Friday, July 28, 2006

Rescue Me: The Fly

Or "The Human Fly" as he was sometimes called. Which must have been confusing for that 70's stuntman guy with the same name and his own Marvel comic. His costume was kind of boring, that's for damn sure. But I don't agree with Marvel's decision to mutate him and make him even more insect-like, and give him a preference for eating garbage. (Like Tostitos and Ding Dongs.) I guess Marvel finally realized he was more disgusting and pathetic than menacing. And so down came the swatter.

Well, I call shenanigans. He was a powerful guy in his prime, with some pretty cool powers, like the ability to generate explosive force by "buzzing" his wings at a certain frequency. And he was strong, fast, and could stick to walls. I think he would have made a great enforcer-type character -- y'know, badass muscle hired by crime bosses to rub out their enemies. And I would have dressed him like so:

myfly

Forget the traditional costume -- with those big bug eyes and wings, he doesn't need anything else that could make him look campy. So we have green leather pants and boots and some tattoos that are based on the shape of flies' legs. I shaved his head and gave him a fu-manchu. Which is dyed black, since his natural haircolor is a strawberry blonde. It's more of a down-to-earth, rough-and-tumble look for the guy. He fought Moon Knight at one point; I think he would have been a good villain for other street-level heroes, like Daredevil or Power Man.

What do you guys think?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not too shabby. I like how you add visual interest to some of these old costumes without letting them get busy.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a huge fan of shirtless characters, but this one actually makes sense. The man has a pair of wings coming out of his back, after all. I never understood how guys like him and the Angel fit their wings through those little tiny slots on the backs of their shirts. At least the Wasp usually had a cut-out for her wings to poke through.

I could also see this version of The Fly fighting Spider-Man 2099. He'd fit right in with Vulture 2099. Imagine the aerial battle between the spidey of tomorrow and those two winged warriors!

Anonymous said...

I like the motif on the boots. The stingers are surprisingly badass.

Bully said...

Very cool. A solid design that would work well for a hero but be mistaken for a villain by the general public--a classic Marvel theme.

Man, BB, I'd love to see Marvel hand you over a full corner of their world or even an alternate universe to redesign for real. Earth-BB, anyone?

Anonymous said...

I agree, bully--that'd be pretty sweet.