Slingers #2

Background

College students Johnny Gallo, Cassie St. Commons, Eddie McDonough and Ritchie Gillmore, have started their careers as super heroes but have been off to a poor start. Cassie died on her first night but came back to life as a teleporter that could fly. Johnny and Ritchie don't respect each other, and Eddie is traumatized by Cassie's death. They are unaware of her resurrection and moved on without her, starting out with stopping a couple of trains heading toward a suicidal transit worker. They succeeded in saving the worker but caused extensive damage to the surrounding area. Later, Ritchie met with a mysterious old man in an abandoned film studio and he seemed disappointed in their work.

Story 'Hooligans'

Spider-Man was sitting on the side of a building, reading a newspaper about the train accident. Three of his former identities were active and one of them was found dead in an alley. He went off swinging to find his successors and soon found Ricochet sitting on a bus, stopped in traffic. Ricochet sensed someone behind him and reacted by throwing one of his disks at him. Only after turning around did he realize to his surprise that he was looking at Spider-Man. Spidey was just as surprised that Ricochet had reacted so quickly and was impressed at how quickly he moved as he leapt away. Ricochet fled to the subway and managed to board a train that left before Spidey could stop him. Ricochet didn't know why Spider-Man would be after him, he hadn't done anything wrong. Yet if he was innocent, why was he running?

At the movie warehouse, the old man was watching old films of himself as a younger man. He had been a hero back in the day, before radiation accidents, genetic monsters, and cosmic threats. He had been The Black Marvel and would feel the thrill of being a hero again.

Meanwhile, Hornet and Ricochet were waiting inside a huge draining pipe, complaining about the smell. Prodigy told them that they were going to do reconnaissance on a nearby construction site, which he had been told was more than it seemed. Ricochet explained that he wasn't afraid or anything but was concerned about Hornet. Prodigy ignored him and handed him a radio, telling him that the Maggia don't hesitate to shoot first. A Maggia boss was at the site, angry that the building wasn't finished when visitors were expected tomorrow. Ricochet and Hornet were heading under the site via the tunnel, when Ricochet's danger sense went off. He dismissed it, thinking it was set off by rats. At the end of the tunnel, they were surprised to find a running train complex which led them to Maggia goons complaining about the conductor claiming there was no more room for the barrels.

At the same time, the police were visiting Dusk's parents in Westchester County. They informed them that a body had been found in an alley, and had been wearing a costume. Dusk was watching outside, trying to fit together her memories. She didn't know how she had come back any more than anyone else.

Again in the secret train station, one of the goons was killed and eaten by a pack of enormous mutated rats. Ricochet snooped around and found barrels labeled "biohazard" and asked Hornet what he made of it. Hornet couldn't reply, as he was attacked by one of the rats. It ran off after getting hit by one of Ricochet's disks but three others attacked.

Prodigy sat on the new building's roof, watching the organized criminals below him. His cover was blown by his radio buzzing and Ricochet's panicked voice wanting help. The goons were immediately pelting him with gunfire, and he silently blamed the others for his situation. In the tunnel, Hornet was lucky enough to realize that the humming frequency from his wings was keeping the rats away. They fled through the tunnel and Ricochet collapsed the tunnel onto the rats with a disk, but couldn't celebrate long as the tunnel began collapsing on both of them.

Prodigy's armor protected him from the bullets and had them both beat. The lead Maggia leader watched in shock as Prodigy seemingly floated away from the site as the goons searched for him in the collapsed building. (The collapsing tunnel led to the building above it to fall.) Ricochet narrowly avoided being buried alive in the tunnel collapse but Hornet was less lucky. A terrified Johnny was begging Ritchie for help over the radio, who crushed his radio and said he was Prodigy.

General Comments

This was a pretty straightforward action issue, without the character drama of issue one. It set up the Slingers future encounters with the Maggia and introduced the mysterious rats in the tunnel. We got a small peek at Dusk's life as Cassie.

It's a decent issue but the action scenes don't have much feeling of threat. Prodigy fighting the Maggia thugs was brief but the rats were decent. We didn't get much of them, but they were sufficiently weird looking. Ricochet escaped from Spider-Man a little too easily. Spidey has put up better pursuits against more experienced enemies. Still, it achieved the goal of setting up Spider-Man as a problem for the group.

It was a stepping stone issue. Not an exciting read but important for future storylines.

Overall Rating

Not bad but leaves me wanting more.