Superhero Media: The Fly II

I'm not entirely sure, as I don't spend too much time going over my own old work, but I recall The Fly being one of the first "non-traditional" Superhero Media pieces I covered, in that the film was not truly in the superhero genre, but had elements that worked in a broader consideration of what that genre might be. Being a relatively young genre (I tend to think of Ogon Bat being the true origin point in 1931, though the ur-text nature of 1903's The Scarlet Pimpernel is difficult to ignore), Superheroes have borrowed quite a bit from other genres and storytelling forms that have come before, like Mythological Epics, science fiction and, of course, horror. During the tail-end of the Golden Age, when superheroes were waning, Marvel made its money through Horror comics, a trend that was only ended by the introduction of the Comics Code and the birth of the Silver Age. To hedge their bets, early Silver Age Marvel efforts relied on monster comic elements, like Hulk and Thing, so the idea of monsters and heroes being clearly linked goes way back to at least the early 1960s. Why talk about this and not The Fly II? Well, The Fly II isn't really all that good. 

Following on months out from the previous film, an actress who doesn't look much like Geena Davis gives birth to a Cronenberg blob which hatches into a baby which grows into Eric Stoltz in the span of a few scenes so that we can get an awkward sex scene in the second act. The child, Martin Brundle, is some weird human/fly hybrid, which gives him accelerated aging, superhuman agility and increased intelligence for some reason. Martin must solve the mystery of his father's teleportation technology before the genetic time bomb in his body reverts him into a fly monster. Kept inside a corporate lab facility, Martin grows up knowing only what he's told, taking most things at face value until he works out for himself that his body is changing and there may be nothing he can do about it. The third act of The Fly II is a chase narrative, firstly with security and scientists chasing Martin and his love interest, then with a mutated fly-monster Martin chasing people around the facility, Alien style, picking off his enemies one-by-one. In the end, teleporting with a normal person restores Martin's humanity and the credits role after one last Cronenberg body-horror pop. 

Although The Fly II is nowhere near as good as the original, as a study for a superhero/villain origin film, it actually works a lot better. There is a tragedy to Martin that his father lacked, as Martin never asked for what he has, didn't take the risks himself and just wants to be normal, rather than extraordinary. Would the regret of slow degeneration into a subhuman monster drive Martin to kill, or merely to menace? Is there a version of the character who tries to do good, but is held back by their monstrous appearance? There is fodder here for the kind of "darker" superhero setting that many seem fond of, with Martin being a dark mirror of a Spider-Man style character. Throw in a few elements from Brightburn and maybe even the Carrie remake and you have some twisted, gritty "Justice League" to play around with. Not my bag, but from the kind of interminable conversations I get dragged into, I assume someone wants to get this up and running.