The Marvel Lucky Bag - December 1978.

Hark? Do you hear it? As you negotiate the breakers of Nostalgia? The dread siren call that can only be the Marvel Lucky Bag, demanding you hoist your main sails and investigate once more what was happening in some of Marvel's less high-profile books of forty years ago?

I really don't have a clue what's going on in this one, other than that it seems to have a zillion and one guest stars.

It also seems to feature a female version of Dr Spectrum.

This tips me off that the tale is likely to feature the Squadron Sinister, to some degree or other.

Given the propensity for the Squadron Supreme to also show up in The Avengers, it does raise the question of whether the Squadron Supreme have ever fought the Squadron Sinister and, if they have, just how did everyone in the fight avoid becoming totally confused as to whose side who was on?

It's taken a long time but the Valkyrie finally visits Asgard.

Apparently, she's there to fight Ollerus the Unmerciful.

I don't have a clue who he is but I've no doubt he's nothing but trouble.

It would seem Hela and Harokin are also in this tale, so I assume a trip to the Afterlife is involved. Bearing in mind the Valkyrie is nominally a Valkyrie - even though she never really acts like one - this would make sense.

It's the story you thought you'd never see; Godzilla terrorised by Dum-Dum Dugan.

It's all thanks to SHIELD using Hank Pym's shrinking gas on him.

I does make you wonder why they've never used it on the Hulk. Wouldn't that make him a bit easier to contain?

Then again, doesn't Hank Pym retain his full strength when he shrinks down to ant size? Doesn't that mean a doll-sized Godzilla should also retain his own full strength as well?

Then again, if shrinking doesn't reduce Hank Pym's strength, how come growing to giant size increases his strength? In the name of consistency, shouldn't that also have no effect on his power levels?

It's the comic we've all been waiting for, as Marvel tackles Jaws 2, a film I still haven't seen, after all these years.

But does this mean we're also going to get an adaptation of Jaws 3-D? And, given that it's a tale meant to be seen in 3-D, does that mean it'll be a pop-up book?

It's the development that only a complete and total  madman could have foreseen, as Man-Wolf's strip suddenly becomes a sword and sorcery series - in space.

Beyond that, I know nothing of the contents of this comic.

Can Man-Wolf speak and think in this series or is he still a bit stupid?

Speaking of spaceborne swordplay, Marvel Preview gives us a big fat slab of Gil Kane's Blackmark, a strip I remember fondly from the early days of Savage Sword of Conan.

It's the question we've all asked ourselves at some point in our lives; "What if Rick Jones had become the Hulk?"

Well, admittedly, I've never asked myself it. The question I've kept asking is, "Why doesn't Rick Jones go away?"

The concept of him becoming the Hulk was never something that occurred to me in my youth but I do believe it's now become a redundant query as, unless I'm totally misremembering, in Marvel's, "Real," world, Rick has indeed spent time as the Hulk, as has seemingly every regular character in the book.