Let’s see how Peter loses his Ricochet identity. We open on the hilariously named Bloodscream and Roughhouse, 2 jobbers from Wolverine comics, who’ve been released from prison. One of them has noticed someone following them. Who could it be? Could it be Ricochet?
Naturally, it’s Dusk. I guess there’s no reason to keep the identities tied to a particular book, but they’re the ones who did it, and it’s only 2 months. Weird. Anyway, Peter goes home, and we learn that those guys are now working for Black Tarantula, and that’s why he was following them. MJ is worried. She says he had years to develop his fighting abilities as Spider-Man, but is a newbie with these new identities. We’ve already seen how right she is in the previous post, but Peter isn’t concerned.
In the space of 2 months, they managed to do “Osborn wants to hire the new hero” and “Peter gets the costume parts mixed up” twice! Come on, guys. We cut to Rose and Delilah discussing Ricochet. They don’t trust him, but think he’s a means to an end, and that end is making trouble for Black Tarantula that can’t be traced to The Rose. Speaking of Ranchy…
Is that his real origin? Who knows? I don’t. Kinda seems like a wasted page if it isn’t, but people do weird things in comics. Like this:
Can you believe they would do this? After the effort required to dig themselves out of the Clone Saga hole? But don’t worry, Kaine doesn’t appear again. Which only makes is more insane. Back in NY, BT tells his lil’ buddy that Fortunato and Rose don’t suspect his real purpose in America, and also that Fortunato has learned much of his background, “but lacks a crucial fact.” We learn BT apparently sent Bloodscream and Roughhouse to do something in Wolverine #123, but they failed. And then, with the 2nd of only 2 issues in which Peter is Ricochet half over, we finally see him in that suit, staking out the docks with Delilah. She wants to know how Blood’n’Rough survived failing Black Tarantula, so when they leave the boat they’re living on, Ricochet & Delilah follow them to a meeting with… Chesbro, the little guy who Peter recognizes from seeing him skulking around ESU spying on MJ’s teacher. And then it’s fightin’ time.
These villains were co-created by the great John Buscema, who did a long stretch at the start of Wolverine’s monthly book, and you can kind of feel Bennett hewing to a Buscema feel for Roughhouse. His obsession with food seems funny, I don’t really know these guys.
Bennett has really broken Delilah’s costume down. Remember when it was all billowy sleeves and shoulderpads and that ponytail that looked like it might have blades in it? Ain’t nobody got time for that anymore, presumably. These guys and Styx and Stone should hang out. Roughhouse does a “knock you into next week” line, and Ricochet tells him to aim for Thursday, which I like. Our hero starts leaping around and throwing his little bouncing discs at Roughy, who gets so annoyed he just leaves. That’s pretty unusual. He unfortunately demolishes a good chunk of the restaurant on his way. Ricochet follows them to the boat they’re living on, and has one of the worst ideas I’ve ever seen. Soon, in an ABSOLUTELY ridiculous sequence, Roughy and Bloody are back on their boat when they’re attacked by Dusk. And then he slips into the shadows and they’re attacked by Ricochet.
I mean, this is absurd. How could he possibly be changing clothes so fast? As Hornet, he KO’s Bloody and then tranquilizes Roughhouse. All tied up, Bloodscream says maybe they can make a deal, and that lives hang in the balance. He proposes to trade information for his freedom. Meanwhile, half a world away…
Well, that sure offered no reason at all for Peter to stop being Ricochet. And barely bothered to use the Ricochet identity in the first place. What a weird deal. Things are obviously building up in the background while all this goofing off is happening in the foreground. What’s coming is… not great!