Marvel Fanfare #1-#2
Published March-April 1982
Writer: Chris Claremont
Artist: Michael Golden
I recently stumbled across some issues of Marvel Fanfare that I’ve had for awhile now but never got around to reading. The only reason I even picked up these comics was because of the covers; I have a real bad habit of grabbing a book just because I like the cover art. As a result of this, I have tons of really cool covers that contain crappy books inside. Issue #1’s cover of Fanfare is a beautiful picture of Spidey being carried off by a pterodactyl or pteranodon, with Angel in close pursuit. Issue #2, my favorite of the duo, has a six armed hairy spider headed Spidey in battle with Kazar.
Issue #1 starts off with Tanya Anderssen asking Angel of the X-men to help her find her lost love Karl Lykos, who is also known as the villain Sauron. With Angel as her escort and Daily Bugle reporter Peter Parker in tow, the trio heads to the Savage Land. Their helicopter crashes into a pterosaur and soon they find themselves captured by Brain Child and his mutant misfits. There is also a short story about Daredevil called Snow that follows Daredevil dealing out justice to some hoods who have robbed a Santa on his way to deliver toys to some poor children.
Issue #2 picks up with Spider-Man and Angel having just been devolved into monstrosities. Angel is now a bird monster, and poor Spider-Man is a truly monstrous perversion of his former self. Kazar comes to the rescue and battles Brain Child and his cronies. During the battle, the machine that transformed Angel and Spider-Man into their devolved states gets destroyed. This forces Karl Lykos to absorb the energies that transformed them, reverting the heroes back to normal but causing a horrible change in Lykos; releasing his evil Sauron persona. There is another short story in issue #2 that follows Reed Richards and a battle he has with Annihilus. This encounter destroys a cure he was working on for his teammate, Ben Grimm.
While these books were ok, they tend to be a little dated. Issue #1 was a little too wordy at times but it still was a good read. I’m glad I read both these books; the man-spider version of Spider-Man is pretty freaking cool, and I still love both the covers and will hold onto these books for a long time to come.
Scott Andrews
scott@comicattack.net
I love that cover with spidey and sauron!
lol yep thats why i picked it up. I loved the cover!
Awesome covers! If you post more reviews of articles you picked up because of the covers I’m excited to see what else you have in store.
You can’t beat those Golden interiors…god, that guy is good! I keep forgetting he is one of my all time faves.
Great Review! Marvel Fanfare ran some of the best stand-alone stories, at least for the time. Some of my favorite X-Men stories ran in Marvel Fanfare.
I’m like you, Scott; sometimes I pick up comics solely based on the cover art! I am happy to continue to believe that good stories still exist behind good covers. Thanks for the review!