The Marvel Lucky Bag - August 1980.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.

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Have you ever felt some jobs in your life are just too big to accomplish?

Then feel sorry for the crew of The Deepquest because in this month, exactly 40 years ago, they were set the task of lifting an ocean liner from the very bed of the sea!

That's right. It was the month in which Raise the Titanic, the film that all but sank the British film industry, was released...

...and then did about as well as the boat that had inspired it.

Famously, this was the movie of which producer Lew Grade once lamented, "It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic."

But it wasn't the only film released that month because August 1980 also saw the unleashing of The Final Countdown and, Steve Does Comics' favourite, Xanadu.

Oddity of the month - assuming you don't think Xanadu deserved that title - was a film called I Go Pogo which was, it seems, based on a cartoon strip I've never heard of. The internet tells me the strip ran from 1948 to 1975 and its main character was an opossum. It seems it won awards, so, it is clear I've missed out on a valuable piece of culture.

Hold on to your hats because the Shogun Warriors tangle with the Fantastic Four!

Just how large a scale this fight is, I couldn't say but, given the size of at least one of the participants, I would assume the scale's quite large.

As well as that, the Grand Comics Database informs me that Genji Odashu, in Combatra, leads the way to Ilongo Savage's Oceanography Research Centre.

And, you know what? Not one word of that plot summary meant a thing to me.

Because you The Reader demanded it, the book's been cancelled!

Which is disappointing, seeing how successful the original comic was.

I can only put it down to the magazine format, rather than the allure or lack of it of the good count himself.

Still, at least Marvel get to bill it as the, "Special Last Issue!" which, I'm sure, convinced people to rush out and buy it in a fever of excitement.

As so often, Dracula's tale is drawn by Gene Colan although, this time, Dave Simons gets to be inker and Jim Shooter gets to do the writing.

We also get a back-up tale called Violets for a Vampire, drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz.

Hooray! At last, Dr Doom gets to be a hero!

Although, I'm sure the people of Latveria have always viewed him as a hero. After all, as we were regularly told by them in our days of yore, Latveria has been a prosperous land since Doom became ruler.

Apparently, in this tale, he doesn't have the accident which turned him evil.

I would assume, judging by the cover, that he also has a triumphant battle with Mephisto.

We get issue #1 of a summer special starring Marvel's two most TV-friendly characters.

I wish I could give huge amounts of detail about what happens in this one but I really don't have a clue.

I do know that, once again, Jim Shooter's the writer.

It doesn't seem to be much of a summer special, as it only has 20 pages, making it something that sounds suspiciously like a regular comic.

Spider-Woman's being controlled by the Enforcer - and only Spider-Man can stop her!

I've no doubt he does just that and the pair of them then team-up to thwart whatever the Enforcer's terrible plan is.

Apparently, Ernie Chan shows up as a guest character in this issue.

Ernie Chan also happens to have done the breakdowns for it.

I suspect these two facts are related.

At last, after all these years, we get to see Wonder Man in solo action.

It would appear our hero's up against the Maggia in this tale - and that Madame Masque is also mixed up in it.

It's the meeting we've all been crying out for, as Spider-Man teams up with Howard the Duck.

Every single element of this comic, from the writing, all the way through to the lettering, was done by Alan Kupperberg. I don't think I've ever read a Marvel comic in which every role in the creative process was filled by one person.

The villain of the tale is Status Quo.

I am assuming that's not the band of the same name.

The Spectacular Spider-Man gets its second-ever annual, and it's all-new thrills, as Spidey finds himself up against the Rapier.

I'm not sure how a man with a sword is going to cause too many problems for Spider-Man but, then again, Silvermane and the Maggia are also involved, so Webhead may have more of a fight on his hands than is immediately apparent.

It seems this tale was originally produced as part of a Coca-Cola promotion that fell through.

Exactly what that Coca-Cola promotion involved, I could not say.

I can say that, at first glance, the Rapier looks more like a Daredevil villain than a Spider-Man one.