Issue(s): Marvel Fanfare #38
Cover Date: Jun 88
Title: "Whatever happened to the Podunk Slam? / Duet"
Credits:
Mary Jo Duffy - Writer
Judith Hunt / Colleen Doran - Penciler
Bill Sienkiewicz / Terry Austin - Inker
Al Milgrom - Editor

Review/plot:
Minor mistake on the cover, which shows an Apr date. It's Jun in the indicia.

An old woman terrifies the children at the Danielle Clarke Home For Lost and Friendless Girls, which is exactly the best name for an orphanage ever.

Moon Knight later shows up there, playing the role of philanthropist Marc Spector, and takes the kids out to a concert by the boy band Podunk Slam.

After the concert, when he's home and trying to figure out what the hell he just experienced, he gets a vision from the priests of Konshu.

The message is about Podunk Slam and an ancient cursed death mask statue that Spector declined to purchase from art dealer Spence Kodiak earlier. Moon Knight heads out to investigate, and confirms what you knew all along: boy bands are the work of the devil.

Hearing that Podunk Slam's fans are the ones that pay for their success, Moon Knight heads back to the orphanage and finds that one of the kids he took to the concert has turned into an old lady.

Moon Knight confirms that the death mask was used to give the group its success. When Moon Knight confronts the band and their evil manager, the manager sets Podunk Slam's fans on MK.

Podunk Slam, less evil than their manager, decide to give it all up, and they destroy the mask. Instantly, all the artificially aged girls are restored to their youth...

...and the boys age in the opposite direction.

Hah hah hah! This was the greatest comic ever!

I am no expert in this sort of thing, but by my reckoning, we're only at the beginning of the boy band movement. The New Kids on the Block's Hangin' Tough was recorded in 1988 (and i had to look that up, i swear!) and we're still a ways away from the likes of the Backstreet Boys. So i guess this was an unheeded bit of prescient warning in addition to a comedy?

The Rogue and Dazzler story also deals with music, although perhaps of a more legitimate variety. Dazzler has taken Rogue out to watch her perform at a club. Doesn't look like she got her old band back together.

The popular PJ James enters the club.

Dazzler drags Rogue up on stage to jam with PJ and his friend Suzuki.

Their song is interrupted by some thugs that want to take PJ for ransom. Rogue kisses PJ "for luck" before he goes to them. She's really absorbing his knowledge of musical instruments so that she can operate the synthesizers and power up Dazzler.

Rogue speculates that PJ's ability to play instruments so well, and the fact that she was able to absorb it, might indicate that he's a mutant.

When it's all over, Dazzler and Rogue start acting like groupies. You'd think Rogue would need to be more careful; a stray cheek touch could make PJ dizzy again.

Dazzler has been basically a battery for sound energy since Dazzler: The Movie, and since they've been in a loud nightclub making music all night, Rogue's trick shouldn't really have been necessary.

This story doesn't have the humor of the first (both are written by Jo Duffy) and the arrival of the thugs is a little contrived. I was thinking maybe Rogue would just absorb someone's musical abilities so she could jam out, which is what the back cover shows.

In his Editori-Al, Al Milgrom notes that that both stories in this issue of Fanfare are written and drawn by women.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place before Moon Knight starts hanging out with the West Coast Avengers in West Coast Avengers #21. And the second story takes place after Dazzler joins the X-Men In Uncanny X-Men #214. I have it fairly soon after to avoid getting it mixed in with the Mephisto vs.... series and to prevent having to split up the two stories. I'm not letting Dazzler and Rogue's friendliness here affect placement; there's no reason they couldn't have had a friendly outing while Dazzler was still harboring some resentment towards Rogue.

References:

• Dazzler says that this is the club where the X-Men first found her, which would have been back in Uncanny X-Men #130. "Would you believe it used to be a disco?"

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A