Warning: The following contains spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #88.BEY, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
The original Slingers are back in action in Amazing Spider-Man #88.BEY (by Geoffrey Thorne, Jan Bazaldua, Jim Towe, Jim Campbell, and VC’s Joe Caramagna). Launching as a team using Peter Parker’s discarded alter-identities, the Slingers have been involved with facing down Mephisto, a brainwashed Wolverine, and fighting alongside Captain America during “Civil War.” Now, two of the original team members are back alongside an all-new Hornet.
During the story “Identity Crisis,” Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, was framed by Norman Osborn for killing a criminal, resulting in a five million-dollar reward for his capture. Innovative as usual, Parker put away the Spider-Man persona and crafted four superhero identities. Years later, those costumes and personas would be picked up by the Slingers, a group of four new heroes inspired by the web-slinger, and in Amazing Spider-Man 88.BEY the Slingers reassemble.
Parker’s different suits allowed him to demonstrate different abilities. The first suit was the Hornet, designed by Hobie Brown, the original Prowler. Ricochet was the second and allowed Parker to use his spider-strength and agility. The third, Dusk, allowed Parker to move in and out of another dimension to blend into the shadows. The final identity was Prodigy, which allowed Parker to use his speed and strength.
After this, Daniel Lyons, aka the Black Marvel, collected the four costumes. Literally bargaining with the Devil for the outfits, Lyons’ soul was claimed by the devil of the Marvel Universe, Mephisto. The Slingers fought to free his soul from the arch-villain, going their separate ways once the mission was complete. The original four were Cassie St. Commons (Dusk), Johnny Gallo (Ricochet), Eddie McDonough (Hornet), and Ritchie Gilmore (Prodigy).
Those four characters demonstrated similar but distinct abilities from Parker’s use of the costumes. Cassie St. Commons as Dusk possessed supernatural abilities including teleportation, manipulation of shadows, and construction of dark energy objects. McDonough as Hornet was entirely empowered by the costume which enhanced his strength and armed him with wrist blasters. Gilmore’s Prodigy was mystically infused and possessed superhuman strength along with the ability to leap incredible distances. Finally, Ricochet, Johnny Gallo, was a mutant gifted with super-agility and remarkable reflexes. He also possessed a “danger sense.”
The four each had completely different backgrounds. St. Commons came from wealth in Connecticut. McDonough was a student at Parker’s alma mater, Empire State University, and was born with cerebral palsy. Gilmore also attended Empire State University and was an athlete. Gallo came from a troubled background—his mother was murdered when he was just a teen.
Over the years, the characters appeared in a number of other issues. Ricochet had an extended history in the Runaways as part of a group known as Excelsior. The original Hornet, McDonough, was found dead after having been brainwashed by the Hand into fighting Wolverine. Prodigy returned during the first Civil War and joined Captain America’s group of heroes.
The team came back together when they discovered that a person wearing the Hornet costume was working in Las Vegas. Ricochet and Dusk discovered that he was working alongside Prodigy to bring Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider, to justice after his brutal vigilantism had gone awry. In that encounter, it was discovered that the Hornet was not their resurrected friend, but a villain named Cyber who was working with a demon and masquerading as the Black Marvel. Joining with Reilly, they defeated Cyber and the demon.
In recent years, the original inventor of the costume, Hobie Brown, has taken up the mantle of the Hornet. In The Amazing Spider-Man #88.BEY, Brown and St. Commons follow a lead on Gallo and reunite with him in a Beyond Corporation shadow site. There, the three are recruited to join the Beyond Corporation by Dr. Eliot Swensen sans Ritchie Gilmore, aka Prodigy, who is missing in action.
As a group inspired by Spider-Man, the Slingers have the potential to be a dynamic team under Brown’s leadership. Whether they’ll be in action again though is still to be seen.
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