Slingers - History

History

The Slingers were four teenage superheroes who had been inspired by Spider-Man. The group first appeared in Slingers #0, a free promotional comic book included in an issue of Wizard. Slingers #1 used a controversial sales gimmick: four versions of the first issue were produced, each telling a fourth of the first issue's story from the point of view of one of the four team members. The series failed to sustain sales, despite a small but loyal fan base, and the series was cancelled with issue #12.

The team's four members used costumes and codenames that had been used by Spider-Man during the "Identity Crisis" crossover. During "Identity Crisis", Spider-Man was wanted for murder with a million-dollar reward posted for his capture; instead of his normal costumed identity, he adopted four other costumes and created a different crime-fighting persona for each suit. After this crisis had ended, he discarded the four costumes, and they subsequently disappeared, reappearing in the possession of the Golden Age superhero called the Black Marvel. The Marvel gave the costumes to four youths, and trained them to become heroes.

Aside from brief cameos in New Warriors and Contest of Champions II - during which they were defeated by the New Warriors in a game of basketball, the teams reasoning that not every contest had to be a straight-out fight - the team made no appearances elsewhere, and in their own series only received a few brief appearances by their inspiration, Spider-Man. When it was revealed that the Black Marvel had received the costumes through a deal with the demon Mephisto, the Slingers broke from him, and then returned to free his soul from Mephisto. The Black Marvel died, free from Mephisto's grasp, and the team apparently disbanded. Ricochet has recently made several guest appearances in the Marvel comic Runaways as a member of Excelsior, a group made of other former teenage heroes whose goal is to help fellow teenage superheroes to adjust to mundane lives and dissuade other super-powered teenagers from becoming heroes. They were introduced in "True Believers" the first arc of Runaways Volume Two. Recently, Ricochet (while attending their usual group meeting) followed both Darkhawk and the third Spider-Woman on their mission to take down the MGH dealers that once used Mattie as a source for the drug.

Hornet was later found dead by forces of S.H.I.E.L.D.. He had died confronting Wolverine, who had been brainwashed by the Hand, an evil ninja cult. Prodigy has only recently resurfaced, fighting against Iron Man during the Civil War event. Eventually Prodigy joins with Captain America's underground movement and later became a recruit for the Initiative program. Dusk has recently been seen as a captive of the Puppet Master. At the end of Avengers: The Initiative, Prodigy was released from 42 Prison, in which he was detained for having resisted Osborn's regime, and is depicted as working on the motivational speaker circuit while trying to reunite the Slingers.