The Marvel Lucky Bag - March 1973.

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

***

It's time for us to face up to the most important question of them all.

If you walked into a cinema in March 1973, which of the following films would you opt to see? Godzilla vs Megalon, Lost Horizon, Godspell, The Vault of Horror or The Long Goodbye? 

That's the choice of new releases you were faced with, that month.

Personally, I'd go for The Vault of Horror because it has the word "Horror" in its title and Tom Baker's in it. And, as we all know, it's impossible for any film to be bad if Tom Baker's in it.

Bottom of my selections would have to be Lost Horizon, even if it did teach me the world is a circle without a beginning and nobody knows where it ends. However, I have a suspicion that it, technically, starts and ends in Greenwich, thus invalidating the movie's entire thesis.

Move over, Conan, because a brand new battler of occult forces is in town, with the arrival of Thongor!

Who is he? What is he? Why is he?

Frankly, I don't know. As a kid, I always assumed he was something to do with the Gor novels but, in retrospect, I suspect he isn't.

Thus, I must confess I don't have a clue what happens in this month's main tale but I do know there's also a back-up strip that stars someone called Gundar, thanks to a Lee/Ditko masterpiece reprinted from the issue of Tales of Suspense that first launched Iron Man onto the world.

Frankenstein gets sexy when the monster insists his creator also knocks together a mate for him.

Knowing the track record of such projects, I suspect it won't end happily for anyone involved.

What's this? The Beast has a new solo series?

And has turned brown?

No. It's just the launch of yet another Marvel horror reprint title, as Beware hits a shop near you.

Four yarns of dread greet us.

In the first, an English hunter journeys to Austria, with the intention of hunting werewolves - but the hunt doesn't turn out as expected.

In the second, a factory worker resents his employment conditions, not realising they're like that because he's actually a robot.

In the third, a witch is fearful of being pursued by a witch-hunter, but her worries prove groundless, due to him also being a witch.

And, in the final tale, a rich man builds a viewing device so powerful it can even show death itself approaching him!

Now it's bad news for everybody's favourite Kree rebel, as the Super-Skrull and Skragg attack Mar-Vell by adopting the forms of his deadliest enemies.

Thor tangles with Subby when the Avenging Son tries to rescue Tamara from the clutches of the United Nations.

However, each combatant quickly comes to the conclusion that he can't defeat his foe in his foe's natural element.

That's a very atypical cover for Where Monsters Dwell.

What isn't atypical is that it's filled with reprints.

In the first, an alien becomes so upset, upon discovering humanity still wages war, that he declares war upon humanity.

In the second, the statue of a Dutch boy uses its finger to plug a hole in a dike.

And in the third, an inventor's boss steals his time machine but ends up in prehistoric times where the electricity to power the machine is nowhere to be found.

Interestingly, the second tale's drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger. Up until now, I'd been totally unaware the Superman-family stalwart had ever worked for Marvel.