The Marvel Lucky Bag - August 1986.

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

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We all love a good film. And some of us love a bad film. But how many August 1986 releases fit into either of those categories?

Here's where we find out.

That month oversaw the unleashing of such joys as Flight of the Navigator, Friday the 13th Part VI, Howard the Duck, She's Gotta Have It, The Transformers, The Fly, Manhunter, Night of the Creeps, Stand by Me, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Shanghai Surprise.

I'm going to put my critics hat on and suggest Manhunter may be the best of those.

But, then again, I've never seen Shanghai Surprise.

I have been wondering why Spidey's gone missing from his other books, this month.

And now I have my answer.

It turns out it's all down to this issue and his battle with Magma! 

I'm going to assume our hero's blown up, presumed dead, at the end of this one.

I'm also going to assume he hasn't really been blown up and will be back.

I've no doubt maternal feelings are running high, as Alpha Flight take Snowbird to a place of power so she can deliver her baby.

Unfortunately, the spot they've chosen is the burial place of someone called Pestilence and, needless to say, the whole birth-giving thing revives him!

Issue #2 of Marvel's latest publishing sensation arrives when, in order to protect an experimental nerve gas sample hidden inside a pen, a retired spy lets Dakota's brother win the implement from him during a poker game.

I don't have a clue what's going on in this one but the GCD kindly informs me that things get tricky for the team when people start protesting outside their mutant-hunting headquarters.

And it all comes to a head when a pair of mutants call them out, meaning the gang must split their forces and adopt disguises, in order to hunt the duo while, at the same time, secretly helping them.

That all sounds too convoluted for my liking.

I liked it when everyone knew who the good guys were.

Speaking of moral ambiguity. All that red and that big gun can only mean one thing.

And that's that, despite having died ages ago, Elektra's back and in a tale I know little of, other than that it's delivered to us by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz.

It would appear the good doctor's acquired a new ally and that ally is none other than Cloak.

Where Dagger is when all this is going on, I have no idea.

But it seems that this issue introduces us to a possessed drug-dealer called Ecstasy.

With villain names like that, you can tell we're entering the late 1980s.