The Marvel Lucky Bag - March 1969.

Look out, March 1969, here I come!

And here came Peter Sarstedt and Marvin Gaye who dominated the Number One slot on that month's UK singles chart with Where Do You Go To My Lovely? and I Heard It Through The Grapevine, respectively.

Which of those tracks do I prefer?

It's hard to say. Clearly, the Gaye track's a lot cooler and more credible but the Sarstedt track has a certain dated duffness about it that appeals to my sense of irony.

On the UK album chart, Diana Ross and the Supremes Join the Temptations kicked off the month at Number One before being deposed by Cream's Goodbye which was then deposed by The Best of the Seekers.

But what of Marvel and its lesser comics that bore that cover date?

Well, I get the feeling that one of them's going to give us a lesson in why we should never pay any attention to a comic's cover date.

Barry Smith gives us an image which seems noticeably influenced by Jim Steranko's cover for Agent of SHIELD #7, which came out just four months before this one.

Regardless, Barry appears to be very much Marvel's flavour of the month at this time. Could Stan be aware that Jolly Jack's about to flee to DC, and is on the lookout for a direct replacement?

That aside, two major things happen in this issue.

The first is that, thanks to Yon-Rogg, we get the death of Una, beating Gwen Stacy to the graveyard by four years. I'm assuming this is the first time we see a Marvel super-hero's girlfriend die, as I can't remember such a fatality before this.

The other major development is that, thanks to the mighty power of Zo, Mar-Vell gets a whole new set of abilities, including the gift of teleportation and the power to project illusions. Were either of these abilities ever seen again? I can't remember them ever featuring in any story I ever read.

Dr Strange and the Black Knight head off into the Realm of Tiboro, in order to retrieve the exiled Sons of Satannish, so they can tell our heroes how to stop Ymir and Surtur from wreaking havoc upon the Earth.

Yes, it's the issue before Strange's legendary team-up with the Avengers, in which they tackle that dastardly duo.

But there is a problem. Keen-eyed readers will have noticed that the relevant Avengers issue was cover-dated February - a whole month before this issue which is supposed to precede it. Surely, the Ancient One himself would struggle to make sense of such madness.

It's another Barry Smith cover, and I don't have a clue what happens in this one but I do know that, besides the Ka-Zar story, the comic also features Golden Age excursions for the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, Black Knight and Marvel Boy.

I note with interest that the Ka-Zar tale's co-written by Steve Parkhouse, which is not a name I'd expect to see appearing in a 1969 US Marvel comic.

Just when Nick Fury thinks he can celebrate Christmas, the Hate-Monger is back and threatening to drop a biological bomb on New York, in order to start World War 3.

I know Captain Barracuda's the villain in this tale and that he's taken Namor captive. Other than that, I can recollect little of its events.

I do recall that Namor escapes his captivity when one of Barracuda's not-exactly-Einstein lackeys decides to throw a bucket of water on him, in order to shut him up.

Within seconds, chains are being snapped like spaghetti and Namor is, "Imperious Rex-ing," it all over the place.

Why do I get the feeling that crew member won't be getting any ship's rations today?