October 11th, 1978 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

This week of October 1978 must have been a very dull one to live through, seeing as I can find nothing that happened in those seven days that's of any interest to me whatsoever. I do note, though, that the then-current Doctor Who serial was Douglas Adams' The Pirate Planet, which was the first Doctor Who story I remember thinking was terrible. I think it was the space pirate's robot parrot that put me off.

This means that, as so often, I shall have to seek refuge within the pages of whatever madness and mayhem Marvel UK was giving us that week.

Having said that, I'm not going to find much refuge in this one, as I don't have a clue what happens in it. Nor have I been able to find out via the medium of Google. I am going to guess that Star-Lord and Seeker 3000 are still the back-up strips but have no actual evidence to support that claim.

It's striking, however, that this week's cover trumpets that, "The Empire Strikes!" Obviously, this was a couple of years before The Empire Strikes Back was released. So, does this mean someone at Marvel knew what that film was going to be called, or is the similarity to its title pure coincidence?

Good grief! Look at that! Not only are we told the Hulk is, "Marvel's TV Sensation!" but that he has, "Britain's No.1 T.V. Show!" Marvel UK were clearly determined to milk his new-found fame for all it was worth, even to the extent of being willing to deface the key part of the cover in order to do it.

Of more interest to long-standing Marvel fans is the fact that the tale involves the return of the original Avengers -  presumably, in spirit only - as Doc Samson and the Hulk wander around inside the Hulk's mind, revisiting Bruce Banner's past, which I suspect will turn out to not be a happy one.

Elsewhere, Daredevil comes up against the Beetle.

Meanwhile, the back page features an ad for Mr Kalkitos rub-on transfers of the kind that I'm sure we all played with when we were youthful.

I was going to say Spider-Man's still up against Dracula but, of course, as discussed last week, he isn't.

He is, however, trying to find a doctor who's urgently needed for some medical procedure or other.

The big twist is that the doctor the various characters are looking for is a woman! Something that seems to blind-side everyone involved in the tale. Was it really so amazing in 1978 that a doctor would be female? I'm sure there must have been female doctors at the time.

Back in the days when there almost certainly weren't too many female doctors around, the Avengers are in the process of breaking into Kang's HQ in the old Wild West, with the aid of the Two-Gun Kid who, interestingly, habitually refers to himself in his own head as, "Two-Gun," rather than using his real name. I'm not sure what Doc Samson would make of that personality quirk.