The Marvel Lucky Bag - July 1981.

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

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There are times in this life when you just want to get away from it all.

And July 1981 was no exception.

After all, that month, our cinemas were hit by not one but two movies dedicated to that very concept.

One was Escape from New York and the other was Escape to Victory.

I'm happy to declare, right now, that Escape from New York is the better of those two films but I do know there are those - especially in the football-loving community - who view Escape to Victory as a cinematic masterpiece.

The other high-profile movie to be unleashed that July was Dudley Moore's Arthur which I've never seen and can, thus, offer no commentary upon as to what degree it involves people trying to escape.

I do recall it featured that song by Christopher Cross which brought the theme of escape into my mind every time it came on the radio. Mostly because it made me want to flee the room, with my ears covered. Also, I can't hear it without thinking of Steve Wright in the Afternoon. For some reason, this makes me unhappy.

But none of this matters. All that matters is what Marvel's less popular titles were up to while all this was going on.

Bizarre Adventures gives us a whole heap of X-Men action, which is never a bad thing.

I'm not sure what goes on in the main tale but it would appear to involve Phoenix and Attuma, which seems quite an intriguing thing.

We also get a tale called Winter Carnival which seems to be about Iceman and a bunch of statues, plus a story involving Nightcrawler and the Vanisher.

I suppose it does make sense to have Nightcrawler come up against the Vanisher, given the similarities in their powers.

Judging by that cover, it's curtains for our favourite space knight.

At least, that's what the Dire Wraiths are hoping when Rom returns to Earth, from Limbo.

Concerned by a vision of his homeworld in ruins, our hero wants to get back there, sharpish.

But how can he abandon his Earth friends?

How?

I've included this one purely because its cover involves Dr Doom riding around on the back of a giant monster.

That conch-shell horn-thing the villain's holding should hint to us all that the Sub-Mariner's involved.

In another tale, we get the return of the Meteor Man and what appears to be a team-up with Hellcat.

Hellcat and Spider-Man does sound like it could be a fun combination.

I'm going to say it, right now. This looks like it may be the best Spider-Man comic published this month. And I don't care if it is aimed at six-year-olds.

That's a very striking cover by Frank Miller - although it's quite difficult to work out just what's going on.

This month, the Watcher will mostly be asking, "What would have happened if the Phoenix hadn't died?"

Obviously, with the benefit of hindsight, we all now know that she didn't die. Thinking about it, it seems odd the Watcher didn't know that.

Anyway, I can shed no light upon the events which transpire within this tale.

I'm sure, though, that it will all end up unhappily.

Tragedy hits the Marvel universe, as the Man-Thing's comic squelches to its demise, after just eleven issues.

According to the Grand Comics Database, this issue features guest appearances by Jim Shooter, Louise Jones and Danny Fingeroth in a tale in which Chris Claremont becomes the Man-Thing.

Erm, what?