The Marvel Lucky Bag - June 1972.

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

***

If one ventured into the cinema in June 1972, one might encounter a whole bunch of movies.

But perhaps the most noteworthy were the timeless classics the world knows as Beware! The Blob, Frenzy and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

I must confess I've never seen the first two of those three, while the third is probably my least favourite Apes movie.

Still, at least I had the music scene to console me, and the start of June saw the summit of the UK singles chart being dominated by T Rex's Metal Guru.

However, that quickly made way for Don McLean's beautiful tribute to a well-known painter Vincent.

Even more however, there can be no beauty without the beast, and the musical beast that was Slade then kicked into gear, with their Take Me Bak 'Ome dethroning Don and seeing out the month at Number One, thus leaving no one in any doubt the Wolverhampton rockers had taken over as Britain's biggest group.

Speaking of big groups; over on the British album chart, the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street kicked off that June at Number One.

But it soon had to accept being deposed by Various Artists' 20 Dynamic Hits. Sadly, the latter is a record whose track listing I know nothing of. 

I do believe this is that strange issue which is mostly drawn by John Buscema but has several Neal Adams pages inserted into it, as Lord Kevin travels to the Everglades to try and find Ted Sallis but, instead, finds only the Man-Thing, agents of AIM and a distinctly messy ink job on the Adams pages.

The free world celebrates, as Combat Kelly gets his own comic!

I can't claim to be able to shed much light on this issue's contents but I do know they're titled Stop the Luftwaffe... Win the War!

It's a bit of a shock to me to discover Fear is still going. I'd assumed it had bitten the bullet long ago.

But here it is and bringing us the following tales: It Crawls By Night, Never Trust a Martian!, I Can't Escape from the Creeping Things! and The Face! All of which are reprints from the 1960s.

Combat Kelly's not the only Marvel character with reason to celebrate, this month. 

That's because Luke Cage gets his own comic, as well. Not only that, he makes his first-ever appearance and gets an origin.

That origin, of course, involves him having to serve time for a crime he didn't commit, volunteering for a medical experiment and gaining steel-hard skin, super-strength, a love of silk shirts and a whole new career as a super-hero for hire.

Roy Thomas (inevitably) stuns us all by bringing back the original Hulk, otherwise known as Xemnu, to bemuse and befuddle the Defenders, with his plan to use a kids' TV show to enslave mankind.

The Rawhide Kid hits his 100th issue and does so with a brand new tale called Gunfight At Fury Falls and a reprinted one called El Sombro. The latter features the work of both John Buscema and Joe Maneely, while the first is written and drawn by Larry Lieber.

Subby's still blundering around with amnesia.

Or is he?

Hold onto your hats because this is the tale in which his memory finally returns! Mostly thanks to his first-ever meeting with his niece Namorita, and a repeat encounter with the villain Byrrah who pulls a dastardly trick by pretending to have been captured by a talking crab that wants to rule the world!