This isn’t really Spider-Man comics and I bailed on the series before it ended, so I decided to just speedrun them as 1 post. So, having created 4 new superheroes in the pages of the Identity Crisis stunt, Marvel didn’t just toss them when it was over. Right alongside SM 98, issue 1 of Slingers was published. But first, there was this 0 issue from Wizard, setting things up for free, bagged in with some issue of the magazine, which was not uncommon in this era. It’s on glossy magazine paper stock, which will make it harder to photograph, but it’s only a few years til regular comics are glossy, too, so I’m counting down to that. This 0 issue is by Joe Harris, Adam Pollina, Jimmy Palmiotti and Kevin Tinsely, tho that is not entirely the team for the actual series. In that hype magazine Wizard published for the relaunch I keep referring to, Harris said he really wanted to keep Spider-Man out of this series as much as possible.
Just not on page one, I guess.
Fancy new cape for Prodigy. Easier to be “the Superman one” that way. Except whoever’s in there is a brooding, angsty wannabe Batman. We quickly see Hornet has a crush on Dusk, Ricochet is the annoying comic relief one, and Dusk is scared and doesn’t know if all this is for her. She’s being asked to jump across the roof to them, and if she doesn’t, Prodigy will kick her off the team. We learn someone hired them to do this, and gave them these suits, and swore them to secret. We learn Hornet has a palsied hand, but has full control of it in the suit. Ricochet does annoying comic relief things, Prodigy broods, Hornet tries to coax Dusk into doing the jump, and then she tries it.
What a grim start. Sheesh. Now we’re off to issue 1:
As the 0 said, they made 4 covers, one highlighting each hero. I kinda doubt I really cared which one I got. Here we get the actual creative team on the book: Harris, penciler Crisscross (He’s back!), inker Rob Stull and colorist Felix Serrano. We open on a crime scene in an alley that is obviously where Dusk fell, as cops are investigating. And they’re not alone.
Sure is a wacky title and treatment for said title given the moment. Terrible choices! Let’s meet the boys out of costume.
Ooook. Pretty heroic to just leave that girl dead in an alley after talking her into jumping! Johnny having the silver hair is dumb, and they show his dad also has it. Is that supposed to be an explanation? They keep telling each other not to tell anyone and then we go to the morgue, where, hey, Dusk isn’t dead. Two attendants remark that she looked a lot more messed up when she came in as they put her in on a slab. But she has an internal monologue, and once those guys are gone…
Dusk, aka Cassie, sees snippets of her life as the goth child of some rich looking parents and the moments leading up to her death, but doesn’t really remember who she is or what happened. Then she crawls out of the morgue locker, grabs her suit and leaves. She wooshes through the city and scares some vandals who were gonna tag up a church before striking a real Spawn pose on top of it, cape or wing flaps or whatever blowing in the night air. Then we find Hornet going to their meeting, running late.
A very poorly executed page shows Ricochet reacting to Prodigy trying to punch him and hitting a chimney. We just see ricochet flying through the air with some bricks and have to infer the rest. They fight a little you know. Hornet breaks it up, Prodigy says Dusk was weak and to what was coming and leaves. Swell guy.
That billboard makes zero sense. Why is it there? We learn they’re all in college at ESU as we see Eddie & Johnny probably fail a test and then finally see Prodigy out of costume.
Just as cool out of the suit as in, what a guy. A guy dying of an unspecified illness is trying to kill himself by getting hit by a train at the ESU subway stop, and Prodigy finds the other 2 and leads them into action. And below the elevated train stop, Dusk appears in the sewer. Things apparently get much crazier, but we cut to Dusk on a roof, only kind of remembering the boys, watching something or other happen which we’re not shown, “there’s explosions… and guns… and FEAR.” What? Shouldn’t we see what’s happening? Why would any of that be the result of a guy trying to get hit by a train? Suddenly there’s smoke and a wrecked train and some lady is kissing Ricochet on the cheek like he saved her, and then Dusk kind of recognizes Hornet as unseen people are shooting at him. She leaps into action to save him.
What… happened!? Who was shooting!? This comic sucks! Dusk then finds some kid playing on a girder in the rubble we don’t know about and he almost falls to his death, but she saves him. Then she vanishes. We skip to night time and Prodigy heading to a meeting or whatever. Meanwhile, in an abandoned movie studio…
Ok, sure. Meanwhile, the other 2 meet up at the billboard, Ricochet confesses he’s a mutant and doesn’t want to be, Dusk spies on them as they talk, and they decide to leave.
Not a great first issue! Not a great team! Will things improve over the course of the other 2 issues I don’t remember buying and was genuinely shocked to discover I own (I only remembered the 0 issue)? I mean, probably not since I stopped buying it, but we’ll see next post.