Marvel Fanfare: Strange Tales

Reprints Marvel Fanfare #1-7
Written by Chris Claremont, Roger McKenzie, Bill Mantlo, Charlie Boatner, David Winn, David Michelinie, David Anthony Kraft, Mike W. Barr, Sandy Plunkett, Roger Stern, Steven Grant and Al Milgrom.
Penciled by Michael Golden, Dave Cockrum, Paul Smith, George Freeman, Joe Barney, Trevor Von Eeden, Marshall Rogers, Luke McDonnell, Sandy Plunkett, Charles Vess and Al Milgrom.
Inked by Michael Golden, Bob McLeod, Terry Austin, Armando Gil, Joe Rubinstein, Dan Green, Bob Downs, P. Craig Russell, Charles Vess and George Freeman.

Summary:
More than a dozen tales told by some of the Bronze Age's best writers and artists!

Karl Lykos was cursed with an affliction that forced him to absorb energy from others to survive. This caused him to turn into the pterodactyl man Sauron. As Sauron, Lykos battled the X-Men twice, giving the mutant heroes all they could handle.

Some years after Lykos' last encounter with the X-Men, the love of his life, Tanya Anderssen, has learned that Lykos is alive in the Savage Land. She seeks help from Warren Worthington III, better known to the world as Angel of the X-Men. Angel is reluctant to help, telling her Lykos probably doesn't want to be found, but Warren is moved by the love Tanya shows for Lykos and agrees to search for Karl in the Savage Land.

Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson learns of their expedition and gets exclusive coverage for his paper. Jameson assigns photographer Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, to accompany Angel to the Savage Land on behalf of the Bugle.

As their helicopter arrives in the Savage Land, it's hit by a ptrerodactyl! They land safely and begin searching for Karl Lykos. They're attacked by the Savage Land Mutates, a team of swamp savages who were given super powers by Magneto. Parker has time to put on his Spider-Man costume and fight back, but he and Angel are overpowered and captured by the Mutates, while Tanya escapes.

The heroes are brought before the Mutates' leader, the super-intelligent Brainchild. He zaps Angel and Spider-Man with a genetic transformer ray. This devolves them, turning Spidey into a human-sized spider and Angel into a birdman.

Tanya is attacked by a dinosaur, but she's rescued by none other than Karl Lykos. He takes her to Ka-Zar and they plan to rescue the heroes. Before they can implement they're plan, they're attacked by Angel and Spider-Man in their new forms. Ka-Zar, Tanya and Karl are captured and taken to Brainchild, who mutates Tanya into a neanderthal.

Lykos knows that he can save Tanya by absorbing energy from her. He does the same for Angel and Spider-Man, returning them to their human form. However, this results in Karl being once again transformed into Sauron! As he flies off, Sauron tells Ka-Zar that he is declaring war on the Savage Land. Spider-Man and Angel are traumatized by their transformations and head back to the states.

Sometime later, Angel returns to the Savage Land. He summons the X-Men for help and they head out to find Sauron. They encounter the Mutates and make quick work of them. The X-Men get the mutates to lead them to Sauron's citadel.

However, when they arrive, Sauron attacks. An energy field around the citadel saps away their powers and they're captured. Angel flees, but he falls from the sky and is presumed dead. Sauron uses the genetic transformer on the X-Men so that he can use them to drain energy and increase his power.

Angel survives his fall and is found by Ka-Zar. They plan a counteroffensive to save their friends. If they can't stop Sauron, the X-Men and the Savage Land itself will be doomed!

Plus, several more stories, including:

When a street corner Santa is mugged, Daredevil helps track down the local crime boss behind the mugging!

Doctor Strange and Clea face the sorcerer known as Nicodemus!:

Spider-Man is attacked by Scarlet Witch and transported to a mystical realm. The webhead learns that Wanda has been possessed by the sorcerer Xandu! It's up to Spidey to free Scarlet Witch from Xandu's control and defeat the evil sorcerer.

Captain America is captured by the son of one of his wartime foes and must battle without his costume and shield.

A young man named Ian McNamee visits the Sanctum Santorum of Doctor Strange. McNamee claims to be the Socerer Supreme, a title held by Doc Strange. McNamee challenges Strange to a duel of magic!

Seeking food, the Hulk visits a carnival. He encounters his old enemy, the mutant called the Blob and a battle ensues. When the Hulk appears to have the fight won, he's attacked by Blob's friend Unus the Untouchable! 

Review:
There are too many stories in this book to thoroughly summarize, so I'll try to cover more details in this section.  I should also mention that the Savage Land portion is the only multi-part tale, which is why it takes up about 9/10 of the summary. On the whole, Marvel Fanfare: Strange Tales is a mixed bag, but the good parts are very good.

Story:
For those who don't remember, or who weren't alive back in 1981, Marvel Fanfare was conceived as a higher quality prestige comic printed on glossy paper that would present new stories by superstar creators. Every issue included a shorter backup tale that followed the main feature. 

The first story delivers on the promise, with Chris Claremont teamed with Michael Golden. Claremont gives us a good story set in the Savage Land. Sauron has long been one of my favorite villains and he's put to good use here as a very frightful villain who is willing to torture the X-Men in just to increase his power.

It's followed by a nice Daredevil story by Roger McKenzie that takes place at Christmas. It's not an essential tale, just a "Daredevil vs. small-time drug dealer" yarn, but it's okay and as I've said here in earlier reviews, I've long been a fan of comic book stories that take place during the holiday season. So it's something I read every year and it always holds up.

The Doctor Strange/Clea adventure, also written by Claremont, is solid as well. Mike W. Barr's Spider-Man's team-up with Scarlet Witch is enjoyable. I've long been a fan of stories that place Spider-Man in unusual settings like the mystical surroundings of Xandu. McKenzie's Captain America's battle with the modern day Nazi is solid. Hulk's encounter with Blob and Unus is very good. It's sort of told through the eyes of the mutant villains.

We get a sense that Unus and Blob are the best of friends who would do anything for one another. That's not a depiction of bad guys that we've often seen in comics and makes them multi-dimensional, not just generic super-villains.

The rest of the stories aren't that great.

The Dethlok and Iron Man stories both feature stories that are basically dreams of the main characters. They aren't bad, but they're placed consecutively in the tpb (just as they were in Marvel Fanfare #4), which makes them less enjoyable.

The seven issues reprinted here also feature three tales that focus on Doctor Strange or other sorcerers. Two such stories, the Spider-Man/Xandu battle and Strange's duel with MacNamee. They're okay adventures, but two even run back-to-back.

Mantlo penned the Daredevil tale that closes Marvel Fanfare: Strange Tales. A little boy with blindness loses his seeing-eye dog. I guess Mantlo is trying to make a statement about there are some problems even superheroes can't solve. But it's depressing and just feels "depressing for the sake of being depressing."

Even the Savage Land story has one big problem.  When Sauron's power turns Spider-Man back into his normal self, we see Peter Parker lose consciousness. Did Angel and Ka-Zar somehow not see this? Do they know that Parker and Spider-Man are one and the same? Did Ka-Zar and Angel not think it was a bit odd that Spider-Man was in the Savage Land? This has bugged me since I read this story for the first time back in 1982.

On the whole, the stories are more good than bad.

During its publication, every issue of Marvel Fanfare featured one-page humor strips titled 'Editori-Al', written and drawn by editor Al Milgrom.

They're reprinted here and the provide a nice diversion from the very serious and dramatic stories in this tpb.

Art:
This is where Marvel Fanfare: Strange Tales truly shines. Michael Golden penciled the first two parts of the Savage Land story and also the short Deathlok and Iron Man backups. He's at the top of his game here, lots of cool images of Sauron, dinosaurs, Spider-Man devolved into a giant spider, etc.

Dave Cockrum and Paul Smith took over and penciled the next two chapters, respectively. Those two are a slight step down from Golden's work, but I enjoyed their art as well.

Smith also provided art in the Daredevil Christmas story, his first work at Marvel. Marshall Rogers and P. Craig Russell give us great looking work in Clea and Doctor Strange's fight with Nicodemus. Sandy Plunkett does a good job penciling the Spider-Man/Scarlet Witch portion.

Charles Vess penciled the second Doctor Strange story and Vess does a great job depicting Strange's mystical world.

How Does It Look?:
Here's a scan taken from my old copy of Marvel Fanfare #3:

And here are the same pages scanned from Marvel Fanfare: Strange Tales:

Rating:
Marvel Fanfare: Strange Tales features some great stories penciled by some of my favorite artists and is especially recommended for fans of Golden, Smith and Milgrom's humor strips. But the sometimes mediocre backup stories prevent me from giving it a higher rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.

Wolverine

Reprints Wolverine Vol.1 #1-4 and Uncanny X-Men #172-173.
Written by Chris Claremont.
Penciled by Frank Miller and Paul Smith.
Inked by Josef Rubenstein and Bob Wiacek.

 Wolverine takes a leave of absence from the X-Men to visit Tokyo, home of his girlfriend Mariko Yashida. He has not heard from Mariko in months. All his letters to her have been returned unopened and she will not take his phone calls.

Upon arrival in Japan, Logan learns that Mariko has been forced to marry a man she does not love. Her father, Lord Shingen Harada, has returned and arranged this marriage to a man named Noboru-Hideki  to settle a family debt.

Wolverine finds out that Mariko is being beaten by her husband.

Wolverine visits Mariko and finds that Noboru is abusing her. He's determined to exact revenge, but is attacked by ninjas who drug him with poisoned shurikens.

Shingen easily defeats Wolverine in a duel, disgracing him in front of Mariko.

When he wakes up, Wolverine is brought before Shingen. He says Wolverine is unworthy of his daughter's love and challenges him to a duel, with wooden bokan swords. Wolverine is still suffering from the effects of the poison, and Shingen is a master swordsman. The battle is brief and Shingen wins easily. He has succeeded in humiliating Wolverine in front of Mariko, who turns her back on Logan.  

Yukio falls for Wolverine, but his heart is set on Mariko.

Wolverine is dumped in an alley.  A street gang finds the drugged, beaten-down Logan and attacks him.  But he's saved by a woman named Yukio, who takes down the gang with knives and martial arts. She claims to be a ronin, a samurai who serves no master.  Wolverine is grateful to Yukio for saving his life and he feels they are very similar. Yukio is falling in love with Logan, but his heart is set on Mariko.  He will need Yukio's help if he wants to take down Shingen and win back Mariko's love. But can Yukio be trusted?

Wolverine battles The Hand.

Shingen subsequently sends a team of ninja assassins from The Hand to kill Wolverine and Yukio. The assassins are defeted, but Yukio is stabbed in the shoulder, badly injured.

Wolverine shows The Hand assassins that he is, indeed "The Best" at what he does.

After this, Shingen continues to send assassins to take out Logan, but they fail at every attempt. Their conflict will be decided by another duel between Shingen and Wolverine. But this time it will be to the death.  

(Major SPOILERS below)

Storm, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler & Colossus arrive in Tokyo.

Wolverine triumphs over Shingen and Mariko is freed from her loveless marriage. Logan and Mariko are now free to marry. They invite Wolverine's teammates from the X-Men to attend their wedding in Tokyo. The X-Men have brought their newest teammate Rogue. Wolverine objects to this, since Rogue was a villain  and ruined the career of his friend Ms. Marvel. Mariko welcomes Rogue and lightens the mood.

Storm meets Yukio, while Wolverine reminds Kitty that they come from different worlds.

But all is not well. The villains Silver Samarai and his partner in crime, Viper, have also arrived in Tokyo and intend to prevent the wedding. Silver Samurai (his real name is Kenuichio Harada) is a son of Shingen and half-brother of Mariko. He claims to be rightful heir of the Yashida Clan and believes Wolverine is unworthy of joining the family.

Wolverine pits his claws against Silver Samurai's energy blade.

Viper sneaks into the X-Men's quarters and poisons their tea, sending most of the team to the hospital.  The only X-Men available are Wolverine, Storm...and Rogue. Wolverine isn't crazy about working with a former villain, but has no choice. Can the three remaining X-Men (plus Yukio) defeat Viper and Silver Samurai? Or will they succeed in taking over the Yashida Clan?  

Viper goes gunning for Wolverine & Mariko, but Rogue gets in the way

Review:

It's hard to believe, but when the Wolverine miniseries was published, it was the first X-Men spinoff series. I was shocked when I saw this on the racks at my local comic store back in 1982. The comic hype machine as we know it didn't exist. The idea of one of the X-Men getting a solo series seemed unlikely. But it was a refreshing change of pace back then and it's still a great read today.

And it's also nice to see Wolverine in his brown and tan costume that he wore most of the 1980s. I always preferred this one to his blue & yellow duds. The year this story was published also happens to be the year I dressed up as Wolverine for Halloween.

Your trusted Bronze Age Reprints blogger on Halloween, 1982.

Story:

Chris Claremont is at the top of his game. Wolverine narrates this story in the first person, a device that would eventually become a cliche, but is used brilliantly here. Claremont allows us to get closer than ever to Wolverine and he's given more depth than before. This is also the first time (that I can think of ) where Wolverine actually kills someone. It's done here in self-defense and (unlike later stories) doesn't feel like it's done for cheap shock value.

We also get to know more about Mariko. She was little more than "Wolverine's girlfriend" prior to this story. We learn a lot about her family and their power in Japanese society. Yukio is an interesting character as well, she reminds Wolverine perhaps too much of himself.

One thing I will concede: I'm NOT an expert on Japanese culture, so I can't testify to the accuracy of its portrayal here. I'm guessing there are some things about Japan that Claremont got wrong.  

The second part (originally published in Uncanny X-Men 172-173) wraps up the Tokyo story but also gives us our first look at Rogue as a hero. I read that story when it was first published and was skeptical about Rogue's transformation from villain to X-Man. But Rogue is very heroic here, taking a shot meant for Wolverine. Rogue went on to build up a solid fanbase after this. I also enjoyed Storm's interaction with Yukio. Ororo admires Yukio's free spirit and wishes she could approach life with the same carefree attitude. This story led to some major changes in Storm's personality (and costume).    

Wolverine & Shingen engage in a duel to the death!

Art:
Frank Miller and Josef Rubenstein are excellent art team. When most of us think of Miller's art, we think of the "film-noirish" way it looked when Klaus Janson inked it. Rubenstein's work here looks nothing like that, but it looks great in its own right.

The follow-up story featured Paul Smith's pencils inked by Bob Wiacek. Their work is completely different from Miller & Rubenstein, but it also looks great. Paul Smith is one of my favorite X-Men artists and this is a great example of his work on the series.   

How does it look?:
Fantastic, no weird recoloring or odd printing choices here, as this gorgeous 2-page chase scene shows:

Wolverine chases Yukio over the rooftops of Tokyo.

 Extras:
We get a nice introductory essay written by Chris Claremont in 1987 that deals with the creation of this story and how he came to collaborate with Miller.   

Wolverine contains a great story with art that's even better, highly recommended to all fans of Bronze Age Marvel stories.
My rating:

 
4 Sals!