Forty years ago today - January 1983.

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

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What's this monstrous nightmare that stands before me?

It's a brand new year.

But, exactly forty years ago, we were also facing a brand new year.

Even though it's now a brand old year.

Now Conan's in trouble. He's going to have to fight a minotaur!

Admittedly, it's not the first time he's had to fight one and I suspect he's going to be just as successful against this one as he has been against all the others.

Anyway, it seems he has to slay it in order to rescue someone called Theta, from a thing called the Devourer of Women.

I would assume the woman on the cover is Theta who has yet to be devoured.

Mike Zeck's cover looks suspiciously like a tribute to Neal Adams' cover for Detective Comics #395.

And does that mean the story within bears any relation to that Batman yarn?

I suspect not, as this one involves Cap trying to rescue his childhood friend from Baron Zemo and Arnim Zola before they can ruin his personal life.

We also get a backup tale in which the Falcon's being haunted by memories of his old Snap Wilson persona.

Things start to get weird as The Hand try to bring Elektra back from the dead for reasons that aren't altogether clear to me.

Regardless, it all forces Daredevil to forge an unlikely alliance with the Kingpin, as he seeks to prevent her revival and to defeat The Hand once and for all.

As you've no doubt guessed, having Bruce Banner's brain has allowed the Hulk to take his place amongst Earth's most popular heroes.

But what's this? The Leader's not happy about it?

But what can the skyscraper-headed heel do?

The not very interesting storyline about Shellhead fighting human chess pieces continues and it turns out the true villain behind it all is ruthless industrialist Obadiah Stane.

More importantly, Tony Stark's so stressed out by life's everyday frustrations that he's decided to hit the bottle again.

Definitely not so importantly, the Melter reappears.

With his new, improved melting gun!

And is promptly flattened by our hero.

The Tarantula's still a giant spider. Will o' the Wisp's still refusing to listen to reason. The Brand Corporation's still being the Brand Corporation.

Peter Parker finally grows tired of sending Debbie Whitman mad and decides to reverse the process by confirming to her that he really is Spider-Man. An act that instantly restores her sanity and causes her to promptly leave the strip, almost like the writers and editors of the book are desperate to get rid of her.

It's a very odd story in which Odin and the Norse Gods have to take refuge in Don Blake's flat when Loki and Tyr show up in Asgard, leaving it to Thor to despatch the villains and defeat the Midgard Serpent while his allies do nothing.

With its ridiculously useless gods and its overly-powerful Thor, you can't help feeling this one was knocked up in about five minutes.

Hooray! The Fantastic Four finally defeat Gladiator by making him doubt his powers.

But, before they do that, they also have to deal with a bunch of Skrulls masquerading as the X-Men.

Fortunately, Spider-Man and Captain America happen to be on hand to provide assistance.

Speaking of the X-Men, they're having space-born problems of their own, as the Brood continue to cause chaos, thanks to the eggs the space fiends have implanted in our maternity-bound mutants.

Barely five minutes after getting super-powers, the new Captain Marvel joins the Avengers.

But one man not celebrating is Hank Pym who's still in prison and trying to make sense of his life, with the aid of a psychiatrist that he doesn't realise is working for his love rival Tony Stark.