Pretty weird cover copy. We will recall Harris said he wanted to keep Spider-Man out of this book.
Mm hm. How’s that working out? He’s been in every issue so far, with a bigger presence in each one. Spoilers, but he’s on the cover of #3. I mean… whoops. Cut to the former “Black Marvel,” the Slingers’ boss, and various ramblings about how he has been waiting for another chance to save the world since whatever happened to him in the olden times, and how that time is now. Funny to me that a character called The Blue Marvel, also a forgotten old timey hero, will be introduced a few years after this and actually have legs. Cut to the Slingers in a big drain pipe, Prodigy telling the others that it leads to a nearby construction site that’s suspected to be Maggia-owned. He tasks the other 2 with getting recon without being spotted, and gives Ricochet… I guess a cell phone? The drawing is a cell phone-shaped object without enough buttons, I dunno, walkie talkie? Good way to be noticed. Then Prodigy leaves. He sure doesn’t seem to do much. The construction is going to be a retro hotel, and its sign is already in place despite most of the building not being done, and it is completely illegible due to very poor font and letter placement choices. Man, this period is so awkward. Color and lettering have become completely new disciplines, and people are flailing all over the place. The mob guy in charge says the building opens in 2 days! Again, half unfinished! Prodigy is spying on them. Why’d he send the others?
“I clearly just told you Spider-Man was chasing me, but I don’t want to talk about it, which, in hindsight, makes me telling you to begin with seem like a poor choice on my part. Quick cut to Dusk watching her family mourn her, then back to the boys, who get attacked by giant rats, as on the cover. Prodigy is still spying, but then they call him on what has turned out to be a walkie talkie and blow his cover.
Prodigy, it must be said, doesn’t appear to be painting his face, wearing a fake nose, and somehow making his pupils disappear like Peter did. Hornet’s wings seem to scare the rats, allowing the boys to slowly escape, and Prodigy is discovered and shot at. Ricochet brings some of the roof down behind them to cover their escape, but this causes a tunnel collapse. Above, Prodigy is dealing with the mob goons, as he has the bulletproof costume Peter somehow had. Then his teammates are buried in rubble.
This comic really sucks. We’re through 2 whole issues and zero issue and we don’t know what anyone’s powers are except Ricochet (And Ricochet just seems to have Spider-Man’s powers). Hornet can fly and Prodigy can probably fly, that’s all we know. It seems to be assuming you bought the Spider-Man event, which is a lot, I think. We barely know who these kids are.
Well, there he is again. We open on the boys buried alive and probably dying when Dusk appears, the immediately cut to the former Black Marvel, positioned as a famous Golden Age hero, watching an old movie about himself. Some kids sneak in and he gets into his old suit and scares them off. Then we go to the boys leaving the tunnels, Hornet having no idea how he got out of the rubble, Dusk unseen. As they get out, Ricochet notices he has a little red spider on him.
Lucy in the freakin’ sky, indeed.
Thus our hero exits this issue. The boys return to normal life, Hornet is visited by Dusk and thinks it’s a ghost, Ricochet is visited by the woman he saved in issue 1, who he knows somehow, at his job in a video store, and she seems to know it was him (She doesn’t even MENTION the hair), and there’s this…
And we’re done. This was a very unconventional comic, and thus doomed to failure, canceled in 12 issues. I gather Black Marvel ended up being the team’s main villain (No surprise). The characters would sometimes appear in other stuff. Ricochet was in a bizarre team book called the Loners. Hornet died in the same Wolverine story that killed SHOC, as mentioned previously. Prodigy had a very minor appearance in a very major crossover almost 10 years from this. I never did find out how they explained this dopey Black Marvel guy getting Spider-Man’s suits, and that’s all I cared about. Apparently it was revealed that Peter’s suits were still in a chest in Aunt May’s attic? Wh… what? So “Black Marvel” made perfect copies of them somehow!?!?! Oh my god, I’m glad I dropped this book. These and another series were on my “to take to McKay’s someday” pile when I realized I could stick them in here since I hadn’t gotten rid of them yet. Can’t say I feel like I was lucky in that, but it’s “All The Spider-Mans I Have,” so we did it. Regular service resumes next post.