Marvel Fanfare (1982 series) #13

The captive Black Widow is taken via airship to an island off the China coast, near Hong Kong, the secret lair of the Big Bad. Natasha, accompanied by her captor Snapdragon, hopes that this will bring her closer to discovering the fate of Ivan Petrovich, learning whether or not he is a traitor. Nat is ushered into the presence of Damon Dran, the Indestructible Man, whom she fought with Daredevil many years earlier. The mutilated Dran monologues on how he built his island empire with the sole purpose of taking revenge against Black Widow and Daredevil. Dran outlines his scheme: Dran has created a woman who is the exact duplicate of Black Widow. She will rescue Jimmy Woo in the sewer and they will return to the SHIELD Helicarrier where Fake Widow will assassinate Nick Fury and then Dran’s big guns will shoot down the Helicarrier, destroying SHIELD and Black Widow’s reputation. Nat hits Dran and is knocked out by Snapdragon for her troubles and locked away in a cell…

…where she wakes up later. She removes a bow and arrow hidden on her back beneath fake skin and tearing off her clothing to fashion into a rope so she can scale the wall to reach a high door, which she blows open with a tiny explosive. She then encounters Ivan Petrovich who has been brainwashed into being an armed guard. He hesitates over shooting her, a glimmer of his real personality showing through, and she is forced to knock him out. Meanwhile, Dran has been watching this via viewscreen and dispatches Snapdragon to hurt Black Widow as much as she can without killing her, while he readies the big guns to shoot down the Helicarrier….

In the main facility, Widow meets up with Snapdragon who overwhelms her with bo staff and bolos. They mix it up on a high catwalk and the fight ends with the villainess plummeting several hundred feet to the ground. And then Nat is captured by the other guards. And then Ivan Petrovich arrives and shoots them down, his brainwashing starting to wear off….

Aboard the Helicarrier Fake Widow has persuaded Fury to send the ship to Dran’s island. But as she is about to kill Fury, the real Black Widow calls in and warns them of the plan, showing the dog bites sustained in issue #11 to prove her identity. Fury guns down Fake Widow and orders the Helicarrier to bomb the island to bits, apparently killing Dran. A skimmer locates Natasha and Ivan holding on to some wreckage in the sea, Nat dedicated to helping Ivan recover from his experiences….

Ballad of the Warriors Three

Synopsis

By Peter Silvestro
Rating:

The Warriors Three—Hogun, Fandral, and Volstagg—are on a stag hunt when they come upon Idunn weeping. She tells them that her husband Bragi, God of Poetry, is missing and he is set to appear at Odin’s feast that night. The three heroes promise to find him….

Fandral enters a cave of Dwarfs where he is netted. He cuts his way out, beats the Dwarfs and demands that they tell him if they have seen Bragi. They reveal that Bragi had been there searching for new poems from them; they refused and told him to go to Yggdrasil the World-Tree for inspiration….

Hogun climbs a mountain where he is caught in a jug by a Giant. He smashes his way out, beats the Giant and demands that he tell him if he has seen Bragi. The Giant reveals that Bragi had been there searching for new poems from him; he refused and told him to go to Yggdrasil the World-Tree for inspiration….

Volstagg comes upon a lake of mermaidens. They trick him into falling in the water, he threatens to splash all the water out and demands that they tell him if they have seen Bragi. They reveal that Bragi had been there searching for new poems from them; they refused and told him to go to Yggdrasil the World-Tree for inspiration….

The Warriors Three reunite at the World-Tree where they discover Bragi, transformed into an eagle, being threatened by a serpent. The heroes defeat the snake and free Bragi. They relate their adventures in finding him and Bragi is inspired to create a new saga from this account which he does, singing it at the feast, charming Odin and taking all the credit for himself.

Characters
Good (or All)

 

Fandral

 

Hogun
(Hogun the Grim)

 

Odin
(All-Father)

 

Volstagg

 

Warriors Three
(Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg)

Plus: Bragi, Idunn.