November 30th, 1977 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

This is it, music lovers! Grab your bagpipes and get strolling through those glens, in your wellies, because, forty years ago this week, Wings' unstoppable Mull of Kintyre leapt five places to claim the Number One slot on the UK singles chart.

It was a grip it would refuse to release for week after week after week and, when it finally let go, it had sold over two million copies to become the UK's biggest selling single of all time.

Not only that but it had seized the Number One slot by holding off the mighty challenge of Queen's We Are The Champions and Status Quo's Rocking All Over The World; two songs that would surely have been destined to reach Number One in any normal period.

And it wasn't just a big week for bagpipes. It was also a great week for technology, with the launch of British Airways' London to New York Concorde flights.

While, elsewhere, the TCP/IP test succeeded in connecting three ARPANET nodes in what would eventually become the Internet Protocol. I think we all remember where we were when that breakthrough was announced.

Meanwhile, on the 28th of the month, jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded On Green Dolphin Street, the first digitally recorded album to be commercially released in the USA.

What a strange mixture of the retro and the futuristic that week had turned out to be.

Anyway, with seismic events like that unfolding, Marvel UK were clearly going to have to give us something special to divert our attention away from such history-making drama.

And they did give us something special!

They gave us the first meeting of what they described as, "Marvel's two greatest heroes!"

Granted, one of those heroes might not have quite lived up to his half of that billing - what with him being a thinly disguised retread of the other - but it did at least draw together two of the eight million strips that Sal Buscema was pencilling at the time and gave us a tale of murder and intrigue.

I could be wrong but I think that, inside, Spidey was also still teaming up with Captain Britain.

It was like he couldn't fight foes on his own anymore.

I genuinely don't have a clue what's going on in this one but it would appear the Defenders' foe is so mighty that the combined power of Namor, Dr Strange and Valkyrie isn't enough to stop him, which means the Silver Surfer has to chip in too.

If it takes all that to thwart him, it sounds like he must be the greatest villain in the history of Marvel Comics.

Hooray! Darkoth the death demon makes his hell-spawned debut in a tale I've still never read and know only from it being mentioned in that book of monsters I'm always going on about.

But does that right-hand cover blurb mean the back-up tale reprints the FF's first ever encounter with Doctor Doom?

It's all gone a bit Planet Hulk as our anti-hero gets to fight Mongu II.

Did he refer to himself as, "Mongu II?"

If so, that's a bit weird, bearing in mind that Mongu I never existed and was just a Russian agent pretending to be a space alien.

Meanwhile, speaking of villains who are not the original article, Daredevil and the Black Widow are up against Mr Fear III in a tale I first encountered in an Alan Class comic.

Elsewhere, Captain Marvel battles to free himself from the mind of Rick Jones, otherwise known as Bucky II.

And who can blame him?

Let's face it, who'd want to be stuck in the mind of Rick Jones? All that self-pity would send you mad.

Forget Gal Gadot. Let's celebrate the real Wonder Woman.

As everyone knows, Steve Does Comics has always been the world's main bulwark against despotism, and this week has been no exception, with it over-seeing yet another of its votes upon which the fate of civilisation itself might hang.

And that was the vote to discover just who had the most groove; the Bee Gees or Michael Jackson.

Millions voted and, after consultation with the UN electoral observers, I can proudly announce that the results of the poll are as such:

• Michael Jackson. 5 votes.
• The Bee Gees. 8 votes.
• "I can't decide." 1 vote.
• "Neither of them have the levels of groove that I have." 4 votes.

And so it's official. The Bee Gees were groovier than Michael Jackson. In fact, according to the poll results, they were a hundred and sixty percent groovier than Michael Jackson - and that's an awful lot of groove to have.

But what could be groovier than even that?

Batman could.

After all, he was the man who invented the Batusi, surely the greatest dance of all time and one that I still insist on performing every time I go down the disco.

But Batman almost wasn't the only super-doer to be given the TV treatment back in the grooviest decade of them all because, powered by the triumph of that show, William Dozier, its executive producer and narrator, decided to have a second stab at success by launching a Wonder Woman show.

And that show is posted above, in the form of a 1967 five minute try-out that was made to see if it could tickle the fancy of studio executives and lead to an entire series being commissioned.

Amazingly, it couldn't.

I wish I could claim the world missed out on a golden opportunity to thrill to the adventures of Diana Prince long before Lynda Carter, Gal Gadot or even Cathy Lee Crosby came along but such a claim would be madness as, quite frankly, it has to be the worst five minutes of television I've ever seen.

For a show that was designed to cash in on the success of Batman, it seems strange that, other than Dozier's narration, he imported nothing of the feel of the Batman show. Instead, we get a weird low-level sitcom that would even insult the intelligence of someone who thought On the Buses was the height of Wildean wit.

Oh well, at least its failure to be commissioned means that its star Ellie Wood Walker escaped a fate worse than death.

Oddly enough, her reflection in the try-out was played by Linda Harrison, perhaps best known as Nova in the original Planet of the Apes movie, which meant she went from playing a reflection to playing a woman who probably wouldn't recognise her own reflection. Acting, it's not always a dignified profession.

November 23rd, 1977 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

In this week of 1977, ABBA were at Number One on the UK singles chart with Name of the Game.

But, elsewhere on that chart, Punk and New Wave were starting to make their presence felt, with Elvis Costello's Watching the Detectives, Tom Robinson's 2-4-6-8 Motorway, the Boomtown Rats' Mary of the Fourth Form, The Jam's Modern World and the Sex Pistols' Holiday in the Sun all featuring.

Then again, upon that chart, we could also find the Carpenters, Crystal Gayle and The Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, while the determinedly alarming Ram Jam Band were battling it out with The Dooleys, and Kenny Everett was going head to head with Nazareth. Truly the singles chart of 1977 was a schizophrenic place indeed.

Speaking of which...

He might be a master of psychology but that doesn't mean Dr Faustus can't get physical.

If I remember right, the sinister psychiatrist's plan is to convince Spider-Man that he's his ally, so he'll help him commit a robbery. I remember Doctor Octopus having also used this self-same tactic many moons earlier.

Needless to say, just as Octopus failed in his bid, the Freudian felon also comes a cropper, as our hero quickly regains his senses and lets his fists give Faustus and his men the aversion therapy they've been asking for.

My first assumption was that the large character on this cover is the Living Colossus but, as far as I'm aware, Livvie is a good guy who even once tackled  the might of Fin Fang Foom for the good of humanity, while the individual on this cover appears to have nothing in his heart but ill will.

On other matters, I espy the Valkyrie making her first appearance on the title's cover and clearly setting out to emulate more established heroines like Sue Storm by finding herself in the grip of a giant hand on her debut frontispiece.

Speaking of Sue Storm, this is it. As predicted by Colin Jones last week, this is the issue in which Reed Richards zaps his own son in order to stop him doing something or other.

To be honest, I'm not sure what it is he's zapping him to prevent but it's clearly something potentially hazardous.

Maybe he was about to explode or something. I hate it when people do that.

I do believe this issue's back-up strip reprints the Silver Age revival of the Sub-Mariner, caused, of course, by the Human Torch dropping him into some water and restoring the trunks-wearing warmonger's memory.

How on Earth is Daredevil still alive? He's just been simultaneously shot by two people (one of whom seems to be aiming for his genitals) and electrocuted by a third.

And still Killgrave and Electro are trying to get him to surrender. I would have thought that, after a triple whammy like that, surrendering wouldn't even be an option.

Still, it's good to see Daredevil get a cover in a comic that's normally dominated by the Hulk.

2000 AD - October 1979.

It's a Sunday on which I find myself watching Peter Benchley's The Beast on the Horror Channel. To no one's surprise at all, the beast in question is a huge, man-eating sea creature intent on terrorising all who set foot in the water.

This time, that creature's a giant squid of malevolent intent. You can't help feeling Peter Benchley has done more damage to the good name of sea creatures than any other man in history.

But I must take a break from all this underwater adventure, in order to submerge myself instead in a far drier medium; the arid wasteland that is my attempt each month to think of something to say about what the galaxy's greatest comic was up to thirty eight years and one month ago.

Sadly, I can't tell you what it was up to thirty eight years and one month ago because that month's covers furnish me with even fewer clues than normal. Seriously, would it have killed Tharg to have put some captions on the front of them for me talk about? I'm starting to think he's got it in for me.

Therefore, all I can say is that it's nice to see the comic getting not one but two prestigious Eagle Awards; one for Top British Comic and one for Top British Character. As far as I can make out, these were the first Eagle Awards the book had ever won, which, given that it was launched a full two years earlier and was, right from the start, clearly a cut above the typical British comic, seems astonishing.

Then again, the Awards up until that point seem to have been completely dominated by American publications and creators - with even Favourite British Comics Writer having been previously won by Chris Claremont. With that flexible a definition of Britishness, it's a miracle John Byrne didn't win Favourite British Artist, to boot.

On other matters, that creature on the cover of Prog 136 looks very Lovecraftian. There's more than a hint of the creatures from At the Mountains of Madness about it.

And that is all I have to say on the subject of this month's issues.

That in mind, I shall return to my television's life and death struggle with a giant squid and ponder upon just how long it'll be before Peter Benchley gives us a nightmare tale of seamen battling to rid a town at last from the menace of  a giant fishcake.

November 16th, 1977 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

It's time to get your white suit on and strut your way down your local high street because forty years ago this week saw the release of Saturday Night Fever, that Disco classic that went on to become the biggest-selling album of all time - at least until Michael Jackson's Thriller came along and proved that, if anything, he was somehow even groovier than the Bee Gees.

But if we were all getting down and burning it up that week, what of the stars of our favourite comics company?

Were they tripping the light fantastic?

Or were they merely dancing with tears in their eyes?

That dastardly psychiatrist Doctor Faustus tries to defeat our hero by convincing him he's going mad.

Admittedly, it's not the most original ploy of all time. As far as I can remember, by this point, Mysterio had already tried exactly the same plan on at least three separate occasions.

And one of them wasn't even the real Mysterio!

Hooray! The Defenders find themselves fighting the Executioner.

Given that he's just a thug with an axe, that might not seem all that exciting but, where stalks the Executioner, surely the Enchantress can't be far away.

And where stalks the Enchantress, surely a certain sword-wielding, horse-bothering heroine can't be far away.

The Hulk is a mere pawn in Doctor Druid and the Maha Yogi's game.

I must confess I don't have a clue what the Maha Yogi's game is but I suspect it's not Subbuteo.

Annihilus is back!

Isn't this the one where Reed Richards does something or other to his son to stop him being dangerous or something?

As you can see, I'm fully clued up about it all.

But I've always wanted to read this tale, ever since a panel from it was featured in the book of Monsters I was given one Christmas.

And you can read my ramblings about that book by clicking on this very link right here.

Forty years ago today - November 1977.

Pray for me, Dear Reader, for I am currently watching a film called Super Shark. It features a giant shark that can both fly and walk on land. A walking tank has just showed up to fight it. I can safely say that that tank is the stupidest thing I have ever seen and I doubt it'd even be able to take out a broken-down bubble car.

Clearly, confronted by such madness, I've no recourse but to flee into the depths of the internet and see what our favourite Marvel heroes were up to back in the days when we only had to worry about one cinematic shark and it only took three drunks in a boat to stop it.

The Whizzer there, possibly the one Avenger who has the least to fear from a falling building - what with him being best able to run away from it - seems to be the one most negative about his own survival chances. The older generation, sometimes I despair of them.

Meanwhile, Count Nefaria continues to pursue his nefarious plan to do whatever it is he's nefariously planning to do.

It looks like it's another day at the office for the world's best loved barbarian.

It looks like Jack Kirby's return to the strip is over.

It also looks like we might be getting yet another retelling of Cap's origin and history. Did any Marvel hero ever get their origin and history retold more than Cap did? It seemed to happen every other issue.

And he never could make up his mind what the scientist who created him was called.

I love how the picture clearly depicts Daredevil thinking, "Help! Help! I'm in trouble here!" and the speech balloon's saying completely the opposite.

As for the villain, I don't have a clue who The Smasher is. The name rings a bell. Had he turned up before with a different costume? Or had there previously been another villain of the same name?

Interesting to see that the cinema's displaying a poster for The Deep, an adaptation of which Marvel had out at the same time as this issue was on the spinner racks.

That bounder the Molecule Man has taken control of Reed Richards. How can he possibly be stopped now?

Come to think of it, how can he be stopped now? I genuinely don't remember how his scheme was thwarted. Was the Impossible Man involved?

Hooray! Not only do we get the Hulk's long awaited rematch with the Circus of Crime but we get a Jim Starlin cover as well.

No one drew the Hulk quite like Starlin did.

Well, admittedly, Steve Ditko sort of did but in a slightly more cartoony way.

I seem to remember this story being quite confusing to me, as the Hulk befriends the honest members of the Circus of Crime. Just why did the Ringmaster want to recruit honest people to the Circus of Crime? Wouldn't that go against the whole concept of it?

I've no idea what happens in this one but I suspect that Midas and Madam Masque may be involved.

Speaking of masks, I do always wonder just how Iron Man's face plate manages to display his facial expressions like that.

As if one homicidal maniac with a gun wasn't enough, now The Punisher shows up as well. Spidey never had these problems in the 1960s.

I vaguely remember Brother Power and Sister Sun. Didn't they launch some sort of cult or other? I think I've mentioned in the past that I've often considered launching a cult of my own. I do feel I should be worshipped by all who meet me.

The last time I encountered the Destroyer, he was serving as a herald of Galactus in The Fantastic Four. Is that still the case in this issue or had the Big G got bored of him by this stage?

Come to think of it, the last time I'd encountered Galactus, he'd been turned into a being of pure thought, by the High Evolutionary. This would suggest he no longer needed the Destroyer. This would suggest someone else is operating him. But whom? Whom?

November 9th, 1977 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

The last few weeks have been exciting ones for all fans of Marvel UK, with the launch of not one, not two but three thrilling new titles. Would it happen again this week? Were we to get yet another new publication to even further empty our wallets?

No, we weren't. But we did at least get four already existing titles to spend our money on.

And these were those.

I really don't have the foggiest what's going on in the Hulk story. That man on the motorbike looks like someone who would have turned up in a Captain Britain tale. How Dr Druid ties into it all, I have no idea. And who the Maha Yogi is, I have even less idea.

Otherwise, I am fully clued up about the tale.

Meanwhile, it's always nice to see Daredevil tangle with Electro, what with the voltage-happy villain having been the first super-criminal he ever met.

Admittedly, it does make Electro look a bit rubbish if  even Daredevil can keep beating him.

As for the Nick Fury story, didn't one of the Howling Commandos get killed at some point?

I hope it was the English one. He used to get on my nerves, with his stupid umbrella.

I don't really know what happens in the main Spider-Man tale but it doesn't matter anyway - because it seems that this issue features his legendary Claremont/Byrne team-up with Captain Britain, which was easily the good Captain's best adventure up to this point.

I do fear though that it may have served to fool American readers into thinking the UK clobberer was a lot more impressive than he really was.

As far as I can make out, in this issue, the Defenders travel into the realm of the Undying Ones and finally get round to rescuing Barbara Norris from her captivity there.

It's an action that I'm certain will have no long-term consequences at all for the non-team.

I didn't have this issue - but I did have the US original of it and loved it deeply.

In the middle of nowhere, the Miracle Man creates a city for himself, populated by silent but obedient servants, and the FF get to fall down a huge hole and have a ride on a raft, while the absent Mr Fantastic does things with the Negative Zone, and Sue has a fright from a mysterious visitor for Franklin. On top of that, it's drawn by John Buscema and features the return of Wyatt Wingfoot. What more could one want from a Fantastic Four tale?

OK, I admit it. One could want the return of Tomazooma - but one would have to be mad to want that.

The Marvel Lucky Bag - November 1977.

Grab your Time Hats, pilgrims - because it's time once more for me to take a vaguely random look at what some of the less high-profile Marvel titles were up to forty years ago.

Will I have included this month's issue of Dynomutt in my selection?

Will this month's Yogi Bear mag make the cut?

There's only one way to find out.

Ooh look! Judging by the number of people involved and the identity of the villain and the fact it's an annual, this looks like it's a big important issue.

And I have no doubt it is.

Does this mean it's the one where Thanos gets turned into a statue?

Also, I detect Adam Warlock in the background. Does that means this is the one where he begins his brief flirtation with being dead?

And just what role does Captain Marvel get up to in this tale?

Those questions aside, it has a predominantly purple cover, which isn't something you can say every day in the magical world of comics.

Speaking of Captain Marvel, this is the one where he teams up with Black Bolt who I seem to remember gets beaten up at one point by a gang of ruffians possibly belonging to some Kree villain or other.

But so noble is he that, even then, he refuses to make a sound, for fear of the harm he might do to them.

I have to admit that if I had the power to destroy people just by speaking, you'd never be able to get me to shut up. Frankly, within a week, there'd be no one but me left on the planet.

Somehow, I can't help feeling I'm not cut out to be a super-hero.

Here's a mystery. I took one look at this cover and wondered if Joe Kubert had any involvement in it, which seemed a bit unlikely, seeing as it's a Marvel production.

Anyway, the usually reliable Grand Comics Database furnishes no answers. It merely lists the penciller as, "?"

It also lists the inker as Tom Palmer but the inks don't look very Tom Palmeresque to me.

So, if you know who produced this cover, feel free to say so.

That aside, I was totally unaware that Marvel had done an adaptation of the watery movie that was in no way an attempt to cash in on the success of Jaws.

Come to think of it, I've never seen the movie either.

However, it's hard to believe it could be up to the standards of Jaws 3-D.

If I remember right, the Defenders spend some time in Namor's undersea realm before it's hit by an earthquake.

When they go to investigate, they uncover a plot by an overambitious Russian, which leads to both he and the Red Guardian getting turned into some sort of hyper-beings.

I can't recall what happens after that but I have no doubt that chins get punched and bad guys get thwarted.

I admit it. I'm only featuring this issue because it features Asbestos Lady.

Why do I get the feeling she probably didn't have a long career?

Ever ready to raid the vaults of Horror, Marvel Classics Comics gives us its take on Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum.

I've seen the Vincent Price version of the tale but can recall little of it. I have no doubt it featured plenty of monologues.

It's the sensation that's sweeping the galaxy, as Marvel gives us its adaptation of George Lucas' filmic phenomenon.

All of which is a bit strange as, even as this hit the shelves, their newly launched monthly Star Wars mag was halfway through serialising the thing. Clearly, Star Wars was so popular that Marvel was happy to have two comics on the bookshelf that were directly competing with each other.

Speaking of which, the cover of Star Wars #5 is clearly happy to take certain liberties with the movie's plot.

Fifty years ago this month - November 1967.

Hooray! It's Bonfire Night!

And that can only mean one thing!

It's time for me to sit down and write a blog post about the comics that Marvel were producing fifty years ago, as generations of Britons have done ever since that fateful night in whenever it was.

It's an event even more exciting than Bonfire Night, as Ant-Man returns.

I admit it, despite his uselessness, I've always liked Ant-Man, so this is a tale that was always going to appeal to me. Especially when it features a helmetless Hank Pym battling against his former formic allies. Plus the return of the nearest thing to an arch-enemy he has - his girlfriend's chauffeur!

But it's a terrible threat that Ant-Man faces. Look, the ants have already decapitated the other Avengers and left their heads lying on the floor.

And they've decapitated the Whirlwind and flung his head up in the air. Is there nothing that can stop them? Nothing?

Speaking of people with insect-inspired powers, the Beetle's still causing trouble for the Man Without Fear, at Montreal's Expo '67.

My knowledge of Expo '67 comes entirely from reading Marvel comics of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Never let it be said that comics are not educational.

Unless I miss my ever-loving guess, this is the one where The Thing turns evil, for the millionth time.

This time, it's thanks to the machinations of the Thinker who poses as a world-famous scientist in order to fool Reed Richards into letting him try to, "cure," The Thing.

Sadly, it's also, in my opinion, the issue when the strip's great era under Lee and Kirby came to an end. From now on, most of the team's adventures and foes would be noticeably less inspired than they'd previously been.

In which Aunt May learns that it might be a good idea to check a prospective lodger's references before taking him in. The fact that he's got a string of criminal convictions and keeps threatening people might just suggest he's not the ideal housemate.

Admittedly, when I say she learns that lesson, she doesn't. Somehow, even after this story, she remains convinced he's a good guy. Grargh! That woman!

Nebulos is suitably nebulous in my memory, as I don't have a clue who he is. I do recall having read this tale though. Was Dan Adkins responsible for the artwork?

What's that big stick thing Strange is holding? I suspect it might be significant.

The Grey Gargoyle's on the loose.

Wasn't this the story that led into the Iron Man story that appeared in Origins of Marvel Comics as an example of the modern Iron Man tales?

I don't remember the Legion of the Living Lighting being very interesting, or very formidable but I did like their costumes.

Didn't they once hire the Boomerang as their agent? I'm not sure that gives me much faith in their judgement as an evil empire.

Stripped of his powers (which means he can only lift five-ton weights) Thor must take on the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime.

Needless to say, even in this weakened condition, once he gets over a little temporary hypnosis, the crooked carnies prove to be no more than a minor obstacle for him.

I believe this is the issue where we discover who the Mutant Master is.

Somewhat disappointingly, he turns out to be some sort of exploding space octopus, instead of the super-mutant we'd been promised.

I never thought I'd be disappointed by an exploding space octopus but somehow I was.

November 2nd, 1977 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Ram that safety pin through my nose and spit in my face, Grandad because, on the 28th of October, 1977, the Sex Pistols released an album whose name is far too vulgar for me to reproduce in a post about the innocent world of 1970s comics.

Needless to say, that album went down in the annals of history and, buoyed by controversy, subsequently smashed onto the UK album chart at Number One. Truly, the brave new era of British music had hit its apogee.

And just to prove it, at the very moment of that album's release, ABBA were at Number One on the UK singles chart with Name of the Game.

Granted, there's a slight disconnect between those two facts but I suppose that at least it proves the charts were a varied place back then.

But what of Marvel UK? Just how much variety were they giving us in that very week of forty years ago?

It's that one where Peter Parker shows mind-boggling photo-manipulation skills to convince J Jonah Jameson that his genuine snaps of our hero incinerating his own clone aren't real. Super-hero, super-scientist, super-costume-designer, super-photo-manipulator, is there anything that youth can't do?

Elsewhere, Captain Britain is still up against Slaymaster, the Avengers are still up against Zodiac, and Thor is still up against Ulik. I do feel a certain inertia has set in when it comes to the back-up strips in this comic.

Maybe it's just me but I don't remember ever noticing at the time just how many weeks it took for any back-up story to unfold in the world of Marvel UK.

It's great news for all David Tennant fans because Kilgrave is back.

It might be great news for them but I can't say it is for me because I have no recollection at all of just what this story involves.

Anyway, the violet villain is looking a lot more active on that cover than I'd expect. I just recall him being a man who stood around ordering everyone else to do the fighting for him.

Speaking of which, it looks like Dr Druid is all set up and ready for a punch-up too, which doesn't seem quite his style either.

Are we to take it, from that image, that he and Hulkie are on the moon?

Does this mean the Watcher is involved?

I don't have a clue what happens in this tale but, thinking about it, it does strike me that, with the Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Dr Strange and Silver Surfer on board, the early Defenders were a ridiculously powerful group who should have been able to flatten virtually any menace in the Marvel Universe, with barely any effort at all.

Forget the Purple Man. A foe who always impressed me far more is back, as the Miracle Man makes his return after, lo, these many years.

I don't care how little respect he gets, I was always a fan of the malevolent mesmerist. And, this time, he has actual powers!

This is the second consecutive cover that features Medusa being gripped by a giant hand. She must be getting seriously fed up of it by now.

Then again, didn't Sue Storm find herself being gripped by a giant hand on the front of Fantastic Four #1? Clearly, it's an occupational hazard if you're the distaff member of the world's greatest super-family.

By a strange coincidence, the back-up strip reprints the team's first encounter with the self-same villain. The original cover of that tale, almost incredibly, didn't feature a giant hand - but it did feature a flying bath tub and the first ever sighting of their costumes.

As reported earlier on this site, this month saw the launch of Conan's second UK mag. I don't have a clue on what actual date it came out, so I'll assume it hit the shelves at some time around now. I have no historically defendable reason for doing this. It just makes it easier for me to keep track.