Forty years ago today - April 1978.

April 1978 saw the debut of a show that changed the world, as Dallas was launched upon our unsuspecting minds and, within two years, had us all wondering who shot J.R.

It was Kristin.

No one's told me that. I've just worked it out, with my encyclopedic knowledge of the show and incredible deductive powers.

Thinking about it, I don't even remember who Kristin was or why she shot J.R. In fact, I can't even remember her being in it. I do remember she was played by Mary Crosby who I do believe was related to the Bing of the same surname.

Well, people may have wanted to kill J.R. but he didn't know how lucky he was. Marvel's greatest heroes had to put up with people trying to kill them every single day of their lives. It's a miracle they didn't end up with a complex.

Jocasta is back.

I wish I could say more about it than that but that's pretty much all I'm certain of. Is this the story in which Ant-Man takes on the rest of the Avengers, with his devastating ant powers, or am I thinking of another story completely?

At last we get the origin of Zula!

I say, "At last," but I think this was only his second ever appearance.

Needless to say, I don't remember what his origin was. I'm going to have a stab at guessing that it involved the death of his parents and him being raised by a wizard before killing the evil king who was to blame for the death of his parents. It's a comic. The death of parents has to be involved.

Darkoth is back.

Apparently, this issue sees the Thing's attempts at testing an experimental plane be foiled by Diablo. Contrary to the impression given by the cover, it seems that Darkoth is actually on Benjy's side in all this.

I remember this one. From what I can recall, it was a Jim Starlin/Alfredo Alcala epic about a giant, mutated child in a cave who eats people.

Needless to say, he bites off more than he can chew when he decides to nibble on the Hulk. With its themes of cannibalism, caverns and malformed children, it all seemed noticeably darker than Hulk tales normally did.

This one means nothing to me but it would appear that it features the return of the Crimson Dynamo, although, sadly, not the original Crimson Dynamo.

Spidey is still having trouble with the fake Green Goblin and Silvermane.

I have no idea how Silvermane is alive in this tale, given that, the last time I encountered him, he'd been de-aged into non-existence. That seems like the kind of fate you don't come back from.

As far as I can make out, the villain facing Spidey and the Angel in this tale is, in reality, the Iceman, heavily disguised and under the control of some wrongdoer or other.

The Angel's red and white outfit was always my favourite of the costumes he wore. I'm not convinced his gloves and boots should have been yellow though.

Blastaar is causing problems for the stormy super-doer. He does seem to be shooting our hero square in the genitals. In fairness to Thor, he doesn't seem to be letting the total destruction of his reproductive organs bother him.

Unless I miss my guess, this is one of those Dreaded Deadline Doom fill-in issues that were always a major letdown when you encountered them. In this case, it was especially annoying, given the highs the strip had been giving us in the preceding issues.

I genuinely don't have a clue what's going on with this one. I've never even heard of the Ameridroid. Nor do I know why anyone would create such a thing.