The Marvel Lucky Bag - April 1969.

If a strange man were to approach you in the park and ask, "What is the song with the most misheard lyrics in the history of popular music?" there's a fair chance you'd instantly shout back, "Israelites by Desmond Dekker."

Speaking of which...

April 1969 began with Marvin Gaye at Number One on the UK singles chart, thanks to I Heard it Through the Grapevine but that was quickly dethroned by Dekker's reggae classic which, in turn, was dethroned by the Beatles' Get Back.

Interestingly, despite their epic levels of success throughout the 1960s, it was the Beatles' first and only single to enter the British chart at Number One.

Also interestingly, it did so by fending off the challenge of Mary Hopkin's Goodbye, which was written by Paul McCartney and was also on the Beatles' Apple label.

Over on the UK album chart, the month began with The Best of the Seekers in first place. This was quickly dethroned by Cream's Goodbye, which was then replaced by The Best of the Seekers, which was then replaced by Cream's Goodbye, which was then replaced by The Best of the Seekers. The British public was clearly having major problems deciding whether it preferred the Seekers or Cream.

The US public was suffering no such indecisiveness when it came to comics. It knew it preferred Marvel's other output to the comics below. At least, according to sales figures, it did.

However, that doesn't mean those books didn't have merit.

Or does it?

It all gets strange in outer space, with Mar-Vell swearing eternal loyalty to Zo - even though he doesn't know a thing about him - and then starting to get delusions of omnipotence. It really does look like writer Arnold Drake is, at this point, setting him up to become a villain.

Luckily, in the Marvel universe, there's always a super-powered android around to cut you down to size when you need it.

I do believe this is a reprint of that early Steve Ditko tale in which Spider-Man teams up with the sorcerer supreme, in order to tackle Xandu, an evil mystic who's up to no good with the Wand of Watoomb.

The cover's by Barry Smith who's still not quite got his act together yet.

The Hate-Monger's up to his usual trick of trying to get different sections of the US population to kill each other, so, Nick Fury's got no choice but to attack his space station, causing the man with Hitler's brainwaves to inadvertently step out of an airlock.

Clearly, Hitler's brainwaves are not too smart.

I've never read this tale but it would seem the Surfer's latest attempt to thwart Galactus' space barrier attracts the attention of the Stranger who reacts to it all by deciding to blow the planet Earth up with a huge bomb.

You could always rely on the Stranger to provide a rational response to any situation.

The back-up strip in this issue is the Tales of the Watcher story Run, Roco, Run which has already had more than one mention on this blog in the past. For what is a very minor piece in the history of comics, it does have a remarkable knack of resurfacing.

I don't have a clue what happens in this one and I'm not sure if I want to but there is a reason why I'm posting an issue of Millie the Model...

...And this is it.

Only the other week, we were discussing Millie's unlikely popularity in the 1960s, and here's the living proof, as the queen of fashion becomes only the second Marvel star to get a second book, after Nick Fury.

Admittedly, Spider-Man did get a second book at one point in the 1960s but it only lasted two issues, so I don't know if it counts.

This comic lasted a full sixteen issues, officially making Millie eight times more popular than Spider-Man.

Speaking of which, did John Romita ever draw her? That cover suggests it'd be right up his alley.

It would appear that Subby's up against someone called Karthon the Quester, in a plot connected to the Serpent Crown.