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Option38.com > Comics > 80s : You Is HERE
The Fly (Red Circle) #1 (1983)A look at a ‘classic’ incarnation of the Red Circle heroes!!--------begin guest review-------!
Writers (main feature): Jack C. Harris (plot), Rich Buckler (script) Hello! Some of you may have been confused by the person who is writing this review. I am Jeremy Aron Patterson, and some of you guys might have heard of me, as I have been seen as a contributor to such places as the Comic Book Resources forums, the ToonZone forums, Seduction of the Indifferent, Television Obscurities, Comics Should Be Good, MarzGurl Productions, and other such places. I am here to give some support to a line of heroes that are sorely in need of support: The Red Circle heroes! The recent DCU revisions of these guys have been a cult-favorite that might be running out of time in the DCU, as the current Mighty Crusaders mini-series is likely going to be their ‘last chance’ to make an impression in the DCU, as DC is not really giving the mini-series much promotion or key guest-spots in major titles. It seems that time and time again, these guys were bought back only to fail once more: These guy mostly debuted in the late-1930s/early-1940s as part of the MLJ line of comics. Several of them were interesting for the time period, but they began to fade around 1942 when MLJ began focusing on some guy named Archie. That’s right: MLJ was the early form of Archie Comics! Due to the Archie spotlight-stealing, the heroes faded and were gone by 1947. There were numerous revivals over the decades,: There was the Archie Adventure Series of the late-1950s/early-1960s (which mostly created new characters over reviving the old ones), the laughably-bad ‘Mighty Comics’ debacle of the mid-1960s (which deserved to be ridiculed by Linkara), and Impact Comics (which are SBIG most of the time). I will be talking about the most well-received of the revivals: The Red Circle line of the early 1980s that Archie themselves put out in the midst of a major boom in new lines of comics geared towards the then-rising ‘direct market’ (Marvel launched their Epic and Star lines, Charlton made their last uses of their ‘Action Heroes’ prior to their ‘DC Acquisition’ during this period: First in 1981-82, when they put out new stories of the Ted Kord Blue Bettle, the Question, Captain Atom, and Nightshade produced by fans for fans, as well as creating new ‘creator-owned’ action-heroes like Captain Catnip (a ‘funny-animal’ action-hero), The Vanguards (An all-girl super-team), Warhund (A barbarian), Bludd (Another barbarian), Mr. Jigsaw (A ‘comedic’ action hero), Dragon Force (No relation to Dale Keown’s batch of 1980s heroes) and, most of all, Thunder Bunny (who would later be part of Red Circle and team-up with the Mighty Crusaders themselves!). And then for a few months in 1983 when they licensed them to AC Comics, which did an issue of Americomics devoted to the various Blue Beetles, a team-up of the ‘Ditko Four’, and even a story featuring Atomic Mouse (who DC did not acquire, because he used radioactive drugs). There were several THUNDER Agents attempts. And, of course, Miracleman.) This was not the first time that Archie used the ‘Red Circle’ name for a separate line of books: The first time was in the mid-1970s when they launched a line that mainly included horror anthologies and some cop-thrillers, with an attempt to do a darker version of their ‘Black Hood’ character that was nixed due to that line’s demise. This line had promise: A return to greatness of the old MLJ heroes done by a ‘who’s who’ of fan-favorite creators. This line started off well, but fell to executive meddling such as tossing in the Comics Code Seal on the books and placing the books on newsstands under the name ‘Archie Adventure Series’, thus toning down the thrills and putting them more in line with the regular Archie stuff in early 1984.The line died out in 1985. The early issues of the line were edited by Rich Buckler, a controversial choice, to say the least. He would later become editor of Solson Publications, they of Sultry Teenage Super Foxes infamy. We will be looking at the first issue of the Red Circle version of ‘The Fly’, the second title to come out of the line-up, following the revamp of the ‘Mighty Crusaders’ title (Goofy ‘80s trend #1: Launch your new line of comics with a team book. A few lines did this trick.). The Fly was the earliest solo book of 1980s-era Red Circle mainly because he was an old Jack Kirby creation that the King did for Archie in 1959. Surprisingly, the Fly’s book was the most successful solo book on the 80s Red Circle line-up not only because he had the name ‘Kirby’ attached to him, but because another Marvel legend did work on the book, but the ‘other’ Marvel legend will not show up in the book until the SECOND issue, and the book lasted nine issues. The 80s Red Circle books also included several continuity nods to past versions of the heroes and is considered to be a continuation of the earlier continuities. They also tried to fix the mistakes that previous incarnations have made. The book opens with a great cover by Jim Steranko that has The Fly and his assistant Fly-Girl superimposed over a black-and-white photograph of a major city which looks impressive. Strangely enough, while Steranko promised to do some interior work, it never materialized (Goofy 80s trend #2: Get a ‘big-name’ artist to do covers for your books, but not interior work. Many new lines of the era did this.)
Let’s dive into the main story, which begins with a splash page showing a gang trying to initiate a new punk at night, with our hero showing up as a silhouette with his wings shown, as he surprise attacks the young punk-pledge and punched him out in a two-page spread. He then catches the thug jumping from the ladder. He gives a thought that even the teen thugs have gotten tougher! His thoughts leads to a flashback of a few days ago, when Thomas Troy could only become the Fly in his dreams. He wakes up from one such dream, and tries to figure out what it means. He checks his drawer to see if his Fly-Ring is still there, and finds out that not only is it there but is glowing as well! He feels that the magic has returned, which is confirmed when his mentor Turan steps into Earth from his realm of the Fly People. Turan tells Thomas that there is a very serious evil in the world, an invasion from a fourth dimension. The only way Thomas could do to stop it, is to rub the Fly-Ring, which he does to become The Fly! Suddenly, he invigorated in a way that he hasn't been before, which Turan explains as a result of a shift between their realities that weakened The Fly's powers and eventually cut him off from the Fly People. (That is a nice explanation for the goofy power-set that he used during his silly 'Fly-Man' phase in the mid 1960s'!). That means that The Fly has to learn how to use his powers all over again! And with that in mind, The Fly goes hunting. We then return to the present day. The Fly is searching for the one remaining teenage thug, which he does find, and he considers using his Buzz-Gun on the thug, but he learns that Thomas Troy has not had target practice for years, so he resorts to using the good-ol' stiff-arm tactic. We cut to the next day in prison. There, we check in with The Fly's old nemesis, Spider Spry. This is a prime example of the 1980s Red Circle titles trying to get rid of the lame stuff that happened to the characters: As originally depicted by Simon and Kirby, Spider Spry was a calculating, fat sociopath who crossed paths with The Fly early on. After S&K left the book after the first four issues, the guys who took over the book put the Spider through different take after different take until they settled on a costumed rip-off of Luthor. The guys behind the 1980s Red Circle books felt the mid-1960s 'Luthor-wannabe' take took way too much away from the original charm of the charcter, so they restore him to his original glory. The Spider has been in prison for the past few years when he reads a newspaper proclaiming The Fly's return, implying The Fly had been retired for a few years. (There is also an editor's note telling us that this story took place before the first issue of The Mighty Crusaders comeback!) Spider Spry decides that now is the time to finally eliminate his hated enemy! We then cut to a film shooting at Central Park, where we see Kim Brand, wearing a black wig, doing a shoot for a TV movie. Here is another twist that the new creators put on the existing characters: In the 1960s, Kim Brand was starring in cheesy sci-fi movies. In the 1980s, she stars in telefilms. When the shooting is finished, her assistant comes in with some asprin and a newspaper featuring the headline that the Fly has returned. The newspaper headline immediately puts her in a frenzy and asks her limo driver to rush her to her apartment immediately. When she arrives at her apartment, she frantically tries to find her duplicate Fly-Ring but it is apparently gone! But The Fly shows up outside her apartment and tries to convince her to become Fly-Girl again, but Kim flat-out refuses to accept the offer! Yet another twist: While in the 1960s, Fly Girl was more than willing to assist The Fly whenever possible, now Kim Brand is reluctant and initially does not want to be Fly-Girl again. It was probably done in order to give The Fly some actual solo stories to start with. When the Fly leaves, Kim checks the Evening News to find out that Spider Spry has escaped prison! We then cut to Thomas Troy's law firm, where his secretary makes him some coffee. For some reason, the secretary is added to the book mainly to create a love triangle for the main heroes. She tries to get Tom's attention and then just leaves. That leaves Tom with some inner monlogue before a telephone rings. He picks it up thinking that it's Kim, but instead it is his law partner 'Wall Street Pete', who has some info regarding the Spider Spry case. The call tells him that he has to go to an Italian restaurant to talk to a former informant for the villain. Tom turns into The Fly to go to the restaurant and changes back so that he could join 'Wall Street Pete'. But when the informant is about to join the two, along with some feds that he had, that a fishing net comes in and catches them! When our duo hears the scream, they go outside and find Spider Spry himself, who has the captured guys in the net and drops them to the lake! But the nefarious foe sees The Fly, who flies to try to catch the crook, but the Spider is quite agile for someone who is morbidly obese and he says that, in addition to his old tricks, he has added a new trick and pulls out a gun. With the gun, he SHOOTS THE FLY DEAD, and he declares that he has finally killed The Fly. That was a very shocking way to end the story, implying that The Fly we knew for the past twenty-something years will be replaced, by either Fly-Girl or some new character. That would have been a neat twist, but as we see next issue, they went for bringing The familiar Fly back! There's more stuff in this first issue, since this issue has two extra stories to read. In the early days of the 1980s direct market boom, publishers were experimenting with the kind of format to use: We saw various formats being used, as the new contenders were trying to find the kind of format that will succeed. The publisher of the 1980s Red Circle line was Archie Comics, which had decades of experience under its belt, but most of that time was spent doing humor books that featured many shorter stories than the book-length epics that the hero genres were tending towards. Their last foray into the heroes (The disasterous 'Mighty Comics Group' of 1965-67) was deemed disasterous and seen by most fans as among the worst hero books of the 1960s. So Archie decided to be a bit cautious about the new line and basically hire someone who actually has experience in producing hero books to do the editorial work on the books. Oddly enough, for the coveted 'editor-in-chief' position, they selected Rich Buckler, an artist who spent most of his career aping the art styles of more popular artists whose only prior editorial credit was a never-published book called 'Science-Fiction Odyssey'. The other editors they selected were similarly chosen: Bill DuBay did have plenty of editorial experience, but mostly editing Warren's magazine-sized comics, while Robin Snyder has experience as a writer but has his first editor stint with these books! Also, Archie had mainly creators who are doing freelance work for them, that are also doing work for other companies. They also rarely allowed much creator-owned properties in that line-up. The most glaring aspect is that while the initial books cost $1.00, the actual contents are no different from what Marvel and DC are offering in their 60-cent books at that time (with the same newsprint and basic hero fare), and Archie are not really aiming for many 'star talents' for this line to justify the higher price point. However, the extra stories are quite fun: There is a four-page filler about The Shield (The second Shield-- the lightning-powered cross between Captain America and Superman, who happens to also be created by Simon and Kirby in 1959.) which explains what happened during his original series that lasted two issues and ends... with a plug for HIS OWN comic which will debut next month! Finally, there is an eight-pager starring Mr. Justice (MLJ's Spectre pastiche) who involves a plot regarding teenagers being sacrificed by a possessed religeous leader who is possessed by an extraterrestrial ghost. It had the potential to start off a pretty good series, but the story continued in Red Circle's anthology series 'Blue Ribbon Comics' (Think 'Showcase') before being dropped entirely. That is a problem with the 1980s Red Circle books: Their books sometimes had a sense of inconsistancy from issue to issue at time, with some problems with continuity and the 'revolving door' nature of its creative talent. The most successful book launched from the 1983 Red Circle line-up was a revival of Katy Keene, which lasted up to 1990 due to the fact that it appealed to girls. With the DCU version of The Mighty Crusaders ending its run this month, I hope you guys will like it, and I hope this review is popular enough for me to do more reviews about the Red Circle heroes! End Thoughts: All in all, this is a great first issue for Red Circle! !-------end guest review---------!
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