The Marvel Lucky Bag - June 1969.

In the summer of 1969, the Beatles were fast approaching the end of their long and winding road but you'd never know it from the UK singles chart. In a feat of tireless dominance, June of that year started with the band at Number One, thanks to Get Back. This was toppled from its perch by Tommy Roe's Dizzy but, just one week later, that, in turn, was dethroned by The Ballad of John and Yoko.

How little people must have suspected, at the time, that it would prove to be the band's final Number One in their home country. But, if they'd been paying attention, the warning signs were there, given that it was a track which could be viewed as emblematic of the tensions tearing the band apart.

Meanwhile, that month's British album chart presents me with an enigma. It kicked off with Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline at Number One, a record with which I'm familiar. However, it was then knocked off that top spot by Ray Conniff's His Orchestra, His Chorus, His Singers, His Sound. I must confess I've never even heard of Ray Conniff, which is odd, bearing in mind his chart success suggests he must have been a fairly big deal at the time.

Unlike Ray, the following comics were not necessarily a big deal but I do remember them.

Captain Marvel comes up against Iron Man when the armoured Avenger's taken over by the Puppet Master as part of a three-book crossover which features Egghead, the Mad Thinker and Puppet Master, and climaxes in last month's Avengers tale.

No, I'm not sure why it reached its climax last month if it's being set up in comics unleashed this month.

Anyway, the space captain triumphs when Shellhead has a heart attack half way through the fight, after nearly killing Carol Danvers. I don't know if she ever brought that incident up with him when she joined the Avengers.

Thinking about it, why does the Puppet Master want Iron Man to attack Captain Marvel? How does he even know Captain Marvel exists?

After six issues, it finally dawns on the Surfer to travel forwards to a time when Galactus' barrier around the Earth no longer exists.

Having done that, he discovers the universe has been taken over by a giant mutant who can't be harmed.

Unable to defeat his foe in a fair fight, the Surfer flies back in time, prevents the mutant's birth and then returns to present day Earth to bemoan his lot in life.

There are two obvious questions here. One is, why does he go back to Earth before returning to the present day, when he could have gone to his beloved Zenn-La, instead? And, now that he's defeated one foe by going back in time to prevent his creation, why does he not do that with every difficult opponent he comes up against, from now on?

Subby's concentrating on his hobby of complaining about pollution, when he's attacked by the original Human Torch who's under the control of the Mad Thinker.

Needless to say, its not long before the two elemental heroes team up to thwart the crook.

But then we get the biggest shock in comics history when it's revealed the Torch isn't who we thought he was but is, in fact, his ex-sidekick Toro who's been brainwashed into thinking he's his former partner.

I think Toro dies at the end of this tale. If he does, that means the Thinker managed to see off both Toro and the Human Torch, which is quite rude of him.