The Marvel Lucky Bag - June 1969.

In the summer of 1969, the Beatles were fast approaching the end of their long and winding road but you'd never know it from the UK singles chart. In a feat of tireless dominance, June of that year started with the band at Number One, thanks to Get Back. This was toppled from its perch by Tommy Roe's Dizzy but, just one week later, that, in turn, was dethroned by The Ballad of John and Yoko.

How little people must have suspected, at the time, that it would prove to be the band's final Number One in their home country. But, if they'd been paying attention, the warning signs were there, given that it was a track which could be viewed as emblematic of the tensions tearing the band apart.

Meanwhile, that month's British album chart presents me with an enigma. It kicked off with Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline at Number One, a record with which I'm familiar. However, it was then knocked off that top spot by Ray Conniff's His Orchestra, His Chorus, His Singers, His Sound. I must confess I've never even heard of Ray Conniff, which is odd, bearing in mind his chart success suggests he must have been a fairly big deal at the time.

Unlike Ray, the following comics were not necessarily a big deal but I do remember them.

Captain Marvel comes up against Iron Man when the armoured Avenger's taken over by the Puppet Master as part of a three-book crossover which features Egghead, the Mad Thinker and Puppet Master, and climaxes in last month's Avengers tale.

No, I'm not sure why it reached its climax last month if it's being set up in comics unleashed this month.

Anyway, the space captain triumphs when Shellhead has a heart attack half way through the fight, after nearly killing Carol Danvers. I don't know if she ever brought that incident up with him when she joined the Avengers.

Thinking about it, why does the Puppet Master want Iron Man to attack Captain Marvel? How does he even know Captain Marvel exists?

After six issues, it finally dawns on the Surfer to travel forwards to a time when Galactus' barrier around the Earth no longer exists.

Having done that, he discovers the universe has been taken over by a giant mutant who can't be harmed.

Unable to defeat his foe in a fair fight, the Surfer flies back in time, prevents the mutant's birth and then returns to present day Earth to bemoan his lot in life.

There are two obvious questions here. One is, why does he go back to Earth before returning to the present day, when he could have gone to his beloved Zenn-La, instead? And, now that he's defeated one foe by going back in time to prevent his creation, why does he not do that with every difficult opponent he comes up against, from now on?

Subby's concentrating on his hobby of complaining about pollution, when he's attacked by the original Human Torch who's under the control of the Mad Thinker.

Needless to say, its not long before the two elemental heroes team up to thwart the crook.

But then we get the biggest shock in comics history when it's revealed the Torch isn't who we thought he was but is, in fact, his ex-sidekick Toro who's been brainwashed into thinking he's his former partner.

I think Toro dies at the end of this tale. If he does, that means the Thinker managed to see off both Toro and the Human Torch, which is quite rude of him.

Fifty years ago this month - June 1969.

Myriad have been the pivotal moments in human history.

But, surely, none can have been more pivotal than what happened on one evening in June 1969, because that was the month in which Patrick Troughton made his final regular appearance in Doctor Who, with the conclusion of The War Games. How we gasped as the Doctor found himself on trial by the omnipotent Time Lords. How we boggled as Jamie and Zoe were sent away, their memories wiped. And tremulous were we as we realised we'd now have to get used to a brand new Doctor.

But what would he be like?

And what effect would it have on the sales of bright yellow cars, velvet jackets and frilly shirts?

In that same month, more than half the UK population watched the TV documentary The Royal Family, when 30.6 million people tuned in, setting the all-time British viewing record for a non-current event programme.

Possibly not attracting quite as big an audience, but still memorable, was the game played that month, in which Boris Spassky defeated Tigran Petrosian to become the World Chess Champion.

Needless to say, the reason I know of Boris Spassky is because he was mentioned in that issue of The Avengers in which a chess player's killed by a poisoned chess piece and it all turns out to be part of a plot conceived by the Watcher to stop someone or other from doing something or other.

It's the third part of the Clint Barton Trilogy in which we've found out more about the man who was once Hawkeye and is now Goliath.

This time, we get a tale built upon his past association with the Swordsman, as the blade-swinging bounder sets out to settle scores with his former underling.

Having faked his own death, Cap returns from the fake grave to roam the streets of New York, contemplating his true role in life.

Amazingly, for once, he resists this perfect opportunity to retell his origin.

Not so amazingly, the Red Skull shows up to give him something better to worry about.

Cap may have resisted the urge to retell his origin but the nostalgia-baton's landed squarely in the hands of Daredevil, as Gene Colan gets to redraw the tale that was first presented to us by Bill Everett all those years ago.

The FF finally escape Dr Doom's Latverian death-trap when Doomie decides he doesn't want to risk his art collection getting damaged in a fight.

The Leader traps the Hulk in a rubber prison from which no living creature can possibly hope to escape.

Needless to say, the Hulk escapes.

But not in time to prevent the Leader taking over Thunderbolt Ross's base, with a giant rubber robot.

I have to say that's an absolutely beautiful cover by Johnny Craig, an artist whose run on the strip is easy to overlook but who always tackled the job with style.

If I remember right, Iron Man's investigating some crime or other on some island or other and it all ties in with Tony Stark's business operations.

As always with Iron Man's criminal investigations, the bad guy turns out to be exactly who you think he is.

Our hero gets into a scrap with Man-Mountain Marko while seeking to prevent that mysterious ancient tablet from falling into the hands of the Maggia.

Adam Warlock - still lumbered with the name Him - has his second adventure.

This time, he's back on Earth and decides to run off with Sif - whether she likes it or not.

Needless to say, this turns out not to be such a good idea and has major repercussions for the thunder god as well.

The Sentinels are back and it can only cause nothing but trouble.

May 30th, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Everyone knows this is the site that spills over with the milk of human kindness but, in this week of forty years ago, it suddenly got a lot harder for anyone to spill over with milk, as the price of a pint of the white stuff rose by more than 10%, to 15 pence a pint. Now how were we all supposed to grow up big and strong?

People who clearly had grown up big and strong were the players of Nottingham Forest F.C. who, that same week, defeated Swedish side Malmö, 1–0, to become European Champions, with the solitary goal being scored by Trevor Francis.

Only two years earlier, Forest had been playing in the 2nd Division of English football and had only scraped promotion to the top flight with the fifth lowest points tally of any promoted team in history.

Not only was it an amazing rise to greatness but it's extremely difficult to imagine a 21st Century European Champions League final featuring two teams like Malmö and Nottingham Forest.

Another sign of just how much the world has changed since then came on the floor of the London Stock Exchange, where, on this very day of that year, B&Q was floated, valued at a whopping £10 million. As the company's current annual revenue is now £3.8 billion, I suspect it may be worth a little more than that these days.

I think Han and Chewie are still in that cave and still trying to stave off the attacks of Jabba the Hut. Will their torment - and ours - never end?

Elsewhere, the Micronauts are still having problems with H.E.L.L, Professor Prometheus and possibly the Man-Thing.

Warlock is still going through his latest death, in an attempt to prevent himself becoming the Magus. Why he can't just decide not to become the Magus, I've no idea.

Meanwhile, the Tales of the Watcher asks what would have happened if World War Two had been fought in space, via the medium of Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos. As it's a What If story, I'm assuming it won't have a happy ending.

The Hulk's still fighting Bigfoot.

Thanks to unleashing disease in a public place, Ant-Man finally thwarts the man who looks like Brian Blessed and can control people with the power of his voice.

The Greek-based Eternals are on a mission to rescue Sersi from the clutches of the Deviants.

The Black Knight and Captain Britain are still getting nowhere in particular in their quest for whatever it is they're on a quest for.

All I know is they're operating in an England that's filled with wolves, elves, giants, goblins and ogres. Reader, I have lived in England and I have never encountered any of those things.

Night-Raven's still trying to battle the criminal underworld, despite blundering interference from a reporter.

Nick Fury's up to something or other with SHIELD.

It would appear that Godzilla's on an island packed with monsters belonging to someone called Dr Demonicus.

Let's face it, blessed with a name like that, he was never going to grow up to be a good guy.

Beyond that, I would assume Daredevil's still having problems with El Jaguar's attempts to abduct the Black Widow from Foggy's party.

Spider-Man's blind, and Carrion's waiting in Peter Parker's apartment to grab Mary Jane and Betty Brant/Leeds who are engaging in the therapeutic pastime of mutually jealous bickering.

As for the rest of this issue's contents, I can say nothing.

2000 AD - April 1981.

This seems to be the site that can't escape Eurovision.

That's because, in April 1981, no one could escape Eurovision.

Not only was it the month in which Bucks Fizz won the contest with Making Your Mind Up but it was a month which began with Shakin' Stevens' This Ole House at Number One on the UK singles chart before that selfsame Bucks Fizz song rose to claim the top spot for the rest of the month.

But other significant events were also afoot elsewhere. It was the month in which the Soviet Union introduced daylight saving time. As this was launched on April 1st, it's anyone's guess whether anyone believed it was real.

Later that month, the Space Shuttle Columbia was launched and then returned to Earth, making it the first time a manned reusable spacecraft had returned from orbit.

Shortly after that, China's first Coca-Cola bottling plant opened. I suspect there was no connection between the two events.

Meanwhile, back in Blighty that month, Steve Davis became world snooker champion for the first time. He went on to win the world title six times in total. By strange coincidence, the-totally-unrelated-to-him Joe Davis had previously won 15 World Snooker Championships and Fred Davis had won 8. Clearly, the secret to snooker success is to change your name to Davis.

We've already heard about the singles chart but what was happening on the album chart?

It wasn't a great month for those who liked rapid churn because Adam and the Ants' Kings of the Wild Frontier hogged the top spot for that entire spell.

However, by a mind-boggling coincidence, Ian Gillan spent the final week of that month at Number Two, with his album Future Shock.

Was the title of that LP inspired by Tharg's Future Shocks in the pages of 2000 AD?

Who can know?

Admittedly, Ian Gillan can probably know.

But I don't know him, so he's not likely to tell me.

It does, however, lead me into talking about what the galaxy's greatest comic was up to.

It was the month in which the esteemed mag celebrated its fourth birthday and was giving us Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Meltdown Man, the aforementioned Future Shocks and Return to Armageddon.

Besides that, Prog 207 gave us a tale called Tharg and the Creep That Stole Croydon.

Prog 208 gave us a Judge Dredd tale called The Problem With Sonny Bono. Based on no evidence at all, and an assumption that it wasn't really likely to be a story about Cher's ex-husband, I'm going to guess, "Sonny Bono," was the name of one of Mega-City One's tower blocks, and that a whole heap of trouble had broken out in it. Don't quote me on this, though.

Progs 208 and 209 gave us a tale called The Day They Banned 2000 AD.

Who banned it?

And why?

Frankly, I do not have a Scooby.

May 23rd, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

As we all know, things are going swimmingly well between the West and Russia at the moment.

Clearly, there's only one thing for it.

We're going to have to call in Elton John.

That's what we did forty years ago this week, at the height of the Cold War, when the toupéed ivory-tickler became the first rock star from the West to perform live in the Soviet Union.

I do remember that event well, and also the communist Soviet media's incomprehension at the amount of money Elton was earning each year.

Someone else who was, no doubt, raking it in at that time was Debbie Harry because this was the week she and the rest of Blondie hit the UK Number One spot with their single Sunday Girl which, if I remember right, was their second consecutive British chart-topper, following on from Heart of Glass.

At Number Two was Roxy Music's Dance Away, their big comeback single after several years of working apart. At Three was M's Pop Muzik, while ABBA resided at Four with Does Your Mother Know which is the only ABBA single I can think of that had a lead vocal by one of the blokes. At Number Five was Peaches and Herb's Reunited which, for all its pleasantness, I must declare I do view as not being on a creative par with those other four singles.

But, obviously, no one really cares about any of that.

All anyone really cares about is where were Boney M while all this was going on?

They were at Number Seven, with Hooray Hooray, It's A Holi-Holiday, on its way down the chart, having already peaked at Number Three.

Sadly, the M's musical fortunes took a major downturn from this point on and it was their last Top Ten single in Britain until their Mega Mix in 1992, with barely any of their singles from this point on even making the Top 40.

It was a living tragedy.

Still, at least we had Marvel UK to keep our spirits up.

Han and Chewie are still in that cave and still under fire from Jabba the Hut and his not-so-merry men.

According to the internet, the Micronauts escape from H.E.L.L, Ray Coffin meets Time Traveller, Argon rescues Slug, and Karza meets Prometheus.

Frankly, I don't have a clue what any of that means - and I say that as someone who's actually read the story.

Meanwhile, we've reached The Strange Death of Adam Warlock which, for me, is one of the great comic book tales of the 1970s.

There would appear to be no Tales of the Watcher this issue. I can only assume he must be on holiday.

Hooray! The Hulk's up against the Abominable Snowman!

Except he's not. He's up against Bigfoot.

Admittedly, they're in the same ballpark but several dozens of thousands of miles apart.

Ant-Man's up against that man who looks like Brian Blessed and can control others with the power of his voice, enabling him to turn the entire city against our insect-sized hero.

In The Eternals, Sersy's been abducted by the Deviants.

Night-Raven's been stalked by an inquisitive reporter.

Nick Fury's up to something. I don't know what but it might involve a desert.

Captain Britain and the Black Knight get to meet Moondog the elf. His name-check on the cover suggests this is viewed by the company as major news. Personally, I don't remember him.

More memorably, DD finds himself up against El Jaguar, the Kraven lookalike who decides it's a good idea to try and kidnap the Black Widow at a party.

Just when everyone was asking why Marvel would bother to bring back the Masked Marauder, it cannily quells those doubts by making us ask why it'd bother to bring back the Tri-Man. One can only assume someone on the editorial staff has a thing for half-forgotten Daredevil villains.

With developments like this, surely it can only be a matter of time before Spidey finds himself up against the awesome power of the Matador.

Metal Men #44, Rain of the Missile Men.

Imagine standing in a butcher's shop in the early 1970s, reading a comic about robots while old people stand around complaining they can't understand this fancy New Money the government's introduced and that it's all just an excuse to put prices up.

Personally, I don't have to - because I lived it.

That comic was Metal Men #44 and, as a child, I always had a soft spot for it. It seemed odd. It seemed different. It seemed somewhat mystifying.

But now I'm not in a butcher's shop anymore and everyone, even old people, can understand that fancy New Money, so, how will I feel about this comic now?

It's the early 1960s (because this is a reprint book) and Doctor Magnus has created a bunch of robotic friends from various metals. He now uses them to fight the forces of evil and help mankind.

Unfortunately, mankind really does need his help because an evil space robot has the hots for the Metal Men's only female operative - Tina - and is determined to rain an army of his doppelgangers down upon Earth until he gets her.

Happily, like most of us, our resourceful doctor just happens to have a big cannon on him that makes things super-magnetic.

Once the evil space robot's been zapped with it, his mechanical army sticks to him and he ends up entombed at the heart of a giant ball of robots, trapped forever at the bottom of the nearest river, wherefrom he shall never escape .

The first thing that strikes me reading this tale now is its artwork. Drawn by Ross Andru, it has a cleanness and assurance that it's impossible not to be impressed by and it seems noticeably more accomplished than I'm used to from reading all those early Marvel comics of the same era.

The second thing that strikes me is what a complete and total jerk Doctor Magnus is. While his robots are totally devoted to him, and have a level of selflessness that's genuinely moving, he seems to have no concern for their welfare at all.

He even, at one point, sends Tina off to spend the rest of her existence in a glass case in the local museum, no matter how hard she begs him not to, only taking her back when the museum gets fed up of her crying all day long and returns her to him, complaining that she can't be a real robot because she's not acting like one.

Does this make Magnus change his attitude towards her?

No it doesn't.

The third thing that strikes me - and struck me as a child - is that this is probably the grimmest comic book story I've ever read. The Metal Men get killed twice in the course of this story.

Admittedly, Magnus does manage to recreate them, with their original memories intact, but the sight of the story's heroes melting to death as they attempt to put out a fire is the sort of thing that can leave a man, let alone a child, traumatised.

So, do I still like it?

Sort of. I like the Metal Men themselves. They each have clearly differentiated personalities, in line with their properties as metals, and how can you not like anyone as self-sacrificing as they are? I also like the villain who isn't exactly what you'd call a developed character but I like his short-temper, and his frustration at only being able to produce replicas of himself whenever he tries to create a wife.

But the elephant in the room that is Magnus is hard to get round. Call me sad but I had exactly the same feeling when I tried to watch The Powerpuff Girls. I couldn't bring myself to keep watching it because the sight of a grown man sending small children into battle with homicidal villains, without heed for their safety, bothered me so much I had to switch off. And that was just a cartoon. This, on the other hand, is real; it's a comic.

So, I'd be very happy to read more issues, provided Magnus has been replaced by a legal guardian who the Metal Men actually deserve.

Are the Metal Men still on the go in the modern DC universe? I hope so, and I hope they're having a happier time than they are here.

May 16th, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Have you ever wanted to own a garden in space and have it tended by three robots while Joan Baez warbles the same song over and over and over again until you get sick of it?

If so, this night of exactly forty years ago was your lucky night because it was the evening BBC One was showing Douglas Trumbull's Silent Running, that slightly barking tale of conservation, and murder by shovel.

It is very much a film that is of its time and its plot doesn't stand up to any kind of logical scrutiny but I enjoyed it at the time and still get upset whenever the robots are hurt.

Joan Baez may have been in that film but, in the real world, we were all listening to ABBA because their album Voulez-Vous was reigning supreme at the top of the UK album chart. Chiquitita is my favourite of its five singles, especially for that magnificent bit of pub piano at the end. It positively makes me want to clink my steinkrug to it.

Come to think of it, after all these years, I still don't know what voulez-vous actually means.

There's only one thing for it. I'm going to have to Google it.

....

....

....

That's it. I have now Googled it. It would appear that it means, "Do you want?"

But do I want what?

Why can ABBA not be more specific in their questions to me? Why?

Han Solo and Chewie are on some planet or other, in a cave, being fired at by Jabba the Hut and his men.

As this is long before The Return of the Jedi, I wonder if we get to see Jabba in this issue and whether he bears any resemblance to the character who ended up on film.

Hold on. Is the scaly man on the cover meant to be him?

I cannot say.

Elsewhere, at Thano's insistence, Warlock's using his soul gem to destroy the Magus' army, even though such an act is part of the process which'll turn him into the Magus in the first place. Oh, the nightmarish paradoxes.

Somewhat less cosmically, the Micronauts are up against a man who only has a half a face. I don't have a clue who he is.

This is it! The big one! The Hulk beats up a bear!

To be honest, when you've grown up watching him take on the Galaxy Master, Klaatu and an island full of giant space-monsters, a punch-up in the woods, with a bear, seems somewhat less than thrilling.

Ant-Man has to deal with a hijacker who turns out to be exactly who you thought he'd be. In fact, I have noticed that the trend with early Ant-Man tales seems to be that whoever asked for his help in the first place is, later, going to be revealed as the villain.

High in the Andes, the Eternals are still mithering about the return of the Celestials.

Night-Raven finally gets round to bumping off the assassin who's been hired to kill him.

Nick Fury's up to something but I don't know what and, based on previous form, I doubt it'll be anything that interests me.

The Black Knight and Captain Britain are still battling the forces of evil in a Britain that bears no resemblance to any Britain I've ever been to.

Hooray! Ms Marvel makes her Kreetastic debut!

To be honest, I don't recall much about her adventures but I do recall that I always hated her costume. The bare stomach and legs just didn't go with an outfit that also had gloves. And no battler of evil should ever wear a scarf.

As usual, the rest of this issue's contents are a mystery to me.

Hooray! Spider-Man's up against the Masked Marauder!

For such a duff villain, he does seem to be getting a lot of use, of late, in Spidey's strip.