Forty years ago today - December 1978.

Mere minutes after I finish writing this post, the Doctor Who Season 11 climax will air. What thrills and spills will Chris Chibnall fling at us? Will old foes return? Will new foes emerge?

But, you know what? There's something even better than a climax.

And that's an anti-climax.

It's true. If anti-gravity is better than gravity, and anti-matter is fancier than matter, then anti-climax must be better than climax.

In that case, we're all in luck because if there's one thing my struggle to make sense of the Marvel comics of forty years ago is bound to be, it's an anti-climax.

Apparently, this issue features the Beast vs the Manipulator.

I must confess to not having a clue who the Manipulator is.

I am, however, assuming he or she isn't an evil chiropractor.

I shall ask Google, in order to find out.

...

I have now asked Google, and the Manipulator would seem to be a two-faced robot created by Machinesmith.

When I say, "Two-faced," I mean that he literally has two faces, not that he's a notorious hypocrite.

He may also be a hypocrite but I can offer no confirmation of that.

Either way, it would appear he went on to meet his fate when someone shot him in the head.

In fairness to him, most of us would meet our fate if someone shot us in the head.

In this issue, Bêlit is offered the crown of Asgalun but doesn't want it.

I can only conclude that she's a very hard to please woman.

I must confess I've never been a fan of split covers, and this issue does nothing to convince me I'm wrong.

I've also never been a fan of Quasimodo - and it turns out he's the villain of the piece.

This month's book is a landmark issue because it introduces a whole bunch of new characters I've never heard of. It introduces Senator Mountebank, Adam, Buck Richlen, Val Adair and Bethany Cabe.

I have no doubt that my ignorance of these people reflects more discredit upon me than it does upon them.

Fortunately, I can redeem myself by pointing out that Spymaster's in it too - and I have heard of him, so I'm not a total lost cause.

Unlike with the Iron Man tale, I've no doubt whatsoever that I've read this story.

But, strangely enough, I've no more memory of it than I have of that one. I'm starting to feel that any Spidey story reprinted by Marvel UK after the Dez Skinn Revolution has totally failed to lodge in my mind.

It's the return we all wanted to see, as the Masked Marauder captures Spidey when the wall-crawler tries to prevent the Maggia committing a robbery.

More importantly, this issue sees the debut of Carrion, otherwise known as the clone of the late Professor Warren.

Poor Professor Warren. I do feel he deserved more respect than the writers ever gave him. It does make me sad that the man who took Peter and Gwen on a trip to see that device that made Doc Ock's arms malfunction ended up being turned into a foaming-at-the mouth, weirdo pervert bad guy.

The new Thor's making friends and influencing people, as he seeks to take the old Thor's place.

Not that he does it for long, as he's popped his clogs by the end of the tale.

Can the X-Men prevent Garokk and Zaladane destroying the Savage Land?

Of course they can.

I always had a soft spot for Garokk. If I was going to be a super-villain, he's the sort of super-villain I'd be.

Judging by the cover, I'd assumed this one involves the return of the Locust but my vast online research would suggest it doesn't. It seems to revolve around some kind of alien bug.

I does, however, feature a character called Lumpy.

I have no idea who Lumpy is.

More intriguingly, the tale was written by Elliot S! Maggin, a man I associate so strongly with DC and with Superman that I had no idea he'd ever written for Marvel.

After failing miserably to defeat the Hulk in the only tale I've ever read that features him, the Constrictor decides to try his luck against Captain America, who I would say is more his level.

Having said that, I've no doubt the star-spangled superstar will quickly see him off.