Welcome back to the ol’ DBNO, a celebration of the fantastic world that is sequential art - the fancy way o’ sayin’ comic books. This week we’re really reaching into the obscure. How obscure? Well, friends, how familiar are you with…

The Human Fly #1 -
“Death-Walk!”
Original Release Date: September 1977
Words: Bill Mantlo
Art: Lee Elias
Letters: Joe Rosen
Colors: Marie Sev.
Edits: Archie Goodwin

Most people don’t spend their day doing much in the form of high-flying acrobatics. Fortunately, The Human Fly isn’t most people!
Today, this mysterious red-garbed stranger is high in the sky above Houston, Texas, hanging upside down from a stunt bar that is attached to the bottom of a speeding jet helicopter. The reason the helicopter is speeding is to keep up with the 747 airliner beneath it; the 747 is also the reason why our death-defying hero is upside down.
As the helicopter slowly lowers HF, he begins reaching for the top of the 747; mounted in the palms of his hands are high-powered magnets that will help him cling to his intended target.
Inside the belly of the helicopter, helping lower HF to the airliner is stunt engineer Ted Locke. Locke’s the man for the job because he’s the one who designed the stunt bar. In the cockpit of the chopper is Blaze Kendall, a woman hand-picked by The Human Fly for her skills as a pilot.
The reason for this daring stunt is that in the 747 below, which was carrying press from New York City to a stunt show The Human Fly was supposed to perform at, a man going by the name The Mercenary and his gang have hijacked the plane! The villain is demanding five billion dollars and safe passage to Mexico; if he doesn’t receive either, he’s going to have the airliner circle Houston until the fuel runs out!
The helicopter finally gets close enough for HF to grab hold. Unfortunately his hold is not quite good enough to allow him to drop completely from the stunt bar. Even worse, the 747 and his jet helicopter have run into a storm! Blaze’s shifty flying pulls HF’s hold loose. With lightning striking all around and no sure grip, HF has plenty of reason to fear for his life!
Inside, his team is just as worried. Blaze Kendall, the pilot, is especially troubled. Ted tries to encourage her that things will be fine, but Blaze has a bit of a confidence problem. Many years ago, during her first flight as a co-pilot of a jet airliner, the pilot suffered a heart attack, leaving her alone at the controls; he fell forward and accidentally pushed the controls forward, sending the airliner into a nose-dive. Blaze managed to save the day, but not without losing confidence in herself; she stayed in a hospital bed, nursing her wounds, for too long. Eventually a man came to her and told him that she needed to stop the pity parade and get back on track; he needed her for a job and he wasn’t going to let her go on like this!
Back to the present, Blaze finds the encouragement of that stranger to be helpful once again. Why not? It had worked before! So, with her heart renewed, Blaze matches speed with the 747, despite the horrifying weather.
As a result of Blaze’s ace piloting, The Human Fly manages to grab hold once again, but the stunt bar begins to lurch, throwing him off balance. Up above, Ted Locke is also pulled forward and out of the helicopter altogether. Fortunately, he has a sure grip on the stunt bar with his false hands; his real hands had been blown off years ago in Vietnam. Fortunately, Locke’s fall had given him the ability to stabilize the bar. This was his life now and there was no way The Human Fly was going to die.
Like Blaze before him, Ted had fell into a deep depression and refused to move forward with his life after the loss of his hands. That is, until a strange man approached him while he still lay in his hospital bed. This man encouraged Locke to get on with his life and join his team. The man’s words were so powerful to Ted that he was inspired to get out of the bed and get to work on his life.
With both Blaze and Ted fully in control of their respective parts, HF finally has the ability to loosen himself from the stunt bar and put his body fully on the top of the 747.
Inside the airliner, The Mercenary shouts that he hears something moving about on top of the plane. His gang has a hard time believing it, simply because of the situation: they’re in a plane, hundreds of feet above the ground and going top speed - how could anyone be on top of the plane?
The Mercenary will hear none of their questions; instead he points his gun toward the ceiling of the plane and shoots. Up above, an explosion rocks the very site HF is standing, knocking him off his feet! HF is instantly ripped backward by the wind and off the plane altogether!
Fortunately, HF is a resourceful chap; he reaches down and taps a button, turning on the jets mounted in his boots! With a blast of speed, The Human Fly is back on top of the plane - well, almost. He received just enough of a boost to get to a wing-flap. From there, he holds on for his life; the boot jets’ power is drained and he’s running out of ideas.
With death possibly on the horizon for HF, he thinks back to his past. One night, while driving in his car in North Carolina, a passing motorist ran him off the road; the resulting crash put him in critical condition at a local hospital. The doctors thought they might be able to save his life, but they were sure he’d never walk again. The news was horrendous, but he promised himself that he would walk again!
As night fell and the staff at the hospital lessened, HF would climb out of bed and move himself as much as possible. As time went on, he began to regain control of his limbs again. Eventually, he regained so much control of his muscles that he was able to perform acrobatic feats he’d never been able to before!
During the nights he was able to move about, HF would walk about the hospital, taking not of the other patients; most of them were veterans and workers with very little hope of getting out of there. HF wanted nothing more than to be able to help those people; he wanted to be able to encourage them to get up and move on; he wanted to inspire and help. With that idea, The Human Fly was born!
With a determination not held by many in the world, HF fights against the force of the wind and moves forward. Eventually, he finds a hatch and gets inside. With an almost inhuman athletic ability, The Human Fly takes down The Mercenary’s gang. But, he doesn’t take them all down by himself; unknown to HF and his team, a photographer for the Daily Bugle in New York City by the name of Peter Parker was aboard!
Spider-Man leaps into action alongside The Human Fly. As they make their way through the gang, Spider-Man notices that The Mercenary has reached the hatch and is going to escape using a rocket pack! The Human Fly will have none of this, so without thinking, he leaps and grabs hold of The Mercenary’s ankles as the villain leaps from the airliner.
Spider-Man jumps after them and, using his amazing web, creates a hang-glider to help him with his descent. The Human Fly trades punches with The Mercenary before he is knocked loose by the rocket pack’s exhaust. Fortunately, Spidey is there to save the day; the two lower to the ground and find The Mercenary out cold.
With that, Spider-Man takes his leave and an awed crowd surrounds the newest hero, The Human Fly!

*****

The Human Fly is an interesting character that doesn’t exactly fall into the traditional super hero mold; he didn’t set out to be a hero, just a stunt man that could inspire audiences. He wanted to encourage people like the ones he’d seen at the hospital. But as life always reminds me, things don’t always go as planned. With his heroism in saving the people on board the 747, Spider-Man welcomes him to the “hero business.” Does this set him off in a certain direction for the rest of the title’s run (here’s a hint: title’s run.)? Maybe, but you’ll just have to pick up #2 to really find out.
Okay, so it might be a little difficult to find such an obscure book, but if you’re really hardcore about it, I’m sure you can find it at conventions and, of course, my favorite place: eBay!
The art, by Lee Elias is excellent. Before reading this, I’ll admit, I wasn’t familiar with Mr. Elias. So I went looking and found that the man is quite the veteran of the business, having worked off and on in it since 1943. It’s also pretty interested to note that he was a victim of Frederic Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent. For more on all of this, check out this fantastic wikipedia article.
Ah, Bill Mantlo, how I miss you. You were Marvel’s go-to guy when it came to just about any series. What’s that? Need a fill-in writer? Get Bill! Need a consistent writer? Get Bill! That’s how I imagine it, anyway.
This is the second comic he’s written that I’ve reviewed (see my review of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #24), but it definitely won’t be the last. Bill wrote so many of my favorite stories that it’s hard for me not to include them in this column.
Okay, so you may find yourself asking, where is Mr. Mantlo?
Unfortunately, in 1992, Bill was hit by a car while rollerblading. As a result, he spent a year in a coma. He has since been put in a hospital and is never expected to fully recover.
If you’re a fan of Bill, though, there is some good news. David Yurkovich, a writer and illustrator, has created Mantlo: A Life in Comics. This is a book that celebrates the man and his many great contributions to the world of comic books. The especially nice part of all of this is that the proceeds go to Bill’s caregiver in order to make it a little easier on Bill. If you’re interested in the book or maybe a little more information about what’s going on with Bill, check out the website.


I’m going to leave with that. See you next week.