Despite the immensely popular Adventures of Superman TV show, the 1950s remained kind of a desert for superheroes.
Like DC in its revivals of the Flash and Green Lantern, Archie Comics caught the first wave of the coming Silver Age with its Adventures of the Fly in August 1959.
Tommy Troy was a boy magically transformed into an adult superhero, a winning concept that was going begging since Fawcett Comics had stopped publishing Captain Marvel five years before. Oddly, that angle was dropped after a couple of issues, and Tommy was rushed through law school to become an adult attorney.
In the first issue I bought, Adventures of the Fly 8 (Sept. 1960), I was delighted to find two superheroes for the price of one (then a dime). The Fly teamed up with the Shield to fight the Monster Gang. Movie monsters too! How good could this get?
I remember being puzzled by the fact that the Shield seemed to come from nowhere, because he had no title of his own. In fact, he did — The Double Life of Private Strong, which lasted only two issues in 1959. Like The Adventures of the Fly, the title was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
The revamped Golden Age Shield now boasted flight, super-strength, invulnerability, super-vision and the ability to project lightning, and was the orphaned son of a scientist who’d given him his expanded-mind powers. Lancelot Strong had also been adopted and raised by a kindly farm couple.
Sound familiar? DC Comics thought so and threatened legal action, banishing the Shield to near-limbo. He did, however, show up for a couple of guest spots with the Fly.
That also happened with the Black Hood, another Golden Age superhero I’d never heard of, despite the fact that he’d once had his own comic book, radio series and pulp magazine.
Bob Doncaster said: They 're-introduced a bunch of GA heroes and I bought everything I could get my hands on. Some really brief appearance, a couple of panels for some. I always like the name The Fly better than Fly Man too
ReplyDeleteMichael Uslan said: I developed “The Fly” as a feature film at Dreamworks with director Bob Zemeckis. Will Smith wanted to star. I just wanted to see our first ads that would say, “The Fly opens Friday!”
ReplyDeleteI remember the Fly being part of the Mighty Crusaders which included the Fly, Flygirl (so sexist now considering that she was as mature as he was), the Comet, the Black Hood, and the Shield. But I don't remember the Shield having any powers or gimmicks other than a costume designed to protect his torso (at the least) from gunfire and maybe even weapon blades. Was that character revamped from those 1959 appearances?
ReplyDeleteSalvatore Marlow said; Although it was a ripoff of Captain Marvel, I preferred Tommy Troy the kid raised by fly people rather then adult district attorney Thomas Troy.
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