regardless, the show became a legend in conspiracy circles and, to this day, there are those who swear blind it was all genuine and that it was the claim that it was a hoax that was in fact the hoax.

With all that sort of thing going on, it's no wonder we had to take refuge in comics.

Hooray! It's more Clone Saga significance as it turns out someone's sent J Jonah Jameson photos of Peter Parker destroying his own duplicate in an incinerator.

I do remember Petey getting off the hook by doing some very unlikely photo compositing that'd require him to be as big a genius at photo manipulation as he is at science and costume design. Is there no end to his talents?

That's all well and good but did we ever find out who took the incriminating photos?

I'm sure I must have read this but I don't remember it. Is that Gloria Grant with Spidey or is it just some random woman?

Wasn't this issue some sort of fill-in tale, thanks to the dreaded deadline doom?

Was it the one that featured a flashback to the New X-Men fighting evil lookalikes of the Original X-Men in the Danger Room? I remember it being quite annoying, seeing as we were all waiting, with baited breath, for the next part of the Lilandra epic to arrive.

Then again, Firelord was always quite annoying too.

The Grim Reaper's still having family problems.

I'm assuming that's a symbolic cover and the Red Skull's not really turned into some kind of murderous head octopus?

Conan's involved in trouble again.

I'm fairly sure I've never read this one.

I must confess I never found either the Enchantress or the Executioner overly interesting. Plus, they did have the air of being a total pair of losers about them.

I believe this was the first time I ever encountered The Constrictor.

Come to think if it, I'm pretty sure it was the last time as well. Didn't he show his tactical genius by being electrocuted by a street lamp?

I have a feeling it's somewhere around this time that we first get to meet that magician whose name I forget. Was it The Great Kropotkin?

And didn't we also get to meet Bruce Banner's new landlady around this time?

And doesn't Betty Ross get a makeover sometime around this time?

It's clearly a significant time in the Hulk's history.

Isn't the big, green person, bottom right, one of the Mad Thinker's androids who's got stuck in the Negative Zone and somehow mutated into an unstoppable giant as a result?

I think I had this issue but I can't recall the contents.

Despite the versatility of his murderous methodologies, I must confess that Bullseye never really grabbed me any more than the Executioner and the Enchantress did.

The Mandarin's causing trouble on a cover reminiscent of the front of Wonder Woman #205.

Of course, in that issue, the bad guy was Doctor Domino, possibly the most ludicrous super-villain I've ever encountered. There aren't many men who think that dressing as a stage hypnotist and having a giant domino where your head should be looks menacing.