Fifty years ago today - January 1976.

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

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It's a brand new year.

Let's find out what kind of horrors it intends to inflict upon us.

I believe this is the story in which the Avengers go back to the Wild West, to deal with Kang's latest act of naughtiness and, along the way, they get help from Kid Colt!

Having said that, I don't remember any of the members from this cover actually appearing in that tale. I may, therefore, be completely wrong.

If it is that story, I have noticed that an awful lot of the content of the 1977 UK Marvel annuals was culled from comics that came out in this time period.

Bêlit makes her debut...

...which would be fine except we're now going to have to put up with her for years, before she finally dies.

A feat she managed to achieve very quickly in the Robert E Howard version of events.

Anyway, a ship that Conan's on is hijacked by she and her pirates and, needless to say, it's not long before he's bonking her and having adventures alongside her and her men.

Jack Kirby returns to the character he co-created - just in time to give us a tale in which that character is having trouble with mad bombs!

I don't think I've ever read this one but it seems the Matador convinces the Man-Bull to steal a Golden Bull.

Whether that's the one Thor once tried to steal while under the control of the Ringmaster, I cannot say.

However, Daredevil messes up the plan, and the Man-Bull reacts with his usual good grace, by taking it out on the Matador.

If this is the story I think it is, then it's yet another tale, from this period, which showed up in a 1977 Marvel UK annual.

Sadly, that annual only used the first half of the tale, leaving us all cliff-hanging until the second part was eventually published in the weekly comics.

Anyway, the FF are on a jumbo jet when it collides with the Hulk. Once the team have made sure all the passengers and crew survive, they set out to capture the monster.

And they succeed.

But just what will that victory lead to?

And just how is the Thing going to react to these events?

This story didn't appear in a 1977 UK Marvel annual but I believe it's the one in which Hulky teams up with the Abomination, convinced the fiend is his only friend.

A belief which proves the Hulk's even stupider than we all thought he was.

I have very little recollection of this one but, if that cover's to be believed, Iron Man's about to come up against the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes!

This pleases me, no end, as I've always had a soft spot for those apes.

But what's this? How can it be? Iron Man rescuing Tony Stark? Surely, madness must have claimed us all!

The Shocker's still causing trouble for our hero - and for New York - by attacking electrical sub-stations, in what I assume to be an extortion attempt.

It's the one in which Zarrko recruits Thor and his mates for a trip to the future, to tackle a bunch of sinister beings who travel backwards in time but do so by moving in a spiral, bringing death and destruction wherever they go.

Obviously, all the discerning reader really cares about is it features a battle between Thor and a T-Rex!

I think we've all been thrilled by what we've just seen from Marvel but we should remember its creatives are not the only people on God's green Earth who can thrill us.

So can those of DC!

And that means I shall crank up the starting handle on my quantum computer's £200,000 AI-powered mega-randomiser and see what a haphazard selection of its comics which bear the same cover date are up to.

Things always seem to get a little strange when Batman meets Sgt Rock. Probably because such a team-up seems inherently unlikely but, also, because Bob Haney always seems to be the writer.

And so it is that we get a thriller in which a shipment of the military's new rifles are stolen and Rock must unite with the dark-night detective to retrieve them. 

This might seem like a tough task but the duo are assisted by Jim Aparo, Haney and Murray Boltinoff who use their creative powers to make sure the good guys triumph.

There are few things in this plane of existence that are capable of being stranger than absolutely anything created by Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti.

And, so, yet more weirdness is unleashed upon the unsuspecting minds of the world when 1st Issue Special gives us The Outsiders, a bunch of "unusual" people who even arrive at emergency scenes while singing their own theme song.

As far as my scrambled senses can recall, this issue's composed of the origin tales of its various cast members, and a tragic lot they are.

Does this book contain a one-page article about Tod Browning's Freaks? I have a feeling it does but can't officially confirm it.

I'm not convinced many people have been crying out for a Man-Bat comic but we're getting one anyway.

And, to be fair, I'll go on to buy this very issue in 1978, from a shop in Lytham, near a miniature golf course. So, clearly, I must have been crying out for a Man-Bat comic.

In it, Conway and Ditko weave a tale in which the Baron Mordo-esque Baron Tyme takes control of our hero's wife and turns her into a homicidal maniac.

Needless to say, her spouse isn't going to put up with that kind of thing and tracks the villain to his lair, for a life-or-death confrontation.

Sadly, this book will have its own life-or-death struggle and only survive for a mere two issues.

But my main memory of this adventure is of Ditko's strangely faceless Batman.

The Sandman hits his final issue, with an intriguing 

Bill Draut cover that leads us into The Plot to Destroy Washington D.C.!

It seems Doctor Spider's kidnapped the Sandman and Glob, meaning Brute must get Jed to help free the pair and thwart the Doctor's villainy!

Michael Fleisher supplies us with the words, while Jack Kirby and Wally Wood produce the pictures.

Well, that's all fine and dandy but we all know the real treasure is the friends we made along the way. 

And we've not just made friends, we've made super-friends!

I must confess to never having seen the cartoon of the same name but I can reveal this mighty tome contains a mix of new and reprinted material, including Operation: Jail the Justice League!, The Case of the Disabled Justice League! and a 10-page text article called TV Cartoons.

However, I see no hints of a 3-D diorama.

Wait!

What?

No 3-D diorama?

What kind of madness is this?