The Marvel Lucky Bag - January 1971.

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Irwin Allen. What a producer. He gave us Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and The Towering Inferno.

He also gave us City Beneath the Sea, the movie about attempts to rescue an underwater drilling project and an undersea city. To be honest, I don't remember much about it but do recall its cast included a man who swam with the same dolphin-inspired technique the Man From Atlantis used.

If you're wondering what the relevance of any of this is, it's that the film came out in January 1971 and is, thus, now exactly fifty years old.

Back above the waves, Dad's Army star Clive Dunn was busy invading the UK singles chart, as, for the first half of that month, his magnificent track Grandad sat proudly atop that listing.

Grandad was, of course, written by Herbie Flowers, the man who'd supplied the iconic bassline for Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side.

Sadly, this didn't lead to the duet between Clive and Lou the world was, no doubt, clamouring for.

However, even the power of Clive can't withstand that of a Beatle, and the second half of January saw him driven into retreat, as George Harrison suddenly annexed the hit parade's pinnacle, with his lawyer-bothering masterpiece My Sweet Lord.

When it came to album sales, it was Andy Williams who initially ruled the roost that month, with his Greatest Hits package. However, Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water then reclaimed the Number One spot, for the 30 millionth time, before George Harrison triumphed again, as his triple album All Things Must Pass rose, without peer, to finish the month on top.

It's the first of a whole slew of annuals that have been released this month, even though they're generally labelled, "King-Size Specials," rather than, "Annuals."

In this one, the Avengers must thwart the invasion of the Lava Men who, no doubt, light their underground kingdom with lava lamps.

As if that wasn't enough on the team's plate, they also have to win their first-ever encounter with the Masters of Evil, thanks to both Baron Zemo and the power of reprint.

Captain America finally gets his very own annual, and celebrates it with a retelling of his origin, for those who've somehow managed to miss out on it until now.

In this case, it's a reprint of the 1965 Lee/Kirby version, which is the one we're probably all the most familiar with.

As if that's not enough, we get three-part World War II action, as Cap and Bucky must spend Midnight in Greymoor Castle.

And we get a reprint of Cap's attempts to prevent Batroc from laying hands on the nightmare terror of Inferno 42.

Whatever that is.

It sounds like a discotheque.

I suspect it isn't.

More early Hulkinanigans, as our anti-hero dares not revert to being Bruce Banner, thanks to a bullet that's lodged in his brain. Glenn Talbot thinks Banner's dead and tries it on with Betty, and the Leader tries it on with everyone by attacking Gamma Base.

This all leads to the Hulk being beamed to another planet to retrieve a goldfish bowl which'll give the Leader access to the Watcher's vast repository of knowledge.

It's at this point the tall-headed heel discovers it's not always a good idea to get what you've always longed for.

What the difference is between a King-Size Special and a Special Marvel Edition is, I've no idea but Thor could probably tell us.

Then again, he may be a little too busy for that. Having lost a fight with Loki, the thunderer must recover a bunch of Norn Stones from Vietnam, in order to regain his good name.

No doubt, he socks it to some communists while he's at it. Even a god of the storm knows there's no substitute for a good old dose of square-jawed capitalism.

This, of course, leads him to his first-ever encounter with the Destroyer, in one of my favourite Lee/Kirby Thor tales.

Just for a break, we get a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, as fed through a decidedly Asgardian filter.

When Atlantis is hit by shockwaves from an underwater explosion, that bounder Byrrah re-shows his face to claim the throne of Atlantis - with eager support from the populace.

All of which sends Namor to an international nuclear convention to find out what caused the explosion.

Needless to say, it's all down to underhanded treachery by the realm's new ruler.

But is there anything Subby can do about it?

Because one comic isn't enough to contain the raging power-house that is Subby, he also gets the launch of his own annual.

In a Gene Colan drawn reprint, when Warlord Krang takes over Atlantis, Namor sets off to get the trident of Neptune to prove he should be monarch.

Some of us might have thought he'd be better off staying in Atlantis and beating-up Krang but, no, he's royal and doesn't do things that way.

This, inevitably, leads to a confrontation with Marvel's greatest-ever villain Seaweed Man while Krang gets bored with Lady Dorma's constant spurnings and banishes her to the realm of the Faceless Ones.

Wait? Hold on? Not only does Thor get a Marvel Special Edition, he also gets a King-Size Special too? What is this, no doubt, troll-induced madness?

In this one, the hammer-happy deity reveals his secret identity to Jane Foster but she doesn't believe him.

In the same story, he also has to contend with the Grey Gargoyle.

In a tale of Asgard, Loki tries to kill Balder, with mistletoe.

In another tale of Asgard, Thor wrecks a troll mining operation. Well, so much for him being a hero of capitalism.

In another tale of Asgard, Arkin the weak betrays Asgard to win the hand of Queen Knorda. I don't have a clue who these people are.

And, in another tale of Asgard, Odin loses a battle against an army of men.

Or does he?

Far more importantly than any of that; in our final tale, Loki turns mortal prison inmate Crusher Creel into the nightmarish Absorbing Man. Now Thor's got problems...