Marvel Fanfare #1 (March 1982)
"Fast Descent Into Hell!"
Chris Claremont-Michael Golden
Marvel Fanfare #2 (May 1982)
"To Sacrifice My Soul"
Chris Claremont-Michael Golden
Doug: Hey, it's a Two for Tuesday! Except today is Monday. Well, you're still going to get some extra bang for your time spent on the BAB today, kids.
Marvel Fanfare was a book that landed during my hiatus from comics, which stretched from around the spring of 1980 to the spring of 1985 (give or take). The whole direct market thing, comic shops, creator-owned properties, the "Indies"... all of that rose up while I was chillin' in high school and my first three semesters of college. Today's review material came to me in the form of one of Marvel's very early forays into the trade paperback business, in a tome titled
The Savage Land (1987) and containing reprints of
Marvel Fanfare #s 1-4 -- all for the low, low cost of $5.95! I also have the collected
Wolverine mini-series
in the same format; maybe we'll get to that some day (if I can stand Claremont's repeated "I'm the best at what I do, and...").
Doug: That's a sweet cover above left, isn't it? I always gape at it in all its airborne terror. That is, until I look at Spidey's legs. Umm... yeah, it just looks weird. But then I come back to the flying lizard from the bowels of hell, Spider-Man's hands working to free himself, and the Angel -- and I gape at it some more. But those legs.
Doug: Today, as you can see, we're going to look at the first two issues of
Marvel Fanfare, brought to you by long tenured (even by 1982) X-Men scribe Chris Claremont and artist Michael Golden. At the time Golden was perhaps best known as the penciler of the Man-Bat feature that ran in
Batman Family, the
Mister Miracle book, and long runs at Marvel on
Micronauts,
ROM, and
Savage She-Hulk. To me, Golden's detailed and expressive style at times channels Alan Davis, but also Marshall Rogers. Not bad company, huh? -- at least in my mind. Here's some background on the series, from
Wikipedia (one reference is left in for those concerned with such things):
Marvel Fanfare was envisioned as a showcase of the comics industry's best talent. Each issue featured 36 pages of material with no advertisements and it was printed on magazine-style slick paper. it was more than twice as expensive as standard comic books ($1.25 in 1982 when most titles were 60 cents and $2.25 in 1991 when most were $1).
Editor Milgrom wrote of his experience with the series:
| “ |
It was intended that [Marvel Fanfare]
would appeal especially to the fans. [I] tried to get the best possible
stuff (...by either established pros or talented newcomers). At
least part of the purpose was to use better paper, more elaborate,
detailed coloring and, by charging a higher cover price, to eliminate
all those unsightly ads. The creators were paid a bonus 50% rate, too. I
was sometimes 'accused' of just using up inventory material — as if
that was necessarily a bad thing. I did use some inventory stuff — if I
thought it was of high enough quality. As with any grand vision, the
results sometimes fell short of the goal... What finally killed it
was the advent of incentive payments to freelancers — top creators could
make far more than the rate-and-a-half Fanfare paid if they
worked on many of the better-selling regular titles. That and my
workload and family obligations made it tough to keep the book going.
And sales had begun to drop as well.[7] |
Doug: I know not whether the material we're looking at today was "inventory" or specifically created to launch the book. My guess is that even if it was inventory for an annual or some such thing, Al Milgrom made a solid choice in choosing it. I think you'll agree that the story is OK, but the art is simply gorgeous! Let's get rolling then, with not one but two
100-Word Reviews (one for each issue) --
Marvel Fanfare #1 (17 pages): Tanya Anderssen loved Karl Lykos. Trouble was, Lykos was the
mutant energy vampire Sauron, who leached life force from others to keep
himself alive. Lykos was believed killed in the Savage Land, until a photograph
of him surfaced, taken six months prior. Anderssen enlisted the Angel to find
Lykos. Meanwhile, the Daily Bugle is doing a feature on the Savage Land and
sends Peter Parker to do the photos; he ends up on the same transport as the
Angel and Anderssen. The chopper is wrecked and our heroes are captured by
Magneto’s Savage Land mutates. To be continued!
Marvel Fanfare #2 (19 pages): Brain Child hooked Spider-Man and the Angel up
to some nefarious gizmo that would in turn mutate each of our heroes. Ka-Zar
and his warrior friends rescue Tanya Anderssen from a t-rex attack, but later
they themselves are attacked by the horribly disfigured Angel and Spider-Man.
Anderssen is kidnapped by the Angel; Spider-Man fights his transformation.
Ka-Zar figures out that our heroes are at Zaladane’s citadel, so leads a band
to rescue them. Brain Child, however, has subjected Anderssen to his ray, devolving
her. Lykos knows only one way to reverse the process, so drains some of her
life force. And Sauron returns…
The Good: As you may have guessed, and can see plainly for yourself from the samples I've provided, Michael Golden's art is fabulous. He is also the credited colorist on both issues. You can see that the evolution of paper and printing technologies really gives the art a clean, lush look. I mentioned above the level of detail -- there is great care taken in the rendering of each panel, every figure and even most backgrounds.
Golden truly took no shortcuts here. And I think the fact that he was the whole enchilada on the pictures really gave him an investment in the work.
The teaming of Spider-Man and the Angel provides some solid visuals, although I'd argue that dropping Spidey into the Savage Land strips the character of some of his strengths -- notably web-swinging.
Still, Golden's backgrounds, colors, and detailed clothing pulled my attention away from that small gripe. I enjoyed the links between this story and
X-Men #s 60-63 and #s 113-116 with appearances by Magneto's Savage Land Mutates and references to Garokk and Zaladane.
The Savage Land truly is a great backdrop for a story; who doesn't like dinosaurs?
The Bad: I don't really have any severe complaints at all about the story. Sure, Claremont's writing is Claremont's writing, and I can't say I didn't get what I was expecting. But I think taking Spider-Man and mutating him into a voiceless Spider-creature detracted from what one might normally wish to receive in a Spidey mag. In that regard, this was a loss -- sort of like Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye in
Marvel's The Avengers. Dude spent 2/3 of the film possessed! Same thing here. But the Ka-Zar and Zabu action sort of made up for it.
The Ugly: Brain Child is one ugly dude. Barbarus is another. Sauron is also one ugly dude. A flying lizard with tattered pants and a gun. But then, what's not to like? I would say, on the serious side, that Ka-Zar comics suffer from one of the same tropes that Tarzan stories suffer, and that's the great white hope coming to save (and even subjugate) the local savages. We get a little of that here, but it's somewhat tame.
Doug: In that Wikipedia article linked above there was a section that shows where several
Marvel Fanfare stories have been reprinted. I have the Marvel Premiere Hardcover
Black Widow: Web of Intrigue that reprints a George Perez-drawn Widow story. There are plenty of other locations for this material. However, it's high time Marvel did a nice, neat package in their relatively new Epic Collection format and put this varied product between two covers.
Doug: At some point maybe I'll return to finish this tale -- obviously it ends in a pteranodon-level cliffhanger!
Marvel Fanfare #3 features the X-Men and was drafted/finished by Dave Cockrum and Bob McLeod;
Marvel Fanfare #4 has pictures provided by Paul Smith and Terry Austin. Shoot, those art teams alone are reason enough to revisit!
Doug: I know not whether the material we're looking at today was "inventory" or specifically created to launch the book. My guess is that even if it was inventory for an annual or some such thing, Al Milgrom made a solid choice in choosing it. I think you'll agree that the story is OK, but the art is simply gorgeous! Let's get rolling then, with not one but two 100-Word Reviews (one for each issue) --
Golden truly took no shortcuts here. And I think the fact that he was the whole enchilada on the pictures really gave him an investment in the work.
The story
begins with the horrible deaths of pretty much everyone in a small farming
community north of Gotham City – they all have the flesh fried from their bones
at the crack of dawn by some oddly reddish sunlight. Not long afterward,
television transmissions in Gotham are interrupted by an announcement from a mysterious
cowled figure and calling himself the Messiah of the Crimson Sun, who apparently
runs some kind of cult that has a big church in the city. He tells the Gotham’s
residents that they’re next. This prompts Batman to go to the farming
community, which has been cordoned off by the military – not an obstacle for
him, obviously.
There, he
finds out that two people did survive the massacre by dawn’s early light: a
kidney patient at the local hospital, who is hooked up to a dialysis machine,
and some flaky guy in a white robe called Seth, who keeps telling everyone to
have faith in the Crimson Sun. The latter is also very thirsty and keeps asking
for water. The army physician can’t figure out why everyone was killed, and why
these two survived. So there’s all the ingredients to a great Batman story: a
mystery, a threat to Gotham, and a megalomaniacal villain.
It’s all
another one of his schemes to wipe out most of the planet’s human population –
this time by using a gigantic orbiting lens that focuses the sun’s rays (and
gives them that crimson hue) on a specific point on the planet. The people get
fried because he adds a chemical to the water supply in advance which reacts
quite unpleasantly in the human body when hit by direct sunlight.
Eventually,
Batman confronts R’as in his orbiting space station – he gets there by
borrowing a space shuttle from NASA, with Robin and Talia (always conveniently
there when Ra’s shows up) in tow. When I recently re-read this to prepare for
this review, I found that this last part of the story didn’t hold up for me: it
just seemed to take the otherwise generous leeway I give to superhero stories a
little too far. I think it would have worked better if the action had been a
little more, well, grounded. 
That’s why I said above that it used to be my
favorite – now it’s slipped a bit in my estimation, even though I still think
it’s well worth reading. And this is because of my favorite aspects of the
story: the really nice build-up, the somewhat shocking reveal of the villain,
and the little character moments, mainly Batman’s interactions with Robin and
Alfred in particular. These are in fact Barr’s strong suits.
Sandwiched
between these two annuals is the Batman Special from 1984, again with lovely
art, this time by two more Mikes: Michael Golden and Mike DeCarlo. The story,
called “…The Player on the Other Side” contains something of a retcon (long
before that term became part of the everyday vocabulary of superhero comics at
the big two) of Batman’s origin and Commissioner Gordon’s past. 
It really doesn’t
impact Batman’s origin as such, but it tells the story of another killing on
that same night, in a different part of Gotham City, in which a man and woman,
with their young son in tow, are caught sneaking out of a ground floor window –
apparently after breaking and entering – by a beat cop. The hot-headed dad
takes a shot at the police officer, wounding him, but the officer gets off a
few shots that take down both of the apparent burglars. 
The boy witnesses all
of this and it shapes his future, just as Bruce Wayne was shaped by seeing the
slaying of his parents. However, this little boy, understandably I suppose,
swears revenge against the cop who killed his parents, and develops an abiding
hatred for law enforcement and all of its representatives. 
That young beat cop,
by the way, was James Gordon.
Frustrated by
Batman’s interference, the Wrath goes about finding out anything he can about
him by threatening some of his known underworld informants, and he learns from
one of them that Batman comes to that same spot in “Crime Alley” on the same
date every year. It’s a date that obviously has meaning for the Wrath as well,
and he breaks into the public library and checks on newspaper reports for any
other significant events there on that date, and puts 2 and 2 together when he
sees the report about the killing of Martha and Thomas Wayne. Makes a lot of
sense, actually: any number of criminals with their ear to the ground should
have been able to figure out the same thing.
To wit: the child, the avenger, the detective and the man. However, I never got
the impression any time I read this that a clear delineation is made between
these various “faces” of Batman. As with the previous two books, Barr is served
by some outstanding artists, in this case Jerry Ordway, Alex Nino, Dan Jurgens
(inked by Dick Giordano) and Paul Smith.
Bruce Wayne knows the family and happened to be at the scene when the
tragedy occurs, and he sees the boy swear revenge. Obviously, he sees the
similarity with his own situation, but Barr puts in another aspect – he flashes
back to Bruce’s childhood, and we learn that before his parents were killed, he
was a budding artist – a sculptor to be specific.
It turns out that the robbers just pretended to
be the terrorist group, and said terrorists then go after them for besmirching
their reputation. Batman also goes after them, but instead of stopping them, he
basically incites an armed confrontation between the two groups – and then just
sits it out and lets them kill each other. It’s really pretty cynical and kind
of out of character for both Batman and Barr.
Art: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez
Story: Peter Gillis
