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The Fly
"Quarantine"
The Fly: Outbreak #2 (IDW)
Comic book
Written by Brandon Seifert
Art by menton3
Lettered by Tom B. Long
Cover A by menton3
April 2015
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After exposure to Bartok's transgenes,
Martin and others at Bartok
Industries are placed in indefinite quarantine by the
government.
Read the summary of the
mini-series at RottenInk
Notes from the
Fly
chronology
This issue opens on Day 8 of Martin's quarantine after exposure
to Bartokfly and continues through Day 17.
Didja Know?
Even though this story would have to take place around the
mid-1990s in the chronology, the writer and artist seem to use
references of the time it was written (2014-15).
Characters appearing or mentioned in this issue
Beth
Brundle
Dr. Martin
Brundle
Anton Bartok (deceased, mentioned only)
Major Vurvin
Dr. Mayweather
Noelani
quarantined security guard (unnamed)
redhead woman
(unnamed)
Didja Notice?
On page 1,
Martin calls Beth on his computer for a video chat and she
appears to be taking the call on her smartphone. But smartphones
did not exist when this story should be taking place, around the
mid-1990s! The computer technology used here doesn't, in
general, seem in keeping with the state of technology at the
time. Video conferencing via internet was not commonplace in
'90s. Martin also appears to be using flatscreen monitors, which
was a technology still in its infancy at the time, very
expensive, mostly monochromatic, and seeing very little use.
On page 3, Martin tells Beth during the
call that he has been
placed in quarantine on North Brother Island in the East River,
saying the government reopened the old hospital there for the
Ebola thing.
North Brother Island is an actual island in
the East River of New York City. Riverside Hospital was opened
there in 1885, originally to isolate and treat victims of
smallpox and, later, other diseases until it closed in 1938. The
hospital has been used for other purposes off-and-on since, but
is abandoned and derelict now; it has not actually been reopened
to deal with Ebola.
Ebola is a deadly disease caused by ebolaviruses and
has an average risk of death of about 50%. Since this story
would take place around the mid-1990s, I'm not sure why the U.S.
would have an Ebola quarantine facility since there were no
widespread Ebola outbreaks outside of Africa at the time. (At
the time this story was written in 2014-15, there was a
multinational Ebola outbreak which included the U.S. to a small
degree from 2013-2016.)
North Brother island is currently off-limits
to the public and acts as a bird sanctuary for wading birds.
Typhoid Mary (previously mentioned in
"The Book of
Transgenesis") did spend over two decades quarantined
at the hospital and finally died there, as intimated by Martin here.
|
The image of North Brother Island seen on page 3 is
pretty close to how the island actually looks from the
air, complete with buildings, plus a new building seen
as part of this story. |
 |
 |
| North Brother
Island in The Fly: Outbreak |
North Brother
Island on
Google Maps |
An unseen speaker in the quarantine facility refers to Martin as
"beezlebrundle". This must be a twist on, and misspelling of,
beelze-, from Beelzebub, a god of ancient Philistine that
came to be known as a demon (or sometimes the Devil himself) in
the Abrahamic religions. Some translations of the word
"Beelzebub" is that it means "Lord of the Flies". Later in the
issue (page 10), a quarantined security guard there actually
refers to Martin as the
Lord of the Flies.
On page 6, Martin explains that Dr. Mayweather thinks the
transgenic infection, if it occurs, will progress more like it
did for Seth Brundle than the way it did for Martin (in
The Fly II). Martin
lists the symptoms of "Stage One" of the metamorphosis to
Noelani, including mania similar to Bipolar-1 disorder. Type one
bipolar disorder is a psychiatric disorder causing varying manic,
depressive, and euphoric episodes in the patient.
On page 9, Martin describes "Stage Two" of the metamorphosis as
turning the individual into a "Frankenfly," also adding, "Rather
Kafka."
Obviously,
"Frankenfly" is a portmanteau of "Frankenstein" and "fly",
referring to the Frankenstein monster of the classic horror
novel and numerous films, a creature built from the parts of
deceased men.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was an Austrian-Czechoslovakian writer
known for his surrealistic stories, particularly The
Metamorphosis (1915), about a man who wakes up one day to
find he has transformed into a giant insect (usually interpreted
as a beetle or cockroach). Outbreak's writer
Brandon Seifert titled the following issue of our storyline "Metamorphosis".
The soldiers guarding the facility on
North Brother Island are armed with Tasers. TASER is a brand
name of electronic, non-lethal weapons made by
Axon.
On page 11, Martin tells Beth that the soldiers' and doctors'
pet name for the quarantined individuals on North Brother Island
is "maggots". Maggots are the larval form of flies.
Both this issue and last ("The Book of Transgenesis")
present Martin and Beth as having a rather kinky sex life!
On page 13, Noelani says that Martin, after weeks of
quarantine with basically no privacy, must be about to go
"sex Chernobyl".
Chernobyl is a city in Ukraine in what is now the Chernobyl
Exclusion Zone, due to the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear
Power Plant in 1986, when one of the
plant's reactors exploded, releasing
radioactive material into the air.
As she's trying to seduce Martin, on page 15 Noelani remarks
that Beth isn't there and her "jilling off" on a webcam hardly
counts. "Jilling
off" is a slang term for the female version of "jacking off",
i.e. masturbation.
Noelani tells Martin they're all mayflies, "...we could die
tomorrow! We should have fun now!" Mayflies (the adult form)
live for only about 24 hours.
