Al Milgrom says goodbye in this, the final issue of Fanfare. And admits it was a place to sell you old inventory.
As an issue of the book, this one is fairly typical. There’s the good (Walt Simonson and Denys Cowan on Black Panther)…
There’s the really old and therefore a little hard to follow for “current” readers: A story of Rogue and Mystique that explores Rogue’s personality back when she was an evil mutant (by Ann Nocenti and Dave Ross).
And finally an out-of-character, and mediocre, story of a guy who already has his own solo book, Daredevil by Paul Smith (which of course has great art). Issue #1 had a story about Daredevil helping a Salvation Army Santa. This story brings that character back for one more tale. Very nice bookends.
And some pin-ups. The above is the final image from Marvel Fanfare.
Rest in peace.
‘Marvel Fanfare’, like ‘Marvel Team-Up’, and ‘Marvel Two-In-One’, before it, started out of the gate very strongly, but ultimately meandered into mediocrity the longer it went on. I guess all involved just eventually lost interest in it. That syndrome is precisely what killed the original ‘X-Men’ series, as well as DC’s original ‘Teen Titans’ series, in the late Seventies. ‘Marvel Fanfare’s opening four-parter with Spider-Man, the Angel, and the X-Men, was a pretty strong series opener. Michael Golden’s art on the first two issue were pretty awesome, particularly his renderings of Karl Lyko’s ex-sweetie Tanya Anderson, who really knows how to rock bikinis. Both she and National Security Administration Advisor Dr. Valerie Cooper are the ‘X-Men’ series’ two greatest unsung beauties. Being a Claremont Chick, I’m sure Dr. Cooper still hasn’t found herself a man, but I hope that Miss Anderson has long since given up on waiting for Dr. Karl Lykos, as life in the Savage Land seems to really agree with him. Miss Anderson deserves to be happy. Maybe somebody should tell her the Angel is available! Excelsior!