Fifty years ago today - February 1972.

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

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This month in 1972, a state of emergency was declared by UK Prime Minister Edward Heath, as a result of the miners' strike which had been rumbling on for several weeks.

If that was bad news for him, the good news was the emergency was to last for not much longer, as the strike came to an end in the same month.

No doubt, Heath was over the moon at that outcome.

But there was something else that was over the moon.

And not just over it. The thing was actually landing on it!

That thing was the Soviet probe Luna 20 which touched down there, and then, mere days later, returned to Earth, bearing 55 grams of lunar soil.

If only it had come back with a sack of coal, it could have solved all Edward Heath's problems for him.

British miners may have been absent that month but you know who else was missing?

Conan and Iron Man.

It's true. For whatever reason, their mags which should have borne a February cover date failed to appear. Could it be down to the recent decision for Marvel books to have a higher page-count, causing the artists to struggle to meet deadlines?

I couldn't say.

But I can, at least, say plenty about the books that did appear.

I think we all remember where we were when we first saw the Vision trying to beat a Skrull to death.

We were reading this book.

And, by an incredible coincidence, the Vision was in it, trying to beat a Skrull to death.

With its venture into the depths of space, and its tale of our heroes vs a Skrull armada, this issue was, surely, the highlight of Neal Adams' stint on the strip.

It's the return of the foes no one ever seemed to want to return, as Dr Spencer Smythe and his Spider-Slayer make yet another futile attempt to bump off Spidey.

Now things have got real. Hydra's kidnapped Sharon Carter from hospital in an attempt to make Captain America their prisoner.

But who can that mystery villain be on the cover?

I suspect I'm not risking too much by betting my money on it being the Red Skull.

Somewhere in Switzerland, the Black Widow's approached by a doctor claiming he can restore sight to the blind.

Fortunately, she knows someone blind.

So, she sends for DD who arrives to discover things aren't as claimed.

This all leads to the dynamic duo taking down The Assassin and bringing an end, at last, to the threat of Mr Kline.

If I remember rightly, the Black Panther's imprisoned in the racist land of Rudyarda, and only the Thing and Human Torch can rescue him.

Needless to say, it all ends in confrontation with Klaw because who else is going to show up in a tale guest-starring the Panther?

Is this the issue in which the Panther declares he's changed his name to the Black Leopard because he doesn't want to seem too political?

Thanks to the magicks of her court wizards, Jarella's found her way to this world and is happily reunited with Bruce Banner.

Sadly, as always, Bruce's luck doesn't last and it turns out she has to be sent back where she came from or her presence here will destroy our sun.

Oh, and there's also an assassin out to get her.

,

Thor's messing about, fighting Kartag the Keeper, while Mangog threatens Asgard itself.

I can't quite remember just why Thor's fighting Kartag. I think it's something to do with finding a well.

Though I'm not totally sure how that's connected with Mangog.

I've no idea what happens in this one, other than it sees the mighty mutants square off against some cat called Kulkulcan.

Given the villain's name, this leads me to assume they're in Central America.

And that's Marvel dealt with.

But there are other companies in existence and, so, I feel duty-bound to see just what Marvel's biggest rival was flinging at us at the same time.

In truth, there's not a lot that catches my eye but here's a quick sample of what does.

That's a dramatic cover and it belongs to a tale called Who Is Clark Kent's Killer and Why Is He Doing Those Terrible Things to Me?

Sadly, it's a question I can't answer, because I don't know.

But we don't only get that story. In the first of this issue's back-up strips, Speedy joins the Teen Titans to search for a missing Olympic athlete.

And, in the second, we're treated to The Origin of the Door to the Fortress of Solitude.

I don't know about you but I've always been desperate to discover the origin of the door to the Fortress of Solitude.

In fact, I can't help feeling Stan Lee missed a trick in never publishing a book called Origins of the Doors of Marvel Comics.

A typically stylish cover from Jeff Jones heralds The Kiss of Death, a tale in which a young woman and a doctor travel to Hungary's Castle Dravko to care for its owner.

However, it's not long before they find themselves caught up in a mystery that involves vampires, werewolves and a long-ago infidelity which can only have deadly consequences.

But for whom?

Scourge of the Skeletal Riders! sees the Teen Titans visit Ranistan's civil war to rescue an old friend.

Unfortunately, that's when they're attacked by the four horsemen of the Apocalypse!

But that's just the main feature. In the back-up strip, Superboy encounters the youthful Green Arrow and decides to help the juvenile archer develop his skills.

I read this one as a kid.

Sadly, I can't recall anything that happens in it.

But I do know that, despite her recent abandonment of Paradise Island, Diana is, somehow, back there and is gathering the heroes of history to defend it from Mars the god of war!