May 18th, 1977 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

As I type these fateful words, I'm watching the original Star Trek on The Horror Channel. It's not one of the more memorable episodes. They appear to have been eaten by a giant space amoeba.

There's only one thing for it. If the entertainment of the 1960s is failing to float my starship, I'm going to have to take refuge in the escapism of the 1970s.

I don't like to nitpick but that is so blatantly an American style stadium and not a British one. That was the problem with Captain Britain. The lack of authenticity, pulling you out of the stories.

My research tells me there's nothing happening in the back-up strips that wasn't happening last week.

From the days when putting the Punisher on the front of a comic wasn't guaranteed to drive readers away in their droves.

It was this story that made me want my own personal cable car system. Tragically, I still don't have one. How is it possible for life to be so cruel to a man?

But how exactly are Spider-Man and Nightcrawler trapped? They're about as untrapped as any human being has ever been. They're surrounded only by the sky, which is gigantic and gives them many directions in which to flee. The Punisher, on the other hand, is trapped. He's on a tiny roof, about five hundred foot up in the air. Where's he going to run to when Spidey whips his guns off him, Nightcrawler teleports at him and then the fists start flying?

The Hulk would appear to be in Jarella's world. The people from the Planet of the Apes would appear to be in The Last of the Mohicans.

While I would never wish failure upon Marvel UK, I can't deny I'm glad this title didn't last long. It means there are only a finite number of issues about which I have to declare, "I don't have a clue what happens in this one."

As always, it has a nice cover.

Hooray! I only have about another dozen weeks of saying, "It has a nice cover," to go.