Forty years ago today - January 1986.

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

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By crikey! Let us leap from the high diving-board of Perspective and see what kind of splash the Marvel comics of 40 years ago make when we hit them!

It's bad news for Thor when a man called Kurse, who has a grudge against him, is hunting him down - and has had his strength boosted to insane levels by the Beyonder!

Fortunately, the titanic tykes of Power Pack are on hand to save our hero!

And, also, Kurse is a bit stupid.

Here's an odd thing. Jean Grey returns from the dead and we discover she was never deceased at all. Instead, she'd been replaced by an alien something or other!

But more odd, even than that, is that she should make her return in the pages of The Fantastic Four, rather than in her more logical home of the X-Men's book.

And, speaking of that book, the X-Men find themselves in need a new leader.

And it looks like it's going to be Storm, despite her not currently having any actual super-powers.

And I do believe this is the issue in which Maddy Pryor's baby's born. They'll be dancing in the streets of Steeleye Span, tonight.

Also, Professor X is stranded in space.

Which all goes to prove it's never a quiet day when you're an X-Man.

Spider-Man's determined to kill the Sin-Eater, after that fiend killed Jean DeWolff and almost murdered Betty Leeds.

The only problem is that, ever the lawyer, Daredevil's determined to prevent him from committing an act of such illegality.

And it, somehow, all leads to each hero sharing his true identity with the other!

Meanwhile, Aunt May's boyfriend's been arrested for sharing multiple bullets with the torsos of three muggers he's met on the subway!

Doc Samson's managed to separate Bruce Banner from the Hulk, leaving the beast as no more than a mindless shell.

But, unwilling to let SHIELD destroy the brute, the punch-packing psychiatrist releases the beast.

Only for it to go on a homicidal rampage.

For a psychiatrist, he has remarkably poor judgement of character.

Hired for the job, by AIM, the Serpent Society are out to kill MODOK - even if it means eating him!

It's a sensational semi-crossover with the Fantastic Four, as the Avengers investigate a mysterious cocoon at the bottom of a bay.

And discover it's not, as they'd assumed, another artificial being in the mode of Warlock and Her but is, instead, Jean Grey!

Not that they know who that is.

Daredevil's in a bad mood.

And it gets even worse when he discovers the Gladiator's returned to the life of crime he'd previously renounced

But can it be that said return is reluctant and he's only doing it because he's been blackmailed by criminals who've kidnapped his girlfriend?

It would appear to be Disaster Time for Tetra who can't contain the powers of Nostume.

But, then again, how many of us could?

You may have thought the Eel was a slippery customer but, now, Spider-Man's up against Slyde - a man wearing a costume made of Super-Teflon!

And it looks like a confrontation's on the way between our hero and the Beyonder.

My memories of this one are a little vague but I think that, deprived of his now-destroyed Savage Land, Ka-Zar mopes around the big city, wondering what the point of himself is.

And then he discovers the point of himself is what it always was. Tearing his shirt off, beating his chest and punching criminals in the gob.