January 19th 1974 - Marvel UK, 50 years ago this week.

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

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Would you like to teach the world to sing?

In perfect harmony?

And grow apple trees and honey bees?

And snow-white turtle doves?

So would I!

However, that honour was to be denied us, this week in 1974 because, while the New Seekers of Coca-Cola advert fame were at Number One on the UK singles chart, it wasn't with that song. Instead, it was with the track that they and everyone else knew as You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me.

Sadly, I can shed no light upon whether the recipient of that song ever did find another fool like them.

Over on the accompanying LP chart, Slade were similarly triumphant, climbing nine places to grab the Number One spot, with their latest platter that battered, the waxing we can only call Sladest.

It's time to blow up your balloons and hang out your bunting because a historic moment is upon us!

It's true! This was the first issue of SMCW I owned that possessed a glossy cover!

And what a cover it is, as Doc Ock doesn't manage to defeat just one Spider-Man, with his titanic tentacles. He's somehow defeating two of them at the same time!

Inside the book, our hero's out to find the cephalopodic crimelord, following the damage done to both Aunt May's health and her house. But, when he locates him, the wallcrawler might wish he hadn't because the villain uses a stolen super-weapon to make him lose his memory.

Thor and the Absorbing Man, meanwhile, are all set to resume the battle they've been waging for weeks. But, this time, in the halls of Asgard.

And it looks like it's going to make the morning papers, as reporter Harris Hobbs has blackmailed the thunder god into transporting him to the mystic realm in return for silence about his secret identity.

But is it even going to be Thor who defeats the copycat villain?

Or is it going to be Odin, who's currently engaging him in combat?

And can even the boss of the gods defeat a foe who can perfectly mimic his power and throw it right back at him?

But, hold on. We're not done with excitement yet. I do believe the inside back cover of each of this week's comics features a blank page upon which we may draw our design for a hero or heel of our creation. It's all part of an art competition, the first prize for which is a colour television.

For more information about that competition and the vital role I played in it, you can click this link here.

The quarrelsome quartet find themselves fighting a foe who's too strong to stop, as the Enchantress uses the machine, with which Mr Zemo created Wonder Man, to turn one of Mr Zemo's minions into Power Man.

As if that weren't bad enough, the City Council's so unimpressed by the team's recent performance level that it orders them to disband!

But what's Dr Strange up to in this issue?

If he's any sense he's probably hiding from Power Man. However, he's probably not. He's probably too busy trying to stop some supernatural menace or other.

And just look at that. This is the first glossy-covered issue of MWOM I ever owned.

Sadly, its frontage can't be claimed to be as impressive as the Spider-Man one, what with it being noticeably less well-drawn, less well-conceived and displaying some truly egregious colouring decisions.

Fortunately, inside the book, things are far more impressive, as Stan Lee and Herb Trimpe give us a tale in which the Hulk's trapped inside a load of rubber while the Leader moves his Giant Humanoid into Thunderbolt Ross's missile base in a plucky bid to launch a nuclear holocaust.

Meanwhile, in their tale, the Fantastic Four tell the Avengers to butt out while they tackle the Mole Man who's up to his old game of kidnapping large chunks of cities.

However, Sue's injured in the chaos - and only one man can save her.

That man is her own father who's not only a world-class surgeon but, also, an escaped convict. Will he do the right thing and sacrifice his freedom to save her?