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#57
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Marvel Fanfare (1982 series) #57

on-sale: Apr 23, 1991
Steve Gerber | Bret Blevins

Marvel Fanfare (1982 series) #57 cover

Story Name:

Murder by Friend


Synopsis

Marvel Fanfare (1982 series) #57 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars

Shanna is hallucinating she is in the jungle, attacked by vines. But it’s really the work of The Pride, a trio of jungle cat themed mystics who are recruiting agents to kill for them. The other three candidates, Kinsey Gardner, Martin Friend, and Slam Sanders, agree to the Pride’s arrangement, each one accepting a Pride member as ally and protector. Friend and his cat guide depart, as he has misgivings….

Shanna is discovered by a maid and the heroine is taken to a mental hospital, prescribed Thorazine, and her psychiatrist, Dr. Dorothy Betz, has been called in. Shanna tries to explain what happened but it’s clear Dr. Betz doesn’t believe her. So Shanna breaks her bonds and leaps out of the window, changing into her leopard-skin outfit as she dashes over rooftops. She retrieves her car and drives home to spend the night with her pet python Ananta….

She is awoken the next morning by Deena and Chris, whom she met on the beach a few nights earlier. So she takes a shower, the visitors have breakfast, and Shanna tracks down television writer Martin Friend’s agent Feingold. His secretary tries to brush her off but Feingold, on seeing the gorgeous Shanna, ushers her into his office. There, Shana mentions Martin Friend and demands to know who Friend would like to kill. After some consideration, the agent suggests Ginny Jenkins, a former protégé of Friend’s who has becomes a success….

Shanna goes to the film studio but the guard turns her away. So she slips into her leopard suit and goes over the wall, blending in with the oddly dressed actors. But in Jenkins’ office, Martin Friend is already haranguing her over her poor prospects for the future. He topples her from her wheelchair then bludgeons her with an Emmy statuette just as Shanna bursts in. The enraged Shanna disarms Friend and gives him a beating—which stops when the victim, Ginny Jenkins, gets up, apparently unharmed, denying that Friend did anything worse than get angry. Puzzled, Shanna leaves, vowing to get to the bottom of the mystery….


Characters
Good (or All)
Shanna (Shanna Plunder).



Story #2

Power and Duty

Writer: Bill Mantlo.Penciler: George Freeman. Inker: Al Milgrom. Colorist: Glynis Oliver. Letterer: Jim Novak.

Synopsis

By Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars
One hot night in New Orleans, Monica Rambeau can’t sleep so she heads out into the skies as Captain Marvel. She recalls an incident when she was on the Harbor Patrol and she and her partner John Audain were pursuing a smuggler in a cigarette boat. John jumped over into the bad guy’s boat but the guy hit him with a bat, causing him to lose his balance. But a second blow never fell because Monica shot the bat out of the bad guy’s hand. She slept well that night. CM picks up a radio call of a police officer trapped in an alley by two criminals. CM flies down there and uses her powers to make the villains’ guns too hot to hold and then she knocks them out. Before the cop can thank her she overhears another radio call about a jumper on South Street Bridge. She flies out there and her memory is full of the time when she tried to talk down a jumper and failed. Now she encounters a junkie at the end of her rope who thinks the glowing Captain Marvel is a hallucination. The woman jumps and CM quickly resumes her human form to grab onto her and hold her. The police come to their rescue and the woman asks why CM would risk her life for a junkie? A cop also asks that of CM who flies off telling him that it was so she could get a night’s sleep and that her reasons aren’t so different from his. He doesn’t understand as we see a close up of his badge, reading, “To serve and protect”….

Characters
Good (or All)
CAPMARMR



Story #3

A Norm Breyfogle Portfolio

Writer: . Penciler/Inker: Norm Breyfogle. Colorist: Norm Breyfogle.

Synopsis

By Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars

Portraits of Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), Spider-Man versus Electro, Hulk (Rick Jones) versus Blob, Wasp, and The Captain.



> Marvel Fanfare (1982 series) comic book info and issue index



Excelsioring your collection:
statue
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Main/1st Story Full Credits

Bret Blevins
Bret Blevins
Bob Sharen
Joe Chiodo (Cover Penciler)
Joe Chiodo (Cover Inker)
Joe Chiodo (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Jim Novak.



Review / Commentaries


Marvel Fanfare (1982 series) #57 Review by (May 28, 2025)

Review: First story: See issue #56 for full review.

Second story: Captain Marvel in the usual, “Why do heroes do what they do?” tale. Her insomnia gives the tale a desperate air and her memories of her wounded partner and the jumper she failed to save apply an undercurrent of doom. The gritty art is unsettling to look at so it all comes down to the desire to protect and to serve.

Comments: First story: Part two of four parts. Artist Bret Blevins is credited as A. Novice, because he was disappointed in his artwork.

Second story: Plotter Roger Stern did not wish to be identified. The back cover is a portrait of Captain Marvel by George Freeman.






Thor

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