Fifty years ago this month - June 1968.

June of 1968 was a great time for everyone who's ever wanted to live in a community made entirely of plastic bricks, because it was the month in which the first ever Legoland was opened, in Denmark. Fifty years later, there are eight Legolands, in seven nations. None of them is within walking distance of my house, which is an outrage.

It wasn't such a good time for people who wanted to live in New York apartment blocks that aren't packed solid with Satanists, though, because it was also the month in which Rosemary's Baby made its Devilish US premiere.

It was even less of a good time for fans of classic British comedy, because it was also the month in which legendary comic actor Tony Hancock died in New South Wales, thanks to a combination of amylobarbitone and vodka. Amazingly, he was only 44 at the time of his death.

For me, it's one of the less interesting Avengers tales of this era, as our heroes take on the X-Men for reasons I can't recollect but which probably had something to do with the search for Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.

I'm certain Magneto is involved and I have a horrible feeling that, fleeing the scene, at the climax, he abandons the Toad.

What a bounder. I always knew he was a wrong 'un.

Cap's still trying to stop the Red Skull's latest Sleeper and still, as far as I can remember, has a strip of nuclear tape stuck to him that'll blow him to Kingdom Come if he doesn't do something or other.

The comic-book lovers of the world mourn as Mike Murdock meets his dread fate.

In the interests of honesty, I must declare that I see the death of Mike Murdock as one of the greatest things ever to have happened in the history of humanity and, for the life of me, I can't understand why there isn't a global holiday to celebrate it.

Galactus may have given his word to never again try to destroy the Earth but that doesn't stop him threatening to destroy the Earth.

This time, he's going to do it if the FF don't hand over the Silver Surfer, in a tale that leads to the return of Psycho-Man.

How can the Hulk possibly survive a confrontation with the Rhino, a man who's previously only ever been stopped by a single punch from Spider-Man?

Oh. Hold on. Wait a minute.

In fairness, the story doesn't leave you in any doubt that the Rhino's totally out of his depth in this encounter, to such a degree that the fight leaves him in a coma.

I do believe this issue sees the departure of Genial Gene Colan and the arrival of Johnny Craig.

I don't remember what Johnny Craig's nickname was. I assume it wasn't, "Jazzy." That was already taken. I don't think it was, "Jaunty," either. I think that belonged to Jim Mooney. And he certainly wasn't, "Judo," Johnny Craig. Perhaps he was, "Jovial," Johnny. That'd be nice for him.

As for the tale, from what I can recall, driven by envy of Tony Stark, a mad scientist creates a robot and sets it loose to cause nothing but trouble.

It sounds a bad situation all round but at least Tony Stark gets a new girlfriend out of it, in Janice Cord.

It's the conclusion of the Brainwasher saga, as Spidey rescues Gwen and her dad from the deadly machinations of the Kingpin.

My memories are fuzzy but I think that Don Blake has to perform surgery of an unspecified nature upon Sif but then has to rush off to fight some force of evil or other, leaving the other surgeons to wonder what sort of man Blake is that he can abandon a patient halfway through an operation.

If I were them, I'd be asking myself, "Why is Don Blake being allowed to perform major surgery when he's a general practitioner, with a failed practice, and not a surgeon?" They're clearly very laissez-faire in those New York hospitals.

Needless to say, despite all that, it all ends happily and Sif makes a complete and total recovery.

I suspect this issue may set up the aforementioned clash with the Avengers. I've definitely read it on more than one occasion but can recall nothing of its contents. Still, it's nice to see an X-Men cover drawn by John Buscema.