ASM 88.Bey Review and Spoilers: Sling with me! Sling for a year!

[Pav]

Hello, Fellow Readers! We, the few Slingers fans, may rejoice! For today, we have a new story featuring our favorite Spidey spinoffs! I hope you'll join me on my second read-through of the issue!

1) The issue starts off with a flashback to Hobie's recent fight against the symbiotes as the All-New, High-Flying Hornet! We also have a character asking, "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" for the first time since Billy Walters was working for the Daily Bugle. (Great song. R.E.M. rock.)

2) The slight redesign of the Hornet suit looks pretty cool, especially the glowing wings; and while I appreciated getting some focus on just Hobie at the beginning of the issue, I do think symbiote fight went on for too long. Still, I bought Hobie's rethinking of what his goals should be.

3) Mindy! Nice to see she hasn't been forgotten -- and while Hobie appeared hyper-capable in this issue, Mindy seemed right in character with how I remember her from years ago.

4) To explain why he's so excited about his new path in life, Hobie talks about a girl who is dying due to superhuman stuff. He believes he, and the company he works for, can help her and others like her. Oh, and the girl? Seems like she may be turning in a Crystar-like being. As a huge fan of the modern Weirdworld comics, I appreciated this reference and hope she eventually appears!

5) Oh, that company that Hobie is excited to be a part of? Just bought by Beyond and shut down! Everyone's fired! But Hobie isn't going to take this lying down! He goes to see a lawyer who tells him there's nothing he can do, but also informs him of his sizable severance package.

6) In fact, everyone got a bunch of money due to the corporate takeover, and that has Mindy wondering why Beyond would pay so much for such a minor company. Hobie decides to take matters into his own hands and steal some documents from Beyond! (Hm. That sounds vaguely familiar....) One minor thing: I liked Hobie's ability to leave his wings hovering outside the building while he stealths around inside.

7) Hobie flies away, and -- wait. A black swirl in the background?! DUSK.

8) Maybe my favorite part of the issue -- we get a panel in which we see Hobie flying away through Dusk's eyes.

9) Back at his apartment, Hobie and Mindy begin to go through the stolen documents when an alarm goes off because apparently the apartment is kind of a super apartment with high-grade tech? And wouldn't you know it: Dusk followed Hobie home and is trapped in a "teleport blocker" looking VERY not goth in her wardrobe, which is a bit of a bummer.

10) Hobie makes a joke about not liking prowlers, but Cassie fires back that he's the thief: stealing from Beyond and wearing "[her] best friend's costume," then wonders how he knows her name. His response? First, the Hornet costume is HIS -- he designed it! -- and he knows Cassie's name because he's been "looking into her crew." What that means exactly isn't clarified, nor is there anything further discussion on Hobie creating the Hornet costume; gotta keep that plot moving forward!

11) Cassie does provide a quick summary of the Slingers, and the writer remembered Cassie's ill-defined psychic/emotional connection to the rest of the group! Seems that Cassie can feel that Johnny is in trouble due to the flashes she gets of him. Beyond has him!

12) Twice, Cassie mentions that she doesn't like cops. Maybe it's because she's, y'know, known to be dead. (That's never stated in this issue, however.)

13) Too much talk, I think. Let's go to it!

14) Hobie agrees that Beyond is shady and agrees to help Cassie. She teleports them to where she thinks Johnny is being held, and it isn't long before they discover that the abandoned farm has a Beyond base underneath.

15) Cassie looks so cool putting on her mask. Almost looks just like her original appearances.

16) Hobie-Hornet and Cassie-Dusk teleport to Johnny-Ricochet! And he's... fighting a bunch of scary pink monsters with lots of teeth alongside Beyond...?! (He's also holding a gun that makes him look like Spider-Boy from Amalgam Comics.)

17) In the midst of the fight, Hornet and Dusk make themselves known to Ricochet, who apparently doesn't need rescuing and "Dude, you're supposed to be dead." (Perhaps we are just ignoring the Slingers adventure in PAD's BR:SS series, which left us with a different alive Hornet.)

18) Cassie says that Rico's been gone weeks, but he only "took the job" yesterday. Apparently his work with Beyond includes some time dilation funkiness. Y'know, the usual. Interesting note: The science that Beyond is conducting brings Hobie to ask about the Negative Zone, which is where the original Dusk costume came from! And earlier, Cassie DID say she was having a little bit of an issue teleporting. Hm.

19) I enjoy the running joke that Ricochet has no idea what the heck Hornet is talking about.

20) Working together, the three Slingers are able to shut down the bad machine! Hooray! Cassie hugs Johnny, glad she was able to save him; Johnny reiterates that he merely got a job working for Beyond's Hero Division MAYBE BECAUSE HE'S ONE OF THE BACKUP SPIDEY CANDIDATES THAT BEYOND TOLD BEN ABOUT...?!?!?!?! <-- my conjecture

21) In the end, the person running Ricochet's team -- an "Eliot Swenson" and not Maxine Danger, unfortunately -- is impressed and offers Hornet a job with Beyond! And that's the end for now!

Overall thoughts: Really enjoyed Hobie's first introduction to the Slingers, and despite always wanting Eddie's return, I do like his addition to the team as the new Hornet. I think he and the others bounce off each other well -- and speaking of bouncing, I thought Ricochet was written well for the short panel time he got. The art was fanastic as well; all three Slingers costumes looked really cool, and I stopped to admire them on more than one occasion during my read. The obvious bummer is, of course, the lack of Ritchie, aka Prodigy, but one has to hope that we'll be seeing the Slingers again soon, including Prodigy's reintroduction. Just like Ben, it seems as though the Slingers may be working for Beyond while having legitimate concerns about the company; hopefully that means they might participate in the takedown of Beyond alongside Ben, if that's what we end up getting in Ben's Hollywood adventures.

All in all, a fun romp that reintroduces some really fun characters. I hope old school Slingers fans enjoyed the issue, and that those readers unfamiliar with the team really enjoyed seeing them in action! I also hope that old-school Hobie fans can appreciate his "leveling up" as a super-genius. Until next time, friends!

-Pav, who slings for the laughter and slings for the tears...

[Huntsman Spider]

Indeed. I certainly enjoyed it. Missed Prodigy/Ritchie, too, but if this continues in some form or other, I agree with you that he'll probably come back in play somehow. Generally speaking, I liked Hobie's idea that superheroes should do more to help the civilians who had their livelihoods wrecked or their lives endangered as an unintended result of their battles with villains. That would go a long way to reestablishing trust between them and the general public, especially given the foreshadowing on the aftermath of Devil's Reign, that even with Mayor Fisk taken down, he would have still succeeded in turning the citizens of New York against superheroes as a whole. Considering Ricochet having somewhat similar powers to Spider-Man, at least in terms of his agility and "danger sense," I could see Beyond turning to him as a Spider-Man substitute and using Van der Waals force generators and a strength-enhancing exoskeleton to simulate Spider-Man's wall-crawling and spider-strength. All in all, pretty good as a starting point to hopefully bigger and better things for Hobie, as well as more of a role in the final issues of Spider-Man Beyond.

[Blanks]

Re-read it again this morning. I’m reeeeeeeeeeally digging Hobie as Hornet. Totally. I didn’t realize how much I needed this in my life, lol. Hobie as Hornet could be what Night Trasher is to the New Warriors to this version of the Slingers going forward. And I’d like to see Hobie as the Hornet have some type of conflict with Aaron over the Prowler usage at some point. Maybe set up in some type of 616 “past” that Aaron came across his suit in one of his heists when Hobie was out of commission during the Civil War, maybe?

Loved this issue. And I agree with your assessment that maybe Johnny was probavly one of Beyond’s other potential recruitment subjects for their “Spider-Man”.

[Sr. Bungle]

Re-read it again this morning. I’m reeeeeeeeeeally digging Hobie as Hornet. Totally. I didn’t realize how much I needed this in my life, lol. Hobie as Hornet could be what Night Trasher is to the New Warriors to this version of the Slingers going forward. And I’d like to see Hobie as the Hornet have some type of conflict with Aaron over the Prowler usage at some point. Maybe set up in some type of 616 “past” that Aaron came across his suit in one of his heists when Hobie was out of commission during the Civil War, maybe?

Loved this issue. And I agree with your assessment that maybe Johnny was probavly one of Beyond’s other potential recruitment subjects for their “Spider-Man”.

Do you mean "the other guy"? Could be...

[Rob London]

Hm. I wonder if "Dr. Eliot Swensen" is a reference to the New Universe's Spitfire and the Troubleshooters - Spitfire's real name was Dr. Jenny Swensen, and she was co-created by Eliot R. Brown...

[Huntsman Spider]

Re-read it again this morning. I’m reeeeeeeeeeally digging Hobie as Hornet. Totally. I didn’t realize how much I needed this in my life, lol. Hobie as Hornet could be what Night Trasher is to the New Warriors to this version of the Slingers going forward. And I’d like to see Hobie as the Hornet have some type of conflict with Aaron over the Prowler usage at some point. Maybe set up in some type of 616 “past” that Aaron came across his suit in one of his heists when Hobie was out of commission during the Civil War, maybe?

Loved this issue. And I agree with your assessment that maybe Johnny was probavly one of Beyond’s other potential recruitment subjects for their “Spider-Man”.

Thanks for reminding me about Hobie being involved in Civil War, too. Yeah, that could have been a good period for Aaron Davis to appropriate the Prowler identity, and I'd love to see a meeting/confrontation between them one day.

Hm. I wonder if "Dr. Eliot Swensen" is a reference to the New Universe's Spitfire and the Troubleshooters - Spitfire's real name was Dr. Jenny Swensen, and she was co-created by Eliot R. Brown...

Interesting point there.

[Redjack]

Hm. I wonder if "Dr. Eliot Swensen" is a reference to the New Universe's Spitfire and the Troubleshooters - Spitfire's real name was Dr. Jenny Swensen, and she was co-created by Eliot R. Brown...

My answer to that is, "BOY, do I love smart readers."

[ZuLuLu]

Nice issue.

I like what is being done with Hobie as Hornet I hope we get a Slingers spin-off mini at least so it can be developed more.

[Rob London]

My answer to that is, "BOY, do I love smart readers."

Ooh. I loved the issue, by the way!

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I enjoyed the issue and wouldn't mind a spinoff.

[Huntsman Spider]

Nice issue.

I like what is being done with Hobie as Hornet I hope we get a Slingers spin-off mini at least so it can be developed more.

I enjoyed the issue and wouldn't mind a spinoff.

Very much cosigned.

[protege]

So, I’m afraid that I got lost with all the technobabble being tossed around, but then I don’t understand the “ beyond” storyline either. I thought dusk was more mysterious than she turned out to be- not sure how I feel about her. Ricochet sounds like a speedball wannabe. Maybe he needs to be tweaked a bit. And whatever happened to prodigy?

[Huntsman Spider]

So, I’m afraid that I got lost with all the technobabble being tossed around, but then I don’t understand the “ beyond” storyline either. I thought dusk was more mysterious than she turned out to be- not sure how I feel about her. Ricochet sounds like a speedball wannabe. Maybe he needs to be tweaked a bit. And whatever happened to prodigy?

Technically, Ricochet bounces around through innate superhuman agility and reflexes and has a "danger-sense" similar to Spider-Man's spider-sense. Dusk . . . the long and short of it is that she's kind of undead, but she's more of a revenant (conscious, self-aware, intelligent, retains memories and skills from when she was alive) than a zombie (virtually mindless, driven solely by appetite for living flesh), and the suit she wears comes from the Negative Zone and is connected to the Darkforce Dimension, enabling her to blend in with shadows and teleport through them as well. As for Prodigy, you and I both, which is why I'm hoping this continues in a Slingers series relaunch of some kind, whether limited or ongoing.