February 21st, 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. 

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Back then, you may have thought it was February 21st, 1976, but you'd have been mistaken because, according to the Number One song on the UK singles chart, that week, it was, in fact, December '63. And you knew it was true because it was the Four Seasons who were telling you it.

Living atop the summit of the accompanying LP chart was, as it had been the week before, The Very Best of Slim Whitman by - incredibly - Slim Whitman.

That was all shocking enough but there was something else going on that was of even more importance.

And that was the fact that Marvel UK's output was suddenly reduced to just six comics, thanks to the merger of Spider-Man Comics Weekly with The Super-Heroes. Just how would we be affected by such drastic change?

And could we even survive it?

I know little of this week's Conan adventure but I do know it's called City of the Dead.

As for the Avengers, they're involved in the latter stages of their battle to keep Cornelius van Lunt off Native American land.

A battle which seems to cause the evil tycoon's death and leads to the retirement of Red Wolf.

But is van Lunt really dead?

And, if he isn't, just what is his deadly secret?

Meanwhile, in a development I doubt anyone expected, Iron Fist finds himself up against Angar the Screamer.

A meeting that could, ultimately, lead him into conflict with Iron Man!

What a beautiful cover by Malcolm McNeill.

It clearly has nothing at all to do with Conquest of the Planet of the Apes but it's a fine-looking thing and would have convinced me to buy the book, even if I wasn't already in the habit of buying it.

Inside this thrilling issue, not only is Caesar becoming ever more in the mood for an uprising, we encounter a Ka-Zar who manages to rescue the super-soldier serum from Gemini.

However, that's where the good news ends, as Professor Victor Conrad drinks the original super-soldier serum and finds himself transformed into the menacing Victorius!

And the Black Panther infiltrates Killmonger's lair but is knocked out by Sombre and dumped in the snow, for wolves to eat!

Someone's clearly getting very cross with Dracula.

And that someone's Quincy.

No, not the TV pathologist played by Jack Klugman, although that's a meeting I'd pay good money to watch.

Instead, it's Quincy Harker hitting Vlad with every anti-vampire trap he's been able to concoct, in an attempt to finally finish off the fangy fiend.

Elsewhere, Jack Russell's still having a tussle with his sister while others try to stop Dr Glitternight.

And, on a far-off world, the Man-Thing must fight Mongu, the space warrior who was, sort of, last seen in the early days of the Hulk's strip.

Following all that, we encounter a 1950s reprint in which a dodgy Indian priest is crushed by his own cart.

But forget that because this is where a whole new era begins.

A sideways kind of era!

It's true. Spider-Man Comics Weekly transmogrifies into Super Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes, as the man with the stickiest fingers in comics goes down the Titans format route.

I've always seen it claimed the Titans' landscape presentation was unpopular with readers and newsagents alike and, therefore, failed to take off. But the fact that Spider-Man Comics Weekly's been switched to the same layout, after eighteen weeks of The Titans' existence, would suggest Marvel UK sees the format as having been a major success.

As for what happens in it, Spidey decides to go on the hunt for Morbius the living vampire but this, somehow, leads him into conflict with the X-Men and the discovery that the serum that got rid of his extra arms could kill him!

Very elsewhere, while the ruler of Asgard does the Odin sleep, Loki sneaks in and steals the ring from very his finger. A fact which, it seems, makes him the new king of Asgard!

Meanwhile, Iron Man's still fighting the Gladiator. Seriously, how many issues has he been doing that for?

But, in other places, things are getting far more dramatic - and memorable. This is the issue in which Silver Dagger sneaks up on a meditating Dr Strange and gives him a good back-stabbing.

And I do believe the final tale of the issue sees the Human Torch work with the Hulk in a bid to end the latest rampage of Blastaar!

Is there any hope for the X-Men?

I suspect there is but only just, as they come up against the dread power of Merlin. Something a surprising number of Marvel heroes have had to do, over the years.

After that, Spidey and Captain America must put a stop to the latest malevolence from the Grey Gargoyle but find themselves, instead, turned to stone and chained to a missile!

Nick Fury and SHIELD are trying to thwart whatever it is that Mentallo and the Fixer are up to.

And Captain Marvel and Rick Jones have decided to recruit the aid of Bruce Banner, in their attempts to escape each other's company.

But, first, they have to survive an encounter with desert-dwelling criminal gang the Rat Pack!

And can we be about to witness the fall of Atlantis?

It seems so - because Attuma and his hordes have only gone and got their hands on a giant space-robot and programmed it to attack the city!

It's a moment of great excitement, for me, because, after an absence of some fourteen weeks, The Mighty World of Marvel! has returned to the shelves of my local newsagent!

And its return makes such an impact on me that its tale of the Hulk and Betty, stranded on an island of giant space monsters, is still burned into my memory.

As for Daredevil, the whole world still thinks Matt Murdock's dead.

And he soon may be, as Mr Fear returns to publicly challenge him, torment him and prove to a watching public that Daredevil is a coward!

As for the Fantastic Four, they're now captives of Annihilus who forces them to fight against big machines!