Issue(s): Marvel Fanfare #34, Marvel Fanfare #35, Marvel Fanfare #36, Marvel Fanfare #37
Cover Date: Sep 87 - Apr 88
Title: "Life with Volstagg" / "Hogun's goat" / "Fandral's follies / Touch of fire... dawn of fear!" / "How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Asgard? / Synchronicity"
Credits:
Alan Zelenetz / Michael Fleisher / Mark Borax - Writer
Charles Vess / Tom Sutton / Norman Breyfogle - Artist
Al Milgrom - Editor

Review/plot:
The main story across these four issues is a fairy tale story involving an Asgardian named Una, daughter of Sigurd and betrothed to Mord. The Fates have decreed that if Una and Mord don't wed on the exact moment of Midsummer Eve, a curse will befall Asgard. Loki finds out about this and turns Mord into a goat who runs off. The first three issues of this story then use a fun storytelling device where Una, Sigurd, and Una's mom, Lady Sunna each separately find Loki disguised as a woodsman that has found a goat in the woods...

...and the family members each separately locate one of the Warriors Three to send them on a quest to transform the goat back into Mord. But each of the goats turns out to be just a regular goat, so their quests are fruitless.

Each issue jumps back in time so that we see the moments leading up to and just after Mord's transformation from a different perspective, another fun device. For example, in the first issue we see Mord pitching woo to Una...

...and in the second we see the same scene from the perspective of the parents and find that Sigurd doesn't think much of his future son-in-law.

Lots of fun stuff...

...with nice art by Charles Vess.

Fandral's quest takes him to the Isle of Freya, the Norse Goddess of Love (only the Norse could have such a dour love goddess)...

...and while he's there he gets into trouble wooing her maiden priests, and as penance he foreswears philandering, "for the nonce".

I hoped this would end with the Warriors Three teaming up with their goats to fight Loki, but instead they wind up having to get help from Thor to fight Loki, who has transformed himself into a dragon.

Mord is saved and Loki is transformed into a goat.

No back-up stories in #34 or #35, just pin-ups, by Vess (the first one's a recolor of the one from the cover of #34, and the second is actually from the back cover of #35)...

...Mike Mignola...

...Craig Hamilton...

...and Bret Blevins.

A back-up story in issue #36 by Fleisher and T.F. Sutton features the Man-Thing showing more intelligence than we give him credit for while rescuing a blind girl kidnapped into the swamp.

The most significant of the stories here is actually the back-up in issue #37 by Mark Borax and Norman Breyfogle, which shows the extremes Reed goes to in order to avoid having to spend time with his family. The man has work to do, and can't deal with all these interruptions like going out to a show with his wife. So he's modified Dr. Doom's time machine to allow him to get some extra minutes in.

Except it doesn't work right.

Breyfogle captures the right expression for Sue.

More pin-ups in #37.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The main Warriors Three story is more or less timeless, as far as i can tell, unless we see a Mord and Una already married at some point in another comic that i've missed. The MCP actually have it taking place as a Tales of Asgard prior to just about every other Warriors Three appearances, including their first appearances. But the original Tales of Asgard Story in Journey Into Mystery #119 introduced the characters as if they weren't yet part of an existing Warriors Three band, so i prefer to place this later. I also want to avoid splitting up the stories in these books, so i'm looking for a place where the main story can fit alongside the Man-Thing and Fantastic Four back-ups. The Man-Thing isn't a problem. For Fantastic Four, this takes place at a time after She-Hulk has joined the team, and Wyatt Wingfoot is also with them. I've therefore placed this in 1984, after Wyatt is reintroduced in Fantastic Four #269-270, and between Thor #344-345, since #345 begins the Casket of Eternal Winters storyline that ends with Odin dead. You will have to squint past the fact that Odin is shown with two eyes here (otherwise i'd have to break the stories up to keep the FF placement while placing the main story before Thor #274), but i'm assuming he's pulled out his best glass eye for the wedding.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A