Issue(s): Marvel Fanfare #3, Marvel Fanfare #4
Cover Date: Jul -Sep 82
Title: "Into the land of death..." / "Lost souls!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Dave Cockrum / Paul Smith - Penciler
Bob McLeod / Terry Austin - Inker

Review/plot:
The X-Men meet up with Angel, who is at a military outpost outside of the Savage Land. They've been experiencing freak earthquakes, and Angel suspects Sauron is involved. In fact, it's Sauron, the mutates, and Zaladane, last seen in Uncanny X-Men #116 working with Garokk, although it's said here that she was involved behind the scenes in Marvel Fanfare #1-2 as well.

The X-Men head into the Savage Land. They find that the village of the Fall People has been destroyed and its leaders killed. They soon encounter the Mutates...

...who they handle fairly well, but then Sauron shows up...

...and captures everyone except Angel. He's found by Ka-Zar.

Shanna had been visiting the Fall People and was taken prisoner by Sauron along with them. Ka-Zar and Angel stage a rescue and are able to defeat Sauron and the Mutates.

They turn the Mutates' genetic decelerator back on the mutates themselves, devolving them into swamp savages, and Sauron is taken back to Xavier, who is able to find a cure for Karl Lykos.

For once, the X-Men don't crash on their way into the Savage Land, but it's only thanks to the efforts of Storm.

Later, Storm winds up in a costume that i guess was remembered fondly enough by someone that they made an action figure out of it.

Back when i thought i could make custom action figures, i made a Namorita out of the one i bought on clearance (i know it's terrible).

Issue #3 has art by Dave Cockrum. An issue of X-Men by Dave Cockrum at this time isn't exactly special enough to qualify for Marvel Fanfare, in my opinion, considering that he was the artist on the main series. However, the art here is much better than his work on Uncanny, and i'm not just talking production values. People don't have the crazy eyebrows, weird hairlines (well, except Brainchild), and silly facial expressions that they do in the main book.

The second issue is by new artist Paul Smith, who will replace Cockrum on Uncanny with issue #165 and become quite popular.

The back-up for issue #3 has El Aguila raiding Cross Technological Enterprises and running into Hawkeye.

The device that El Aguila is after, and ultimately destroys, is a prototype of something called a Nucleonic Radiator. The CTE exec says that the original developer was "released".

The executive, Ambrose Connors, cements his bad guy status by proving to be a racist as well.

The Hawkeye/El Aguila meeting is a logical pair-up and it tries to raise some ethical issues for Hawkeye but in order to maintain the status quo Hawkeye still has to remain employed at CTE so it's kind of anti-climatic.

It's by Charlie Boatner/Trevor Von Eeden/Josef Rubinstein.

Issue #4 has two short back-ups. The first, by David Anthony Kraft/Michael Golden/Bob Downs, is a Deathlok story.

There's not much of a story; it's just Deathlok having some hallucinations while being held at a military medical facility, but it's got nice art by Golden and i always enjoy the dialogue between Deathlok's human and computer brains. The second, by David Michelinie/David Winn/Dan Green, is Tony Stark having a dream.

You see why i'm saying that these back-up stories aren't very purposeful.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - Sauron and the Savage Land Mutates both (temporarily) removed from active status. First Paul Smith on X-Men.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place after Ka-Zar the Savage #16. Cyclops has rejoined the team, but he is sick and can't participate in this mission. At first one might assume that this takes place soon after Marvel Fanfare #2 with Angel never having left the Savage Land, but that's not the case, based on a number of clues. First, Tanya Anderssen is no longer with him. Second, Tongah was alive in Fanfare #2, and his death in Ka-Zar #5 and the time Ka-Zar spent in Pangea is specifically referenced here. So Angel must have come back to the Savage Land, perhaps at the military's request, and he called in the X-Men when he found out what's going on. Angel is still wearing his blue uniform as he did in Fanfare #1-2, which is good because it confirms that the blue costume in issues #1-2 doesn't indicate that those issues have to take before Angel switches to his red version, but bad because i have Angel's appearance in Avengers #211, where he's in red, between Fanfare #2-3. I think Angel just likes to put on his blue costume whenever he heads up to the Savage Land, for nostalgia reasons.

As Mark notes in the comments, one of the mutates here is called Timberious but he usually goes by the name Lupo.

References:

• A recap of Marvel Fanfare #1-2 also references the X-Men's destruction of Garokk's city in Uncanny X-Men #113-116, since that's where the mutates were operating from.
  
• It's said that the mutates were able to move so freely because Ka-Zar and Shanna left the Savage Land, and Tongah died, as shown in Ka-Zar the Savage #5.
  
• Hawkeye tells El Aguila he liked the way he handled himself against Power Man and Iron Fist, probably a reference to Aguila's first appearance in Power Man & Iron Fist #58 as opposed to his second appearance in PM&IF #65, although there's no footnote.
  
• I never would have realized it on my own, and again there's no footnote, but the Mr. Connors character appearing in the Hawkeye back-up is the character that we see in Black Goliath #2 ordering the death of the Atom-Smasher, who is clearly the inventor of the Nucleonic Radiator. So this back-up is wrapping up a mystery introduced in Black Goliath. The problem here is that Marvel Two-In-One #85 also offers a resolution to the mystery by introducing a second Atom-Smasher, brother to the original, who claims to have killed the first. Surely there's a way to reconcile the two stories but they clearly weren't coordinated. (Thanks to Luis and Michael in the comments for BG #2 for making me aware of this.)
  
• El Aguila tells Hawkeye that CTE was founded by a monster (not sure if he means literally) that stole human hearts, as shown in Marvel Premiere #47-48.
  
• Sauron's origin from Uncanny X-Men #60 is referenced while Xavier is trying to cure him.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Claremont stated in an interview that Karl Lykos was supposed to stay on as the X-Men's house doctor, but that didn't happen.

I believe I prefer the blue version of that costume to the red one. It was interesting that they put him in the blue one in the Marvel Handbook the first time around, as if that were his official look circa '83. Not by a tally of most recent (and forthcoming, in DEFENDERS) appearances.

Maybe Angel was generally preferring the blue costume at this time, but when he got the mental whammy from Moondragon, he just put on whichever costume was most convenient? (Maybe the blue one was in the laundry.)

Not sure what you mean by Moondraogn giving him a mental whammy. He was already at the Defender's mansion when he first shows up in The Defenders which means he must have had the red and white costume with the white gloves & boots with him already. It's different from the red & white costume he'd been wearing up to that point because he always wore yellow gloves and boots with it. It's possible he decided to use the white gloves & boots from the blue costume with his red costume for a change and it became his permanent New Defenders one?

Unless you mean somehow Moondragon decided to make him change his outfits all the time after she manipulated him into auditioning for the Avengers in Avengers 211?! lol!

I was not talking about the New Defenders at all, just Avengers 211. I was playing off of fnord's comments above in the Chronological Placement Considerations (i.e. blue costume in MF 1-2, red in Avengers 211, blue again in MF 3-4).

Ah! lol! I thought maybe he wore the blue version to remind himself to stay on his toes while down there because Magneto gave him the blue costume after healing him and it turned out the blue costume was absorbing his "mutant energy". Magneto stole stole the costume back to heal his own fading magnetic powers.

Timberius is actually supposed to be Lupo(no idea why the name got changed).

Cockrum's art in #3 was fantastic, worthy of Neal Adams, even. Thanks must go to Bob McLeod, of course.

This was the first issue of Marvel Fanfare I obtained. I got #4 much later, and didn't appreciate Paul Smith's work until much later.

These were probably the last issues of Fanfare worth the name, until #15.

According to Cockrum in an interview in COMIC BOOK ARTIST #6 he did his MARVEL FANFARE instalment before returning to the regular title, and enjoyed doing it so much he told Claremont he wanted to return to the title if Byrne left. See http://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/06cockrum.html .

You state that it takes places between UXM #153 and #154 but you actually place it between #152 and #153. Is it a mistake?

I actually don't know why i wrote that it takes place before issues #153-154. The MCP has it between #150-151, and it really seems that it falls into a "context free" status that can take place anywhere around this time that the characters are available. I've removed that line.