History:("The Spider-Man and the Fly" (fb) - BTS) - The Fly and Spider-Man fought in New York, with the Fly managing to throw Spidey off the Empire State Building. He then took the webhead back to his hideout.
THE FLY
Real Name: Gardner Polley
Identity/Class: Human technology user
Occupation: Prisoner;
former criminal
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Big Wheel
(Jackson Weele), Chairman
(Windsor Glastonbury),
Demolition
Derby (Basil Mendelsohn), Elektro,
Home Wrecker
(Matthew Mitchell),
Hotshot
(Abraham James),
Human
Computer (Conrad Turing), Hypno-Hustler
(Antoine Delsoin), June
Jitsui (June Hayashi),
Larcenous
Lil (Lilith Moll), Legal
Eagle (Ralph G. Fake), Photoman
(Vincent Charles), Printout
Man (Windsor Babbage), Simon
the Evil Swami (Simon Sesgood)
Enemies: Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: The S-Wing of an unidentified prison in New York state, USA
First Appearance: Hostess ad "The Spider-Man and the Fly" from Inhumans I#7 (October, 1976) and other issues published in that month
Powers/Abilities: The
Fly has no inherent superhuman powers but he wears a technologically
enhanced suit with small wings, although
it's unrevealed if they actually provide flight capabilities. He
developed a ray gun that neutralized a person's movement.
His only love was Hostess Twinkies.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'10")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 155 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (see comments)
Hair: Unrevealed (see comments)
History:
("The Spider-Man and the Fly" (fb)
- BTS) - The Fly and Spider-Man fought in New York, with the Fly
managing to throw Spidey off the Empire State Building. He then took
the webhead back to his hideout.
("The Spider-Man and the Fly") -
Spider-Man awoke lying restrained while the Fly gloated on his victory
over the webbed hero and boasting of his grand plans (but never
actually
revealing them). Revived, Spider-Man easily broke free of the
restraints but the Fly immobilized him with his ray gun's electronic
field. Spidey feigned
defeat and offered him Hostess Twinkies from his utility belt. With
that, the Fly was distracted and Spider-Man punched the gun away. He
was then served justice by Spidey (most likely arrested).
(Fin Fang Four Return!#1/5 (fb) - BTS) - The Fly was imprisoned somewhere in NY state.
(Fin Fang Four Return!#1/5) - The robot Elektro, mistakenly identified as a villain and arrested, was ushered into the prison's S-Wing, where he met various past Spider-Man villains, including the Fly, who was playing the game Twister by himself. Later inspired by Elektro's defiance, he and the other inmates of S-Wing smashed their way out only to be subdued by the prison guards using sedation foam.
Comments: Created by an uncredited writer, penciler and inker (see comments below).
It can now be established that this Fly is indeed separate to another similarly garbed character called the Fly (Rick Deacon), primarily because Deacon was killed by Scourge (and this aged Fly is imprisoned with various other villains who debuted in Hostess ads).
Of all the Hostess
villains, only Icemaster
has shown up in an Earth-616 title. He could have crossed over to
Earth-616 from "Earth-Hostess," but I say leave them on Earth-616 until
proven otherwise. Nonetheless, until they do show up in regular
continuity, they remain outside regular canon. Surely someone will
write a story teaming them all together.---Snood.
And now they've been
found! ... in a dark corner of an ignored prison
...
You can get the whole Hostess story, and some clever commentary from Seanbaby's The Hostess Page. It might not meet with the Comics Code Authority's approval, so kids, ask your parents before checking that out!
His real name was revealed in Elektro's profile in OHotMU A-Z Update I#2 (2010).
Back Issue#130 by TwoMorrows Publishing confirms that Bates & Co. ad campaign manager Tony Macchia scripted many of the pre-1980 Hostess ads, with his one-time protege Joel Tretin taking over writing duties post-1980. As for the artist, well, according to that same article, many of the Marvel Hostess ads were penciled by Sal Buscema or Ross Andru, with John Romita, Sr., George Tuska, Gene Colan, Gil Kane, Dave Cockrum and Marie Severin drawing some of the others. So if anyone can match the art in the Fly ad to the style of any of the artists listed, chances are they drew it! --Proto-Man
The Fly's eye and hair color were impossible to determine, as he was
never seen outside of his costume! --Proto-Man
Profile by Grendel
Prime.
CLARIFICATIONS:
This Fly has no known connections to:
Appearances:
Hostess Ad: "The Spider-Man and
the Fly" (October, 1976) - uncredited creative team
Fin Fang Four Return!#1/5 (July, 2009) - Scott Gray (writer), Roger
Langridge (artist), John Barber (editor)
First posted: 05/10/2009
Last updated: 06/23/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
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like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
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