The Marvel Lucky Bag - November 1970.

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

***

Dodecahedron.

There's only one reason I know that word.

And that's because it features in the book The Phantom Tollbooth.

But my first introduction to that tale wasn't via the book. It was via the film based on the book.

And that film came out this month in 1970.

However, it wasn't the only cinematic treat that escaped, there and then, because that November also saw the unleashing of Hammer's The Scars of Dracula.

That masterpiece, of course, starred the unlikely duo of singing TV cop Dennis Waterman and children's TV show presenter Jenny Hanley. Somehow, that oddness of casting makes it seem all the more memorable.

Second Doctor Who Patrick Troughton was also in it. Clearly, the film was the gift that kept giving.

I recall that, in it, Drac meets his fate by the same method the werewolf does in the Neal Adams drawn Batman story Moon of the Wolf. Coincidence? Who can know?

When it came to the UK singles chart, November kicked-off with Matthews' Southern Comfort's Woodstock at Number One. However, that was then displaced by Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile, while the month ended with the top spot being held by Dave Edmund's I Hear Your Knocking.

Over on the British album chart, Led Zeppelin III initially held the high ground before being knocked down a peg or two by Bob Dylan's New Morning. But even his Bobness ultimately had to make way, as November ended with Andy Williams' Greatest Hits achieving chart supremacy. 

The Inhumans find themselves up against the power of the Mandarin in what I can't imagine being anything other than a one-sided smackdown, bearing in mind they outnumber him heavily and he's never won a fight against anyone.

The Black Widow's up to something as well, and I don't know what but it seems to involve a man with a bag over his head.

Hooray! We get the launch of yet another Marvel monster mag!

And how better to do so than by giving us the exploits of a fiend who even has a name that's almost, "Monster?"

In the issue's second tale, an alien comes to Earth, to check out whether to invade it. In the end, he decides not to bother and, instead, settles down with a nice Earth girl.

Finally, a criminal discovers a genie and intends to use its powers for his own benefit.

I must confess I habitually ignore Sgt Fury's book in this feature but I feel I have to include this issue purely because of that cover.

However, I'm sensing, "The All-American," will turn out to be more trouble than he's worth.

Attuma captures Namor, Triton and Sting-Ray and orders them to fight each other or he'll put the kibosh on Diane Arliss.

Happily, Subby concocts a cunning plan which involves the trio swimming round and round and round in circles.

Issue #3 of Where Creatures Roam gives us the tale of Thorg who older readers will remember as Thorr, a villain bearing a noticeable resemblance to the mighty Thor's first foes the Stone Men from Saturn.

In our other tales, we get a man who declares himself to have been the victim of a sorcerer, a man who demands to be saved from the Mole Men and, finally, a man who declares that he lives again.

Hooray! Groot's on the loose!

Sadly, there's no sign of any of the other Guardians of the Galaxy and, in this tale, his attempts to abduct an entire town are thwarted by the unleashing of termites.

That's followed by the tale of a scientist, with a time machine, who's unable to distinguish between the past and future, a skill you'd have thought a prerequisite for anyone building a time machine.

Then we have the tale of a sculptor who falls in love with one of his creations and has himself turned into wood.

And, finally, none of a pilot's passengers believe him when he says they've just had a near-miss with a flying saucer.

But what he doesn't know is that one of those passengers is a Martian!

Fifty years ago this month - November 1970.

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

***

I don't normally associate Miss World with high drama but it certainly was in November 1970.

That's because it was stricken by not one but two setbacks.

The first was that, even as Bob Hope hosted it in London's Royal Albert Hall, the glitz and glamour was disrupted by Women's Lib protesters.

The second was The Angry Brigade lived up to their name by leaving a bomb outside the venue, in protest at separate black and white contestants having been chosen to represent South Africa.

But The Angry Brigade weren't the only ones who were fed up. For it was also the month in which The American Indian Movement seized a replica of The Mayflower in Boston.

Possibly not so irate were the people of the UK who were having to make sure they'd offloaded all their ten-shilling notes, as they ceased to be legal tender, in yet another move towards decimalisation.

I must confess I've no memory at all of the ten-shilling note and have no clue just how common or uncommon they were.

What I do have a memory of is The Goodies, that TV comedy show which was effectively Monty Python for kids. The series made its debut, on BBC Two, that month and quickly became a favourite with the public, even if it's not necessarily stood the test of time as well as it might have.

By means that are blurry to me, Aries has taken over New York City and sealed it off from the outside world.

Come to think of it, hasn't he done it by gassing everyone while they're asleep, so they've awoken to find their city occupied by his mercenary army?

Not that it matters, because Daredevil's on hand to help the Avengers deal with the fiend. Aries might fancy his chances against the world's mightiest super-team but what hope does he have against a blind acrobat?

That cad Baron Strucker finds an amnesiac youth, somewhere or other, and hypnotises him into thinking he's Bucky.

Strucker, of course, then uses this fake Bucky to lure Cap into a trap.

But is he a fake Bucky?

It would appear a movie mogul decides he needs to take violent action against those he deems un-American.

Apparently, that's what happens. I've no recall of this tale at all.

But it looks like it's bad news for DD.

The multi-part epic comes to its conclusion as Magneto seizes control of New York and...

...hold on a minute. Aries has also seized control of New York. How can they both have seized control of New York at the same time and why does neither seem to have noticed the presence of the other?

Anyway, this half of the New York Invasion Equation is thwarted by Reed Richards who invents a gun that turns Magneto's power against him.

Seemingly, Reed has no interest in doing anything about Aries' invasion.

It's one of my Hulk faves, as the green globetrotter finds himself having to play the part of a golem, in order to liberate a tiny country from the clutches of Draxon the dictator.

I have no recollection of this one at all but it sees the introduction of Kevin O'Brien, so it has some kind of historical significance.

I definitely have a recollection of this one. You'd need a heart of stone not to be traumatised by it, as George Stacy dies trying to save a child from a falling chimney stack.

And, now, more than ever, the world is convinced that Spider-Man is a menace.

Speaking of menaces, Dr Doom decides to hire the services of Donald Blake, in the belief the physician can perform the surgery needed to rebuild his face.

Of course, it's all a ruse by Thor to gain access to Latveria and rescue a scientist that Doom's holding prisoner.

Given Doom's Marvel ubiquity, it does seem amazing that it's taken this long for Thor to actually come up against him.

October 29th, 1980 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

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

***

Wait! What's this? Another week has passed and Marvel UK's down to just three weekly comics? Is the bony hand of Death knocking at the imprint's front door, once more?

No. It isn't.

In fact, not only is the House of Ideas still publishing a zillion and one monthlies but there's a whole new slew of weeklies about to hit the newsagents, as well. What kind of madness is this? Is whoever's in charge trying to take over the whole blamed world?

If so, coverage of that conquest'll have to wait another seven days. For now, let's see what the company's giving us that displays a cover date belonging to the last week of October 1980.

All I know about this issue is Spider-Man's fight to thwart the Vulture's takeover of the New York mobs continues and we also get a two-page spread showing us the layouts of the Daily Bugle and the Daily Globe, as well as the campus of ESU.

I think we're all been desperate for those treats.

It would also appear the Hulk gets to tangle with Moon Knight, although that's not a story I could claim to have any memory of.

I'm even more clueless about the contents of this one but, clearly, Kull's still battling those Devil-Birds that were so vexing him last issue.

And I suspect ROM's probably still having to wage war without his Neutraliser.

And I finish off with another rubbish attempt at a summary because all I know about this issue is Spidey gets to team-up with Nighthawk in a scrap to the death with the Meteor Man and, also, the Torpedo has his own strip.

I'm also certain Morbius' series is still running, though I couldn't say what's currently happening in it.

All in all, thanks to my ignorance, I can't help feeling this week's post has been a bit of a washout.

Fortunately, I've already written the vast bulk of next week's Marvel UK post and know it's so packed solid with useful info that it's practically bursting at the seams.

In fact, the World Wide Web'll probably collapse beneath the sheer weight of it.

Therefore, if you meet the man who owns the internet, please remember to apologise to him, on my behalf.

The Cross-Over From Hell. Tomb of Dracula #18 & Werewolf by Night #15.

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

***

The first Marvel multi-title crossover story I can remember ever reading was the nightmarish horror that occurred when Tomb of Dracula first collided with Werewolf by Night.

How I remember reading both books at the same time, as I sat in the raised cafeteria of Sheffield's indoor Sheaf Market whose main claim to fame was being next to the indoor Castle Market where the video for Tony Christie's Walk Like a Panther was shot.

How glamorous, but neither of these characters walked like a panther. One walked like a dog and one walked like a bat.

Still, I didn't let that put me off.

So, with Halloween looming, it's time for me to revisit that two-part trauma-thon and see just what's going down in Fang Land.

Jack Russell and his lady friend Topaz are travelling to Transylvania, in search of answers about his family's history of lycanthropy.

At the same time, Frank Drake and his lady friend Rachel Van Helsing are also travelling to that very same part of Europe, in search of Dracula who's headed out there for whatever reason.

Neither couple is aware of the other's existence, nor of each other's mission.

But the two missions soon intersect because it turns out the very first lycanthrope in Jack's family was his great, great, great grandfather who, after staking Dracula, was turned into a beast by a female werewolf the Count had been keeping prisoner.

Dracula, meanwhile, has decided he fancies getting his teeth into Topaz, even though he discovers she has a strange power to mentally repel him, thanks to her magic abilities.

Needless to say, this leads vampire and werewolf into conflict, one in which the werewolf does surprisingly well, thanks to the influence Topaz is exerting on both his and Dracula's minds.

Anyway, just as the fight's reaching its apex, Frank and Rachel show up to distract Dracula and seize a book that could enable them to destroy him, before fleeing in their helicopter, forcing Vlad to take off in hot pursuit and leaving Topaz and Wolfie far behind.

For a story that's spread over two parts, it's a surprisingly simple tale. What's good about it is we get to learn a little more of Jack's backstory and he, for once, isn't totally useless in a fight. In fact, he actually manages to win one.

Granted, it's against a drunken sailor but it's one more fight than he normally manages to win.

He, of course, doesn't defeat Dracula but that part is one of the story's main weaknesses.

In order to make the scrap not as one-sided as all logic suggests it would be, Dracula has to be portrayed as remarkably ineffective in this tale. Not only does he not manage to summon the wherewithal to defeat his hairy foe, he twice has a perfect chance to kill Rachel and Frank and twice departs without doing so, letting them off the hook for no real reason. 

He also tries to sabotage their helicopter - laughing maniacally as he does so - and does such a terrible job of it that, when they climb into it, they have no difficulty flying off in it at full pelt, leaving the villain to have to turn into a bat and flap like crazy to chase after them.

I think we can assume he's having an off-day.

Speaking of off-days, I'm not sure that either Gene Colan or Mike Ploog produce their best work in this tale, while Marv Wolfman sort of does what he has to.

This tale's set in modern-day Europe, which means it's, inevitably, somehow, still the 19th Century, and Transylvania seems remarkably British. Even the local inn's sign is in, "Olde," English.

I'm also not sure about Dracula's ideas about time management. We're told he's travelled all the way back to Transylvania, from England, in order to concentrate on hatching his next scheme.

But the scheme he then hatches is to return to England and carry on doing what he was already doing.

I can't help feeling that was something of a wasted journey.

So, in the end, it's all non-decisive and I feel the tale has to be seen as just another episode in the turbulent lives of both sets of characters, rather than an awesome and historic epic that fans will never forget.

October 22nd, 1980 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

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

***

Who's a woman in love?

Barbra Streisand is.

At least she was, in this week exactly 40 years ago, as her single of that title hit the top of the UK singles chart, thanks to the songwriting skills of the Brothers Gibb.

To be honest, I can barely remember it. I shall have a quick listen to it, on YouTube, to refresh my memory.

...

...

...

I have now listened to it.

It's OK.

That is my considered opinion.

Holy feathery dooms! The Vulture has Spidey in chains and about to be incinerated! Is it the end of our web-spinning superstar?

No, but it could all be bad news for the villain's nephew.

Elsewhere, Iron Man discovers the truth about the robot he thought was She-Hulk - but now his alter-ego and hers must face each other in a court of law.

Even more elsewhere, Morgan Le Fey's out to kill Magnus - and only Spider-Woman can stop her!

I don't have a clue who Magnus is.

Is it just me or is Spider-Woman the most random strip of all time?

I'm not sure what the Hulk's up to this week but I think he might be smashing-up a high street while a man sits up a flagpole.

If the cover's to be believed, ROM's been separated from his Neutraliser!

I don't have a clue what that is but I can't help suspecting its absence may be a bad thing.

Elsewhere, Kull's up against the talons of the devil-birds.

Spidey and the Falcon are still teaming up to tangle with whoever it is they're tangling with.

And it would appear we're going to be told what would have happened if Spider-Man had become a film star.

But, of course, Spider-Man did become a film star. I've seen the movies.

The rest of this week's contents are a mystery to me.

It's a historic moment, as Marvel UK's biggest-selling weekly reaches its last-ever issue. 

But not to fear, for, next week, it'll become a monthly.

And, to celebrate, Leia has a showdown with Darth Vader which involves her trying to blackmail him.

Has he told her, yet, that he's her father?

He's taking his time over it. He could barely wait to tell Luke.

In other matters, we get more of Killraven's origin.

In the reprint of Marvel's adaptation of the first Star Wars movie, old Ben Kenobi saves Luke from the Sand People while the empire's busy killing Luke's aunt and uncle.

And, finally, in I Was a Prisoner of the Martians, a tyrannical film director's kidnapped by extraterrestrials - and his only hope of liberation is if the actors he's been bullying feel motivated to rescue him.

Forty years ago today - October 1980.

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

***

You know, a wise man once said, "Get on with it, you moron." So, I will.

Zukala's back!

And, for reasons I don't recall, he wants to sacrifice Red Sonja.

Obviously, Conan's having none of that.

Except it turns out he's having plenty of that - because Zukala's promised he'll restore Bêlit to life if Conan helps him bump off the warrior woman.

Happily, the barbarian thinks better of it and comes to Sonja's rescue, just in the nick of time.

Not so happily, throughout the tale, Rascally Roy manages to portray Sonja as barely more than another feeble damsel in distress.

Royston, let Sonja kick bottom, for once.

The FF, Agatha Harkness and Gabriel the exorcist have all descended upon Salem, to sort out Agatha's son and free Franklin Richards from his evil possession.

But, before they can do that, they're going to have to deal with the return of the town's very own team of super-villains.

Woodgod's gone all High Evolutionary and created a whole community of animal-men for him to lead.

Now, the Hulk's ventured into their midst, in order to rescue Rick Jones and friends from their clutches.

I seem to recall this tale just sort of fizzling out, with the Hulk getting bored of fighting, and leaving.

Kraven's gone into retirement, having decided that being a super-villain is unworthy of a man of his principles

Unfortunately, his disapproving girlfriend goads him into making one final attempt to get the better of Spider-Man.

And, of course, it all ends the same way it always has.

Kraven is, however, portrayed in a far more sympathetic light, here, than has traditionally been the case.

What's this? Hobie Brown is back and causing limited trouble for our hero again?

As it transpires, he isn't. The Cat Burglar from Amazing Spider-Man #30 has, in fact, returned and is running errands for fashion criminal Belladonna, in Hobie's stolen costume.

Sadly, the man seems to be more of a pathetic dupe than anything and it's not long before his employer's betraying him, in her attempts to bump-off Spidey.

At last, we get an answer to why Odin struck a deal with the Celestials, umpteen zillion years ago - and it all leads to Odin taking over the Destroyer and having a noticeably one-sided fight with the Celestials before Thor has a noticeably one-sided fight with them before Thor's mum turns up, from nowhere, and does a deal with the space giants to make them go away.

This implies, to me, that the solution to any problem is to just have Thor's mum show up.

Back in the real world,  humanity emits a sigh of relief, as a protracted and confusing storyline finally comes to an end.

In the wake of Jean's death, Cyclops quits the team, and Kitty Pryde joins it.

I think this issue's mostly taken up with flashbacks but I could be wrong.

How very topical. People keep telling Cap he should run for president and, so, he gives it considerable thought before bottling it and deciding it's not his bag, man.

I'm fairly certain this issue contains a flashback to his origin because where would an issue of Captain America be without telling us how he came into being, for the gabillionth time?

Thor may be celebrating his 300th issue but the Avengers are celebrating their 200th.

And they do it by unravelling the mystery of where Ms Marvel's baby's come from and how it's growing to adulthood at an alarming rate.

As far as I can recall, it's all something to do with Immortus, female abduction, mind-control, gaslighting and dubious weirdness that probably doesn't even make any sense, anyway, when you try to figure it out.

Madame Masque has returned to her life of crime but, fortunately, Iron Man and friends are on hand to put a stop to whatever nefarious schemes she's concocted.

October 15th, 1980 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

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

***

This week in 1980 saw two memorable things happen in the world of British politics.

One was that Margaret Thatcher declared she wasn't for turning.

The other was that Jim Callaghan declared he wasn't for staying. The former prime minister quit his post as leader of the Labour Pary, after having lost the 1979 election.

In retrospect, it seems surprising it took him a full 18 months to get round to doing it but, then, he's the man who helped Captains Britain and America defeat the Red Skull. So, he clearly wasn't a man to give up easily.

Hooray! Spider-Man teams up with the Falcon, though who the deadly menace is who's forced them to unite, I've no idea.

Similarly, I've not got a clue who anybody else in this issue's up against.

I do know Morbius the Living Vampire has a strip of his own, because the cover tells me so.

I am, however, intrigued by that cover's boast that this issue features, "Imaginary action with Spidey."

Hold on. Does this mean all his other adventures are true?

Failing that, I can only assume it means there's a What If? story involved.

Spider-Man's just discovered the Vulture's the mystery villain who's in the process of taking over all of New York's gangs.

Unfortunately, the information's not likely to do the web-spinner any good, as he's now wrapped in chains and on a conveyor belt that's about to deliver him to a fiery furnace of doom.

Meanwhile, the Hulk and 3-D Man are in the process of smashing-up Uncle Chuck's house.

Frankly, Uncle Chuck only has himself to blame for being the one who invited Bruce Banner into his house and then setting 3-D Man on him. Clearly, this was not the best thought-out plan of all time.

This week's activities of She-Hulk and Spider-Woman are a mystery to me.

I don't know anything about this week's contents but the Golem makes the front cover, which is nice for him.

Leia and the droids find themselves on a planet filled with delightful butterflies.

But is one of them a hostile shape-shifter sent to spy on them, by Darth Vader?

Elsewhere, thanks to Neal Adams' pencils, Killraven's out to get to the man we know only as The Keeper. But, first, he has to fight his way past a pair of hostile mutants.

And there's yet more of Marvel's adaptation of the first Star Wars movie. Luke Skywalker's just bought himself a brand new droid called R2-D2. But now it's gone AWOL and he has to set off in search of it.

Can it be that it's seeking out old Ben Kenobi?

And for what purpose?