The Marvel Lucky Bag - April 1973.

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

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If there's anything you don't want in your food, it's people.

And that made April 1973 bad news for all lovers of fine cuisine. After all, it was the month which saw the release of Charlton Heston's classic slab of dystopian sci-fi Soylent Green.

But it wasn't alone. That April also saw the unleashing of And Now the Screaming Starts! an Amicus film about a killer hand going on the rampage.

The month also saw the release of Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies, a film about which I know nothing other than that it had nothing to do with the later Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, even though, from the titles alone, you feel like they should be part of the same series.

Then again, I feel like And Now the Screaming Starts and Scream and Scream Again should be part of the same series but they also have nothing in common, apart from both being produced by Amicus.

So awesome is the power of Ka-Zar that Marvel has him up against a bit-part player from Zodiac, one of the company's less impressive evil organisations.

Still, the tale does feature a fight on a jump jet and leads to the reintroduction of Kraven's giant pet space monster Gog.

Unless I miss my ever-loving guess, this is the one in which Dr Doom hires Luke Cage to track down some thieves but then refuses to stump up the money, which seems a very un-Doom-like thing to do.

I do believe this is the first Ghost Rider tale I ever read. Sadly, all I recall of it is there's a villain called Snake-Dance and an attempt to sacrifice Roxanne Simpson.

Marvel's determined to shine as much attention as possible upon its latest super-heroine. And, so she gets to team up with Spider-Man himself, as they tackle the ultra-feminist cyborg threat the world knows as Man-Killer.

Speaking of new Marvel heroines, the third issue of Shanna's mag sees her doing something or other but I'm not sure what.

Whatever it is, it seems to involve wrestling with bulls.

In a stunning twist to the norm, Namor decides to invade the surface world. Or, at least, New York but then changes his mind and declares yet another truce.

This time, it's all done in order to rescue Tamara from the clutches of the United Nations which is holding her captive.

Heads up, sword and sorcery fans, because Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway and Gil Kane give us their adaptation of Robert E Howard's The Valley of the Worm.

Is it as good as the company's Conan book?

I can't say, as I've read neither the adaptation nor the original tale.

Luke Cage isn't the only one having an encounter with an out-of-character Dr Doom, this month. So is Adam Warlock.

Admittedly, in his case, there's a reason Doomie's acting strangely. And that's because he's the Counter-Earth version of the scientist. Which means he's a good guy. As opposed to Reed Richards who's a bad guy.