May 16th, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Have you ever wanted to own a garden in space and have it tended by three robots while Joan Baez warbles the same song over and over and over again until you get sick of it?

If so, this night of exactly forty years ago was your lucky night because it was the evening BBC One was showing Douglas Trumbull's Silent Running, that slightly barking tale of conservation, and murder by shovel.

It is very much a film that is of its time and its plot doesn't stand up to any kind of logical scrutiny but I enjoyed it at the time and still get upset whenever the robots are hurt.

Joan Baez may have been in that film but, in the real world, we were all listening to ABBA because their album Voulez-Vous was reigning supreme at the top of the UK album chart. Chiquitita is my favourite of its five singles, especially for that magnificent bit of pub piano at the end. It positively makes me want to clink my steinkrug to it.

Come to think of it, after all these years, I still don't know what voulez-vous actually means.

There's only one thing for it. I'm going to have to Google it.

....

....

....

That's it. I have now Googled it. It would appear that it means, "Do you want?"

But do I want what?

Why can ABBA not be more specific in their questions to me? Why?

Han Solo and Chewie are on some planet or other, in a cave, being fired at by Jabba the Hut and his men.

As this is long before The Return of the Jedi, I wonder if we get to see Jabba in this issue and whether he bears any resemblance to the character who ended up on film.

Hold on. Is the scaly man on the cover meant to be him?

I cannot say.

Elsewhere, at Thano's insistence, Warlock's using his soul gem to destroy the Magus' army, even though such an act is part of the process which'll turn him into the Magus in the first place. Oh, the nightmarish paradoxes.

Somewhat less cosmically, the Micronauts are up against a man who only has a half a face. I don't have a clue who he is.

This is it! The big one! The Hulk beats up a bear!

To be honest, when you've grown up watching him take on the Galaxy Master, Klaatu and an island full of giant space-monsters, a punch-up in the woods, with a bear, seems somewhat less than thrilling.

Ant-Man has to deal with a hijacker who turns out to be exactly who you thought he'd be. In fact, I have noticed that the trend with early Ant-Man tales seems to be that whoever asked for his help in the first place is, later, going to be revealed as the villain.

High in the Andes, the Eternals are still mithering about the return of the Celestials.

Night-Raven finally gets round to bumping off the assassin who's been hired to kill him.

Nick Fury's up to something but I don't know what and, based on previous form, I doubt it'll be anything that interests me.

The Black Knight and Captain Britain are still battling the forces of evil in a Britain that bears no resemblance to any Britain I've ever been to.

Hooray! Ms Marvel makes her Kreetastic debut!

To be honest, I don't recall much about her adventures but I do recall that I always hated her costume. The bare stomach and legs just didn't go with an outfit that also had gloves. And no battler of evil should ever wear a scarf.

As usual, the rest of this issue's contents are a mystery to me.

Hooray! Spider-Man's up against the Masked Marauder!

For such a duff villain, he does seem to be getting a lot of use, of late, in Spidey's strip.