Fifty years ago today - June 1975.

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

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Once more, my past catches up with me. And that can only mean it's time for me to catch up with my past.

I do believe this is the one which features the Avengers vs the X-Men on Magneto's island hideaway.

But, of far more importance, this is the last issue to feature the all-old, all-samey team before the all-new and all-different team takes over.

I suspect it'll be quite a shock for some readers when they pick up the next issue to discover a totally different bunch of characters have appeared, from nowhere, and taken over their favourite book.

Judging by the cover, I've a feeling we're encountering a reprint of that Beast solo tale in which he goes insane and thinks he's murdered Iron Man.

From that, I can only assume there must have been Deadline Doom problems with the planned Avengers tale.

I am struck, though, by just how totally unbothered by Iron Man's demise Cap, Thor and the Vision appear to be, on that cover.

It would seem that everyone's favourite barbarian's confronting the menace of Unos the Man-Witch who, I would assume, is not to be confused with Unus the Untouchable.

That aside, I know little of this tale but am aware that, whoever he is, Unos kills someone called Lupalina, that someone called Thalkalides is turned into a toad and that someone called Stefanya is installed as monarch of somewhere called Alkarion.

The Red Skull's still causing trouble for our heroes.

And what trouble it is!

Because the villain's unveiled the shocking revelation that Sam Wilson is, in truth, the criminal Snap Wilson, given a new personality, memories and a small bird of prey, via the use of the Cosmic Cube. 

And now he's out to kill Cap!

Drama piles upon drama, as Daredevil, the Black Widow and SHIELD search for a Foggy who's been kidnapped by Hydra.

And, to achieve his aims, Daredevil must overcome Blackwing, while the Widow must get the better of El Jaguar!

I possess no knowledge, at all, as to what happens in this one but, given that it's set in the Great Refuge and guest stars the Inhumans, I shall assume Maximus the Mad is up to no good again.

Strangeness piles upon strangeness when an attempt to rescue Glenn Talbot delivers the Hulk into the clutches of the Gremlin, meaning the man-brute must endure the arrival of the world's only poetry-spouting triceratops.

Not that I'm completely useless but I've only just noticed that it's, "the Black Lama," and not, "the Black Llama." To be honest, I think I prefer the thought of a villain being called the Black Llama. It has a certain uniqueness to it.

None of this disguises the fact I have little idea what occurs in this one, other than it seems to feature MODOK and the Yellow Claw!

Amazingly, this is the first time the Scorpion's appeared in this book since the days of Steve Ditko. It does seem astonishing that it took Marvel so long to bring him back.

However, Spidey's mostly fretting over an even more startling comeback.

And that's the seeming return, from the grave, of Gwen Stacy!

Meanwhile, the Absorbing Man makes his million-and-oneth appearance in the pages of Thor.

I don't think I've ever read this tale but that won't prevent me from trying to guess just what Thor turns the copycat criminal into, this time, in order to defeat him. He's already turned him into helium and water, in the past. What dread transformation can be next for the hapless Crusher Creel?

Thus are Marvel's big-hitters accounted for.

But what of that company's biggest rival? That other venture we've grown to love and revere? Just what does a random sample of DC's comics bearing the same cover date look like?

It seems it's a month for new launches. And, so, Tales of Ghost Castle arrives to smash us between the eyeballs, with untrammelled terror!

In this 1st sensational issue, we encounter A Child's Garden of Graves, A Soul a Day Keeps the Devil Away and The Mushroom Man. All narrated by none other than Lucien himself.

And we encounter a page of Ghost Cackles, as provided by the almost inevitable Sergio Aragonés.

Who needs Tarzan? Who needs Ka-Zar? Who needs Raquel Welch in a fur-lined bikini?

Not us!

We've got Tor around to save us from any deadly beasts that nature might fling at us.

It's true, a sensational new savage arrives in our lives to clobber caveman, brain dinosaurs and thump pterosaurs. And, as any good palaeontologist would expect, it all happens exactly one million years ago!

But what actually occurs within it?

Well, it seems that, while out hunting, one day, Tor remembers a valuable lesson he once learned during childhood. I'm sure the story itself is far more thrilling than that plot description makes it sound.

Elsewhere, we find a single-page article called Dinosaurs for Reel which would appear to be about movies dedicated to the terrible lizards.

Sadly, Tor will only last for six issues before becoming extinct.

How well I recall the house ads announcing the arrival of this comic.

And how happy I would've been to have bought it.

Sadly, I never did buy this issue and I never have read it but I do know we're treated to the origin of the Avenger. Not to mention that of his support organisation Justice, Inc.

It seems he's Richard Benson and, due to the traumatic kidnapping of his wife and child, the muscles in his face have frozen, enabling him to mould his features into any shape.

Tragically, only four issues of this mag will ever be published.

You might think that, in this, the year of our Lord, 1975, the world doesn't need another comic dedicated to barbarians.

But it seems DC disagrees with you.

And with me, as well, because the latest antediluvian smiter of evil arrives to deal with the case of The Sword and the Silent Scream.

Beyond that, I can shed no light upon the contents of this one. I'm not sure if Claw even is antediluvian in nature. For all I know, he could be from the future, or another planet completely. But I do know his book will go on to last for 15 issues.

However, not everything in this world has to be new. And so it is the Spectre's series continues. This time, with a yarn in which Jim Corrigan wakes to discover his wish to be alive again has been granted.

But not until after he's been shot in the chest, on behalf of a bad guy with a rubber duck.

Or is it a real duck? I've never been too sure.

Not only that but we find Chapter 3 of The Seven Soldiers of Victory, during which the Green Arrow and Speedy find themselves in Father Time's Inn!

Joe Kubert brings us an eye-catching cover for an issue which hosts such tales as Born to Die, The Renegade Dogface! The Return and The Man Who Would Be God.