March 20th, 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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Drama hit the United Kingdom, this week in 1976 because, as our regular correspondent Colin Jones recently pointed out, it was the week in which Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigned!

Elsewhere, Patty Hearst was convicted of having robbed a San Francisco bank, two years earlier.

Clearly in a more peaceable mood than Patty, was Tina Charles, as her only message to the world, that week, was, as so often, "I Love to Love." And it was a message that palpably hit home because, thanks to it, she remained Number One on the UK singles chart.

But there was change at the top of the accompanying LP rankings. For, their summit was grabbed by none other than Status Quo with Blue For You. I've never heard that album but, somehow, I feel like I know what it's going to sound like.

But what of television?

There wasn't much on the BBC, on March 20th, that leaps out at me but two things which do catch my eye were on BBC One, that very morning.

Those two things were Marine Boy and Champion the Wonder Horse. Who can forget Marine Boy clobbering people, with his electric boomerang and using his chewing gum that allowed him to breathe underwater?

Granted, I'm not sure why someone would give a child an electric boomerang if they knew he spent all his time underwater. Clearly, someone hadn't thought this through.

That person cannot have been Champion the Wonder Horse because we all know that Champion thought of everything.

As far as I'm aware, it's bad news, this issue, for Conan - as he's forced to work in a gold mine!

I suspect it won't be long before he's helping himself to a great big cartload of its contents.

But, first, he's going to have to fight off a giant slug!

Elsewhen, with the male Avengers making a Horlicks of tackling the Masters of Evil, it's up to the Lady Liberators to step in and save the day.

But is the day really saved?

And how does the Enchantress fit into all this?

When it comes to Iron Fist, I do believe the neon-knuckled, ninja-nobbling sensation's having to fight off vegetation during an adventure called In the Forest of Fear.

It's one of my favourite UK Planet of the Apes covers, as simians prove they can't tell the difference between toads and slugs.

Still, they do, at least, know to always shoot them in the nostrils, and that's what matters.

From that cover, I can only assume Jason and Alexander are back for their newest adventure. One that it seems they're unlikely to survive.

But that's not the issue's main story.

That honour falls to the last part of Marvel's adaptation of Conquest, in which the apes have their triumph and Caesar gets to deliver a speech.

Following that, Ka-Zar polishes off the menace of Victorius, despite having refused to take the super-soldier serum that would have boosted his prowess. Then, job done, Kev returns to his jungle home.

In Wakanda, while the Black Panther's fighting someone called Sombre, Killmonger and his men are rounding-up dinosaurs, for when they might come in handy.

But hold on.

Where are Jason and Alexander, as advertised on the cover?

They're nowhere to be seen is where they are. Yet again, a printing error has descended upon a Marvel UK mag and a cover has appeared before its time.

I am intrigued by just who it is Drac thinks he's ordering the Werewolf and Man-Thing to strike.

As - apart from him - they're the only people in the room, the only people they can strike are each other.

I'm no military expert but getting your allies to fight each other seems a bit self-defeating.

Then again, it is the 1970s. Maybe he's actually ordering them to go on strike.

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. I hear monsters are low-paid and have to work nights.

Having said that, I suspect that nothing resembling the activities on this cover will occur within the comic itself.

Instead, I'm going to guess that Dracula's still being sought, for their enquiries, by the men of Scotland Yard. But can even the lord of all vampires survive an encounter with a feminist fashion designer?

Next, Jack Russell's hairy alter-ego is out in  the snow and on the hunt for the young daughter of Buck's current girlfriend!

Following that, Man-Thing becomes more eco-warrior than even Dave Angel, when F.A. Schist and his men decide it'd be a good idea to drain the swamp and replace it with an airport!

If I remember rightly, this is the epic in which Spider-Man loses his mask and has to wear a polythene one bought from a fancy-dress shop. A mask through which he can't breathe properly.

I think he also gets an ulcer, while he's at it.

And Aunt May's gone missing.

Because she's got a job, working for Doc Ock!

That's more new developments than you can shake a stick at but, on Asgard, it's the same old story.

Literally.

The realm Eternal is again under threat from an unstoppable foe - in this case Surtur - and no one can stop him except for Odin but Odin's having one of his epic power naps!

Fortunately, at the last possible moment, Balder finally manages to wake him and he swiftly dispatches the villain, causing everyone in Asgard to sing his praises and declare eternal loyalty to him

Everyone except Loki, of course.

Then, there's an oddity, as we get a one-page article dedicated to Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson.

We then get the answers to the Marvel Mastermind quiz. And I've no idea what those answers are, nor what the questions were.

Next up, Iron Man's fighting the Hulk.

But he isn't the Hulk! He's a robot being used by the Mandarin!

I'm assuming Dr Strange is still up against the deadly menace of Silver Dagger.

And we wrap up this action-packed issue with the Thing, Captain America and Sharon Carter on a far-flung future Earth that's ruled by the Badoon!

Captain America makes the cover but the issue kicks off with the X-Men deciding to attack the underground realm of Tyrannus, after the underground menace's latest escapades.

And, for that, they get their hands on a boring machine.

That is, a machine that can bore holes.

Not a machine that they all find boring.

After that, the Sub-Mariner fights the latest underwater menace to threaten Atlantis - and discovers It Walks Like a Man!

At the Avengers Mansion, Captain America's being tormented by bad dreams of his World War Two adventures.

But are they as innocent as they seem?

And do they have anything to do with the fact that the brand new AIM robot of death, the Adaptoid, is posing as Jarvis the butler?

Captain Marvel, meanwhile, is still battling the maddening menace of the man called Megaton.

And, while Nick Fury has a punch-up with the Druid, Jasper Sitwell sets out out find the location of that villain's HQ!

Can it be?

Can the Hulk have teamed up with that dastardly brute the Juggernaut, in order to bust out of Hulkbuster Base?

Yes, it can.

But not for long, as, given the volatile nature of the duo, it's not long before they're at loggerheads.

And ones that can only be resolved by the mental powers of Professor X and Marvel Girl!

When it comes to Daredevil's strip, it's Karen Page who takes centre stage when, in need of time off, following the "death" of Matt Murdock, she pays a visit to her dad's house.

Only for it turn out there are spooky shenanigans going on there!

Now that Sue Richards has just given birth to the spawn of she and Reed, it looks like she's not going to be getting into any life-or-death scraps in the near-future.

And that can only mean one thing.

That it's time for Crystal to join the Fantastic Four, in her place!

Reed Richards isn't convinced she's up to he task but an attack by the Wizard, on their Baxter Building HQ, will soon give her the chance to demonstrate her worth.

And, most intriguing of all, this week's issue contains the inclusion of a Neil Tennant article about Marvel's operations in the various countries of Europe.