BIOGRAPHY
Johnny Gallo was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in what was initially a loving family. Even as a young child, he demonstrated a natural athleticism and acrobatics above and beyond a 
growing boy. Johnny’s mother thought of him as her special little boy, but she was afraid of what his talents meant. It was strongly implied that Johnny’s mother was a mutant and worried she had passed being hated and feared on to him. One day when Johnny was putting away the cart at the grocery store, Nanny and the Orphan-Maker accosted his mother. The trigger-happy Orphan-Maker killed Mrs. Gallo and caused a spectacle before Nanny could seize Johnny, forcing them to flee empty-handed. Johnny only heard a commotion and returned to the car to find his mother shot dead. [Slingers #9]
[Note: The tombstone seen for Johnny’s mother indicated she was sixteen years old when she died. This is probably an error. Math is hard.]
Johnny and his father were devastated by her death, and they grew apart rather than closer together from the tragedy. Mr. Gallo lost his job and gave up hope for his life, clearly blaming 
Johnny for not doing more to save his mother, a condemnation Johnny took to heart. As he grew older, Johnny tried to contribute to the household by getting a job as a video store clerk, but nothing he did swayed his defeatist father out of his funk. Johnny’s best friend growing up was a neighborhood girl named Kathy, and they started dating in their teens. Kathy understood the problems Johnny had at home and was largely supportive of him, despite her friends’ opinion of him. [Slingers #1]
Several factors would come together to influence Johnny’s destiny. Daniel Lyons was a masked mystery man from the Golden Age, known as the Black Marvel. [Mystic Comics #5] Although he was well known and effective for his era, the Black Marvel suffered a tragedy during the burning of the Grand Royale Hotel. He saved many lives, but many more still died in the disaster. Lyons was haunted by his failure, especially after Atlas Productions movie studio glamorized the incident in a film on his exploits, The Black Marvel Strikes!, which depicted him successfully saving everyone at the Hotel. The popularity of the film meant that, as decades passed, people forgot the true tragedy of the Grand Royale and praised the Black Marvel for his unparalleled victory. [Slingers #3]
Meanwhile, Peter Parker experienced a crisis in his identity as Spider-Man when Norman Osborn framed him for several crimes. The police, bounty hunters and even everyday citizens were after 
the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, to the point that he could no longer be effective. Peter decided to adopt several new identities in order to continue fighting crime publicly, debuting as the Hornet, Ricochet, Dusk and Prodigy at different times. This complicated cover-up gave him time to clear Spider-Man’s name of various charges, and Parker soon retired his four new costumes in order to go back to being Spider-Man full time. [Sensational Spider-Man (1st series) #27-28, Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #434-435, Peter Parker Spider-Man (1st series) #91-92, Spectacular Spider-Man (2nd series) #257-258]
Now extremely old and slowly withering away at a hospital, Dan Lyons had become obsessed with the Grand Royal and the public misconception of his failure. He was approached by the demon, Mephisto, who offered him the opportunity to become a true hero again. The Maggia was in the process of renovating the Grand Royale Hotel to restore it to its former glory, and Mephisto suggested Lyons could be a true hero this time around. The Black Marvel was revitalized so he could act as a hero again, and began making plans for the Grand Royale. For added spice, Mephisto provided Lyons with the four costumes recently discarded by Spider-Man, playing on Lyons’ ego that he could train a new generation of heroes to further cement his legacy.
As a freshman at Empire State University, Johnny Gallo was the Black Marvel’s first recruit for his team of young heroes. Johnny’s natural mutant agility and accuracy made him an excellent choice to become Ricochet, and he and Lyons both adored the spotlight that came from being a “hero.” The Black Marvel soon made other selections for his team, like the varsity wrestler Ritchie Gilmore as Prodigy, engineering student Eddie McDonough as Hornet, and quiet Goth girl Cassie St. Commons as Dusk. Ritchie and Johnny did not get along as Ritchie resented Johnny’s carefree attitude and the fact that Lyons selected him first. Prodigy had an intensity and dedication to the mission of heroism that constantly clashed with Ricochet’s showboating and sense of humor. [Slingers #6]
The team had their first failure while training on the rooftops of New York. The group was getting used to their suits and new abilities at different speeds. Beyond Ricochet’s casual skill and 
Prodigy’s rigid professionalism, Hornet enjoyed the armored flying suit that provided full mobility to his otherwise palsied hand. Unfortunately, Dusk was not taking to the training as well as the others. They challenged each other to leap between buildings like super-heroes were known to do, but Cassie was intimidated by the idea. The boys turned their backs to give her privacy for her jump but, when they turned around, they saw Cassie had missed her leap and fallen to her death on the streets below. [Slingers #0]
The remaining members reacted differently to Dusk’s death. Prodigy tried to remain on mission and loyal to the Black Marvel, dismissing Cassie as a failure who didn’t have what it takes. Ricochet and Hornet were more shaken by the incident and feared they were complicit in Cassie’s demise. Still, they were pressured by Ritchie into continuing as heroes. They saved lives during a train derailment and Johnny was also active closer to home. He broke off a date with Kathy to meet his team, then happened to stop her from being mugged on the way. Despite putting on his best Charlton Heston impression, Ricochet figured Kathy saw through his costume. (It was probably the hair.) [Slingers #1]
Dusk’s death and the train incident prompted Spider-Man to investigate the Slingers. He couldn’t understand where these new heroes were coming from when his homemade costumes were still gathering dust in the attic. Ricochet felt guilty about Dusk and didn’t know the web-slinger’s connection to their costumes, so he lashed out and fled when Spider-Man approached him in Manhattan. Meanwhile, the Black Marvel pushed his team into investigating the Maggia’s 
reconstruction of the Grand Royale Hotel. Jimmy Eyes and his gangsters were smuggling canisters of bio-hazardous material through the basement’s train lines, but neither the Maggia nor the heroes knew about the giant, carnivorous mutant rats caused by the spilled toxins until the beasts were upon them. Hornet nearly died in a cave-in at the tunnels and Prodigy abandoned him and Ricochet to “stay on mission.” [Slingers #2-3]
Hornet did his own digging into the Grand Royale and discovered the Black Marvel’s connection to it, which their mentor never shared. He told Ricochet his suspicions and they returned to the hotel, where Prodigy and the Black Marvel were already on-scene for the grand reopening. Prodigy wouldn’t listen at first to Eddie and Johnny’s concerns, and threw Ricochet off the roof rather than let him interfere with whatever the Black Marvel’s “master plan” happened to be. Rico was saved by Dusk, somehow alive again and in possession of new powers she didn’t understand.
The Marvel intended to set off a series of firebombs to recreate the scene of his original failure and successfully save everyone from the disaster this time. In his aged and delusional state, however, he failed to even command attention from the panicking crowd, and only succeeded in creating a crisis he could not solve. The team found the Black Marvel in the disaster and gathered to confront him, but he could only ramble on about all he had done for the ungrateful brats. As the 
truth dawned on Prodigy, the others went to work saving who they could. Johnny was surprised to find Kathy had trailed him to the hotel, and he rescued her from the increasingly unstable Black Marvel. As the hotel began to give way, Prodigy stayed behind to hold up the supports until the last victims were evacuated. Ricochet and his friends turned the Black Marvel over to the police and watched helplessly as the hotel collapsed atop their most dedicated but troublesome member. [Slingers #4-5]
Ricochet, Hornet and Dusk met at their favorite billboard in Times Square to compare notes and decide what to do next. Cassie was different since her death and resurrection, leaving Johnny and Eddie uncertain if they could trust her and uncomfortable over how she died on their watch. Cassie also started coming on to Johnny and even kissed him, making him more uncomfortable, considering both Kathy and Eddie’s obvious crush on Cassie. Still, even with Prodigy and the Marvel gone, they decided to keep working together as heroes. [Slingers #6]
Johnny was troubled over how much to confide in Kathy. She already knew he was a super-hero, and seemed on board with it, but he didn’t know how she’d react to learning he was a mutant as well. Dusk interrupted his ruminating with word that Hornet had been abducted. A transit worker who tried to commit suicide during the train derailment had mutated into a monstrous rat-man 
after exposure to the Grand Royale bio-hazardous matter. Now known as the Griz, he blamed Eddie for saving him. Down in the sewers, Dusk and Ricochet found Eddie and brought him his Hornet gear, but Rico was injured fighting the horde of rats the Griz commanded. Cassie teleported him home to recover, but instead Johnny assembled a “Ricochet Mobile” out of an old go-cart. Dusk came back to pick him up, and together they deployed his new toy to save Hornet from the Griz. [Slingers #7-8]
The birthday of Johnny’s dad was also the anniversary of his mother’s death, leaving him dour during training. After seven years, Nanny’s mutant-detecting equipment picked up Johnny’s bio-signature again and the Orphan-Maker came to abduct “the one who got away.” Nanny’s ramblings told Ricochet for the first time who killed his mother, and now Orphan-Maker was dispatched to finish the job. Johnny broke out of Nanny’s egg-ship to go rescue his dad, and he out-fought 
and out-smarted the assassin to save his father’s life. Johnny was so relieved his dad was still alive, but even the brush with death didn’t help their relationship. Mr. Gallo had barely any interest or response to learning his son was a super-hero, and he would only say “well, there’s stronger out there than you.” [Slingers #9]
Prodigy finally returned to the team, leading the group to consider their origins. Ricochet went to 
visit the Black Marvel in the hospital (why, he wasn’t quite sure) only to discover Dan Lyons had died that very night. While the foursome regrouped in Times Square, they were attacked by the Black Marvel’s demon patron, Mephisto, and drawn into his Hell dimension. The Marvel’s soul belonged to Mephisto now, but the Hell-Lord offered Ricochet and his friends their own bargain. He challenged the self-declared “heroes” to fight for Lyons’ soul, even offered to relinquish the soul if only they could forgive the Black Marvel for manipulating them.
Rico was the most outspoken against forgiving their mentor, claiming they became heroes in spite of him, not because of him. When Mephisto pointed out that even their costumed identities came from him and the Black Marvel, Johnny discarded his mask and jacket. He claimed that hate had left his heart, and he was willing to redeem the Black Marvel’s soul. The Devil threw Johnny a 
curve ball, offering his mother’s soul up for redemption in place of Dan Lyons, forcing him to choose. Johnny almost fell for the bait, but his example led Prodigy and the others to stand with him in defiance of Mephisto. The Black Marvel’s soul was freed and the heroes were allowed to return to Earth. Prodigy and Dusk went off on their own after that, but Johnny and Eddie remained active as a duo, and Ricochet even tagged their billboard meeting place with the note “Slingers were here!” [Slingers #10-12]