Forty years ago today - April 1981.

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

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Once more, my time portal flies open!

Once more, I must leap, face-first, into it!

It's life or death drama, as Pyron the Thermal Man runs riot on the streets of New York, incinerating everything in his path.

The Human Torch can't handle him.

The Avengers can't handle him.

Nothing can handle him.

Well, that's not strictly true. In fact, if memory serves me right, the Wasp can handle him.

And she does.

I've a feeling this tale's drawn by Gene Colan. If so, it's nice to see him back on the strip after a very lengthy absence.

It's also striking to see the Avengers seeming so out of their depth.

Remember that English castle Cap and Bucky visited in World War Two? The one that belonged to the posh brother and sister who were working for the Nazis? The one whose intrigues almost led to the two heroes being put in a rocket and fired at Churchill?

Cap does and, for some reason I can't recall, he's back there, in the modern era.

And it's haunted!

Except it's not. Its once-treasonous owner's taken to clanking around in it, in a suit of armour, in an attempt to apprehend a ghost who turns out to be the Demon Druid on the hunt for hidden treasure.

Needless to say, it's not long before the druid is soundly defeated.

And he'd have got away with it too, if not for that pesky super-hero.

It's a very odd tale in which a giant human black hole shows up in New York and causes no end of mischief.

The Fantastic Four seem to be as out of their depth in this tale as the Avengers are in theirs.

What with him and Pyron, New York's not having a happy time of it, this month.

From what I can recall, a rival industrialist to Tony Stark decides to create battle suits for his employees, in order that they can defeat Iron Man and be a great advert for his business.

Iron Man soon sorts them out and sends that industrialist to the jail cell he belongs in.

Spider-Man finally discovers the truth, that the hot neighbour he's dumped Debbie Whitman for is, in fact, the evil Llyra.

And she never liked him at all!

And it gets even worse because, thanks to the Wizard's technology, she and the Frightful Four have transferred his spider-sense to Namor, which leaves both he and Subby distinctly out-of-whack.

The terrible Tinkerer makes his senses-shattering return.

And he's not alone - because his fun-filled lackey Toy's back, and stronger than ever.

To no one's surprise, except Spider-Man's, it turns out Toy's just a robot. This comes to light when Spidey wrecks him, which makes the Tinkerer sad, as Toy was his only friend.

Wait. What? His only friend? What about those aliens in his cellar? Did they mean nothing to him?

This all seems strangely familiar.

The Hulk shows up in Afghanistan, fights some Russian invaders and ends up in Siberia whereupon he blunders into the schemes of The Presence, as well as the Soviet Super-Soldiers' attempt to save the world.

Oh, and Glenn Talbot shows up, as well, in a big, flying tank-thing because a story can never have too many events going on at once.

After learning of Gabriel's "death" at the hands of Thor, Firelord sets out to avenge the murder of his friend, refusing to accept he was just a robot and had been asking for it anyway.

It is, thus, that we learn the origin of both Gabriel and Firelord and of how they came to be Galactus' heralds.

Basically, they were Captain Kirk and Mister Spock and bumped into Galactus who turned them into his heralds.

It's the Everglades, and Cyclops finds himself in solo action against D'Spayre and his morale-destroying illusions.

Of course, any attempt to make the world's stiffest hero give in to despair's going to be a short-lived one.

Also inevitably, the Man-Thing shows up because that's what the Everglades are for.

My memories of this are a little vague but I think Conan rescues a sizzling sexpot who turns out to be a goddess who owns a flying city filled with apemen she's turned into proper humans.

At first, Conan likes the cut of her jib but it's not long before he decides a good decapitation'll improve her attitude, no end.