May 29th, 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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Fasten your seat belts!

Steve Does Comics is about to go supersonic!

And so was Washington, DC, exactly fifty years ago - because it was the week in which its Concorde service was launched!

Elsewhere, in the land that developed Concorde in conjunction with the UK, the so-called Judgement of Paris pitted French and Californian wines against each other in a blind taste-test. And, to the shock of all humanity, the Californian wines won! Sacré bleu! Not to mention Sacré Rosé

Speaking of the United States, President Gerald Ford defeated challenger Ronald Reagan in the Republican presidential primaries for Kentucky, Tennessee and Oregon.

It's the big one, as the FF move into a house designed to send the whole world blind!

Why such a machine is in the form of a house, I've no idea.

I also have no memory of the Mole Man's staff being cosmic. Is that just something made up for the front cover? Or is that a real thing?

After that, Captain America saves SHIELD's barbershop from an AIM android but receives no gratitude from Nick Fury who promptly sends him on a mission to rescue Sharon Carter from that organisation's clutches.

After that, Nick Fury's own strip sees the eye-patch-sporting super-spy deduce that Them and Hydra are the same organisation!

But, hold on. Didn't he previously deduce that Them was really AIM? And that Them is also really the Secret Empire? I'm struggling to keep track of which organisations are which.

Plantman's pitched the Sub-Mariner and Triton against each other while he sets off to destroy somewhere. Possibly London.

And I think the issue wraps up with Johnny Blaze still feebly opposing the works of Satan.

It's good to see Rick Jones throwing in the towel at the first sign of trouble, on that cover. It does make me wonder, has he ever been mentioned in any of the Marvel movies?

As for this week's Conan adventure, all I know for sure is it's called Statues of Terror. Gargoyle of Doom. I shall, therefore, assume it contains multiple statues of terror and just one gargoyle of doom.

In our main strip, Captain Marvel's been successfully drained of the deadly radiation he's been giving off. But, now, Ronan the Accuser sends a Sentry to abduct him from the hospital bed in which he's unconsciously recuperating from that ordeal.

And I think Shang-Chi and his friends are still on the island of top assassin Mordillo and are now in his deadly model village of death, packed, I have no doubt, with all manner of unlikely booby traps.

Yet again, a MWOM cover has us expecting a clash between Adam Warlock and the Hulk.

In fact, what really happens is things get properly Biblical, as Adam has the misfortune to be crucified on live television!

I would be shocked by his death but I have a strange feeling he may be coming back to life in three-or-so days.

Daredevil's still out to put a stop to the illicit activities of the man called Crime-Wave.

And to do that, he sneaks aboard the villain's gambling ship, disguised as a lackey in sunglasses.

But what happens when he's told to run the roulette wheel and he can't see the colours or the numbers on it?

The X-Men have only just got Frankenstein's Monster out of the way and, now, they have to deal with the "sub-human" Grotesk who's out to punish the surface world for destroying his underground civilisation, with nuclear tests. With a grudge of that nature, I can't help but feel he should team up with the Sub-Mariner.

When it comes to ape action, I do believe Alaric and Graymakin are about to meet an orangutan inventor who's built himself his own flying contraption, as seen on that cover.

And it's time to hang out the bunting because I think that, this week, we finally see the end of Ka-Zar's interminable Maa-Gor/El Tigre storyline with the latter plunging to his death and the other being reverted to his caveman form, by the machinery that made him super-intelligent in the first place,

The shrewd observer will note that, despite being the star of the strip, Ka-Zar had no involvement in the downfall of either of these villains. Almost as though writer Mike Friedrich was desperate to get rid of them.

Far more interestingly, Captain Marvel's strip sees the Controller invade the Avengers Mansion while Thanos continues to scheme his schemes.

To be honest, I'm not sure how dramatic, "The Ghost Rider shakes hands with Satan," is as a concept. Despite what it claims on the cover, it certainly doesn't instill a sense of horror beyond belief in me.

I am curious, though, about the fact that he still has a strip in two Marvel UK books at once. Nifty Neil Tennant really does seem to have faith in Blaze's ability to attract readers.

But it's not just Adam Warlock who's dying, this week. So is Dracula when Dr Sun's henchman rams a stake through his heart.

Is this the end for the lord of vampires?

I'm going to guess that he stays dead for even less time than Warlock will.

But it could be the end of the Ghost Rider because that fiery-faced fighter of fiends has run foul of a motorbike gang whose leader easily beats him up.

Until he's rescued by the Witch-Woman...

...who turns out to be Satan!

I'll just point out that the Son of Satan took on the same gang in his debut and totally marmalised the lot of them.

And what's this? Man-Thing too is up against a biker gang!

And he too is triumphant with ease.

But it's not all fun and games for the swampy sensation, because F A Schist has created a thing called The Slaughter Room which he's convinced will dispose of the creature forever!

An historic moment has arrived in the pantheon of heroes because I believe this is the first time I - and other Marvel UK readers - have ever encountered Luke Cage!

Needless to say, he makes such a big impact on me that I shall spend the next fifty years modelling my dress-sense on him.

And shouting, "Sweet Christmas!" at random moments.

I also suspect this is the story in which Peter Parker snaps his own pen in half.

Granted, that might not sound all that dramatic but, at the time, to me, it seemed incredibly potent and was a sight that burnt itself into my memory.

Speaking of sights that can burn themselves into your brain, after planting a story in the press about his amazing cosmetic surgery skills, Don Blake's kidnapped by Dr Doom and ordered to fix his face for him. But the physician takes one look at the Latverian ruler's visage and practically has a mental breakdown over it.

Needless to say, a bedside manner like that lands him in a dungeon.

And he doesn't even have his walking stick to hand!

Iron Man's having a tough time with the Controller who's absorbed the power of so many locals that even the armoured Avenger lacks the brute force to stop him.

Elsewhere, the Thing's about to have an encounter with a Golem now under the control of some villain or other.

And Dr Strange continues to have his hands full trying to stop both Umar and Dormammu who, I think, have now reached the feuding-with-each-other stage.

But can Clea's dodgy dad be the solution to all this?

Finally, as he was kind enough to give this site a plug on his blog, I shall remind everyone that those interested in the activities of Marvel UK, way back then, can find far more information about each issue than I could ever hope to provide, by visiting The Power of the BeeSting and discovering just what its proprietor Mark makes of all this week's mighty action.