Really Long Essay Thing
tl;dr? Probably. The cut is a blatant lie.
Backstory
Identity Crisis
It starts with Spider-Man. At one point in time, Spidey had a multimillion dollar bounty placed on his head in response to a frame job perpetrated by evil business tycoon Norman Osborne, AKA the Green Goblin, which resulted in open season on the wallcrawler. In order to continue hero work and try to clear his name without attracting the attention of every bozo in NYC with a hunting rifle, Peter Parker temporarily retired as Spider-Man and adopted four distinct new superhuman identities-tech-based armored flyer the Hornet, shadowy vigilante Dusk, upstanding muscle-bound do-gooder Prodigy, and wisecracking hyperkinetic Ricochet.
Of course, Parker was successful-Spider-Man was (temporarily) cleared of any wrongdoing and the bounty was retracted, enabling the ol’ web-head to resume webslinging… But the quartet of new identities he created didn’t take to retirement quite as he’d intended. They’d return, and for a brief time a new group would ‘sling their way across New York.
The new Ricochet was the first to be recruited.
Life and Times
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Johnny Gallo experienced the typical happy childhood tragically snatched away by events beyond his control that seems to plague superheroes-doting parents, prosperity, the works. But by age 12, things were changing-although already considered a natural athlete, little Johnny began exhibiting physical abilities that weren’t, strictly speaking, normal. His mother suspected the cause-she was herself a mutant, and had feared Johnny would inherit a mutation and manifest superhuman powers that would leave him labeled a freak.
He did, and he would, but she never saw it. Moments after her fears were confirmed by the first overt display of Johnny’s superhuman abilities-his safely backflipping over a speeding SUV that almost ran him down from behind in a supermarket parking lot-Mrs. Gallo was surreptitiously killed by a pair of mutant terrorists called Nanny and the Orphan-Maker. Their modus operandi was to target the parents of mutant children and murder them, thereby orphaning the kids and leaving them ripe for recruitment and brainwashing into Nanny’s cadre of superpowered child soldiers. Johnny was their very first target, however, and they hadn’t yet worked out the kinks in their plan-they killed his mother without accounting for his father or securing Johnny himself, and were forced to flee empty-handed. On the surface, it appeared that Mrs. Gallo had been struck by a hit-and-run driver-the victim of an accident.
This event shattered Johnny’s idyllic life. His father, who hadn’t been there, blamed Johnny for his wife’s death while secretly blaming himself-and Johnny blamed his father for not having been there, while secretly blaming himself. It was easier to place blame rather than connect over their mutual grief, and their relationship suffered for the next several years. As he grew older, Johnny retreated from life on the home front by throwing himself into his job at a video rental store, and pursuing a relationship with his girlfriend, Kathy… all the while struggling with the terrible suspicion that he might not be normal.
Slingers Were Here
Heroes…
The next turning point in Johnny’s life came when he was approached by a shadowy figure and offered the chance to make a difference in the world. Dan Lyons had once been a costumed adventurer called the Black Marvel during the Golden Age of Superheroes, and he’d somehow come into possession of the costumes and equipment Peter Parker had used to become Ricochet, Hornet, Dusk, and Prodigy. Now, he sought to train a new team of young heroes to live up to the example he’d set in the glory days-the Slingers.
Johnny was the first. By this time, in his late teens, his mutant powers had almost fully manifested, and his superhuman speed, agility, reflexes, and coordination made him the perfect fit as the new Ricochet-an acrobatic smart aleck who hit hard and quipped harder. In costume, Johnny found an outlet for his abilities that didn’t necessitate revealing himself as a mutant to the rest of the world, and he embraced the excitement and opportunity to do some good work that came with it.
Along for the ride were Eddie McDonough, a technical whiz-kid who used the armored Hornet suit to compensate for his palsied left arm, and who would become Johnny’s best friend; Ritchie Gilmore, an athletic loner with a superiority complex who intended to prove it as the forthright Prodigy, who clashed with Johnny for the right to lead the team; and Cassie St. Commons, the rebellious Goth (it was the 90s, okay?) daughter of a rich socialite couple whose brush with death left her able to teleport through shadows as Dusk, who harbored an attraction for Johnny to the exclusion of Eddie’s attraction for her.
Under the Black Marvel’s tutelage, the quartet began making their mark on the NYC superhero community through acts of general derring-do and a brush with a puzzled Spider-Man, which revealed that wherever the Slingers’ costumes and gear came from, it wasn’t from him-the original outfits were still safely stored in his attic. Primarily, though, the team acted in investigating the mysterious operations of the Maggia, the Marvelverse’s superpowered mafia, based in the renovated shell of an old hotel… a hotel that had some connection to the Black Marvel’s murky past.
Most significant to Johnny, however, was the reappearance of Nanny and the Orphan-Maker, finally returning to his life to finish the job they’d started years earlier. The duo revealed the true circumstances of Mrs. Gallo’s death-and Johnny’s culpability in it-while planning to execute his father. With the help of Hornet and Dusk, Johnny was successfully able to save his father’s life and send the villains back into hiding-but at the cost of revealing both his secret identity and his inadvertent responsibility for the murder to his father. Confronted with these dual revelations, Mr. Gallo refused to acknowledge or respond to his son in any significant way, and, full of emo, Johnny left home for good.
… and Demons
On the night of the hotel’s grand reopening, the truth behind the Black Marvel’s mysterious machinations was finally revealed. Decades ago, the Marvel had botched an attempted rescue during a fire at the hotel, forcing him to retire in disgrace. Years later, as a broken old man, the Marvel was approached by the (non-religiously specific) demon lord Mephisto and offered a deal-his soul for the chance to relive the glory of the past. To that end, Mephisto provided the Marvel with his former athletic vigor, along with duplicates of Peter Parker’s unused costumes and the identities of four people-Johnny, Eddie, Ritchie, and Cassie-suitable to employ them. The Slingers were founded to do the Marvel’s legwork-the training he provided them enabled them to scout the site of his past failure and flush out the criminal element currently occupying the building-clearing the way in preparation for his dramatic return.
For the reopening ceremony, the Black Marvel had secretly mined the hotel’s structure with explosive demolition charges, which he intended to set off and cause a potential catastrophe-which he would then handily resolve, saving the day and becoming a hero once again. Friction between Ricochet and Prodigy-who was still loyal to their misguided mentor and convinced the rest of the team was plotting their downfall-prevented the Slingers from stopping the detonation, but when the Black Marvel proved unable to adequately handle the disaster he’d instigated, the team banded together in time to evacuate the trapped civilian attendees and thwart the Black Marvel’s deranged dream.
Taken into police custody, the Black Marvel died a few days later-and Mephisto, true to their bargain, claimed his soul.
The Slingers, however, weren’t satisfied with the arrangement.
Initially drawn by the demon lord into his realm for his amusement, the quartet managed to fight their way through his deceptions and hordes of cannon-fodder-y minions long enough to find the requisite loophole in Mephisto’s contract with the Marvel-if they returned the costumes he’d provided, giving up their own lives as superheroes, it would invalidate the terms of the arrangement and necessitate the Marvel’s release. Johnny was the last to agree to the plan, still resenting the Marvel for his betrayal, but eventually all four renounced their costumed identities and Mephisto was forced to set Dan Lyons’ soul free.
Returned to earth, the Slingers disbanded.
Out of Action
Enemy of the State
Cassie disappeared soon after their return to the real world, still in possession of the powers she’d gained after adopting the Dusk identity. Ritchie left as well, having made his peace with Johnny and determined to prove himself in a way that didn’t necessarily involve applying superpowered beatings to underworld thugs. However, Johnny, as a mutant, had retained his powers, and although he’d relinquished his original gear, Eddie possessed the technical know-how to recreate the Hornet armor and flight suit, along with the R-disc throwing weapons Johnny had employed as Ricochet. Potentially, two of the four former Slingers could remain active… and that’s exactly what they did.
(Actually, three did-Ritchie somehow found a way to recreate the strength and limited invulnerability he’d been granted by virtue of the Prodigy costume supplied by Mephisto, and remained a low-key presence on the superhero scene… Low-key, until he became the first Anti-Registration hero taken into custody during the Civil War.)
What Johnny and Eddie did after returning from Mephisto’s realm is uncertain-it’s never been spelled out in canon. Each would only have one notable reappearance a piece before the point where I’ve brought Ricochet into camp. However, what happened between the cancellation of the Slingers series and their subsequent reappearances can be pieced together from the circumstances they’re later presented in.
When we next meet Hornet, he’s dead.
The mutant anti-hero Wolverine had been brainwashed by a conglomeration of villainous groups-including the mystical ninjas known as the Hand, the terrorist/anarchist group known as HYDRA, and a Japanese nihilistic sect called the Dawn of the White Light-into becoming their murderous agent. Cutting a swath of destruction across the Marvel Universe, Wolverine clashed with all manner of heroes in the comics even known as “Enemy of the State.” One casualty of his rampage was evidently Eddie McDonough-although it’s not confirmed on panel, someone wearing a duplicate set of Eddie’s Hornet armor engaged the berserker Wolverine in an attempt to stop the carnage, and ended up dead. The Marvel Handbook later confirmed this Hornet to be Eddie, but gave no explanation as to where he obtained the Hornet costume from.
Ricochet was not present at the time.
Ever Upward
When next we see him, Johnny reappears in the pages of Runaways, having left New York to travel cross-country to Los Angeles, and is a founding member of the teenage superhero recovery group, Excelsior-apparently trying to give up the costumed life. When he does suit back up, he’s in a new costume and supplied with an enhanced arsenal of R-discs compared to those he employed as a Slinger. Given the available evidence-his departing the Slingers with Eddie, the possibility of Eddie and he continuing their hero work supplied by Eddie’s technical skill, and the Hornet’s subsequent death-I’ve imagined a possible sequence of events that could have led Johnny to LA and his reappearance up to the point I’ve taken him from canon.
This is pure speculation on my part, but I like to think it makes sense.
--Johnny and Eddie begin heroing again in New York, newly outfitted by Eddie (implied by Ricochet’s new gear in Runaways)
--For some reason, Eddie attempts to fight Wolverine without Johnny present, and is killed (confirmed, Enemy of the State and the Marvel Handbook, possibly to be retconned later…?)
--Having lost his best friend and partner, Johnny attempts to continue hero work, but is eventually discouraged by his prospects and cannot hack it (the latter is confirmed by his statements in Runaways)
--At some point, Johnny breaks up with Kathy (implied-he’s on the opposite coast, and clearly attracted to Julie Power in Runaways)
--At some point, Johnny is made aware of the Excelsior group in LA
--At some point, Johnny travels to LA to join up
--Johnny is present and has brought his Ricochet gear in time to partake in Excelsior’s mission to recapture the Runaways (confirmed)
--Johnny remains a member of Excelsior (eventually renamed the Loners) at the invitation of Rick Jones, by request of Captain America for a renewed superhero presence on the West Coast (confirmed)
--M-Day: the majority of mutants lose their powers; Ricochet retains his (confirmed)
--I bring Ricochet to camp
--Civil War: Excelsior remains largely uninvolved, true to their mission statement of getting out of the superhero business to lead normal lives (implied-new series The Loners debuts this week)
And that’s the end, for now.
Backstory
Identity Crisis
It starts with Spider-Man. At one point in time, Spidey had a multimillion dollar bounty placed on his head in response to a frame job perpetrated by evil business tycoon Norman Osborne, AKA the Green Goblin, which resulted in open season on the wallcrawler. In order to continue hero work and try to clear his name without attracting the attention of every bozo in NYC with a hunting rifle, Peter Parker temporarily retired as Spider-Man and adopted four distinct new superhuman identities-tech-based armored flyer the Hornet, shadowy vigilante Dusk, upstanding muscle-bound do-gooder Prodigy, and wisecracking hyperkinetic Ricochet.
Of course, Parker was successful-Spider-Man was (temporarily) cleared of any wrongdoing and the bounty was retracted, enabling the ol’ web-head to resume webslinging… But the quartet of new identities he created didn’t take to retirement quite as he’d intended. They’d return, and for a brief time a new group would ‘sling their way across New York.
The new Ricochet was the first to be recruited.
Life and Times
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Johnny Gallo experienced the typical happy childhood tragically snatched away by events beyond his control that seems to plague superheroes-doting parents, prosperity, the works. But by age 12, things were changing-although already considered a natural athlete, little Johnny began exhibiting physical abilities that weren’t, strictly speaking, normal. His mother suspected the cause-she was herself a mutant, and had feared Johnny would inherit a mutation and manifest superhuman powers that would leave him labeled a freak.
He did, and he would, but she never saw it. Moments after her fears were confirmed by the first overt display of Johnny’s superhuman abilities-his safely backflipping over a speeding SUV that almost ran him down from behind in a supermarket parking lot-Mrs. Gallo was surreptitiously killed by a pair of mutant terrorists called Nanny and the Orphan-Maker. Their modus operandi was to target the parents of mutant children and murder them, thereby orphaning the kids and leaving them ripe for recruitment and brainwashing into Nanny’s cadre of superpowered child soldiers. Johnny was their very first target, however, and they hadn’t yet worked out the kinks in their plan-they killed his mother without accounting for his father or securing Johnny himself, and were forced to flee empty-handed. On the surface, it appeared that Mrs. Gallo had been struck by a hit-and-run driver-the victim of an accident.
This event shattered Johnny’s idyllic life. His father, who hadn’t been there, blamed Johnny for his wife’s death while secretly blaming himself-and Johnny blamed his father for not having been there, while secretly blaming himself. It was easier to place blame rather than connect over their mutual grief, and their relationship suffered for the next several years. As he grew older, Johnny retreated from life on the home front by throwing himself into his job at a video rental store, and pursuing a relationship with his girlfriend, Kathy… all the while struggling with the terrible suspicion that he might not be normal.
Slingers Were Here
Heroes…
The next turning point in Johnny’s life came when he was approached by a shadowy figure and offered the chance to make a difference in the world. Dan Lyons had once been a costumed adventurer called the Black Marvel during the Golden Age of Superheroes, and he’d somehow come into possession of the costumes and equipment Peter Parker had used to become Ricochet, Hornet, Dusk, and Prodigy. Now, he sought to train a new team of young heroes to live up to the example he’d set in the glory days-the Slingers.
Johnny was the first. By this time, in his late teens, his mutant powers had almost fully manifested, and his superhuman speed, agility, reflexes, and coordination made him the perfect fit as the new Ricochet-an acrobatic smart aleck who hit hard and quipped harder. In costume, Johnny found an outlet for his abilities that didn’t necessitate revealing himself as a mutant to the rest of the world, and he embraced the excitement and opportunity to do some good work that came with it.
Along for the ride were Eddie McDonough, a technical whiz-kid who used the armored Hornet suit to compensate for his palsied left arm, and who would become Johnny’s best friend; Ritchie Gilmore, an athletic loner with a superiority complex who intended to prove it as the forthright Prodigy, who clashed with Johnny for the right to lead the team; and Cassie St. Commons, the rebellious Goth (it was the 90s, okay?) daughter of a rich socialite couple whose brush with death left her able to teleport through shadows as Dusk, who harbored an attraction for Johnny to the exclusion of Eddie’s attraction for her.
Under the Black Marvel’s tutelage, the quartet began making their mark on the NYC superhero community through acts of general derring-do and a brush with a puzzled Spider-Man, which revealed that wherever the Slingers’ costumes and gear came from, it wasn’t from him-the original outfits were still safely stored in his attic. Primarily, though, the team acted in investigating the mysterious operations of the Maggia, the Marvelverse’s superpowered mafia, based in the renovated shell of an old hotel… a hotel that had some connection to the Black Marvel’s murky past.
Most significant to Johnny, however, was the reappearance of Nanny and the Orphan-Maker, finally returning to his life to finish the job they’d started years earlier. The duo revealed the true circumstances of Mrs. Gallo’s death-and Johnny’s culpability in it-while planning to execute his father. With the help of Hornet and Dusk, Johnny was successfully able to save his father’s life and send the villains back into hiding-but at the cost of revealing both his secret identity and his inadvertent responsibility for the murder to his father. Confronted with these dual revelations, Mr. Gallo refused to acknowledge or respond to his son in any significant way, and, full of emo, Johnny left home for good.
… and Demons
On the night of the hotel’s grand reopening, the truth behind the Black Marvel’s mysterious machinations was finally revealed. Decades ago, the Marvel had botched an attempted rescue during a fire at the hotel, forcing him to retire in disgrace. Years later, as a broken old man, the Marvel was approached by the (non-religiously specific) demon lord Mephisto and offered a deal-his soul for the chance to relive the glory of the past. To that end, Mephisto provided the Marvel with his former athletic vigor, along with duplicates of Peter Parker’s unused costumes and the identities of four people-Johnny, Eddie, Ritchie, and Cassie-suitable to employ them. The Slingers were founded to do the Marvel’s legwork-the training he provided them enabled them to scout the site of his past failure and flush out the criminal element currently occupying the building-clearing the way in preparation for his dramatic return.
For the reopening ceremony, the Black Marvel had secretly mined the hotel’s structure with explosive demolition charges, which he intended to set off and cause a potential catastrophe-which he would then handily resolve, saving the day and becoming a hero once again. Friction between Ricochet and Prodigy-who was still loyal to their misguided mentor and convinced the rest of the team was plotting their downfall-prevented the Slingers from stopping the detonation, but when the Black Marvel proved unable to adequately handle the disaster he’d instigated, the team banded together in time to evacuate the trapped civilian attendees and thwart the Black Marvel’s deranged dream.
Taken into police custody, the Black Marvel died a few days later-and Mephisto, true to their bargain, claimed his soul.
The Slingers, however, weren’t satisfied with the arrangement.
Initially drawn by the demon lord into his realm for his amusement, the quartet managed to fight their way through his deceptions and hordes of cannon-fodder-y minions long enough to find the requisite loophole in Mephisto’s contract with the Marvel-if they returned the costumes he’d provided, giving up their own lives as superheroes, it would invalidate the terms of the arrangement and necessitate the Marvel’s release. Johnny was the last to agree to the plan, still resenting the Marvel for his betrayal, but eventually all four renounced their costumed identities and Mephisto was forced to set Dan Lyons’ soul free.
Returned to earth, the Slingers disbanded.
Out of Action
Enemy of the State
Cassie disappeared soon after their return to the real world, still in possession of the powers she’d gained after adopting the Dusk identity. Ritchie left as well, having made his peace with Johnny and determined to prove himself in a way that didn’t necessarily involve applying superpowered beatings to underworld thugs. However, Johnny, as a mutant, had retained his powers, and although he’d relinquished his original gear, Eddie possessed the technical know-how to recreate the Hornet armor and flight suit, along with the R-disc throwing weapons Johnny had employed as Ricochet. Potentially, two of the four former Slingers could remain active… and that’s exactly what they did.
(Actually, three did-Ritchie somehow found a way to recreate the strength and limited invulnerability he’d been granted by virtue of the Prodigy costume supplied by Mephisto, and remained a low-key presence on the superhero scene… Low-key, until he became the first Anti-Registration hero taken into custody during the Civil War.)
What Johnny and Eddie did after returning from Mephisto’s realm is uncertain-it’s never been spelled out in canon. Each would only have one notable reappearance a piece before the point where I’ve brought Ricochet into camp. However, what happened between the cancellation of the Slingers series and their subsequent reappearances can be pieced together from the circumstances they’re later presented in.
When we next meet Hornet, he’s dead.
The mutant anti-hero Wolverine had been brainwashed by a conglomeration of villainous groups-including the mystical ninjas known as the Hand, the terrorist/anarchist group known as HYDRA, and a Japanese nihilistic sect called the Dawn of the White Light-into becoming their murderous agent. Cutting a swath of destruction across the Marvel Universe, Wolverine clashed with all manner of heroes in the comics even known as “Enemy of the State.” One casualty of his rampage was evidently Eddie McDonough-although it’s not confirmed on panel, someone wearing a duplicate set of Eddie’s Hornet armor engaged the berserker Wolverine in an attempt to stop the carnage, and ended up dead. The Marvel Handbook later confirmed this Hornet to be Eddie, but gave no explanation as to where he obtained the Hornet costume from.
Ricochet was not present at the time.
Ever Upward
When next we see him, Johnny reappears in the pages of Runaways, having left New York to travel cross-country to Los Angeles, and is a founding member of the teenage superhero recovery group, Excelsior-apparently trying to give up the costumed life. When he does suit back up, he’s in a new costume and supplied with an enhanced arsenal of R-discs compared to those he employed as a Slinger. Given the available evidence-his departing the Slingers with Eddie, the possibility of Eddie and he continuing their hero work supplied by Eddie’s technical skill, and the Hornet’s subsequent death-I’ve imagined a possible sequence of events that could have led Johnny to LA and his reappearance up to the point I’ve taken him from canon.
This is pure speculation on my part, but I like to think it makes sense.
--Johnny and Eddie begin heroing again in New York, newly outfitted by Eddie (implied by Ricochet’s new gear in Runaways)
--For some reason, Eddie attempts to fight Wolverine without Johnny present, and is killed (confirmed, Enemy of the State and the Marvel Handbook, possibly to be retconned later…?)
--Having lost his best friend and partner, Johnny attempts to continue hero work, but is eventually discouraged by his prospects and cannot hack it (the latter is confirmed by his statements in Runaways)
--At some point, Johnny breaks up with Kathy (implied-he’s on the opposite coast, and clearly attracted to Julie Power in Runaways)
--At some point, Johnny is made aware of the Excelsior group in LA
--At some point, Johnny travels to LA to join up
--Johnny is present and has brought his Ricochet gear in time to partake in Excelsior’s mission to recapture the Runaways (confirmed)
--Johnny remains a member of Excelsior (eventually renamed the Loners) at the invitation of Rick Jones, by request of Captain America for a renewed superhero presence on the West Coast (confirmed)
--M-Day: the majority of mutants lose their powers; Ricochet retains his (confirmed)
--I bring Ricochet to camp
--Civil War: Excelsior remains largely uninvolved, true to their mission statement of getting out of the superhero business to lead normal lives (implied-new series The Loners debuts this week)
And that’s the end, for now.