by
Joseph Harris and Oscar Jimenz
Okay, this issue was - despite what Marvel's website said - guest penciled by some guy named Oscar Jimenz. Never heard of him. Not bad, but not nearly as clean as ChrisCross's stuff. Anyway, onward...
by
Joseph Harris and Oscar Jimenz
And we start off with a lovely suburban shot of Johnny's Brooklyn home. His dad - the unshaven guy with the ponytail from issue one - is up in his room, complaining about Johnny always leaving the window open late at night. Brief reminiscence about when the mother of the family was alive, and then Johnny's father finds the video "The Black Marvel Strikes." Talking about how much he used to like it, he takes it downstairs and watches it.
Coincidentally enough, we cut to the Grande Royal Hotel, where the ever-present Mafia types are, making sure nothing goes wrong. In an effort to make sure something does go wrong, the Black Marvel goes in, wearing a tux of course - not his costume. I think he'd stick out in that. Up on top of the building is Prodigy, waiting and watching, and impatient to get on with being a hero. The Black Marvel tells him to wait....
Zooming through the night across the East River, it's the somewhat-less-than-dynamic duo of Ricochet and Hornet! Rico stands on Hornet's back like a surfboard as they talk about the Black Marvel and his plans - they say he's a liar. Ricochet also wants to know what's wrong with Hornet - he says he looks like he's seen a ghost. Funny that. Speaking of which, Dusk returns to the scene of her death and takes a look at her own chalk outline with her mask off. Spider-Man shows up, and she asks why she's important to him. She says that sometimes people come back when they're dead...nice to see that even people living in the Marvel Universe talk about this, eh? Dusk disappears when Spidey asks her about where they got the costumes....
At the hotel, the Black Marvel watches some foolish people and thinks something about them not being saved. Okay... Back on top of Prodigy's building, Hornet and Ricochet show up. They fight, Prodigy knocks Hornet down and tries to punch Rico but he's too fast. He eventually grabs Rico and is about to throw him off when Hornet intervenes... Prodigy actually stops Hornet from grabbing Ricochet, and swings him into a nearby window. As the Mafia-types go to warn the boss, the Black Marvel plants this small beeping thing on the wall.
As Ricochet falls, Dusk "bleenk"s in and teleports them out of there. Prodigy approaches the tired and probably hurt Hornet, who tells him that some bad things are going down in the basement. Down in said basement, the last barrels of radioactive waste are being loaded up and sent out. Interestingly enough, Kathy - Rico's woman - and her friends show up at the hotel, Kathy saying she saw it in a movie once. Perceptive girl. The Mafia-types burst in on Hornet and Prodigy and open fire, Prodigy throws a table at them and they go down. As he practically strangles one of them to make him talk, Hornet fires some kind of blast at him. He's been working on the suit, eh? He reminds Prodigy of the basement and, ever eager for heroics, he makes a hole in the floor and heads down.
The Black Marvel is changing into his costume somewhere hidden, as someone notices one of his small beeping things and Prodigy crashes down on the Mafia-types in the basement. Ricochet shows up where Hornet is, says they all need to talk - all of them being him, Hornet, and....Dusk. Right then, the Black Marvel hits a button on some device, and all the small beeping things detonate. The Black Marvel comes out, proudly costumed, as chaos ensues...........