The Marvel Lucky Bag - July 1969.

This very evening, England take on the United States in the semi-finals of the Women's World Cup. l'm taking it for granted England'll crash out on penalties, as that's been the job of every England national team since Kevin Keegan was a lad.

But there was once a time when the whole notion of a woman's World Cup would have seemed like nothing more than a pipe dream.

And that time was July 1969.

Admittedly, it was also true of any month in that year, and any year in that decade. However, I need a tenuous link to launch me into my look at what Marvel's less celebrated strips were up to in the books which wore that month's cover date, and that was it.

But first, some music.

July 1969 was a time of memorable tunes on the UK singles chart, and it kicked off with Something in the Air by Thunderclap Newman at Number One, that track having dethroned the Beatles' Ballad of John and Yoko.

Still, that band's triumph wasn't all bad news for members of the Fab Four because Thunderclap Newman's lead guitarist was 16 year old Jimmy McCulloch who, just five years later, took Henry McCullough's place as lead guitarist of Paul McCartney's new band Wings.

Thunderclap Newman were dethroned in the month's second half by the Rolling Stones' Honky Tonk Women which claimed the top spot by thwarting the challenge of John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance which firmly lodged itself at Number Two.

Over on the album chart, things were very straightforward, with According to My Heart by Jim Reeves hogging the Number One slot for the entire month, fighting off the likes of Cliff Richard, Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, along the way.

And now some comics.

Nightmare's kidnapped Eternity, and Dr Strange has to enter his terrifying realm, in order to do something about it.

Strange is still in his super-hero guise at this point but already starting to realise it's not a great look if you want to win over the general public.

With this issue, the book that had given us brand new adventures for Captain Marvel, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man, Medusa, Phantom Eagle and Ka-Zar becomes a reprint-only title, supplying a massive 68 pages of retro goodness from the early Avengers and X-Men. This issue, the former are battling the Hulk and Sub-Mariner, while the latter must face the devastating menace of the Vanisher.

SHIELD are up against the hordes of the Super-Patriot, while Nick Fury's up against both SHIELD and the Super-Patriot. Clearly, it's not his lucky day.

Or perhaps it is, because it's all sorted out when the Super-Patriot accidentally trips and falls to his death.

But what's this? When our hero unmasks the deceased villain, it turns out he was Nick Fury all along.

Why do I get the feeling someone had been watching the finale of The Prisoner before producing this one?

Hold on. What? The Sub-Mariner once had a fight with Dragon Man? Why did no one ever tell me?

It seems Diane Arliss and Dr Dorcas have kidnapped Dorma, and now Subby has to go through Dragon Man to get to her.

I have no doubt he eventually does just that but not before lots of complaining about having been out of water for too long.