Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #65 (Starfox story only)
Cover Date: 1990
Title: "Wang dang doodle!"
Credits:
Peter Gillis - Writer
Ernie Chan - Penciler
Jeffrey Albrecht - Inker
Kelly Corvese - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor

Review/plot:
Peter Gillis seems to have taken an interest in Starfox. This is the third short story by him about the character.

Starfox is on a date with Heater Delight.

And he introduces Starfox to the legendary, and dead, blues musician Howling Wolf.

Starfox plucked him off his deathbed, and apparently de-aged him about 40 years (and as we'll see, something more).

Howling Wolf's club is then invaded by Robocops, led by "Dark Roger".

Dark Roger, who who was called "Black Roger" in Avengers Spotlight #21, is still pursuing Heater's hand in marriage. Roger was also called the Monarch of the Mystery Planet in the Spotlight story (in which he himself did not appear), and in this issue he has Howling Wolf's club transported to his Mystery Planet's Caverns of Silence.

Howling Wolf and his band get involved...

...and Wolf himself turns out to be able to transform into an actual wolf.

Dark Roger's men are defeated, and Starfox is able to transport Howling Wolf's club back to where it belongs.

The story is dedicated to Chester Arthur Burnett, Howling Wolf's real name. The story is so weird it really ought to have been dedicated to, like Sun Ra or someone. Howling Wolf's accent is also very off-putting. What was surely meant to be a heartfelt tribute to a music legend instead comes across as kind of offense thanks to that Amos & Andy dialogue. And as a Starfox story, i just don't get the point of it. I'll admit that part of my problem is that Jim Starlin did introduce Eros as a kind of light-hearted whimsical character, but since then, especially in Roger Stern's Avengers run, Starfox has been a much more serious and credible character, and returning him to his "roots" doesn't work for me. I'll also note that even Starlin, returning to the character on his Silver Surfer run, has treated the character with more dignity than the kind of silly stories Gillis has been writing for him. I generally have a high opinion of Peter Gillis, so this is all a little boggling to me.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This was probably written to take place after Peter Gillis' previous Starfox short stories in Avengers Spotlight #21 and Marvel Comics Presents #22 (or, rather, it was probably written around the same time). But the MCP places this after Silver Surfer #37, and there's no reason that this couldn't take place after Thanos was assumed dead, allowing Starfox to go back into outer space for a date with Heater Delight. And there's no time limit on how long Black/Dark Roger has been pursuing Heater.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A