The Human Fly #17-19

HUMAN FLY #17.
COVER TITLE. Murder on the Midway!
INSIDE TITLE. Photo-Finish!
COVER DATE. January 1979
COVER PRICE. 35¢
COVER ARTIST. Un-credited
NUMBER OF PAGES. 18
WRITER. Bill Mantlo
PENCILLER. Bob Lubbers
INKER. Don Perlin
LETTERER. Clem Robins
COLORIST. Ben Sean
EDITOR. Bob Hall
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF. Jim Shooter

The scenario of the adventure is the Union County State Fair in Elizabeth, New Jersey. A girl named Rachel was taking pictures and a thief steals his camera. The Human Fly is preparing his stunt; being cannoned into a Flying net hanging from a helicopter.
The thief (named Buddy) runs towards a companion (whose name is Ace) with a motorcycle ready. The escape route leads right by them and the Fly has an idea. He will use a loading ramp, but behind them there is a mother with a baby carriage.
The Human Fly changes the ramp trajectory and says “so long” to them. The motorcycle takes off over the woman and her baby, over a wall and landing on a pork swamp.

A lot of publicity come to the Human Fly. Police and the Human Fly develop the film. Rachel took the photo while they were monkeying with the cannon he will be using in his stunt. Buddy was messing with the trajectory calibrations. Ted would check it.

Some time latter, everybody is ready for the show (where is Arnie? Ted had to present the show.) The Fly gets shoot and weave through the sky and hits the high tension wires surrounding the fairgrounds in a shower of electrical sparks!!!

At the same time, two men break into the Elizabeth Bank by blasting the wall. They are the other part of the Buddy and Ace show. The dead of the Human Fly is the decoy to be used as a way to cover the robbery. When they open the vault door, a glare from television floodlights records the moment the police (and the Human Fly) apprehend the burglars.

Everything is solved and a new camera is given as a gift to Rachel. The Fly performs his incredible stunt with any annoyance and the issue finish. A real minor chapter in the Human Fly saga.

No Fly Letters in this issue.

HUMAN FLY #18.
COVER TITLE. A Gathering of Vultures!
INSIDE TITLE. A Gathering of Vultures!
COVER DATE. February 1979
COVER PRICE. 35¢
COVER ARTIST. Un-credited
NUMBER OF PAGES. 17
WRITER. Bill Mantlo
PENCILLER. Lee Elias
INKERS. Ricardo Villamonte & Tex Blaisdell
LETTERER. Diana Alberts
COLORIST. Elaine Heinl
EDITOR. Mary Jo Duffy
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF. Jim Shooter

The classic “Pietà” cover is a presage of a death in the family. This time is the Swan Song of our hero. “A Gathering of Vultures” is a two part ending of this great saga. Lee Elias comes back as the closing artist of the series. A good choice. Harmony Whyte serves as a linking force that will tell us the last story of the Human Fly. The time she became a Human Fly believer, his part in the story were deluded and turns her into a forgotten character. As we would see in this story, a strong critic character is a necessity.

We go to visit South-Western American Indians, in the Hopi Indian Reservation near Las Cruces, New Mexico. In the van, Ted Locke goes over his calculations of the next stunt. Everything seems to be OK, but something troubles him.

Now we can see, for the first time, the Fly in “civilian” outfit. Boy, the shirt is so seventies that it shines in the dark! The Fly also feels what he calls “premonition of disaster”. The van has to stop. A kid is carrying an old man that happens to be dead. Ted thinks that they must alert the authorities and Arnie says “I can imagine the joy they’ll receive that news with”. Racism seems to feel the air. The kid, whose name is Nakwach, is devastated and considers our crew of friends to be menacing “white men” (Blaze was there too, therefore the enemies must be foreigners).

Running away from the Fly’s Crew, the boy faces the Human Fly. He stands first with hatred and fear, but after a few moments, the emotions change to trust. The boy collapses and sobsin the Human Fly’s arms. A car has killed his grandfather while the old man managed to save the child. Back in the van they drive towards Las Cruces Pueblo.

The Hopi peaks the body and some of them take care of the child. Then a girl called Cha’tima steps forward them. Strong censuring words about their place in their sacred celebrations should be answered by the Fly defending themselves as being invited by the Tribal Council to perform at the Pueblo Carnival.

We then get to know that the council is a corrupted one and that the old man that died early on this story was the only one that stood up to the businessmen that turns their village into a tourist attraction. The Human Fly believes Cha’tima and goes to the bar where the elders of the hopi stay drunk all day.

In Frank’s Bar, the council is the make-laughs of the other guys. Frank Sturgis handle all their business for them. The Fly wants to break the contract and let the sacred festival aside the tourist. Sturgis will be making a lot of money by selling his lousy liquor and his imitation of jewellery. Sturgis has “borrowed” from the Indians more than $10.000. The Human Fly gets infuriated but there is nothing he can do. He must perform his stunt if he wants the money to come back to El Pueblo.

Outside, the Fly, the Indian girl and his crew are surrounded by thugs, but Nakwach alerts them…

The bottom line prepares the readers. Next issue will bring an special announcement (and a bad one, there is).

First a common regarding of the readers that didn’t understand why the letter page drops so easily from the final copy. Marvel explains the reasons a page already assembled did not get to print because of their printer’s schedules.

Nobby Woo congratulates the first year run and praises issue twelve as does Fil Arzola. There is a “but” in Ben Firth letter. Mount Whitney is a very tall mountain in California, but the tallest Mountain in the United States is Mount McKinley in Alaska (and the tallest in the world is Mt. Everest, of course!). He is pleased with the good intentions both Mr. Braden an Ms. Whyte have for the Human Fly. Mary Jo Duffy explains the change of locations. There is people who tried to perform the stunt in Mt. Everest, but Bob Hall thought that this stunt will harm the believability of the series.

David Zakss asks if the Fly ever considered to make an auditory in any of the foundations he donates the money. Johnny Ros wants a No-prize because he founded a mistake (a silly one, the Fly refers to Blaze as Ted) and Mike Kane considers that the Human Fly works better without the Marvel Universe and remembers Mr. Martinet as a character that should come back to the pages of the magazine.

HUMAN FLY #19.
COVER TITLE. Highwire to Heaven!
INSIDE TITLE. Highwire to Heaven! (A Gathering of Vultures part two)
COVER DATE. March 1979
COVER PRICE. 35¢
COVER ARTIST. Bob Layton
NUMBER OF PAGES. 17
WRITER. Bill Mantlo
PENCILLER. Lee Elias
INKER. Ricardo Villamonte
LETTERER. Diana Alberts
COLORIST. Elaine Heinl
EDITOR. Allen Milgrom
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF. Jim Shooter

The last issue. Harmony serves again as a linking point that connects all the scenarios. We let the whole crew, Cha’tima and Nakwach being attacked by a bunch of villagers under the orders of Frank Sturgis. Sturgis has stolen ten grands from the Hopi.

They fight like lions and win. The thugs run away and the Human Fly follows the advise of the kid to talk to the respected elders. This one is called Ahote and reveals the way the Hopi believe the Earth was created by their gods.

A strong statement against racism is presented in this panels. The enemy is greed and avarice. And the Human Fly will be side by side with the Indians to stop Strugis, that is really infuriated.

The next day the Indian Fair is tense. Tourist walk among the two factions and the Hopi mourns for Nakwach’s Grandfather while the thugs of Sturgis laughs at them. The Fly has to defend Cha’tima. The Human Fly and Sturgis has a verbal rattle about each other.

Then the time for the stunt has come. The Fly will ride a rocketcycle across the bottomless Misty Gorge and there would be plenty of opportunities to attempt against the Human Fly’s life. The Hopi don’t know that the Fly is doing his stunt to help their economy and think that it is a sacrilege while the white people consider the Fly a menace. The Human Fly is ready to perform the stunt anyway.

Nakwach regards that a man is hiding a gun and follows him and Cha’tima has a projector with a Film School of her own on Hopi Miths. The Fly watch the projected images with awe and understands why Cha’tima does that.

Nakwach, at the same time made the shooter (named Hankus) miss and the sniper’s bullet cuts the wire in two. The Human Fly rides his jet Backwash up out of misty Goge. The motorcycle explodes, but he escapes unharmed. Cha’tima explains that now her tribe understands that they must work with good whites and fight Sturgis, literally.

All is well that ends well. The Human Fly avoids the mêlée and goes with his crew and his new friends to enjoy the Sacred Festival, but this time in Indian Style.

Harry Kastrinakis earns a No-prize because he points a mistake related to the baton in issue thirteen. Rescue Boy comments the effect the Human Fly letter had in him and Matt Kaufman considers the efforts of both Mantlo and Robbins to put such a nice issue as issue thirteen and wants more confrontations against the Human Fly and Braden-types.

The hapless hero praises issue thirteen and ask for a battle of the Fly and villains in the future. A possible confrontation against the villainous Fly? Felix Martínez praises the issue and asks for a Human Fly Treasury Edition. Roger Smith also praises the issue.

As a curiosity, it seems that Allen Milgrom and Mary Jo Duffy are not informed of the cancellation of the book, but we can see clearly that Bill Mantlo next project is Micronauts (stay tuned to Tonnerre de Brest!)

Harmony Whyte finishes the series making this special report. Marvel announces now that this is the last issue of the Human Fly. The Human Fly Stunt Contest also ends abruptly. There was five winners that received an autographed page of original artwork. I would like to know their ideas, so please if anyone knows this people, tell them to share with us their stunts. They are Hwai-Li Yang, Joe Dunn, Steve Kimos, K. Alan McDougall and Frank Pelligrino.

Well, that’s all. Thank you for being there all this weeks. I’ve being thinking about a little thing to add to my Human Fly series of post as an extra. I’ll try to post it next week.