The Marvel Lucky Bag - February 1986.

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

***

Movies?

I know where to find them.

In the paragraph below.

One which lists the more famous ones released in February 1986.

And those movies are F/X, Hannah and Her Sisters, 9½ Weeks, The Hitcher, House and Pretty in Pink.

I think F/X, 9½ Weeks and House are the only ones of those that I've seen and I think House was the one I enjoyed the most. That is, therefore, the official Steve Does Comics Movie of the Month.

But can it be?

After 75 issues, has Rom reached the end of his space road?

He truly has because this is his very last issue and, to be fair, as his mag was launched purely to promote a toy, the lad's done well for himself.

In fact, he's done exceptionally well, as I can sensationally reveal that this is the issue in which he regains his humanity!

Mike Kaluta gives us a typically stylish cover when Starstruck hits its sixth and final instalment. Doing so with a tale called Kiss Daddy Goodnight.

And I haven't a clue what it's about.

But you know what I've been demanding?

If that cover's to be believed, I've been demanding the dramatic return of the original X-Men!

Granted, I have no recall of ever demanding such a thing, having always found them almost as uncompelling as Nick Fury's Agents of SHIELD. However, the gang discovers Jean's still alive, and this calls for a reunion that leads them to re-brand themselves as, "X-Factor!"

That's a very striking cover from Al Milgrom but didn't an issue of Moon Knight once have a cover very like it?

I don't know much of what goes on in this one but I do know the gang's fangy foe is none other than Jack Russell himself who it's hard to see giving an offshoot of the mighty Avengers much trouble.

Rather more menacingly, however, it would seem that Ultron's also involved...

Here's a thing you don't see every day; Benjamin J Grimm in wrestling action with Vance Astro.

Mostly, you don't see it because one of them lives on Earth and the other lives in space, and one lives in the present and the other in the future.

I suspect such minor obstacles will not be enough to get in the way of a tale called Home.

Secret Wars II rumbles on, as, frustrated by his experiences on our world, the Beyonder consults the Molecule Man.

Somehow, this leads to the all-powerful alien losing his temper and deciding to destroy the multiverse!

But can the Molecule's Man's unique skill-set thwart that drastic plan?

No sooner does Rom leave our lives than a new mag based on toys hits our spinner racks.

I know little of this but can reveal it's written and drawn by Herb Trimpe and, after crash-landing on the planet Skalorr, the crew of a spaceship team up with a band of nice robots to fight a band of nasty robots.

Sadly, despite providing us with all the robot-on-robot violence we could ask for, this appears to be the only issue ever published.

Longshot's mini-series draws to a double-length conclusion when its protagonist, Dr Strange and Quark discover that someone called Rita's been turned into a mere husk, by Mojo who then sets up a church on Earth and begins to brainwash its followers.

Forty years ago today - February 1986.

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

***

February. The month named after...

...

...

...whatever it is it's named after.

But will there be equal uncertainty within the pages that contain our favourite Marvel scrappers?

It's every thunder god's worst nightmare.

He's been turned into a frog!

By Loki!

Needless to say, he can't wait to get back to Asgard and sort out that pesky god of evil.

But, before he can do that, there's other matters to attend to.

Like helping a bunch of New York's finest frogs in their battle against evil rats, in some sort of remake of Watership Down that has everything in it but rabbits.

It's an odd one in which the FF encounter the Invincible Man and proceed to vince him but it turns out he's not the Super-Skrull, as any reasonable person would have assumed. He's some random bloke who wants to get into the Latverian embassy to claim revenge upon Dr Doom for stealing one of his inventions.

Or is he?

Is he, instead, Dr Doom who's tricked the team into helping him get back into that embassy, after discovering he can't access it now that his consciousness is trapped inside the body of a totally random bloke dressed as the Invincible Man?

For reasons I'm struggling to remember, Rachel Summers decides to kill the Beyonder, using the Phoenix powers she inherited from her mother.

But is even the power of the Phoenix enough to stop him?

And will she learn a valuable lesson, along the way?

But, hold on. Have I spotted a plot hole here? If Jean Grey was never the Phoenix - as recently revealed - how come her daughter's inherited those powers from her?

It looks like Rachel's going to have to wait her turn if she wants to kill the Beyonder - because the Puma's decided he wants to do it.

But, given that the Beyonder's all-powerful and all-knowing, how can the furry feline fury possibly do that?

As far as I can make out, the logic is the Beyonder's decided to fulfil the destiny of everyone he encounters and the Puma's been created to kill him. That means that, in order for the Beyonder to fulfil his stated mission, he has to let the Puma kill him.

Needless to say, the ever-interfering Spider-Man's got his doubts about it all.

Thanks to the actions of Doc Samson, the Hulk's on the rampage and has no mind that could stop him.

Fortunately, there's a whole bunch of Marvel's mightiest heroes on hand to do that for him.

Except they fail miserably and Samson, feeling guilty about his part in it all, wants to tackle the brute, single-handedly.

Meanwhile, the She-Hulk must decide whether to let doctors perform a procedure that might bring Bruce Banner out of a coma but may also kill him!

Things look bleak on the Squadron Supreme's homeworld where the team have taken over the planet and are ruling like brutish tyrants.

Due to this, Nighthawk travels to our dimension, in a bid to get the Avengers to help him overthrow them.

But will they be interested?

And will Cap and he be able to thwart the antics of a trio of Silver Age DC style super-villains who've fled to this world, seeking to escape the Squadron Supreme's thuggish rule?

Yet another size-changing character is added to Marvel's universe when a mystery woman steals Hank Pym's Yellowjacket costume and formula and, in doing so, attracts the wrath of the winsome Wasp.

In a shocking twist, Karen Page's desperation for a fix leads her to tell a crook the true identity of Daredevil.

Needless to say, it's not long before that information's sold to the Kingpin and the rotundly rapacious rascal reckons he can recklessly wreck the reputation of Matt Murdock.

Unfortunately for him, by the issue's end, the lawyer's realised just who's behind his sudden run of epic misfortune, and is on the lookout for revenge.

I'm not familiar with this one but it seems that, in a place called Becharadur, Conan finds himself being hailed as a saviour - but that's when the cheeky demon Imhotep turns up.

And I have no doubt the battling barbarian will, indeed, turn out to be a saviour.

As mentioned previously in this post: the Puma, the Beyonder, Spider-Man, destiny, furry feline fury, all-powerful, etc, etc.

Little does our hero suspect that Beth Cabe and Madame Masque have swapped bodies, meaning the woman who looks like Beth is out to kill him and the woman who looks like Masque is out to save him.

But before that, he must invade a computer, at microscopic size, in order to nobble it and regain the money Obadiah Stane stole from him.

February 7th, 1976 - 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. 

***

It was time to get your skates on, if you were living on the planet Earth, fifty years ago, this week. Because that was when the Innsbruck Winter Olympics got underway. 

Less pleasingly, on the same day, an earthquake hit Guatemala and Honduras with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX, leaving 23,000 dead and 76,000 injured.

Meanwhile in Blighty, the Queen opened the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.

But what of the music scene?

ABBA were still top of the pops on the UK singles chart, thanks to Mamma Mia, while The Best of Slim Whitman reached the summit of the corresponding LP rankings.

Spider-Man's still trying to sort out Flash Thompson's problems - with the aid of Dr Strange - after Vietnamese monks have mistakenly blamed him for the death of their high priest, during his military service.

Iron Man's still up against the Gladiator and the Maggia.

And Thor's wrapping up his battle with Crypto-Man. A feat that I believe is achieved with the aid of an act of self-sacrifice by its creator.

Holy crap!

Conan's teaming up with the Avengers! 

Then again, I suspect he's not. 

Despite the impression created by that cover, I suspect he may still, after all these weeks, be battling against those seven wizards who keep giving him so much bother.

As for the Avengers, I do believe they're trying to assist Red Wolf in his bid to prevent ruthless business tycoon Cornelius Van Lunt from taking over his people's land.

And Iron Fist's confronting the Menace of the Monstroid, a robot in need of a good punching.

Things get ever more complex, as Bruce Banner uses the technology of the extinct Bird-People to cure Betty of her tendency to turn into the Harpy, while trying not to get mashed by the Bi-Beast and having to fend off the attack of MODOK.

There's only one way out of this.

A plunge from a great height!

Speaking of that. What's this? Matt Murdock has died in a plane crash?

Well, that's what Foggy and Karen think but I suspect they may be wrong.

Especially as Daredevil's clearly still alive and well.

And the Fantastic Four and Wyatt Wingfoot's tribe manage to destroy the threat that is Tomazooma the living totem pole!

Things progress in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes when Caesar gets sold to the governor's aide but soon starts to arouse suspicions...

As for Ka-Zar, in his strip, he pursues the fleeing Gemini, even when the villain takes off in a jump jet but, upon landing, discovers his foe's been working for the Plunderer who's teamed up with none other than the gigantic Gog!

Meanwhile, the Black Panther and his forces invade the home village of Erik Killmonger.

Here's a thing.

A Dracula tale called Singleton Must Die!

That seems a bit harsh. I mean, she's no John Noakes but she's doing her best.

Elsewhere, Jack Russell's still being bothered by Dr Glitternight.

But he's got a lot more than that on his plate because, at the tale's climax, his sister Lissa turns into a werewolf demon hybrid monster thing!

And I do believe the Man-Thing's up against someone called Thog.

I dread to think what the vicar's reaction was when he was told that's what he had to christen him.

As we can tell from that cover, the Banshee makes his ear-splitting debut in this week's X-Men.

And if that's not enough to worry about, the team also have to deal with the Mimic and the Ogre!

In the Sub-Mariner's strip, Warlord Krang's flooded New York and managed to get himself and Lady Dorma captured by the US military.

Nick Fury and SHIELD are up to something that's beyond my knowledge.

And, then, Captain America and Fury must thwart a robot created by Them. An organisation otherwise known as AIM.

Captain Marvel, meanwhile, must tackle the Psyche-Magnitron when he bids to rescue Carol Danvers from the clutches of Yon-Rogg!

Somewhat bizarrely, this week, the Thing gets so upset that the Man-Thing has stolen his name that he heads off to the swamps to teach it a lesson.

Seriously.

And, somehow, this brings him into conflict with the Molecule Man.

Then, we get the Black Knight in sensational solo action, as Dane Whitman does something or other in his castle.

And, finally, Giant-Man and the Wasp must take on the massive Colossus who's been terrorising an African village.

I'm going to predict, right now, that Colossus turns out to be a communist robot.

The Marvel Lucky Bag - February 1976.

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

***

Movies. You can't beat them!

So, that in mind, what were we failing to defeat in our local cinemas in February 1976?

I can sensationally announce it was the month that gave us such classics as Taxi Driver.

And, erm, nothing else.

Granted there were other films released, that month but, as they included Next Stop, Greenwich Village, Hot Potato, Gable and Lombard, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Griffin and Phoenix, none of which I've ever even heard of, I'm going to go out on a limb and declare it wasn't the best month for any soul hoping to encounter motion picture greatness.

Then again, maybe I'm the only one who doesn't remember them.

Maybe everyone else does?

Is this the end for the golden boy of comics?

It would seem not, as his book will continue for another four issues after this one.

But it is his death.

And one that sees the whole Magus thing get wrapped up, with metaphysical somesuch and a visit from the In-Betweener.

In the same month that Hellcat makes her debut in The Avengers, the woman whose costume she's pilfered just happens to get her own series, and I find it hard to believe that's coincidence.

Tragically, however, I can shed no light upon what actually occurs in this, "Pulse-pounding premiere."

Look out, demons of this world because America's attempt to do Worzel Gummidge gets a one-off adventure that I believe was originally intended to appear in his very own comic! A comic that never actually appeared.

I know little of what transpires in this one but I do know it's called Death Waters of the River Styx which does feel a bit like tautology.

I don't know what they've put in Chris Claremont's coffee, this month but, just as in the X-Men's mag, an airport finds itself getting wrecked by those with super-powers.

This time, it's Heathrow in the firing line when Danny and Misty show up and immediately get into a scrap with the Ravager.

But who is the mystery villain, why does he have to wear all that armour and will Misty's bionic arm ever recover from the encounter?

Dr Strange proves that anything Adam Warlock can do, he can do better, by managing to look even more dead on his front cover than Adam does.

As for how this situation arose, it seems our hero confronts the Ancient One and the masked Dr Strange while Earth, in the grip of madness, gets destroyed!

Blimey.

A hero like no other makes his size-shattering debut!

Well. All right. He's just like a bunch of other heroes. Mostly ones that are secret identities of Hank Pym. But, regardless, scientist Bill Foster lands himself work in a research team for Stark Industries.

But, soon, in his super-doer guise, he must investigate a series of radium robberies - and encounter the untrammelled terror of Atom-Smasher!

Can it be?

Can all our favourite Marvel monsters have teamed up to fight the forces of evil?

I'm struggling to tell you, as I don't think I've ever read it but I do know this epic is titled There's a Mountain on Sunset Boulevard!

Marvel's most extra-terrestrial pack of powerhouses are back - and in a series of their very own.

But it initially looks like they're not going to be getting much action. Following the defeat of the Badoon, all they want to do is return to everyday life.

However, they soon discover they're not cut out for humdrum normality.

And the lure of outer space is a-beckoning...

Fifty years ago today - February 1976.

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

***

A wise man once said, "Time, time, time, see what's become of me."

I've no idea what's become of him.

But I do know what's become of time.

And that's because, like a veritable god, I have the power to bend time between my eyeballs.

And watch me do it, right now, as I fling us all back into the past and into the days when all problems in life could be solved by donning Spandex.

My razor-sharp senses tell me Hellcat makes her fearsome debut, this issue.

This is indeed good news but I am interested by the cover's claim that we wanted her.

I don't remember ever wanting her.

That is, I don't remember ever thinking, "If only the half-forgotten Patsy Walker would find the Cat's old costume and become a crime-fighter, from out of nowhere."

I am, of course, perfectly happy that she's done it.

My razor-sharp senses also tell me that this issue features the origin of Bêlit.

I must confess I've totally forgotten what that origin was.

I'm guessing it may have all been somewhat in the Tarzan envelope but I could be wrong.

I've never read this one but, as far as I can make out, someone called William Taurey hopes to use the Madbomb and a mercenary Royalist army to destroy democracy in the United States and return the country to a state of aristocracy.

While he's at it, he also wants to visit vengeance upon Steve Rogers for being the descendant of the man who killed his ancestor.

It all makes perfect sense to me.

From what I recall of this one, Daredevil has problems with Voodoo in Central Park.

Including chicken sacrifice!

I first came into possession of this comic on a Sunday morning and, as I've said elsewhere on this site, I've never encountered a comic on a Sunday without liking it.

More importantly, I believe this was the first time I learned of the existence of that big arch in whatever city it is that the big arch is in.

As for what's going on inside, the Hulk and Thing have teamed up against everybody who wants to stop them.

But is prolonged exposure to the Hulk's radiation going to have a strange effect on Benjy?

The Hulk's still convinced that the Abomination is his best friend.

I fear he may be disappointed.

It looks like trouble for the mighty metal marvel when he has to take on the Red-Ghost and his Super-Apes.

I can't help feeling the Super-Apes should just ditch the Red Ghost and go off on their own. I'm not sure they truly need him.

As reprinted in the 1977 UK Spider-Man Annual, we get a strangely atypical tale of child kidnapping, unfulfilled professors and American college football.

Sadly, in order to make it fit it into that annual, great chunks of the story were excised - including half of the all-important Mary Jane college dance scene - meaning sections of the yarn made no sense.

Happily, I'm sure this comic doesn't suffer from those problems.

The Time-Twisters are still causing trouble in the age of Zarrko.

I do believe Jane Foster's wielding that blade, on the cover, because she's been possessed by the spirit of Sif.

Presumably, this means she'll wave a sword around a lot and go on about being a warrior born, without ever actually being any noticeable use in a fight.

Dave Cockrum's classic early run on the X-Men continues apace and I think this tale may have been the first time I encountered Erik the Red.

I also encountered an airport in it but I'd already encountered the concept of airports before.

Mostly in stories written by Chris Claremont.

Regardless, Havok and Polaris turn up and attack the X-Men, thanks to the manipulations of the aforementioned Erik.

Thus are the major heroes of the Marvel universe accounted for.

But what of that other company?

The one that fair rivals The House of Ideas itself? Just what shall we find if we encounter a random sampling of its mags that bear the same cover date?

If there's one thing you can never escape in the world of comics, it's war.

And so it is that Blitzkrieg #1 arrives to send our spinner racks into a spin.

And this one takes the bold - and some might think potentially foolhardy - step of seeing things through the eyes of the Axis powers.

We kick off the series with thrillers that bear such titles as The Enemy, The Huns and The Anteater; Dornier Night Fighter DO-335A.

Plus, we encounter a one-page Allan Asherman feature which appears to explain just why the decision was made to launch this mag.

1st Issue Special can always be relied on to surprise us and, this month, we encounter the Assassin who I know nothing of but, from that Mike Grell cover, does have a bit of a vibe of an Atlas/Seaboard character about him.

Anyway, I've no doubt it'll look good, as it's drawn by Frank and Nestor Redondo.

We also encounter a one-page Gerry Conway article The Story Behind the Story which, I'm assuming, gives us info about the creation of both strip and character.

The clown prince of crime has yet another escapade and I know nothing of it other than it's called The Joker Goes "Wilde"! and features something called The Royal Flush Gang.

Also, it's brought to us by Martin Pasko and Irv Novick.

Just four more issues remain for this mag.

Just when you thought the 1970s had thrown every sword and sorcery book at us they were ever going to throw at us, the Warlord gets his very own mag and does so with a tale called This Savage World.

Just how savage that world is, I cannot say, as I've never read this, nor indeed any other, Warlord adventure.

However, it would seem we're treated to the Introduction of Travis Morgan into Skartaris - and that Tara and Diemos are re-introduced.

I have no idea what any of that means.

Following that, we get a one-page feature in which Iron Mike Grell discusses the Hollow Earth Theory. Whether this discussion is on a par with Neal Adams' treatises on the Expanding Earth Theory, I cannot say.