November 21st, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

On this night in 1979, BBC One was broadcasting The Trouble With Tribbles, that dreadful warning about why you should never ever feed your pets.

Clearly, with such terror on the loose, I was going to have to take refuge in my record player but that meant I'd need an intimate knowledge of what was happening on the singles chart at the time.

What was happening was that Dr Hook were still Number One with When You're in Love With a Beautiful Woman but challenging hard were Queen, at Number Two, with Crazy Little Thing Called Love while the Jam were reigning supreme at Number Three with Eton Rifles.

What chance did we have against a tie and a crest?

None whatsoever.

And we may have, likewise, been no match for their untamed wit but were we a good match for Marvel UK's comics of that week?

I'm not sure what's going on with Darth Vader's eyes on this cover. I can only assume he's been taking some of Rick Jones' vitamin C tablets.

However, it's all drama as Domina Tagge tricks Vader and Luke Skywalker into having a duel in a location which guarantees both their deaths.

Despite this, I suspect they both survive to duel another day.

I suspect Domina Tagge may not prove to be quite so fortunate.

Upon the doings of the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Watcher, I can shed no light but I do know Deathlok's busy being crucified by his creators, for the crime of having a will of his own.

Needless to say, it's not long before he exerts that free will by smashing in their skulls.

I'm also aware that this issue's back cover features an add for that most majestic of all synthesizers the Stylophone.

The Hulk's still trying to rescues Trish Starr from Machine Man, even though Machine Man doesn't have her.

Ant-Man and the Wasp are now both stuck at insect size and at the mercy of the Whirlwind. Some scientists they turned out to be.

We're still getting the origins of both the Black Knight and the Silver Surfer.

Meanwhile, the Defenders are up against the terror of the Cobalt Man, as Egghead continues his attempts to get his hands on some jewel or other.

Spidey and the Black Cat are getting randy again.

Elsewhere, Aunt May's recovered from the death that so threatened to disrupt her comic book career.

My knowledge of the back-up strips is patchy but I do know Iron Man's up against the Super-Adaptoid who's shown up at the Avengers Mansion for some reason.

Hooray! We get the chance to win some of those fancy futuristic digital watches that are all the rage.

Not only that but we get a feature about the universe's deadliest potatoes, the Sontarans.

Elsewhere, the Iron Legion are still causing trouble for our hero and, no doubt, the entire planet Earth.

We also get an adaptation of the First Doctor's adventure Marco Polo.

The War of the Worlds adaptation rumbles on and that Cyberman's still investigating the thing humans know as, "Emotion."