"The Wildest Super-Hero Ever — Because He’s REAL!"
Apparently based on a real, live, honest-to-goodness stuntman, I can find precious little information on him on-line. However, I did find these pages of photos of the real Human Fly in full-fledged stunt action.
A letters page in the third issue has this editorial note: “We have no plans of turning the Human Fly into a crime-fighter — simply because, in real life, he isn’t one!” And this commitment to accurately reflecting the Human Fly’s life can be seen in this team-up with Ghost Rider:
Okay, I’m being a jerk…that same letters page owns up to the fact that they’re taking some liberties with the Human Fly character by having him team up with Marvel heroes, but still….
Now, those pages I linked above relate this statement about the eventual fate of the real Human Fly: “according to Marvel Comics, he apparently changed his life direction and was last seen playing guitar somewhere in a Canadian Coffee House.” And perhaps there’s some foreshadowing of that in issue #11, as the Human Fly cradles dying rock musician Willie Silver:
…and proceeds to play a song in tribute to the fallen star:
Please note that they couldn’t even wait for Willie’s carcass to be hauled off the stage before Mr. Fly takes over the show.
Most interesting of all is the caption at the end of the story, which reads “the Human Fly — stuntman extraordinaire — will soon become a recording artist as well.” I’m gonna guess no such album ever came out, but man, what I wouldn’t do for a copy of “The Human Fly Sings.” You know that would be fantastic.
Okay, these are just a couple random thoughts about the Human Fly that came to mind as I was dealing with some copies of these at the shop…for additional info, try this page about the comic series, featuring a zip file of cover scans, a description of the series by writer Bill Mantlo from the first issue, and even a screensaver. Or this page about the Human Fly’s rocket-cycle, which even gives a real name for the Fly (“Rick Rojatt,” which is a nice Marvel-esque secret identity monicker, don’t you think?)…that was news to me, but my Googling around shows that it’s not exactly a secret.
