MARVEL FANFARE #10

”WIDOW”
Wealthy Writer: Ralph Macchio | Co-Plottin’ Penciler: George Pérez
Invincible Inker: Brett Breeding | Additional Pencils: Bob Layton & Luke McDonnell
Laid-Back Letterer: Tom Orzechowski | Careful Colorist: Petra Scotese
Amiable Editor: Al Milgrom | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Nick Fury attends a S.H.I.E.L.D. meeting while the Black Widow is assaulted in her Waldorf Towers penthouse. As Fury recaps the Widow’s origin, she fights off her attackers. Eventually she barges into the meeting and demands to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. agents attacked her. Fury reluctantly informs her that S.H.I.E.L.D. has picked her for a mission to travel to Russia and bring back her one-time ally, Ivan Petrovich.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: The S.H.I.E.L.D. meeting is presided over by Sam Sawyer, Fury’s former C.O. during World War II. Fury notes that, although he is the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Sawyer has final say on the Petrovich operation, and has chosen Black Widow for it against Fury’s wishes.

The Black Widow’s S.H.I.E.L.D. serial number is 27684-R, she stands 5’9”, and has auburn hair and green eyes, per a display during the meeting. All other information is obscured.

Before she’s aware of who sent her attackers, the Widow sure appears to kill one of them (an assessment Ralph Macchio agrees with in the introduction to the WEB OF INTRIGUE hardcover collection of this story). Considering they’re S.H.I.E.L.D. agents sent to test her by Sawyer, I wonder what Colonel Fury has to say about this?

FANTASTIC FOUR #258

"INTERLUDE"
Story and Art: John Byrne | Lettering: Jim Novak | Coloring: Glynis Wein
Editor: Carl Potts | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Doctor Doom oversees the restoration of Latervia following his return to power. Eventually he concocts a plan to artificially recreate the power he once stole from the Silver Surfer and imbue it into someone else. Doom chooses Tyros, the one-time herald Terrax, for this task. Tyros is liberated from a hospital in New York and brought to Latveria, where Doom empowers him and sends him to battle the Fantastic Four. Following Tyros’s departure, Doom reveals to his robots that the alien warlord will perish due to power burnout in five hours.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: The main point of timeline reference in this issue comes on the first page, when we’re told that the Fantastic Four’s encounter with Gladiator and the Skrulls in issue 250 occurred “several months ago”. Some may recall that within the pages of issue 244, directly following the fight with Terrax, “several months” passed there as well. I’m not sure why Byrne keeps advancing the timeline in such large leaps, but I don’t really like it. One of my favorite things about serialized fiction is how one story bleeds into the next with little passage of time unless absolutely necessary.

But at any rate, we can safely declare that well over a year has probably elapsed in “Marvel Time” since Byrne took over this series with issue 232.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #244

"ORDEALS!"
Writer: Roger Stern | Artists: John Romita, Jr. & Klaus Janson
Letterer: Joe Rosen | Colorist: Bob Sharen | Editor: Tom DeFalco
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Osborn Industries' corporate headquarters in Manhattan is the victim of an armed robbery by a group of thugs. Spider-Man gets wind of this and investigates, sneaking into the local police precinct to learn that the culprits were after assorted chemicals. When a call comes in about another robbery in progress at a waterfront Osborn warehouse, Spider-Man heads that way to challenge the robbers. But the goons' leader, watching from a nearby truck, sets the warehouse ablaze with a pumpkin bomb. Spider-Man rescues the robbers and turns them over to the police, then pursues the truck but finds it empty, its occupant having switched to a smaller van to escape.

Returning to the docks, Spider-Man gets the escaped ringleader's name -- Lefty Donovan -- and realizes that he must be the Hobgoblin. However, Donovan returns to the Hobgoblin's headquarters on Long Island, where the villain, still recovering from his initial bout with Spider-Man, greets him and reveals that the chemicals Donovan has acquired will endow him with the same physical strength possessed by the original Green Goblin.

The Sub-Plots: Peter goes through with his decision to take a leave of absence from the Empire State University graduate program, spending a long morning waiting in lines and getting signatures on his paperwork (these are the "ordeals" to which the issue's title refers). Before signing off, Professor Sloan tries to change Peter's mind, but when his student refuses to budge, Sloan thinks to himself that it's unlikely he will ever see Peter again.

AVENGERS #235

Spider-Man guest-stars in three pages of AVENGERS #235, reproduced below for your reading pleasure.

"HAVOC ON THE HOMEFRONT!" (excerpt)
Writer: Roger Stern | Breakdowns: Bob Budiansky | Inker: Joe Sinnott
Letterer: Diana Albers | Colorist: Christie Scheele | Editor: Mark Gruenwald
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot Excerpt: She-Hulk is out jogging while listening to the Beach Boys when she gets into an altercation with a motorist. Spider-Man breaks up the confrontation and then, as She-Hulk jogs on, she casually mentions that she is paid $1,000 a week to be an Avenger. Spider-Man is dumbstruck by this revelation.

The Sub-Plots: Technically this entire scene is a sub-plot to lead into the next two issues of AVENGERS. So:

Sub-Sub-Plots: She-Hulk is getting tired of living in Avengers Mansion and wants to find her own apartment in Manhattan. She also misses the beaches of Southern California.

Continuity Notes: Spider-Man last encountered She-Hulk at the Avengers' meeting with Captain Marvel in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #16. He also turned down an invitation to become an Avenger in AVENGERS #221.