The Marvel Lucky Bag - January 1978.

Most people don't know that there is, in every house, a secret but very slim room hidden between two of the rooms whose existence you do know of. All you have to do to find it is to demolish all the rooms that you are aware of, until the mystery room is the only thing left standing.

Likewise, there is, ofttimes, in this blog, between the Sunday and Thursday posts, a hidden feature that looks at what titles Marvel were publishing forty years ago which didn't quite manage to achieve legendary status.

Reader, this is that post.

The Sentinels are attacking! Could it be the end for the Marvel team who never quite made it big and are therefore, no doubt, candidates to have their own Netflix show?

As it turns out, it can indeed be the end, because this was the last issue of their comic before the fickle finger of cancellation struck it. Let's face it, if the Sentinels can't save your mag, the chances are that nothing can.

I had the issue after this one. I didn't have this one. There is, therefore, little I can say of it, other than that I'm sure it was a potent satire of both commercialisation and washing powder.

His movie might have flopped but that's not stopping John Carter from taking care of business on Mars.

I wonder if he ever bumped into Gullivar Jones and if they ever teamed up?

More immediately, I am intrigued by the cover's claim that, "The Marvel Explosion begins here!" Did it? And what was this explosion? Was it inspired by the DC Explosion? And did Marvel's Explosion discover a happier fate than DC's?

Up until I saw this cover, I was totally unaware that Shang-Chi had ever encountered Dr Doom.

I know all Marvel characters have to meet him at some point but, somehow, it just doesn't feel right that Shang-Chi would. Despite his occasional encounters with other Marvel heroes, such as Spider-Man, he somehow always felt like he existed outside the Marvel universe.

On other matters, I see the bloke with the swords for arms is back. I don't like to be indelicate but, seriously, how does he go to the toilet? How does he get dressed? How does he do anything?

I got this issue in Blackpool, in the summer of 1978.

Needless to say, with its tales of aliens and pyramids, I was suitably enthralled.

I was also gripped by its reports of famous people's encounters with UFOs.

Britain's greatest super-hero who's not called Billy the Cat meets America's greatest super-hero who's not called Superman, as transatlantic derring-doings break out in New York City.

It may have technically been a Spider-Man tale but it was also the best Captain Britain tale until the Alan Moore era came along.

For a man from the far future, Kang does seem remarkably obsessed with 20th Century America.

I never saw an issue of this particular comic but my Steve Sense tells me it was aimed at the younger reader and was partially designed as a literacy aid.

Yet another reminder that Marvel in the 1970s didn't only give us super-heroes.

Admittedly, I suppose that, as he clearly has super-powers, Dynomutt is technically a super-hero. I know nothing of him, never having seen his cartoon but he would appear to be some sort of canine equivalent of Machine Man.

My familiarity with Crazy is next to non-existent. I would assume that it bore strong resemblances to Mad Magazine but I couldn't guarantee that.

Despite my lack of knowledge, I do believe that this issue includes a send-up of The Deep.