January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.
Story Title: “The Book of Transgenesis”
Published: March 2015
Story Title: “Quarantine”
Published: April 2015
Story Title: “Metamorphosis”
Published: May 2015
Story Title: “All Hell Breaks Loose”
Published: June 2015
Story Title: “The Book of Revelation”
Published: July 2015
Quick Facts:
Published by IDW Comics, this five-issue miniseries does what director David Cronenberg and star Jeff Goldblum could not by continuing the lauded world of The Fly (1986) and its under-rated sequel, and impressed with its respect to the source material and atmospheric artwork.
The Review:
The Fly: Outbreak picks up some years after The Fly II (Walas, 1989) to find Martin Brundle now a certified PhD and still working on his father’s Telepods. Specifically, Martin has been trying to cure (or at least regress) the fly genes he transferred into his devious adopted father, Doctor Anton Bartok. Despite his genius, Martin is frustrated by failure and intimate probing from his assistant, Noelani Tanaka, who questions why he doesn’t want to have children. This sore subject rears its head later that night while Martin’s celebrating his anniversary with his wife, Beth Logan, who attempts to spice things up with sadomasochistic sex toys. Martin angrily stops this bizarre sexy time when Beth refuses to use protection but, while he insists he’s trying to protect her from his “buggy genes”, Beth takes this as a rejection and bitterly criticises him for putting barriers between them. To make things worse, Martin’s experiments “upregulated” Bartok’s insect genes, transforming him into a monstrous (if strangely beautiful) winged man-bug that rampages through the facility. Though he rejects Bartok as his father, Martin insists on confronting him, using a handy-dandy translator pad to communicate with the mutated industrialist. When Martin’s efforts to reason with the Bartockfly fail and result in bystanders being either melted by its “vomit drop” or sprayed with strange spores, Martin flees, resulting in Bartock being gunned down and Martin being covered in spores. Exposed to an unknown transgenic disease, the Army places Martin, Noelani, and the others under quarantine on North Brother Island for observation. Though Doctor Mayweather and Major Vurvin allow Martin to research the disease, the whole thing is classified so he must hack the computer system to give Beth an update.
Although Martin could reproduce the gene swapping solution from The Fly II, he refuses to sacrifice another healthy soul and largely blames himself for the infection (as do the other patients). After nine days processing everything, Noelani finally confronts Martin and he explains that he assumes the disease will manifest similar to how his father mutated. Indeed, over several days, the infected sprout coarse hairs and become euphoric, manic, and increasingly sexual alongside developing superhuman strength, stamina, and an inflated, erratic self-esteem. When Noelani interrupts Martin’s latest call to Beth (where she whips out a vibrator and starts making a show of herself!), Martin is horrified when she comes on to him and reveals she’s been infected. When he rejects her, Noelani spitefully manhandles him, berating Martin for ignoring her, forcing him to subdue her with an electric shock. Beth keeps her libido in check long enough to be devastated when a guilt-ridden Martin tells her he must focus on finding a viable cure, eventually administrating lithium pills to Noelani to calm her “unipolar mania”. Haunted by dreams of his failure, the city being overrun by Brundleflys, and the personification of his guilt and inner demons (the “Martinfly”), Martin works tirelessly, berating himself for his lack of answers and the rapidly degenerating infected. Martin’s horrified to witness this as an outsider, seeing the likes of Doctor Ross brutalise themselves rather than transform into an inhuman fly-thing, and begrudgingly taking them off their medication so the infected won’t be rational enough to take such drastic measures. When Martin refuses to use the gene swap cure or let the infected commit suicide, the increasingly spiteful Noelani gives him a first-hand instruction on fly anatomy and mating rituals and…somehow…inadvertently gives Martin the solution he’s been searching for.
However, when Martin advises using the bodies of organ donors as donor material, Dr. Mayweather and Major Vurvin immediately shoot the suggestion down since thousands of people are waiting for those healthy organs. They also angrily chastise Martin and his father for being irresponsible mad scientists who tainted science with their reckless, crackpot ideas. Although it goes against their every instinct, Dr. Mayweather and Major Vurvin order the infected to be destroyed before they can reach their final forms, only for them to hatch from their cocoons. Drinking himself into a stupor, a depressed and remorseful Martin watches as soldiers are attacked by the fly-things, which resemble the Bartockfly and easily dispose of the troops with their superior strength, wings, and acidic spit. Martin’s stunned when Beth arrives to help disguised herself as a solder, only for Martin’s nightmare to become reality as the fly-things escape the facility. Although Martin begs Beth not to shoot the fly-things (reasoning that they’ll eventually die anyway) as they were once human, she ignores him since she was the one who activated Martin’s gene swap programme and is just as guilty of mutating Bartock as he is. When they reach the dock, Martin refuses to leave and their argument about this exacerbates when Noelani (now a surprisingly loquacious and attractive alien-like humanoid) asks them to get her to the mainland. When Martin convinces her that she could be “patient zero” of a wider fly epidemic, Noelani threatens to first shoot and then melt Martin if he doesn’t perform the gene swap on her. When Martin refuses, Noelani threatens Beth and, consumed by guilt for ignoring his wife and causing Noelani’s condition, Martin acts as her donor and fires up the Telepods.
Noelani emerges whole and human while Martin regresses to the monstrous Martinfly, now psychotic and intelligent enough to speak. Martinfly immediately scoops up Noelani and considers ripping her limb from limb or digesting her a piece at a time. Amazed to find he can fly, Martinfly soars into the sky and sees the chaos he’s causes. Noelani successfully appeals to Martin’s humanity and he lets her go to help, ripping apart the fly-things and even saving Dr. Maywather. However, his animalistic side soon takes hold, pushing Noelani to encourage Beth to destroy him before it’s too late since Martin “likes being a monster” and no one would ever volunteer to restore him. Martinfly returns to the Teleport lab with one of the fly-things, now determined to perfect the breed, much like his father tried to do, by splicing Noelani and the creature into one. Beth saves Noelani and traps Martinfly in a Telepod before freeing the fly-thing, gunning it down and trusting Noelani to do the same for her after she voluntarily enters the other Telepod. Emerging as a glorious Fly Queen, Beth is horrified to find the restored Martin fatally impaled in the Telepod. Beth realises all-too late that Noelani was somehow responsible for this and takes a shot to the head. As he apparently dies, Martin provides Noelani with the key to solving the outbreak (“[using] fresh organs in place of living people”), finally acknowledging her as he passes. Several years later, Noelani has earned her doctorate and apparently become a principal figurehead of Bartock Industries, twisting Martin’s creed (“Words are just words. Actions are what count”) into her mission statement. It’s also shown that she has one of the fly-things in captivity, though there’s no hint as to why.
Final Thoughts:
Considering how big a fan I am of the entire Fly concept, especially the remake and its sequel, I was massively disappointed by The Fly: Outbreak. On paper, the idea has a lot of promise, especially as the films never delivered on the idea of a fully grown, human/fly hybrid with wings and all that. To be fair, this was never the intention as the creatures were grotesque abominations, but there’s still an appeal in seeing a more fully formed hybrid. I also liked the idea of Martin being wracked by guilt for the state he left Bartock in and wishing to cure his surrogate father, despite his monstrous actions, without sacrificing another healthy life. This guilt consumes Martin as he knows that Bartock is suffering because of his genes, the same warped DNA that keeps him from impregnating his wife and spawning another genetic anomaly. This could’ve been a very harrowing character arc for Martin as he embraces his monstrous side once more and finally purges himself of his curse, and his guilt, to lead a normal, happy life and the ghost of this idea is peppered throughout the story, but it takes a backseat to Martin’s marital issues. While Martin and Beth had a very passionate relationship in The Fly II, I (like Noelani) never pegged her for a closeted sexual predator! Beth is so fucking horny that she disregards Martin’s concerns about contraceptives, decides the best way to take her husband’s mind off his guilt and the rapidly declining state of the infected is to play with herself over a video call, and routinely snaps at him for caring more about her safety (and his work) than her libido. It’s a very strange decision to characterise Beth this way and I’m not sure I like it as she wasn’t this sexually aggressive in The Fly II, so it feels odd. I think it would’ve been far more fitting to have her be upset because she wants children and Martin’s reluctant rather than having her strap him down and stuff a ball gag in his mouth!
This might not have been so bad if the artwork was coherent. While “mention3” and David Stoupakis do an excellent job capturing the likenesses of Eric Stoltz, Daphne Zuniga, and Lee Richardson, most other characters are hidden behind ironically bug-like gas masks and others appear like lifeless marionettes. Again, this might’ve been acceptable if either artist could draw a background! Almost every panel is framed against indistinct darkness or a murky mess of blacks, greys, and greens, making it very difficult to decipher where the characters are. The Telepod lab, for example, appears to exist in a misty void, the facility is a foggy mess, and the grounds look like they’re in the midst of an atomic explosion! It’s truly a horrendous comic to look at and I really struggled to get a sense of the space and time passing, especially in “Metamorphosis”, where the story bounces from place to place and apparently ahead in time without warning. The art is much better when depicting the fly-things but even they are a mess at times, often appearing blurred and warped so it’s hard to make out individual features. Oddly, despite Martin comparing the infected to his father, these fly-things are strong, healthy, and far more beautiful than Brundlefly and Martinfly. They can think and talk with far more logic and intelligence than they displayed during their metamorphosis, fly, and rip limbs and heads off with ease. The fly-things appears more like aliens, depicted as beautiful, elegant humanoid creatures rather than misshapen atrocities, assumedly because the disease somehow improved the mutation process (though it’s hard to tell as Martin offhandedly suggests the fly-things have a short lifespan). The image of a swarm of fly-things descending on the military should have been a powerful and horrifying visual but, instead, it’s a nightmarish blur of colours and nonsense and barely a footnote in the story since it’s more concerned with the quarantine procedure and Noelani’s ambitions.
I could forgive all of this if The Fly: Outbreak stuck the landing, but it really doesn’t. Things made a twisted sense right up to “The Book of Revelation”, where it all goes downhill. Noelani threatening Martin and Beth eats a lot of panels and Martin’s transformation back into Martinfly isn’t as exciting as it could’ve been as, for some inexplicably reason, he can talk but loses his humanity and compassion. While I liked the call-back to Brundlefly’s insane plot to create the “ultimate family”, it wasn’t worth tarnishing Martin’s characterisation, especially as he was seen as virtuous (if more aggressive) when he first became Martinfly. Again, maybe I could forgive this is the rest of the finale made sense, but it really doesn’t. Beth becomes a gorgeous Fly Queen (despite Bartock being horrifically mutated by the same gene swap process) only to immediately be executed by Noelani. Martin returns to normal but is somehow impaled on…something…inside the Telepod. Beth accuses Noelani of this but it’s not clear how she would’ve done it, or even why. Martin apparently dies and gives Noelani to chance to cure the others, but it’s implied she imprisoned the fly-things instead? It’s a really confusing and messy end that drags the entire story down and I still don’t understand why the fly-things turned out how they did or what the hell was going on with the ending, or Noelani. Sadly, The Fly: Outbreak is not a story I’d recommend unless you really hated Martin and Beth and want to see them bastardised and tarnished by this incoherent, ugly mess. This could’ve been a fun story of a Brundlefly outbreak and Martin having to reconcile his guilt and his mutation to get some closure. But, instead, it’s a confusing, hideously realised story that disappointed me in basically every aspect.
My Rating:
Terrible
Do you think I was too harsh on The Fly: Outbreak or do you agree that it’s an ugly, incoherent mess? Were you also disturbed by Martin and Beth’s relationship woes? Did you also find the fly-things oddly designed or did you like seeing them flying about? Can you explain to me what the hell happened in the ending? Would you like to see more comic books continuing the Fly story? How are you celebrating sci-fi this month? Like the review and leave a comment below, check out my other sci-fi content, and donate to my Ko-Fi to support more reviews like this.
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