Issue(s): Marvel Fanfare #18
Cover Date: Jan 85
Title: "Home fires!"
Credits:
Roger Stern & Frank Miller - Writer
Frank Miller - Penciler
Josef Rubinstein - Inker
Jim Massara - Assistant Editor
Al Milgrom - Editor

Review/plot:
The opening page says the plot of this issue is "based on a story suggested by Roger McKenzie". The UHBMCC gives Frank Miller a writing credit for this issue, and that seems to be born out by some of the plot details, but the credits in the issue are vague, just saying the issue is "by Roger Stern & Frank Miller" and then listing Joe Rubinstein as the Finisher.

The plotline of this story deals with a group of working class men (like shop owners and policemen), all employed, who nonetheless feel like they are getting the short end of the stick economically.

It doesn't matter who we elect, taxes keep going up, and income -- real income -- keeps going down. Oh, sure, a big recovery's supposed to be underway! But I haven't felt it, have you? No, and we won't. America has been taken away from us... from the little guys who made this country in the first place! We sweat and slave, and it's all we can do to just get by! All we ever asked for was our fair share, and all we ever got was the shaft.

It's a theme that's always relevant, but it feels particularly topical after the 2008 downturn and the rise of groups like the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. Only unlike those groups, these guys don't put their energy into political activism; they become a band of arsonists and try to extort money from the city. That's where Captain America comes in.

Expecting a criminal mastermind, Cap is shocked to find that the arsonist ringleader is a regular guy with a decent home and a loving family.

The story ends with Captain America running back into a burning building to rescue a flag, but it's not an anti-flag burning story specifically (although that was a hot topic at the time this was published).

It's more about how in America you're offered hope and opportunity, but not necessarily a guarantee to happiness.

Since it's a vaguely political story, one could find things to quibble about depending on your viewpoints, but kudos to Stern and Miller for using Cap to touch on some political themes, something that hasn't really been done on Cap since the Englehart days.

In the lettercol for issue #20, two writers complain that Captain America has a very Daredevil-esque way of hunting down the arsonist gang: going to bars and beating information out of thugs, hanging people off buildings, etc..

Additionally, one of the thug groups that Cap beats up is an unrelated arsonist group led by "Injun Joe" who, when he sees Captain America, says "I heard he was on the warpath!". It feels deliberately campy, like an early Dick Tracy story, or maybe like something out of Sin City.

At one point, there's a billboard that says "Elektra mourn no more!"

The lettercol in issue #20 confirms that Frank Miller is preparing an "Elektra Graphic Novel", said to be written, drawn and inked by Miller and colored by Lynn Varley. Since that doesn't describe anything that was published as a Graphic Novel, it might have been the project that ended up as the out of continuity hardcover Elektra Lives Again (which wasn't published until 1990).

According to the Editori-Al cartoon in the front of this issue, there was supposed to be a back-up story scripted by Chris Claremont, but Claremont was late with the script so instead two artist portfolios were run, one by Kevin Nowlan and one by Terry Austin. One of the Nowlan pin-ups, of She-Hulk, became the inspiration for Fantastic Four #275.

All of Nowlan's pin-ups are of women in sexy poses, and they all seem to have the same face.

Austin's pin-ups are a little more varied, although it's interesting how both Dagger and Black Widow were frequent subjects for these portfolios. Dagger is a teenager!

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The Elektra Graphic Novel is definitely Elektra Lives Again. Elektra Lives Again was clearly meant to take place before Born Again (around 1985) and the main reason it's out of continuity is because Bullseye was killed in it (and then his corpse is re-animated by the Hand and decapitated). If it had been published in 1985, this would have been no problem but by the time it was finally published in 1990, Bullseye had since reappeared.

The funny animal characters are Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal, two 1940s Timely guys Terry Austin appropriated for himself.

The Captain America story was published in Brazil by Editora Abril at some point. Interestingly, the references to the American Flag were changed into references to a printed copy of a Statement of Human Rights.

Cumbersome, yes. But the alternative would be even worse.

Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal were created by Al Jaffe and Stan and some of their stories are ahead of their time, clever humor stories so I can see why they'd appeal to Austin. Some of the better stories (before they became straightforward kid's tales- nothing wrong with that, though) can be found online.

That drawing of Cap running with the flag looks distinctly Byrne-esque (worth noting that Josef Rubinstein inked Byrne's pencils in the Stern/Byrne Cap run).

Believe it or not, this issue is actually what brought me to this site. I was a huge Cap fan in the 80s and for a while was trying to figure out what issue this was. Initially I was convinced it was a Captain America Annual, but couldn’t find it until the power of Google led me here. Marvel Fanfare! I had an image in my head from 9 years old when I first read this, remembering the cover and the scene of Cap rescuing the flag from the fire (cheesy I know, but that was darn cool imagery for a patriotic kid). Thankfully fnord included that scan, and I quickly headed to eBay to get myself a copy.

Still a good read with some great art, better than most of its time.

It's nice to see any Miller art back when he was really drawing...