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.
_Donovan,_Head_of_the_OSS.jpg)
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