Can YOU
Name This Marvel Villain??
I know what you're thinking--"Sheesh, this guy looks like a human fly!" Your instincts are right on the money. Meet Rick Deacon, a punk who's on the run from holding hostages at gunpoint with his small gang, wounded by the police after being foiled by Spider-Man and looking for sanctuary. And he finds it at the lab of Dr. Harlan Stillwell, who's known for taking a stipend from folks like J. Jonah Jameson to recruit volunteers like Deacon and turn them into super-powered hired guns. Only in this case, it's Deacon who's holding the gun:
The idea was to find someone who had considerably more moral integrity than Deacon, but Stillwell isn't about to risk his life to satisfy Jameson's terms. And so Deacon undergoes treatment that's along the lines of Stillwell's current research, research which involves--well, see for yourself:
That's right, Deacon becomes none other than the Human Fly--who puts a bullet in Stillwell's head for his trouble, and then goes gunning for Spider-Man. And to lure Spidey into his trap, he figures on using none other than Jameson himself as the bait:
The Human Fly, as planned, has a number of abilities to offset those of Spider-Man, which he's all too eager to demonstrate to his target:
But the Fly's first appearance here is in Spidey's annual, where there's not much chance that he's going to be permitted to come out on top in this fight. And so, ultimately, this fly lands smack dab in the spider's web:
The Human Fly was swatted relatively easily here, but his appearance was impressive enough to get him a few more gigs both in Spidey's titles as well as several others. And while it's generally the kiss of death for a villain to start out solo only to later be lumped in with others in a super-group, the Fly also spent some time with the Crime-Master's "Savage Six." Eventually, he was targeted and eliminated by the Scourge of the Underworld--but he would be resurrected to buzz again, on his own as well as part of the Hood's "Deadly Dozen."
4 comments:
The Fearsome Fly! No, I didn't even have to look- read about the Fly in Amazing Spider-Man #193 back in '79!
Ahhhhhhh, a lucky guess! :)
Yep, I knew this one without guessing, either. ASM Annual #10 was the first annual I ever remember owning, and I really loved it - read it to tatters back then (and now it's actually pretty hard to find a reasonably-priced copy). I always thought the Fly here was a pretty menacing villain who should have become a regular in Spidey's rogue gallery.
Yeah, the Fly certainly has the temperament and the power to take his place in a rogues gallery; in fact, if you check out Web of Spider-Man Annual #3, which features an extensive rogues gallery of villains who aren't usually given their due, the Fly finally buzzes to prominence.
Post a Comment