Forty years ago today - May 1986.

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

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It's time to take yet another sentimental journey, back to a time and place where most of life's problems could be solved by punching them.

Hawkeye and Mockingbird are keeping Goliath prisoner but then have to put up with a judge forcing them to release him.

At which point, the voluminous villain does what you'd expect him to do and sets out to kill the duo.

Fortunately, Iron Man's on hand to help foil that plan.

Has there ever been a greater moment of melodrama in the entire history of the human race?

I think not.

After all, not only does Spider-Man rescue Sha Shan from the clutches of the Hobgoblin, he also discovers the true identity of the fiend.

And it only goes and turns out that he's Flash Thompson!

I do believe Conan and his army are betrayed by their current employer King Maddoc. 

And I suspect that means King Maddoc isn't going to be king for much longer.

You could cut the intensity with a fork, as Daredevil's nursed back to health by Sister Maggie, Karen Page shows up in New York City and Ben Urich is successfully frightened into not publishing an exposé on the Kingpin.

But what's this? All of that pales into insignificance next to Matt discovering Sister Maggie is his mother?

It all gets wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey when it turns out that, thanks to his time-travelling shenanigans, there are now multiple Kangs in the universe.

But one of them is determined to make sure that, from now on, there'll only one of him.

A man called William Cross is freed from police custody by a gang called Death-Throws but is unable to pay for their rescue operation.

So, the gang decides to extract payment by using him as bait in a trap to capture Hawkeye.

But even more tension abounds on the human interest front, as Cap's girlfriend Bernie moves out to attend a distant law school.

It wouldn't be a Bruce and Betty wedding if there wasn't at least one incident.

And this wedding's incident is that Thunderbolt Ross shows up and shoots Rick Jones!

Needless to say, the fact that the world's greatest singer is lying in a pool of his own blood on the floor, in front of them, isn't enough to dissuade the bride and groom from getting on with tying the knot.

There's a lesson to be learnt by us all when a small-time thief breaks into Peter Parker's flat, steals his Spider-Man costume and then gets himself into a whole heap of trouble by wearing it - including having to single-handedly take on a criminal gang, under pressure from a demanding cop.

Lady Deathstrike turns herself into a cyborg and sets off to kill Wolverine.

Needless to say, it'll take more than that to stop the canny Canuck.

Now the FF are in trouble - when they find themselves caught up in a power struggle between Blastaar and Annihilus.

And it seems the quartet's subsequent triumph is at the cost of Reed Richards' life!

In some ways, it's a good day for Balder.

In others, it isn't.

For instance, it's decided that he shall be the next ruler of Asgard.

On the other, Kurse shows up at the ceremony and kills him.