Forty years ago today - March 1983.

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

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Snow! Snow! Wherever I look, there's nothing but snow!

Which is kind of worrying, as I'm looking at my living room.

There's only one thing I can do.

And that's to take refuge in the past, that magical land where the sun always shone and there was always something in a brand-new comic to make us feel warm inside.

What's this? Captain America? Fighting Steve Rogers? In a restaurant? In front of his/their girlfriend?

How can such a thing be possible?

Because one of them's a phony. That's how.

Cupid, put down that bow because someone called Primus has decided to wreck Cap's love life by impersonating him and being a rubbish boyfriend.

Can the foul fiend succeed?

And is he all that fiendish, anyway?

It's the clash that had to happen, as Iron Man meets Machine Man!

And Machine Man wins, even though he's not even looking for a fight and only showed up at Tony Stark's factory in a bid to make friends with Shellhead.

Both the fight and the defeat are down to the fact our hero's decided to hit the bottle again and is in no fit state to be either fighting or befriending.

It seems like just another day for Spider-Man when he takes on a gang of small-time crooks. 

But little does he suspect the incident will lead to a discovery beneath the streets of New York.

One that will see an all-new, all-bothersome version of the Green Goblin come into being.

And this one's orange!

Yes! In this very issue, the menace the world knows as the Orange Goblin is born!

After the recent battle on Earth, between the Norse Gods and a bunch of giants, one of the giants has been left behind. So, he goes off in search of Thor, in order to ask the thunder god to return him to Asgard.

However, the giant's been injured and the delirium from his wounds causes him to lash out at his planned saviour.

Fortunately, the medical skills of Don Blake are enough to fix the situation and, as you'd hope, everyone ends up as friends.

Except for Sif who's definitely not feeling like a friend of Midgard and is refusing to change her ways in order to fit in.

It's bad news for Daredevil Spider-Man, as his law-breaking girlfriend Elektra the Black Cat is killed by his arch-enemy Bullseye Dr Octopus!

Or is she? It seems our hero has got her to hospital just in the nick of time.

So, at least he's not going to have to rely on The Hand to bring her back.

Speaking of people dying...

Just when you thought life couldn't get any more complicated for the X-Men, their professor's possessed by a Brood embryo and sets out to kill his students.

Rather inconveniently, this means he suffers what must be his 37th death, so far.

But help is at hand, as Lilandra and her space-friends manage to knock together a cloned body and then transplant his mind into it, meaning he's not only alive again but can walk, as well!

Blimey! Talk about a result!

Conan finds himself up against the dragon he was supposed to be sacrificed to, last issue.

However, I have no doubts the barbarian will win out in the end.

Hold on a second! It's a comic book cover that's drawn on its side!

Does this mean this issue's interior's also presented on its side in the style of Marvel UK's old Titans comic?

I can't remember.

But I do recall that the first family of super-heroing are still in the Negative Zone.

And that Alicia's still back home and still being menaced by Annihilus.

It's good news, at last, for Hank Pym as, after agreeing to join Egghead and his New Masters of Evil, the cybernetic scientist only goes ahead and defeats them all, singlehanded, thanks to his superior intellect.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Avengers are hanging around in their luxury mansion, being a proper bunch of sad sacks.

If I remember right, that reporter friend of Daredevil is about to get himself dangerously indebted to the Kingpin, when he sets out to raise the financing for a house.

Fortunately, the man without fear is on hand to make him see sense.

Still in his Hulk form, Bruce Banner sets out to rescue Bereet and Rick Jones from the Leader's space-happy lair but, lacking the Hulk's brainlessness proves an insuperable handicap against such a foe and, confronted by massive odds, Bruce can only encounter feeble defeat.