The Marvel Lucky Bag - September 1978.

Gadzooks! Can it be the second Tuesday of the month once more?

Yes it can.

And we all know what that means.

That Steve Does Comics' page views are about to plummet dramatically as I look at what a selective sample of Marvel's lesser titles were up to with the mags that featured the name of this month of forty years ago.

Drax the Destroyer decides to take on Captain Marvel.

Why he does it, I've no idea, so I'm going to assume he thinks Marvy's working for Thanos.

Or, possibly, he's upset that, now that Thanos has gone, he has no one to fight, and decides to take it out on his former ally for robbing him of his meaning in life.

I've no evidence that either of these theories is correct but they're the only ones I have.

Everyone's favourite war comic ups-the-ante as Thor shows up.

And, this time, he's on Hitler's side!

Is he being mind-controlled? Has he been duped into thinking the Invaders are the bad guys? Has he not being paying enough attention to current affairs? Is Thor a Nazi? Is he just angry? Who can know? But Thor vs the Invaders is certainly a more enticing prospect than the usual one of them facing up to yet another German super-soldier gone wrong.

Who would have thought John Carter would manage to have not one but two Marvel annuals?

I wouldn't.

And he didn't.

He actually had three.

Never having read a single Marvel John Carter story, I've no idea what's going on inside but, apparently, Tal Tarag is trapped in the body of a great white space ape and is trying to get his original body back.

In all honesty, I don't have a clue who Tal Tarag is but I wish him well in his attempts.

Unless he's a bad guy. In which case, I don't.

Nova's true identity is revealed to his parents? Is this the end for our hero?

As a matter of fact, it is, as this is, as far as I can ascertain, his final issue.

Poor Nova. He just never caught on, did he?

In fact, he so didn't catch on that I'm left with the worrying feeling that, when he dramatically announces, "Mom! Dad! I'm Nova!" they'll respond by saying, "Who?"

There are no such problems for Red Sonja. Not only is she a legend in the Hyborian Age but she's still got another four issues to go before cancellation.

Admittedly, that means she'll only have managed fifteen issues before hitting the scrap heap but, bearing in mind she's now blind, that's quite an achievement.

It had to happen! Spider-Woman teams up with Werewolf by Night.

Admittedly, it didn't really have to happen but it kind of feels like it was almost inevitable that it would.

The good news for her is that, while other Marvel heroes around her are falling like dominoes, she still has another twenty seven issues to go before cancellation, meaning she'll have had a better run than either Nova or Red Sonja. That's the power of spideryness for you.

Someone who doesn't have to worry about cancellation is everyone's favourite thunder god. Not only does he get to fight the Invaders this month but he also gets to fight his Inca equivalent and have his first ever encounter with the Eternals, although, afterwards, he doesn't recall the meeting.

But just what is the soul-searing secret of the Third Host that the cover boasts of?