Issue(s): Marvel Fanfare #10, Marvel Fanfare #11, Marvel Fanfare #12, Marvel Fanfare #13
Cover Date: Aug 83 - Mar 84
Title: "Widow / With friends like these..." / "Back in the U.S.S.R." / "The web tightens!" / "The Widow... alone"
Credits:
Ralph Macchio - Script
Ralph Macchio & George Perez - Plot
George Perez / Bob Layton & Luke McDonnell - Penciler
Brett Breeding / Jack Abel & Joe Sinnott / Al Milgrom / John Beatty & Brett Breeding - Inker

Review/plot:
This is a 4-part Black Widow story drawn by George Perez (mostly - the second half of the first part is drawn by Layton & McDonnell). It seems the Black Widow's long time partner Ivan Petrovitch has gone missing, with the possibilities either being that he's been kidnapped by the Soviets or joined them. Nick Fury doesn't want to involve the Widow, but Happy Sam Sawyer brings her in without consulting Fury.

And he 'recruits' the Widow by sending agents to attack her... while she's in the shower, of course.

What follows is a perfectly fine super-spy adventure story. A disparate group of mercenaries are sent after the Black Widow, and she teams up with Jimmy Woo to fight them.

It turns out there isn't a Soviet plot after all. The villain of the piece turns out to be Damon Dran, a villain from the Daredevil comic back when the Black Widow was a co-star.

The Widow is captured by Dran's main mercenary, a really over-the-top character called Snapdragon.

Meanwhile a duplicate of the Widow is sent back to the SHIELD helicarrier to kill Fury.

The Widow escapes via a method that requires her to rip off most of her clothes...

...and she rescues and de-programs the brainwashed Ivan before warning Fury about the attack. Dran is seemingly killed in an explosion.

George Perez' art is always welcome, but the high quality paper actually doesn't seem to do it any favors.

The lines are all a little too harsh. Could have done with a little less cheesecake, but i guess it could have been worse. The story is fun but nothing fantastic. Odd to rely on a very obscure villain from the confusing Project Four plotline in Daredevil that concluded over 10 years ago (and no footnotes!).

It's only been 25+ years, but for me the jury is still out on the Marvel Fanfare books . The paper quality is technically better, but i prefer the old school comic look. There's cute Editori-Al comics drawn by Al Milgrom on the inside cover, which i enjoy...

...and a real editorial by Jim Shooter on the back page, which is usually interesting. In addition to the Black Widow story, these issues all have a back-up feature. The first two conclude the adaptation of the Jungle Book drawn by Gil Kane. Issue #12, which is part of Assistant Editors' Month, has a silly story about Ann Nocenti meeting Captain America.

And issue #13 has a nice Warriors Three story drawn by Charles Vess.

The art is good, but the story itself is nothing special, which typically is the case for this series.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: As noted in the comments, Happy Sam Sawyer died in Captain America #273-274 (and those issues are included in the project now), so this has to take place before those issues. The MCP places it way back in the 1980 period around Avengers #199, so we'll go with that. As for the Warriors Three, it's a timeless Asgardian tale; it can take place basically any time.

References:

• There's some references to the Black Widow's pre-spy life. No footnotes, but it covers some ground initially shown in Avengers #43-44.
  
• Also as part of the retrospective, we see the Black Widow in her first costumed appearance (Tales Of Suspense #64), and teaming up with the Swordsman and Power Man (Avengers #29).
  
• And some more footnote-less refs, including her getting her new costume (Amazing Spider-Man #86), teaming up with Daredevil, joining the Champions, and forming a partnership with Hercules.
  
• The Project Four plotline was circa Daredevil #90.

Crossover: Assistant Editors' Month

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I know you don't have Captain America 273-274 but Sam Sawyer died in those issues, so Marvel Fanfare 10-13 have to take place before Captain America 273-274.

Updated. Thanks!

I believe Black Lotus has another appearance (along with Iron Maiden, Snapdragon and Wrangler, who are tagged) in Captain America's Superia's femizons story.

Added her.

I wonder if the story would have improved if it used established villains in place of some of the newer ones that seem near duplicates.

N'Kama could easily have been the Man-Ape or another Black Panther villain.

Deadshot Darrance could be replaced by Kraven.

Laralie by Montana of the enforcers.

I'm sure there are MoKF villains who could have replaced Black Lotus.

How many masters of the lariat as a weapon can there be?

There are so many disposable villains out there. Reusing the existing ones instead of creating new ones that have the exact same schtick would seem to be better.

Perez was one of the great artists in comics of this period, but his weakness was always proportions. I remember one of the Fantagraphics magazines (Amazing Heroes or Comics Journal) putting up side-by-side panels showing how the Widow looks to have gained about 20 pounds from one to the next. The heavier one was the one above where she's holding the goon, saying she doesn't like having her bath interrupted.

I remember that gimmick of having escape equipment being hidden beneath a layer of false skin being used by Lex Luthor in the SUPERMAN VS THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN treasury edition back in '76. Wonder if that's where Ralph Macchio lifted it from?

The Black Widow did the same thing in MTIO #10(for all I know, Claremont may have lifted it from a Modesty Blaise strip).