June 23rd & 26th, 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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We're all wallowing in the highs and lows of the World Cup, right now, as our favourite countries battle it out to become champions of the globe.

But, this week in 1976, it was the European Championship that was on our minds. And its final was won by Czechoslovakia who beat West Germany 5–3 on penalties after the game ended 2–2.

This, of course, means the final was contested by two nations that no longer exist. Has that happened before or since in a major championship?

I cannot say.

Things were clearly looking up for those two countries but, in the land we know as Canada, the entire population was looking up, as the planet's tallest free-standing man-made structure, Toronto's CN Tower, opened its doors to the public.

Rising almost as high as that was the good old-fashioned British thermometer.

And that's because June 26th saw the UK heatwave hit 95 °F (35 °C).

Hot stuff indeed.

But what about other hot stuff?

The red hot hits on the red hot singles chart?

That week saw the Wurzels lose their Number One spot to the Real Thing and their latest platter You to Me Are Everything.

My main memory of the Real Thing is that their lead singer seemed to win Crufts every year and, thus, made a, presumably, goodly sum of money from advertising dog food.

Over on the accompanying album chart, there was no change, with ABBA's Greatest Hits retaining the pole position it had held for several weeks now.

Judging by that cover, Quicksilver's awesome tactic of defeating giant robots by bouncing off them and then landing on his backside proves somewhat futile, as the early stages of the Kree/Skrull War rumble on.

He should try that tactic he used against the Sentinels. The one that involved him running face-first into a wall and nearly killing himself in the process.

Granted, it wasn't the most repeatable of tactics but it did actually work.

And he found a wife because of it.

Someone else who might be on his way to finding a wife is the Vision who, while held captive by Ronan the Accuser, confesses his love to the Scarlet Witch!

When it comes to Conan, he and Red Sonja continue to be trapped in a tower with a brother and sister pair of sorcerers who want to have their wicked way with them.

However, the dashing duo do finally escape and the Sonj bashes our hero over the back of the head, with a rock, before riding off on a horse.

Shang-Chi, meanwhile, encounters a bunch of characters who are half-human and half-animal and being kept in cages, for reasons that elude me.

As we can see, the Thing's still fighting Torgo.

But he might not have to for much longer, as the rest of the Fantastic Four are on their way to liberate him from the clutches of gangster-inspired skrulls.

I can only hope they know the rules of fizzbin.

The Ghost Rider must contend with the menace of Snake Dance but it may all end badly for him because Sam Silvercloud's only gone and sabotaged his motorbike!

And there's bad news for Nick Fury. He's been captured by Hydra who want to use the Overkill Horn to detonate all the world's nuclear weapons!

Beneath the waves, Prince Namor must battle Attuma again. 

But, this time, the villain's wearing electrically-charged armour!

Bearing in mind that he's under water, I'm not sure that's a good idea.

On dry land, Steve Rogers has quit his role as Captain America and revealed his true identity to the whole wide world.

Needless to say, this is a terrible idea and it's not long before people are trying to replace him, kill him or lure him out of retirement.

It's the, "Long-awaited merger of Marvel's mightiest mags!" declares the cover.

But awaited by whom? I can't remember ever awaiting it.

In fact, it seems hard to believe that anyone was demanding a merger of Dracula Lives and Planet of the Apes. I can only assume I'm out of touch with the younger generation.

But what do we get in this new, improved comic?

We find Jason and Alexander still on the Planet of the Apes and encountering a thing called The Traveling Progress Show.

The Man-Thing's still having to put up with the antics of the Foolkiller - raising the obvious question of whether there's ever been a more annoying villain than that madman.

Dracula takes part in A Halloween Holocaust!! having been revived by his enemies to take on the menace of Dr Sun.

And Ka-Zar takes part in a yarn titled Terror of the Waves! which I think may be a tale of vengeance of the kind the Savage Land seemed to specialise in.

That's a better-drawn cover than we're used to from Mighty World of Marvel. Apparently, it's by Keith Pollard, which may well explain it.

I'm sure we all know Bruce Banner's sheltering in a remote mining town but things head south quickly when he discovers that local hero the Missing Link is becoming ever more radioactive and could explode at any inconvenient moment!

I suspect the Daredevil tale may contain Nighthawk's second Marvel UK appearance when the man without fear is quickly upstaged by the Batman-a-likes crime-thwarting antics.

But is the new hero in town the man he makes himself out to be?

Or is he only in it for the money?

The X-Men, meanwhile, attend Professor X's funeral and are surprised when Quicksilver shows up.

Here's a strange thing.

For some reason, while all other Marvel UK mags for this week have a cover date of June 23rd, Spidey's book boasts one for the 26th.

But things are about to get even stranger in Spider-Town when Mary Jane witnesses a murder and our hero comes up against a man pretending to be the Vulture.

I seem to recall that, not long after this tale, we get an impostor show up, pretending to be Mysterio.

And then Harry Osborn becomes a fake Green Goblin.

We can only conclude that writer Gerry Conway had a thing for ersatz super-villains.

Elsewhere, Iron Man's still fighting the Night Phantom.

And, then, we can only gasp as Power Man and the Thing encounter a scientist who must confess that I Created Braggadoom! The Mountain That Walked Like A Man!

Thor's still out to reach the bottom of the mystery over just who Infinity is and how he can have so much power.

And poor old Dr Strange must confront alternate versions of himself at the Dance of the Red Death.