Forty years ago today - May 1985.

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

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The beckoning fingers of The Past signal for me to step forward and see just what I find there.

Drama piles upon drama when Conan and Fafnir must combat a god of death that goes by the handle of Kx'Ulthuum. A character whose name was clearly born when writer Michael Fleisher's cat tripped over and fell on his keyboard.

As always - and possibly thanks to a magic sword - our barbarian is triumphant.

However, the ever-hapless Fafnir bites the bullet!

Not literally, of course. Bullets haven't been invented yet.

I do, of course, mean he dies.

I feel like this is the third time he's done that.

Conan must be wondering how come he always comes back and Bêlit never does.

It's serious trouble for the X-Men in an issue that is, for some reason, double-sized.

In it, we see Thunderbird's brother try to avenge the death of his sibling, by abducting Banshee and forcing the gang to invade NORAD.

Needless to say, the X-Men survive that bid and Thunderbird's brother learns the error of his ways.

As does Firestar who's also involved. Apparently, this is her first-ever appearance in a Marvel comic.

Behold an odd little story in which the Jester busts out of prison, purely so he can show off his acting skills in front of a theatre audience.

Upon realising the fiend is actually good at acting - and not the irredeemable ham everyone always assumed - Hornhead decides to let him get on with it.

Can it be?

Can Marvel's two most patriotic captains be at each other's throats?

No. It can't be.

In fact, Modred the Mystic has stolen the UK hero's costume, in order that he can do something or other. 

Whatever that something or other is, I can't help feeling the combined power of the two crime-smashers will prove too much for him.

I struggle to recall details of this one but I do know Xeron and Captain Cybor's latest pursuit of Klaatu proves to be as disastrous as their previous one, leaving the Hulk and Puffball Collective back where they started from.

From what I can remember, Thor goes off in search of the presumed-dead Odin but quickly gets squished by an avalanche.

Fortunately, for him, some old bloke pulls him out from under it all and nurses him back to health.

As they get to know each other, our hero starts to suspect that man may be Odin in disguise.

But, no, unknown to the thunder god, he's actually, Odin's dad!

I think.

If not, he's someone else.

Peter Parker meets a woman on a train. Not long afterwards, she's killed by a hit-and-run driver and needs a replacement kidney from her brother.

So, Spidey sets out to find him but, along the way, accidentally bumps into Killer Shrike who thinks the hero's come looking for him and decides to get his retaliation in first.

Life's never simple for the web-faced wonder. This time, he discovers an old man's going to be kicked out of a nursing home because he's officially dead and, while travelling around town, trying to get New York's bureaucrats to sort out the problem, he keeps being attacked by a wannabe super-doer who's decided it'd be fun to have a series of scraps with the wall-crawler.

Sometimes it seems like Rhodey can't get a break. He goes to see Hank Pym about his headaches and is promptly attacked by a crook who causes all three of them to fall into another dimension. One that Rhodey has to get them all back out of!

Also notable, is that this issue sees the first appearance of Scourge when he kills a character who seemed like he was going to be the main villain of the piece.

Remember that early story in which Dr Doom tried to kill the Fantastic Four by launching their HQ into space - with them inside it?

Well, now he's decided the only reason that plan failed was because the Sub-Mariner was there and messed it all up for him. Therefore, he might as well try it again. But, this time, without Subby's help!

Then again, is it really Doom?

Or is the truth even more senses-shattering than even that?

Captain Marvel, having been sent on a wild goose chase by the Vision, lands on one of Thanos' abandoned bases, deep in the depths of deepest space.

But is it really abandoned?

And just how far can she trust the other people who've also found their way there?