Fifty years ago this month - February 1970.

Hark!

What's that sound?

It's the soothing tones of Heavy Metal being invented.

That's because February 1970 was the month in which Black Sabbath's eponymous debut album was released.

Not that it had to be released. An album that mighty was clearly capable of breaking free all on its own, leaving nothing but bent bars and shattered walls behind it.

But it wasn't alone in testing the durability of decibel meters, because that month also saw the recording of the iconic LP The Who: Live at Leeds.

That title was nonsense, of course. Not one of the Who lived in Leeds.

I'm not sure what happens in this one.

I do remember it beginning with the Scorpion just out of jail and trying to re-find his confidence by mugging an innocent passer-by...

...who just happens to be Steve Rogers who proceeds to beat him up.

I assume, though, that that isn't the entirety of the issue, as that would involve a twenty-page fight scene, which seems unlikely.

It's the clash we've all been aching for, as Thor tangles once more with the Circus of Crime.

As we all recall, the last time that he thwarted them, it involved him being hypnotised into becoming their new strongman, for purposes of criminal activity and, this time, I do believe it's poor old Ulik who's conscripted into the same role.

Quite how the Circus happens to come across the terrible troll, in the first place, is something I have no clear recollection of.

I think I've read this one, a long time ago.

Is it a Neal Adams drawn tale?

Is it the one in which Professor X reveals he's not been dead all this time and that he's been hiding in the cellar, in case of alien invasion, with the aid of Marvel Girl?

Australia's deadliest man arrives on American shores and proceeds to endanger the whole of New York by stealing a vial filled with a deadly bacteria. Now Spider-Man has to beat him without breaking the vial.

But how can a man who's only armed with super-strength, super-speed, super-reflexes, a spider-sense, genius intellect, years of experience, and near-unbreakable webbing hope to stop a foe as mighty as the Kangaroo? How?

I genuinely have no recollection of ever having read this tale before.

But if Mr Hyde, the Cobra and Jester combined can't even defeat Daredevil, it doesn't say much for them.

Even the Circus of Crime might be able to do that.

I have vague memories that this involves the Eddie March version of Iron Man getting beaten half to death by the metal Marxists before the original Shellhead shows up to save him, leading Tony Stark to learn the valuable lesson that only he should ever wear the mantle of Iron Man.

I would have thought the actual lesson to learn is you should make sure someone has a thorough medical examination before giving them a job as a super-hero.

It's one of the oddest - and least impressive - Fantastic Four tales of the late 1960s, as the team try to prevent The Monocle from assassinating someone or other, with his deadly camera of evil.

The Sons of the Serpent are back, and up against the Black Panther in a tale which gives us the same shocking twist at its climax that all Sons of the Serpent tales seem to.

Seemingly cured of his unfortunate tendency to turn into a mindless beast, Bruce Banner decides it's a perfect time to marry Betty Ross.

Only for the Leader to have other ideas, and set the Rhino on him.

I do believe this issue features Sal Buscema's first ever work on the strip, years before he'll eventually replace Herb Trimpe as main Hulk artist.