Fly (Archie Comics)
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The Fly is a fictional comic book superhero published by Archie Comics. He was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby as part of Archie's "Archie Adventure Series" and later camped up as part of the company's Mighty Comics line. He first appeared in The Double Life of Private Strong #1 however his origin story and first "full length" appearance were in The Adventures of the Fly #1 (Aug. 1959).
[edit] Publication history
In the first four issues of The Adventures of the Fly, a boy named Tommy Troy transformed magically into an adult superhero. After Simon and Kirby left the title, others took on the character and made him an adult lawyer who fought crime in Capital City. He was later partnered with Fly Girl.
The Adventures of The Fly was cancelled with issue #30 (Oct. 1964). The Fly also appeared in short stories in some of Archie's other titles (Pep #151, 154, 160 and Laugh #128, 129, 132, 137-139). His own series was restarted as Fly-Man as part of the "Mighty Comics Group", which ran from issues #31-39 (May 1965 - Sept. 1966).
Under the Red Circle Comics imprint, The Fly was published, running from issue #1 (May 1983) to #9 (October 1984). The stories in this series were more similar to the previous stories in Adventures of The Fly and co-starred Fly Girl. With issue #5, Steve Ditko both wrote and drew the stories, which portrayed Tommy Troy being framed and discredited. Ditko left the series after issue #8, and another writer wrapped up the storyline in #9, which cleared Troy from any guilt.
The Fly was one of the characters used in DC Comics' revamp of the Archie characters in DC's !mpact comics line. This series, also called The Fly, ran 17 issues (Aug. 1991 - Dec. 1992) and portrayed the Fly as a boy (named Jason Troy) who turned into an adult superhero, similar to the original version of the character.
Archie Comics reprinted the first four issues in a trade paperback collection under the company's Red Circle imprint.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Tommy Troy was an orphan hired by Ben (or Ezra) and Abigail March. Late one night, he tried wearing a ring with a fly-shaped emblem he found in their attic. The Marchs were wizards, and the ring summoned Turan, one of the Fly People.
Turan explained that, ages ago, the Fly People ruled the Earth. They used magic in their wars, in the ultimate one of which they reduced most of their population to common houseflies. Only a few Fly People managed to escape to another dimension, where they waited for "one person... pure of heart" to fight crime and greed, which were their own downfall. Tommy was that person. By rubbing the ring and saying "I wish I were the Fly," he exchanged bodies with the other dimension and became a costumed adult superhero. To return to his own identity, all he had to do was utter his name.
[edit] References
- International Heroes: The Fly
- Don Markstein's Toonopedia: The Fly
- Mighty Crusaders Handbook: The Fly
- Joe Simon's website
