Forty years ago today - June 1984.

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

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The British election campaign's hotting up.

But there are even greater conflicts going on in this world.

And they're occurring in the comics below!

I'm struggling to remember just what transpires in this one but I do believe it involves a brand new villain called the Rose who's responsible for fixing American football games via the bribing or blackmailing of a quarterback.

Clearly, only your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man has the chops to deal with that sort of thing.

Also, Robbie Robertson's acting a bit grumpy.

Speaking of Spider-Man, he and his girlfriend find themselves confronting a Blob on the rampage through the streets of New York, thanks to the villain's grief over the death of his friend Unus the Untouchable.

I seem to recall the Black Cat's power of bad luck being noticeably more useful against their opponent than Spidey's more physical powers are.

It's one of those stories that questions whether it's Dr Octopus who controls his arms or whether they control him, when Reed Richards must enlist the villain's aid in the emergency treatment of Sue who's on her radiation-inflicted death bed.

He manages to get Ock to agree to help - but the cephalopodic scientist's mechanical limbs aren't necessarily as accommodating.

What's this? Hydra kidnap the Black Widow, in order to lure the man without fear into a deadly trap?

Needless to say, he walks straight into that deadly trap.

Also needless to say, his super-senses get him - and her - straight out of that deadly trap.

We take a mighty diversion, as the now-pacifist Balder is sent to deliver a message to Loki, on behalf of Odin.

Loki, however, has allied himself with the malevolent Malekith and doesn't want to hear about it.

Inevitably, it all leads to a fight.

One in which, Balder redefines the word "pacifist" by chopping off Loki's head.

The Avengers have to thwart the Dire Wraiths who've infiltrated the staff at the Kennedy Space Centre for, doubtless, nefarious purposes.

Tragically, I can remember nothing beyond that.

I am, however, confident the world's mightiest super-team triumph.

Conan bumps into yet another damsel in distress and rescues her - only for it to turn out she's evil and drugs the men she encounters, turning them into her helpless slaves until she gets bored with them and transforms them into statues.

Can our hero regain his senses before he too becomes part of the decor?

Things start to get weird when Rogue starts to think she's Carol Danvers and sets out to rescue one of Carol's old boyfriends from the clutches of SHIELD.

This necessitates her having to launch a single-handed assault on the organisation's helicarrier.

One that succeeds.

This, though, leads to Nick Fury declaring war on the X-Woman.

With Bruce Banner going increasingly out of control, Rom steps in to try and sort out the mess. He manages to de-radiate the victims of Bruce's latest device but finds that even he can't de-radiate the Hulk enough to cure him.

I remember little of this one but do know the Red Skull's daughter and Baron Zemo have turned Cap's old friend Dave Cox into a ruthless killing machine intent upon slaughtering the hero and his sidekick Nomad.

Can the star-spangled Avenger talk some sense into the man?

Or is it too late for that?

Now there's trouble. The new, robotic Taurus is out to kill the original Taurus - and only Iron Man can stop him!

The problem is Shellhead's going to have to do it without his repulsor rays because the gauntlets he acquired in the Secret War have been messing up the functioning of the rest of his armour and he's had to ditch them!