May 17th, 1975 - 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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As we all know, Country legend Tammy Wynette achieved musical greatness in 1991 when she sang on the KLF's Justified & Ancient but she achieved immortality in a different way, this week in 1975, when her disc Stand by Your Man hit the pinnacle of the UK singles chart. It is genuinely shocking to realise that only sixteen years separate those two singles. Somehow, it feels like the vastness of eternity must lie between them.

No change, however, was to be sighted atop the UK album chart, with the Bay City Rollers retaining the supremacy they'd already seized, with their latest offering Once Upon a Star.

Spider-Man demonstrates why you should avoid him like the plague if your name rhymes with, "Stacy."

Elsewhere, Tony Stark's also in danger of losing a friend, thanks to the Mandarin having abducted the hapless Happy Hogan.

Rapid action is clearly required and, so, Stark wastes no time at all in taking time out to invent, build and test a new suit of armour before setting off to deal with the fiendish fiend. 

Speaking of fiendish fiends, Mangog's happily exercising his right to roam, and scattering the best warriors Asgard can muster, as he closes in on the fabled realm, with just one thing on his mind.

Unsheathing the gigantic Odinsword!

The Hulk's socking it to the American legal system, although I think he's still, at this point, resisting arrest at the airport and battling the finest of New York's heroes.

But be impressed by Daredevil. Not only is he in New York, fighting the Hulk, he's also trapped in the Latverian embassy, having, in his own strip, been captured by Dr Doom who's swapped bodies with him, in order to launch a sneak attack on the Fantastic Four.

And such is the genius of the villain that he doesn't even notice his brand new body is blind.

However, with the FF appearing in both the Hulk and Daredevil stories, their own strip is absent from this issue.

This is the second of only two issues of The Super-Heroes I ever owned.

I got it from W H Smiths and remember being highly taken by John Buscema's pencils in a tale that sees Mephisto decide to give super-powers to the ghost of the Flying Dutchman, in order that he can defeat the Silver Surfer.

When it comes to the X-Men, Professor X reads a news story about the Sub-Mariner and wonders if he might be a mutant. Which, I suppose he is.

Magneto also wonders the same thing and, so, the race is on to get Subby to sign up with either the X-Men of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. 

Clearly, no one's told them the Avenging Son is not what anyone would describe as a team player - but I'm sure they're about to find that out for themselves.

Unless I'm very much mistaken, Shang-Chi's about to have yet more trouble with the phansigars who are out to rob a corner shop.

Next, Yellowjacket's kidnapped the Wasp and taken her to his secret HQ in a tree. It's there that she gets to know him better before returning to the Avengers' HQ to let the rest of the gang know she's about to marry the vespidan villain.

But, as that cover makes clear, Dr Sanders is about to recruit the aid of the Sub-Mariner, in his quest to get to the bottom of what's going on with the Undying Ones and their influence over his friend Kenneth Ward.

I think this issue may be the last the world has ever seen of Apeslayer but I like to think he's still out there, somewhere, battling those mendacious monkeys to the bitter end.

Regardless, in this sensational issue, our man escapes the clutches of the Warlord and flees, with his mates, to what's left of Yankee Stadium.

There, they face a giant crab and the bionic might of the Warlord himself.

And, speaking of might, Adam Warlock's still on the High Evolutionary's asteroid and still battling to prevent the Man-Beast from wrecking Counter-Earth. For this purpose, the Evolutionary sticks a mysterious gem on his forehead. One that I'm sure will not go on to cause any problems at all in the future.

And then we get Good Lord! the short in which a bunch of astronauts from Earth inadvertently kill God, having mistaken him for an attacking monster!

I do detect one of the few issues of this mag that I actually owned.

Inside it, someone called Mr Lo is blundering around London on behalf of someone called Dr Sun.

But Drac has more to worry about than even that because, by the story's end, he's been killed by Blade!

And there's serious trouble ahead for Jack Russell because lunatic vigilante the Hangman is on the loose and it can only be a question of time before he decides it's a good idea to hang the nearest werewolf!

And finally, this issue, someone called Papa Jambo is training Jericho Drumm to become the man the world will know as Brother Voodoo!

It's one of my favourite Barry Smith Conan tales, as he and Roy Thomas show us their adaptation of Rogues in the House. A title so often mistyped as Rouges in the House.

As we all know, this sees Conan team up with a thief and a priest in an attempt to take down one of those pesky man-apes you can't move for in the Hyborean Age.

Elsewhere, King Kull's caught up in the Night of the Red Slayer!

And then we encounter a short called The Blood of the Dragon!

I know little of it but am aware that it features cameo appearances by both Gil Kane and Roy Thomas.