Fifty years ago this month - February 1969.

If you'd ever wanted to cross the Atlantic, in large numbers, February 1969 was your kind of month because it was when the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet took flight for the first time, launched from a Boeing airfield in Washington.

Making a far less passenger-packed but far longer journey that month was the Mariner 6 probe which was sent blasting into space, on a mission to Mars.

In more terrestrial matters, the 18th of the month saw Lulu marry Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees.

It's one of my favourite Avengers tales, as Doctor Strange recruits the team to help him fight Ymir and Surtur.

It's John Buscema at his best, even if Marvel UK insisted on redrawing the Vision as Thor when they reprinted it, on the grounds that their readers hadn't yet been introduced to the Vision.

And it's another classic, as Rick foists himself upon Cap again, in his latest quest to get in the way at every possible moment.

Judging by that cover, the Hulk's clearly been helping himself to Hank Pym's growth serum and is now forty foot tall.

In retrospect, it does seem amazing that Rick Jones never helped himself to Hank Pym's growth serum. It's the sort of thing you could see him doing.

Biggie Benson sets a killer robot on Daredevil, for reasons I can't recall.

For that matter, I can't recall who Biggie Benson is either. I assume, from the name, that he's a gangster. How a gangster has access to killer robots, I've no idea.

Come to think of it, I don't know if I've ever read this one. I'm pretty sure I missed the Mighty World of Marvel issue in which it was reprinted and only saw the tale's second - Barry Smith drawn - instalment.

I've read this one, on multiple occasions, thanks to Marvel UK and also to The Essential Fantastic Four.

Sadly, despite that, I remember nothing at all of it. I gather Maximus has gained control of the Great Refuge again and the FF have to stop him again. It really must feel like it's Groundhog Day when you're an Inhuman.

No such vaguenesses about this one. It's a Marvel masterpiece, as the Hulk finds himself on another planet and having to fight the Galaxy Master, a villain who really does need a good punch in the mouth.

The Mandarin's worked out that Tony Stark's really Iron Man, which doesn't take that much to work out, and has convinced the US government that the industrialist is a traitor. Now SHIELD are out to get him.

Can things get any worse for our hero?

Yes they can.

The Kingpin's stolen an ancient tablet which contains a secret too insane to imagine - and Spider-Man's out to get it back.

Needless to say, it doesn't all go according to plan and it's not long before he's facing death.

Of course, he could just have called the police and told them where the Kingpin was...

Thor gets caught up in a battle between Ego and Galactus when the latter decides to eat the former.

It's a classic story but there's no way Thor should be able to beat Galactus - and especially not by firing his hammer at him. Weaker foes than the Big G have withstood such an assault.

We might have to wait until next month to experience the work of Barry Smith on Daredevil but we can thrill to it right now on the X-Men.

Admittedly, "Thrill," might be putting it a bit too strongly, as he's still in that phase of his career where it looks like he's drawing comics while wearing a blindfold.

I believe this issue reveals that Blastaar is powered by hatred and will, therefore, always return, as long as there is hatred in the human heart.

Er, what?