Forty years ago today - May 1984.

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

***

I cannot deny it. I was one of the few people in Britain who missed the Northern Lights, this weekend.

But why should a man of my quality care about that when there are even greater spectacles to be witnessed in this world?

And when nearly all of them can be found in the pages of forty year old comics?

It's a turning point in the existence of Tony Stark, as his equally homeless girlfriend dies giving birth during a blizzard, leading the one-time entrepreneur to finally resolve to get his life on track.

Rhodey, meanwhile, returns from the Secret Wars, to get on with his everyday job of super-heroing.

And Iron Man's not the only one back from that event. So is Spider-Man and, thanks to it, he's sporting a brand new costume that's not just a suit but an alien symbiote.

And that means it has all sorts of special abilities, including the power to think for itself.

But is that really as good a thing as some might assume?

Someone who knows nothing of all this is the Black Cat who, now that she's got her very own set of super-powers, goes in search of the web-spinner.

The only problem is that, thanks to the Secret Wars, he's nowhere to be found.

The X-Men are back from the Secret Wars - and find themselves deposited in Japan where a giant reptile's happily fulfilling stereotypes about the behaviour of vacationing monsters in Japan, and blundering around, flattening cities.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, a man called Senator Kelly is pushing for the creation of a Mutant Control Act.

Tedious Tarzan knock-off Micah Synn is back and being recruited by the Kingpin to serve his sinister purposes.

However, the English jungle lord annoys the hoodlum by not being nice enough to women, and thus it is that Kingy decides to let Daredevil give him a good beating.

While a pregnant Invisible Woman battles for her life, in hospital, Alicia tells the She-Hulk about the time Sue had to single-handedly battle a villain called Karisma who was controlling the Thing and trying to get him to kill the ocularly frustrating heroine.

The X-Men aren't the only ones having to deal with a giant, city-wrecking reptile, this month because Thor's, yet again, facing the seemingly invulnerable menace of Fafnir.

And his sole ally is the elderly viking Eilif whose only ambition is to die in battle.

The Hulk's also back from the Secret Wars.

But it seems he got the fuzzy end of the lollipop, as he's returned with a broken leg and a serious anger-management problem.

Then again, he has plenty to be angry about, thanks to returning villain the Boomerang having abducted his girlfriend.

And it gets worse because, once that crisis is dealt with, Banner discovers former crimelord Max Hammer's been using the scientist's brand-new gamma cure to heal the sick.

That might have been good news but it turns out the cure possesses an alarming tendency to turn its recipients into raging monsters!

The Avengers too are freshly back from the Secret Wars.

However, they're immediately confronted with the problem that they've got too many members.

Fortunately, a solution's quickly concocted which involves splitting the team into two and sending one half off to live on the East Coast while the rest remain in New York.

The sharp-eyed observer will have guessed that, this month, Conan finds himself up against a female werewolf.

However, the barbarian is not one of those sharp-eyed observers and thinks she's a sweet, innocent girl who lots of rough men keep wanting to kill for no good reason.

Naturally, this leads him to want to protect her.

Naturally, this puts everyone, including himself, in deadly peril.

All I remember about this one is that Baron Zemo, the Red Skull and Mother Superior are in it.

Also, by some means I don't recall, Nomad gets himself bashed about a bit.