August 22nd, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Who can explain the phenomenal appeal of Cliff Richard, the most successful chart artist in British history; more than 100 hit records, 67 Top Ten singles, 14 Number Ones, and the only singer to have scored a UK Number One in five consecutive decades?

Who can explain it?

Not me, that's for sure.

But I must at least acknowledge it because, in this week of 1979, the top of the UK singles chart was claimed by Cliff's We Don't Talk Anymore, giving him his tenth Number One, a mere 21 years after his chart debut. To do this, he had to knock the Boomtown Rats off the top spot and expose the oft-repeated lie of Punk having blown away the older generation.

Granted, I Don't Like Mondays was hardly Punk and Cliff was only eleven years older than Bob Geldof at the time.

And the weird thing is he's still only eleven years older than Bob Geldof.

At last, we get the showdown on Tatooine, even if I do keep reading that blurb as, "Slowdown on Tatooine." I like the idea of a slowdown on Tatooine. It's not good to have too much excitement in your life.

Elsewhere, the Guardians of the Galaxy are still on the planet that resembles New York, and are now arousing the wrath of the locals.

I don't have a clue what's going on in the Star-Lord strip but I do know that, in this issue's Tales of the Watcher, astronaut Derek Wolfington finds himself up against Kraggoom the cloud monster who bears a remarkable resemblance to Diablo the smoke monster, recently seen battling the Hulk.

Speaking of the Hulk, that behemoth finds himself up against Xemnu the Titan, who was the one who set Diablo on him in the first place.

It's a good job our hero didn't have to face Kraggoom as well. If Derek Wolfington couldn't stop the thing, what chance would the Hulk have?

This exciting climax features the US military happily depth-charging the dam which contains Xemnu's base.

Isn't depth-charging a dam somewhat irresponsible? Wouldn't huge numbers of people be killed by its destruction?

Elsewhere, in another dimension. Merlin disposes of a dark god, as the Black Knight tries to return Captain Britain from the dead.

High on a hilltop, we get to meet the Russian-based Eternals. Needless to say, they're as smug and glib as all the others of their species.

We also get the conclusion of the tale about what would have happened if Rick Jones had become the Hulk. For once, there's an actual happy ending.

And I still don't have a clue what Nick Fury's up to.

This is it! Spidey's climactic battle with Carrion and his homicidal amoeba!

Meanwhile, the Watcher asks, "What if someone else had become Nova?" Daredevil meets the Torpedo, Odin's still on Earth, in mortal form, and the Thing teams up with Skull the Slayer, in order to fight a bunch of dinosaurs and try to convince us we should be interested in Skull the Slayer.

I, personally, feel the attempt fails.