Forty years ago today - October 1984.

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

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Our Marvel heroes have never hesitated before flinging themselves into the fray. Therefore, I shall hesitate me not to do likewise.

The action's still in England, and Thor and Roger continue to have trouble with Malekith and his fairy friends.

Our adventurers manage to rescue the captive Lorelei but completely fail to prevent the villain from opening the Casket of Ancient Winters and, as far as I can make out, that somehow clears the way for Surtur and his army to invade the planet Earth!

The Norns, meanwhile, give Balder a pep talk that could transform his life.

In a fun-packed diversion, John Byrne gives us a tale which reveals that, before the foundation of the Fantastic Four, Reed Richards foiled an attempt at world conquest by the hostile alien Gormuu.

Lovers of Silver Age comics will, of course, instantly detect a homage to the monster comics Marvel was churning out before The Fantastic Four came along to set the company on the route to super-heroic triumph.

But that's not all because, trying to find a cure for Reed's recent memory losses, he and the gang visit the home of his late parents - only to discover his father had a Dr Doom style time machine in his lab!

It's a moment of note, as Barry Smith returns to the strip he briefly graced in the 1960s.

Granted, the improvement in his drawing skills, in the intervening years, means he graces it a lot more than he did back then.

Contained within, Storm meets Forge for the first time and they hang around in his apartment, discussing her history and loss of mutant powers. A loss caused by the very gun he himself created.

But because a super-hero comic can't be made up entirely of talking, I do believe that, while that's going on, Rogue is in sensational solo action against the Dire Wraiths.

And she's doing all her talking with her fists.

It's chaos on the streets of New York, as the resurrected cyborg that is Silvermane seeks to reclaim part of his stolen soul from Dagger.

And that means Cloak, Spidey and the Black Cat have to try and stop him.

And it's even more chaos on the streets of New York, as Spider-Man, SHIELD, the NYPD, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Daredevil, the Avengers and anyone else who happens to be in the vicinity, show up to try and stop the Hulk's latest mindless rampage.

However, none of them succeed - until Dr Strange tries a noticeably more intelligent tactic than the others have.

However, that solution sees the green gargoyle exiled to an alien world.

One from which he may never be able to return.

We're used to receiving retellings of Cap's origin but, this issue, we get a retelling of the Red Skull's.

And it's basically the same as the ones we've had before, just a bit more long-winded.

Regardless, in this issue, both Mother Superior and Baron Zemo discover the rapidly ageing Nazi has no regard for them. And I can't help feeling that fact will prove to be his downfall.

A villain whose name I forget but is half Eternal and half Deviant is out to absorb the power of the Eternals' Uni-Mind into himself, in order to make himself all-powerful.

Needless to say, the small coterie of Avengers who happen to be present are not going to let that happen.

More tedium ensues as Micah Synn and his gang abduct Becky Blake and Vanessa Fisk, planning to sacrifice them to their greedy jungle god.

Luckily for them, Daredevil's on the scene to save them.

But possibly not so luckily for Vanessa who is killed in the subsequent scrap.

Then again, it turns out it is lucky for her because it's not really Vanessa who's killed. It's a lookalike hired by the Kingpin to protect the real Vanessa.

Which is good news for Vanessa but not for the lookalike; Heidi DeVoto.

However, the death of Heidi leaves the Kingpin feeling miffed and, so, he agrees to team up with DD in a bid to bring down Synn.

I don't know about this. I can't help feeling Kingie could easily bring down Synn without any help at all from Daredevil.

A bizarre tale in which the one-armed Fafnir falls in love with a girl he and Conan have rescued from locals who are convinced she's a witch.

In a plot twist few would have seen coming, she really does turn out not to be a witch.

She is, however, some sort of moss creature who has to kill people in order to survive in open sunshine.

But can the revelation of this fact really be enough to get in the way of her and Fafnir's romance?

That cut-price Kraven, the Puma, has been hired by the Kingpin's lackey the Rose to kill Spider-Man.

Needless to say, Kingie's not at all pleased about a hit being arranged without his permission.

But that might be the least of the corpulent crimelord's concerns as, by the end of it all, the Rose has agreed to ally himself with the Hobgoblin!

But even all of that pales into insignificance beside the true drama of the issue.

Which is that Mary Jane reveals that she knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

And that she's always known he's Spider-Man!!!

Vibro's still causing trouble and Rhodey's still out to stop him.

And he does stop him.

He also discovers the source of the headaches which have been plaguing him lately.

And it turns out to be that his helmet isn't set up right, having been designed for Tony Stark to wear.

Sounds like a good day, all round, for him.