Monday, September 19, 2005

The Chronicles of the Human Fly
Chapter Four




"THE WORLD NEEDS US!





From Wikipedia:

“The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is the short title of United States Public Law 101-336, signed into law on July 26, 1990 by George H. W. Bush. It is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal. Certain specific conditions are excluded, including alcoholism and transsexuality.”

The Human Fly premiered in 1977, a full thirteen years before the ADA was signed into law, but sympathy with and equal opportunities for the disabled was a cornerstone of the Fly’s adventures. As we’ve established in past installments, the Fly was himself technically “disabled” - having been horribly injured and had much of his bones replaced with metal. But in the spirit of solidarity with the disabled community for whom the Fly intended to be an example, he surrounded himself with people who, while differently-abled, did not consider themselves handicapped.



Stunt engineer Ted Locke is a double-amputee.


Ted Locke was a promising engineer who lost both of his hands in Vietnam.

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Alone in the hospital, wallowing in his own feelings of self-pity, Locke was distraught until one night he was visited by a mysterious stranger.



Could it be . . . Jesus?




Metal bones - in real life, a pain in the ass; but in the Marvel Universe they’re a ticket to superstardom.




Is it me or does Ted look like George Hamilton wit ha bad wig?


Of course, Ted assents, and from that moment on his fate would be forever joined with the Fly’s.

The Fly’s other aide de camp was a pilot named Blaze Kendall, who also spoke jive.



Blaze Kendall’s disability is that she is a woman. Ha ha. I’ll be here all week, folks.






He does not think much of lady pilots! Ha ha!



When a man of his age and apparent fitness suffers a sudden heart attack, chances are it was brought about as a result of cocaine abuse.





Oh no! The plane is about to crash into a mass of squiggly lines!



Blaze Kendall had the habit of falling into a trance at the most inopportune times.

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The Fly likes sneaking into people’s rooms at night. I wonder what he gets up to when the people at Marvel aren’t looking?




Usually something comes alive inside of you in both romance novels and sci-fi stories. One is bad, the other is good, and I’ll leave you to decide which.



The Human Fly was many things, but most importantly he was a visionary in the field of disability legislation. Although the Americans With Disabilities act was thirteen years in the future, the Fly refused to allow discrimination to blight his hiring practices.







Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three

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