Marvel Fanfare #11

After a lot of naggings, Nick Fury has broken down and approved for the Black Widow to return to the Soviet to rescue her mentor. In order to catch his trail, she poses as a defecting scientist. But in this bizarre undercover sting gone wrong, The Widow finds herself exposed by the man she wasn’t supposed to fall in love with, and some guns pointed at her too!

The Jungle Book tales back-up feature end, with Mowgli kidnapped by monkeys and it’s up to Baloo and Mala to team up with the dangerous snake Kaa in order to save him.

Both tales are wonderfully drawn. The story for Mowgli was excellent. The Widow tale is a bit of a mess.

Still, the book as a whole is Worth Consuming.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Fanfare #10

 

The legendary George Perez pencils a really good 3-part Black Widow tale. (It was later stretched into 4 chapters.) When her former mentor and chauffeur is kidnapped, almost everybody in SHIELD thinks that the red-headed assassin is perfect for the job, ‘cept Nick Fury. Essentially part one is a retelling of her original and meant to bring the reader up to date on Widow as well as convince Fury to give her the assignment. The only bad part about this story is that Perez doesn’t ink every page and so some of his work isn’t as striking as the rest.

Then in the continuing Jungle Book Wolf Boy series, Mowgli is told a fable as to why tigers have stripes and why they are natural predators of humans and yet afraid of them as well. It’s an okay tale, but doesn’t have the syntax quality of the previous Mowgli stories.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Fanfare #9

A great pair of storyies with very good art.

In the first story, the Man-Thing goes to battle for the soul of a rock band that happens to be represented by the Prince of Lies.

Then we return to the Jungle Book, where Mowgli’s life is in danger from the murderous Shire Khan and faces a return to the world of men. I really don’t know where these stories are going because Mowgli going back to humanity was like the end of the Jungle Book. Yet in issue 10, there is to be another Mowgli tale published. Really confused.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Fanfare #8

Doctor Strange makes a quick return to the pages of Marvel Fanfare, when he’s summoned by the girlfriend of an aspiring sorcerer, who’s trip through the black arts has him stuck in a battle for his soul. Imagery meets imagination when the lover of the gal pal reflects a truly heroic vision of his replacement Sorcerer Supreme. 

I had trouble with some of the metaphors, but it was a beautifully drawn Carmine Infantino story. Sadly, the cover was too goofy and didn’t reflect the best work of the artist or Marvel.

Then in a strange twist, MFF begins a series of single issue tales based on the Jungle Book. In the first of the series, we learn of Mowgli’s origin and how he became a member of the Jungle wolf pack. I am not sure where this is going. In fact, did Marvel have an on-going series on the Jungle Book or was this to made due of a Marvel Classics tale that never got published? It’s no bad. Just not what I’d expect from a Marvel anthology series.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.