Comics (aka "Archie Adventure Series"); Richard Goldwater (?), editor; featuring
"The Fly Man's Partners in Peril!" This issue carries no credits, but I'm
guessing it's the same creative team that produced each succeeding issue of
Archie's "Mighty" comics line-- Jerry Siegel, scripter, and Paul Reinman, artist.
I can't tell you what's on the cover as my copy of this issue is coverless.
It *does* carry a "Fly Man" logo, right? The official indicia title of this
issue is still ADVENTURES OF THE FLY, though with the next issue it will
change to FLY MAN.
Review by Bill Henley
Created but quickly abandoned by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Archie Comics'
insectoid superhero The Fly buzzed through some 30 issues from 1959 through
1964 before vanishing. The bulk of the run, written by Robert Bernstein and
drawn by John Rosenberger and John Giunta, seemed to be trying to imitate a Mort
Weisinger Superman comic (Bernstein also wrote for that line, as well as
briefly for Stan Lee at Marvel), what with blonde sidekick Fly Girl, the bald
Luthor-like Spider as archfoe, and even a Kryptonite-like weakness in
"chlordane" (a real insecticide).
After dropping off the newsstands for several months, the Fly returned with
a change of name to Fly Man and a change of inspiration-- rather than aping
Weisinger's DC super-titles, the seemed to be trying, rather ineptly, to
imitate Stan Lee's Marvel style. (Later on, when Archie adopted a "Mighty Comics
Group" logo for its small superhero line, Stan would complain publicly about
this on his "Bullpen Bulletin" page.)
On the splash page, Fly Man is bowed down, looking like he has an Excedrin
headache, and fretting "Out-numbered! And my super-powers are gone!" as the
Spider and a trio of burly henchmen chase after him. But an orange and green
costumed figure swoops down from the sky shouting, "Here's one pal you can
count on, Fly Man... THE COMET!" Up from the sewers through a manhole comes
another ally, the patriotically costumed Shield. And swinging down on a rope
is a yellow and blue clad mystery man; "And best of all, Fly-Man, here's your
buddy...BLACK HOOD! YA-HOOOO!"
At "State Pen", a guard describes a familiar-looking con to a visitor; "He's
the infamous SPIDER...the master criminal scientist who was jailed by THE
FLY-MAN! He talks of little else but that he's going to get even with the
WINGED WONDER!" (So if Fly-Man jailed him, why does he want to get even with
Hawkman?) The guards are unconcerned when the Spider suddenly leaps into the
driver's seat of a visiting delivery truck, figuring that there is no way the
truck can get through the locked prison gate. But then the truck spouts
"spider-like extension rods" and bounces over the prison wall. It seems Spider
got his henchmen on the outside to replace the regular delivery truck with a
vehicle with some extras. Hearing on the radio of the Spider's escape,
attorney Thomas Troy rubs his magic ring and declares, "I wish to become....THE
FLY-MAN!" and is transformed into the arthropod avenger. He catches up to the
Spider's speeding truck, but the villain launches himself into the air from an
ejector seat, and hurtles into "Entrance Y" of his hidden mountain lair,
where a giant net cushions his fall. Donning his new villain costume (a truly
absurd-looking purple and white number) the Spider thorws a switch which
somehow transforms his hideout into a crystalline mountainside, creating multiple
images of the Spider to confuse the Fly-Man. "One of you is sickening enought
to look at, Spider....but DOZENS of you....!" Not to be outdone in insults,
Spider replies, "SINCE WHEN HAVE YOU WON ANY BEAUTY PRIZES, FLY-MAN! YOU
CAN'T CAPTURE ME, YOU FLY-BY-NIGHT, CUT-RATE HERO!" Ooh, that hurts. Sudden
ly all the Spider images vanish, as does the real Spider, leaving Fly-Man to
buzz off in frustration.
The next day, the New York World's Fair of 1965 is threatened by a giant
flying metallic claw, helpfully emblazoned with the Spider's web insignia.
"That claw is about to scoop up the entire World's Fair! He pobably wants to HOG
the entire fair to himself?", Fly-Man observes. To stop the giant claw,
Fly-Man exercises a super-power which he had never previously used in his run as
The Fly-- the ability to grow to giant size. (Clearly, we're supposed to be
reminded of Marvel's Ant-Man who gained the power to become Giant-Man. But
it figures that in imitating a Marvel character, the Archie crew picked one of
the least successful Marvel stars.) The supersized Fly-Man seizes the giant
claw and twists it into ruin, but he has fallen into the Spider's trap, as
the villain activates an electric charge within the claw, hitting Fly-Man with
a potentially fatal shock. Fortunately, "an amazing, colorful form flashes
toward the pain-contorted giant..." It is the Comet, who de-atomizes the
claw with "the power rays from the miniature projectors on my gloves'
fingertips". Fly-Man recognizes the Comet, which is quite a trick, considering that
when last seen in the Golden Age of Comics, the Comet not only wore an entirely
different costume, but wound up dead (his brother became the Hangman, one of
the more bloodthirsty superheroes, to avenge him). But it seems the Comet
got better, and after spending years ruling the planet Altrox, he has decided
to come home to Earth to make life harder for the criminal element here.
"Bah! Why didn't that nosey superhero from Altrox stick around his own galaxy
where he belongs!" the Spider fumes. But as headlines scream of how the
mighty Fly-Man had to have his bacon saved by another superhero, and the Spider
plans another trap, Fly-Man goes off to a remote Pacific island to hurl the
lava from an exploding volcano back into the crater with the wind from his
beating wings (a one-panel sequence that doesn't seem to have anything to do with
the rest of the story-- and you'd think that much wind would do about as
much damage to the hapless natives as the volcano). Meanwhile, a fancy society
party is crashed by a trio of green-costumed miscreants, who politely
announce themselves; "I'm BOPPO, THE MIGHTY!" "I'm FLIPSY, THE TERRIFIC!" "And I'm
BASHER, THE DYNAMIC! Hand over your valuables, folks, and you'll live to
tell your ritzy chums all about it!" But as the immodest crooks flee in their
getaway car, they are observed by a housefly who sounds the alarm; "Must
telepathically tip-off my noble friend, THE FLY-MAN, about these sinister
happenings!" Now doesn't it make you ashamed of all the times you've swatted
flies, when you hear how helpful and public-spirited they can be? (The
communicating with flies bit seems to be another rip-off from Ant-Man/Giant-Man....at
least, I don't recall The Fly doing that in his previous run.) Little does
the fly, or Fly-Man, know that the robbery is part of the Spider's latest trap,
for he has timed events so that Fly-Man will arrive on the scene just when
his super-powers-- which he possesses for only one hour out of every 24
hours-- will expire. (Again, I don't recall the old Fly having this particular
limitation.)
On the splash panel of Part 2 of this epic, "Battle of the Super-Heroes!",
poor Fly-Man is being beaten up by his costumed fair-weather friends. The
Shield: "Go FLY a kite, Fly-Man!" (What biting wit....) "Black Hood: "You...
INSECT!" Comet: "You don't DESERVE good friends like us!" But before that,
Fly-Man catches up with the getaway car his "insect chums gave me the
tiperoo about!" He walks up a wall towards the crooks' hideout, reflecting, "Now
to sneak up on the sneaks!" (In fairness, this isn't an example of Fly-Man
ripping off Spider-Man-- he was doing the wall-crawling thing in the early
Simon and Kirby stories, well before Spidey appeared. And yeah, I know Kirby
claimed both the Fly and Spider-Man were offshoots of his and Simon's old Silver
Spider concept) He recklessly resolves"My super-powers are about to wear
off...but I want to nab these no-goods before calling it a day!" Boppo, Flipsy
and Basher are counting their loot when a light bulb falls on one of their
heads, and they notice Fly-Man standing upside down on the ceiling, but then
Fly-Man falls ungracefully into their midst instead of leaping heroically, and
they realize his fly-powers have flown. Our helpless hero is bopped, flipped
and bashed into unconsciousness by the trio of hoods; and then taken to the
roof and hurled onto a nearby railroad track in front of an oncoming train;
"We'll get rid of him GOOD, like our leader-boss-man, SPIDER, said we should!
The Spier sure was smart to pay us ten times what we earned as a circus
act!" But to their chagrin, a figure clad in glorious red, white and blue leaps
down onto the track and carries Fly-Man to safety, as the crooks' bullets
bounce harmlessly off his metal chest emblem. "SH-Shield!" a groggy Fly-Man
exclaims. After Shield makes short work of the Spider's three agents, Fly-Man
wonders where the original star-spangled sentinel had disappeared to for all
those years before reappearing to save his butt. "I'd... rather not talk
about that...now!" Shield says reticently. Shield disappears suddenly, leaving
a grateful Fly-Man, a frustrated Spider-- "I guess this just wasn't my day!
So let the Fly-Man live a little! I'll see to it that it won't be for very
long!"-- and newspaper headlines blaring how Fly-Man now needs help to fight
evil ("WITH FRIENDS LIKE THE COMET AND THE SHIELD, THE FLY-MAN NEVER BEFORE
HAD IT SO GOOD!")
The next day, with his powers returned, Fly-Man receives a telepathic
message from the insect inhabitants of a nearby forest that they are threatened by
a forest fire. He shrinks down to the same size as his insect friends, but
somehow even at tiny size manages to generate enough wind with his beating
wings to put out the blaze. But then, as he returns to normal size, a passing
plane drops an odd device which causes the nearby plants, and then the
Fly-Man, to droop iin weakness. "This device can drain most of the energy out of
living organisms, including YOU!", the Spider boasts from his remote lab. And
it contains a bomb which will shortly destroy our hero who is too weak to
flee. But suddenly a heat ray--wielded by a yellow-and-black clad figure riding
a flying metallic robot "horse"-- melts the bomb, restoring Fly-Man's
strength. While Fly-Man recovers, his savior the Black Hood scatters the Spider's
fleet of bombing planes and sends them back to face the wrath of their master
for their failure. "Do me a favor! Tell everybody that the MAN OF MYSTERY
has returned to crusade against blackguards of all varieties again!"
The next day, a skywriting message invites all superheroes to join forces
and form a group to be called "The Mighty Crusaders". When the Fly-Man,
Shield, Black Hood and Comet gather at a deserted circus lot, each of them denies
creating the message, but each of the heroes thinks the idea is kind of keen--
except for the Fly-Man! "In the first place, the name THE MIGHTY CRUSADERS
is corny, like something dreamed up in a comic book! But more important, I'm
not convinced you 'super-heroes' ARE MIGHTY enough to deserve joining up
with ME!" Understandably, after the aid they each just gave the insect
crusader, the heroes are miffed; "You've associated with insects so long, Fly-Man,
it's driven you BUGS!" Fly-Man challenges all the heroes to take him on to
prove their worth, only to find himself beaten to his knees. Making the escuse
that his hour's worth of power has run out again, Fly-Man shouts "WHO NEEDS
YOU?" as the others stalk off in high dudgeon. If there's a Miss Manners for
super-heroes, Fly-Man is in big trouble. But maybe he's in big trouble
anyway, for, as he abruptly repents of his rude behavior and vows to apologize to
the other heroes, a sinister circus clown suddenly appears and reveals
himself as the Spider, prepared to kill Fly-Man with a simple, ordinary gun.
Before we get to Part 3, we have the annual Statement of Circulation,
covering the title under its previous incarnation of ADVENTURES OF THE FLY and
giving the average circulation per issue as 197,748 copies (a figure which today
would be a phenomenal success for a comic, but then got THE FLY at least
temporarily canned) and a house ad for the adventures of "THE SHADOW...Mighty
Dark Avenger!" in his purple and green superhero suit that probably gave Walter
Gibson the hives.
In Part 3, "The Wicked Web of the Wily Spider!" the arachno-villain strips
off the remains of his clown suit to reveal his other clown suit...er, his
"customary Spider costume". Wanting to make the most of his glorious
opportunity, he punches and batters Fly-Man mercilessly before going for the kill.
"From the murderious alleys of Hong Kong to the terraces of elegant Park Avenue
penthouses, criminals everywhere will ttremble at the mere sound of my name!
They'll gasp, 'The Spider knocked off the mighty FLY-MAN!" the Spider
gloats. He goes on to muse, "Of course, there'll be a few jealous crumbs who'll
sneer, 'How come it took him SO LONG?' Them I'll ignore! They're beneath my
contempt!"
But then, suddenly, the battered and helpless Fly-Man stands up straight and
addresses his tormentor, "Okay, 'King Leer', knock it off1 Muffle the
monologue! Bill Shakerspeare you're not!" "Ulp!", is the Spider's more concise
comment as Fly-Man confesses that he has been merely play-acting the loss of
his powers to allow the Spider the chance to "make a complete dunce of
yourself!" In fact, the Fly-Man reveals as he traps the Spider in a cocoon and
beats his wings to send off a buzzing signal to his three allies, their whole
spat was a put-on for the Spider's benefit. When he first arrived at the
circus, Fly-man was warned by a friendly real spider tht the villain was in
hiding; "A SPIDER helped me defeat THE SPIDER!" But as the heroes laugh at their
foe's discomfiture, Spider manages to vanish ouf of the cocoon and disappear
after taunting the heroes-- including, "Bye-bye- ANT-MAN! Crawl back into
your ant-hole!" Somebody really *was* getting this confused with a Marvel
book.... Though he hs escaped, the Spider is chagrined that the idea of "The
Mighty Crusaders"-- which he conceived only to lure the heroes into a trap-- may
actually become a threatening reality. He invites his henchmen Boppo and
Basher to kick him, and as the heroes muse over whether they really should form
the Mighty Crusaders-- and a caption urges the readers to write in their
opinions-- Spider peeks out of a garbage can and hints, "Vote NO, readers! I've
got enough troubles already!"
Despite the Spider's heartfelt plea, the Mighty Crusaders did form
(including Fly Girl, who doesn't show up in this issue) and had a seven issue run in
their own title from "Mighty Comics". But perhaps Fly-Man would have been
better off if he really had run his "super-buddies" out of his book. Though the
FLY-MAN title ran another eight issues, much of the story space was usurped
from Fly-Man for backups of the other former MLJ heroes.... and with issue
#40 the title was changed to MIGHTY COMICS PRESENTS and Fly-Man was squeezed
out (or swatted) altogether.
