January 30th, 1980 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

How long does it take a man to get nine squares of the same colour to line up? If the answer's, "Mere moments," and the year's 1980, he could soon be the envy of all his friends because, on this day in that year, the Rubik's Cube made its international debut at The British Toy and Hobby Fair at Earl's Court, London.

I could claim to have achieved effortless mastery of the Rubik's Cube, back in the day but the truth is I'd always get stuck on the last two squares.

Happily, I soon realised you could simply prise them apart with a screwdriver and then reassemble them with everything lined up perfectly, saving a massive amount of bother.

But we weren't just fingering plastic that week. We were also having fun with vinyl and, on the UK singles chart, the Specials' Too Much Too Young dethroned the Pretenders, to claim the top spot.

Not that the Pretenders needed be too upset, because they were still ruling the roost on the British album chart, with their eponymous debut LP of the same name called The Pretenders.

Elsewhere on that singles chart, My Girl by Madness was at 3, Tears of a Clown by the Beat was at 17 and Three Minute Hero by the Selecter was at 29, meaning the spirit of Ska was making its presence well and truly felt in the Top 30.

But perhaps the thing which stands out most for me on that week's singles chart was the presence of 7 Teen by the Regents, at 12, a record that, even forty years later, retains its sense of sheer oddity.

Speaking of oddities, this is where things get strange for Marvel UK because the keen-of-eye will notice this week's issue has completely the wrong date on it.

Not only that but I believe next week's issue bears the date of Jan 23rd as well. I don't have a clue what was going on there.

I also don't know what's going on inside the comic, as, other than knowing Spider-Man and Iron Man both have strips in it, I'm living in ignorance.

I do at least know the Spidey tale sees the Lizard vs the Iguana, as the Connors family watches on in the horror with which it always watched on in every single appearance it ever made.

Info's also sparse when it comes to this one.

I do know, though, that our heroes are captured and put on trial by a bunch of people with wings who feel the interplanetary battlers of evil have been trespassing in their air space.

The blurb at the top of the cover assures me it's a terrible trial. I can only assume the judge is drunk, the jury's stupid and the lawyers turn up late.

Also, Deathlok's still blundering around the streets of somewhere or other, looking for whatever it is he's looking for.

Thinking about it, that is quite a boring cover. I mean, it's just Luke and C-3PO standing around doing nothing.

It's an epic week for lovers of the world's greatest time traveller when The Web Planet makes the front cover, surely the most compellingly unwatchable story in the show's history - and I say that as someone who's seen Time and the Rani.

Who will ever forget the relentless, maddening sound effects, the deathless wire work, the woodlice with bazookas, and the sight of a giant ant colliding with the camera?

No one.

And that's why we love it, even though it's nothing but torture from start to finish.

As if that wasn't enough, it would appear we also get the death of the Invisible Man, a protagonist who literally couldn't foresee his own end.

I have a feeling I got that line from the Two Ronnies.

We also get the latest instalment of The City of the Damned, a text report on the inside of the TARDIS, and more from the picture strip known as Deathworld.

The details of Deathworld are unknown to me but I believe it's the story which features Cybermen against Ice Warriors. The sooner they use that idea in the TV show, the better.

Then again, the way this current season's flinging in everything except the kitchen sink, such a development can only be mere weeks away.

Spidey's still trying to rescue a bomb scientist from a bunch of Russian super-heroes who've been deceived into thinking that, by capturing him, they're protecting their country from American aggression.

Elsewhere, the Black Knight's come into the possession of a gem or a pearl or something that's trying to Gollumise our armoured hero with its promises of granting him total power.

Ant-Man's in the process of being framed for a bank robbery.

The Silver Surfer's still up against Thor.

In the pages of The Defenders, Moon Knight's out to rescue Jack Norriss from the clutches of Scorpio.

And, of course, the Hulk's up against Tyrannus in the Andes.