The Marvel Lucky Bag - February 1982.

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

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Do you ever find you've spent your entire day just looking for fire?

If so, you were probably on our cinema screens in February 1982.

After all, that was the month in which the unstoppable box office mastodon that was Quest for Fire was unleashed upon the world.

Made for $12 million, it, possibly surprisingly, went on to gross $55 million, which sounds like success to me, posing the obvious question of why there was never a sequel. I mean, who wouldn't queue to see In Search Of Wood, Where's That Antler? or Does Anyone Round Here Have A Flint?

But that wasn't the only memorable film to escape that month. For February also saw the release of such treasures as One from the Heart, Swamp Thing and Death Wish II.

In this month's set of adventures that are bizarre, we're served delights with such titles as Saturn's Secret, Assignation at Madstar!, Honor and Ronnie Raygun of the Space Patrol, brought to us by the likes of Steve Skeates, Steve Smallwood, John Buscema, Peter Gillis, Gene Day, Bill Mantlo and Mike Vosburg.

Sadly, I can't vouch for how good any of those tales are, as I've never read them.

Epic Illustrated is also trundling along. And, this time, we get Press Gang, Bird, Liaison, Faces the Future, Children of the Stars, Flightus Interuptus and Marada the She-Wolf, all behind a cover painted by John Bolton.

Can it be? The end of everyone's favourite gamma-powered gal?

Yes, it can.

Or, at least, it's the end of her comic, as the mag that was launched 25 issues ago, by Stan Lee and John Buscema, comes grinding to a juddering halt.

Does she go out in style?

I cannot say but I can say she finally defeats Doc, with assists from Ralphie, Zapper, Richard Rory, Sheriff Walters and the Mutations.

And then she reconciles with her father.

So, it's not all bad news.

And we get the chance to win a bicycle.

Star-Lord is back - with his own 68-page special!

And he does it with a detailed history of the character, and a load of material reprinted from Marvel Preview #11.

But we don't only get the adventures of Peter Quill. Somewhat oddly, we also receive a Doctor Who tale entitled Spider-God, as rustled up by Steve Moore and Dave Gibbons.

It's not a film I would have bet good money on having been granted a Marvel Comics adaptation but The Time Bandits hits our spinner racks, thanks to the skills of Steve Parkhouse and David Lloyd.

Sadly, I'm afraid that's all the light I can shed upon the publication.

Wait! What's this? Wolverine's killed the Hulk? That Watcher, is there no circumstance he won't concoct in order to give us a yarn?

As far as I can remember, the tale posits that, had Wolvie managed to slaughter Jade Jaws in their first encounter, he'd have gone on to become a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants before betraying them to save Jean Grey and would have then been killed by his own claws, thanks to Magneto's need for vengeance.

I'm assuming this was a time before Wolvie's miraculous healing powers had been established in the comics?

We also get the tale of what would have happened had the Fantastic Four never existed. As far as I can remember, it would have meant Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk and Thor would also never have come to be.

But there's no news on Ant-Man.