William 'Wild Will' Fitzpatrick

 

Here is a quick little post about something not directly related to the MC2 at all, just something I wanted to cover and hopefully break me out of my writer’s block. That said, I am hoping to build this and potentially other related posts into a rather large combined entry in the MC2 Family Tree series. Today, we will be looking at the Marvel character William ‘Wild Will’ Fitzpatrick.

 

You are probably wondering why we are looking at William Fitzpatrick and the answer is two-fold: he is the great-grandfather of May ‘Mayday’ Parker aka Spider-Girl and he has an interesting real-world counterpart. Fitzpatrick makes his first appearance in the Untold Tales of Spider-Man #-1, part of Marvel’s ‘Flashback’ month which saw many of their titles switch to a minus issue set in the past. Given that Untold Tales of Spider-Man was already set in the past, this issue goes back to the days of Peter’s parents, Richard and Mary Parker on a fateful mission during which we flashback even further to glimpse Mary as a young girl with her father, William ‘Wild Will’ Fitzpatrick.

 

Not only do we learn a little more about Mary, such as her maiden surname Fitzpatrick and her aptitude for learning, we learn that Mary’s mother died while very young leaving Will as her only parent. We also learn that ‘Wild Will’ was part of the O.S.S. or Office of Strategic Services which was an American intelligence agency during World War II. This organisation was dissolved and shortly after replaced by the Central Intelligence Agency, where later Mary Fitzpatrick would work as a translator and data analyst and, after meeting Richard Parker, a field agent (Untold Tales of Spider-Man #-1).

The Marvel Appendix entry for Mary Parker and ‘Wild Will’ Fitzpatrick notes that the Marvel Sliding Timescale may soon render William’s status as active during WWII as an O.S.S. operative pretty unbelievable if he’s the father of Mary and the grandfather of Peter Parker, if the latter exists in the modern era. As they point out, Will may have been older when Mary was born which, for now, is as good an explanation as any, especially considering he dies while Mary is still relatively young. Regardless, as an MC2-focused blog, we have an additional fourth generation to take into account between the 1940’s and the present day.

 

William ‘Wild Will’ Fitzpatrick is based on the real-world American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat William Joseph “Wild Bill” Donovan who is best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II and is regarded as the founding father of the Central Intelligence Agency. The minus issue of Untold Tales of Spider-Man was written by Roger Stern and he would re-use ‘Wild Will’ in another story that firmly ties the character to the Second World War.

 

In 1998’s Marvel Universe #1 we have a story set during World War II, specifically 1945 wherein William Fitzpatrick works alongside Robert Frank aka The Whizzer to interview various people about the character and loyalties of members of the superhero team The Invaders including Namor the Sub-Mariner, the original Human Torch and Captain America. Following this, ‘Wild Will’ Fitzpatrick tasks the group with a secret mission involving Hydra.

 

 While it is not confirmed, I would like to suggest that the Intelligence agent seen in Marvel Universe #3 is also intended to be Fitzpatrick, given his appearance (aside from the miscoloured hair) and attire appear similar.

 

There’s not a huge wealth of stories to delve into here but I wanted to do this post because I think what we do get about Fitzpatrick tells us volumes, and by extension we gain a better understanding of Mary Parker. The heroic traits, intelligence, and wherewithal on display from father to daughter mirrors some aspects we see in Peter and his daughter Mayday’s relationship.

 

Until I remember where I left my notes for the next post, I remain

 

frogoat