DUSK
Real Name: Cassie St. Commons
Identity/Class: Unknown, darkforce user (legally deceased)
Occupation: Adventurer;
former student
Group Membership:
None;
formerly the Slingers (Hornet (McDonough),
Prodigy (Gilmore), Ricochet (Gallo)) (see comments)
Affiliations: Araña,
Ms. Marvel (Danvers), Operation: Lighting Storm (Machine Man, Rick
Sheridan/Sleepwalker, Agent Sum), Silverclaw,
Spider-Man (Parker), Stature, Tigra;
formerly the Black Marvel (Lyons)
Enemies: Badoon, Brood, The Brood Imperiatrix, Brother Royal, the Griz, Mephisto, New Warriors (Aegis (Rollins), Bolt (Bradley), Namorita, Nova (Rider), Speedball (Baldwin), and Turbo (Musashi)), the Puppet Master
Known Relatives: Mr. St. Commons (father), Mrs. St. Commons (mother)
Aliases: Jane Doe
Base of Operations: Mobile;
formerly Salem Center, Westchester
County, USA;
formerly a Times Square "Welcome to New York"
billboard, USA;
formerly the Puppet Master's Inactive
Art Gallery, Puetro Maravilla, Chile
First Appearance: Slingers#0 (December, 1998)
Powers/Abilities: Prior to receiving a recreation of the Negative Zone suit worn by Spider-Man, Cassie St. Commons had an unspecified understanding of the black arts, going as far as to own a copy of the Necronicom. Wearing the suit, she gained the abilities to hide in shadows and glide for small distances. Following her death and mysterious resurrection, Cassie found herself 'bonded' to a suit similar in appearance to the Dusk suit, but one that allowed her the ability to teleport herself and others via portals (occasionally referred to as "bleenking"). She also gained Darkforce powers which she manifested as weapons. The full extent of Cassie's post-resurrection powers and their source have not been revealed.
History:
(Slingers#1 (Dusk variant)) - As Cassie St. Commons grew up, she began spending less time with her family and more time on her own or exploring the black arts.
(Slingers#6 (fb)) - Cassie arrived late to her freshman orientation on her first day of school at Empire State University, taking a seat beside Johnny Gallo. Following the orientation, Cassie suggested to Johnny that they partner up for the group project assignment. Eddie McDonough jumped in to partner with Cassie and was added to the group by a fast departing Johnny. Cassie and Eddie later followed Johnny to a meeting with the Black Marvel and Ritchie Gilmore.
(Slingers#0 (fb) - BTS) - Cassie was accepted by the Black Marvel as Dusk and given a replica of the suit previously worn by Spider-Man. With Johnny, Eddie and Ritchie as Ricochet, Hornet and Prodigy, they began training.
(Slingers#0) - Dusk found herself unable to leap across rooftops during a training session. Hornet attempted to reassure her she could make it, but Dusk was overcome with fear. Believing herself unworthy of being on the team and that she'd soon be kicked out, Dusk stepped off the ledge and fell ten storeys to her death.
(Slingers#1) - Dusk's body was found the next day by the police.
(Slingers#1 (Dusk variant)/All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #10 (Slingers)) - As news of Dusk's death was being reported in print and on television, she awoke in the morgue, developing Darkforce powers from an unidentified source. Reliving memories that she was unable to make sense of, Dusk left the morgue.
(Slingers#1 (Dusk variant)) - The following day, Dusk followed Ricochet, Prodigy and Hornet to a subway train accident. Staying out of sight, Dusk saved a small child during the chaos before teleporting away in the aftermath.
(Slingers#1) - Dusk followed Hornet and Ricochet to their superhero-themed "Welcome to New York" billboard hangout, staying out of sight.
(Slingers#2) - Three days after Cassie's apparent death, police officers arrived in Salem Center, Westchester, to inform Cassie's parents that they suspected the body recovered was Cassie's and that it had been removed from the morgue. Dusk, having lingering memories of her parents that she couldn't quite sort out, lurked about before teleporting herself away.
(Slingers#3) - Dusk teleported herself into the tunnels beneath the Grand Royale hotel construction site. She freed Hornet, who had been trapped in a cave-in; having lost consciousness, he was unable to recall his rescuer. Dusk later teleported herself into Hornet's dorm room, telling him not to be afraid by her presence. Leaving suddenly, Dusk perched herself on the roof of the dorm.
(Slingers#4) - Dusk went back to the alley where she had died. Confronted by Spider-Man, she was able to tell that he was a good man, but asked him to leave her and the others alone. Teleporting to the grand opening of the Grand Royale Hotel, Dusk caught Ricochet during a free-fall, teleporting him to safety. She brought Ricochet back to Hornet, just moments before a series of explosions erupted.
(Slingers#5) - Dusk saved Ricochet and Hornet from a collapsing floor and joined them in confronting their former mentor, the Black Marvel, who had engineered the disaster for his own benefit. Dusk and the others set about rescuing civilians trapped in the inferno, teleporting several out at once. Weakened, Dusk confronted Prodigy, who was keeping the building from total collapse. Telling him she wasn't strong enough to teleport him out, she joined the others outside as the Grand Royale fell.
(Slingers#6) - Dusk joined Ricochet at the billboard, being coy about her "undead" status but otherwise keeping to herself. Hornet arrived soon after, and Dusk suggested the three play a game of "truth-or-dare." Asked what she is as a "truth" by Ricochet, Dusk explained that all she knew was she had died but was now alive and with powers. Recalling the day she met Eddie and Johnny, Dusk told Hornet she couldn't feel her heartbeat anymore. After a dare that had Ricochet and Hornet realize their trust in her, they decided to call it a night, and agreed to stay together as a group. Dusk kissed Ricochet and teleported away.
(Slingers#7) - Sitting alone in a church,
Dusk felt that Hornet was in pain. Bringing in Ricochet, they checked
Hornet's dorm room. Ricochet inadvertently activated Hornet's
backpack with the sound drawing mutated rat creatures out of hiding.
Following the creatures into a sewer, Dusk and Ricochet soon found
Hornet being held by the human-rat hybrid called the Griz. Dusk
teleported
an immobilized Ricochet back to his house and confronted the
Griz,
threatening to rip him apart.
(Slingers#8) - Unable to rescue Hornet from the Griz, Dusk teleported back to Ricochet and brought him and his "Ricochet Mobile" to the sewage treatment plant Hornet was being held in. They launched the Ricochet Mobile at the Griz, knocking him into a treatment tank where he was torn to pieces by the drain.
(Slingers#9) - Joining Ricochet and Hornet for training exercises in Central Park, Dusk tried to talk a departing Ricochet into staying for more training. Hornet told Dusk to go after him, having witnessed their kiss at the billboard. Dusk, not knowing that Hornet had seen the kiss, was confused by the comment.
(Slingers#10) - Dusk met up with Hornet and Ricochet at the billboard. Ricochet revealed that the Black Marvel had died in the hospital and that Prodigy survived the collapse of the Grand Royale Hotel.
(New Warriors II#1) - Dusk and the others turned down Speedball's offer to join a relaunched New Warriors. Hornet and Ricochet laughed in his face at the offer.
(Slingers#10) - The superhero billboard came to life, the various heroes adorning it emerging and attacking Dusk and the others. Pulled through the billboard, the four found themselves before Mephisto and an imprisoned Black Marvel.
(Slingers#11) - Mephisto trapped Dusk and the others, and told them about the deal he had made with an ailing Dan Lyons to reclaim his heroic identity of the Black Marvel. Offering to free the Black Marvel's soul if the four could forgive him for using them to further his own ambitions, Dusk and the others argued over what to do. Sent to face separate trials, Dusk was sent to a world from her childhood dreams where she was a princess and nothing could hurt her. Confronted by several figures in white trying to take her from her safe place, she quickly recovered and rejoined the others, arriving before Mephisto just as he called for his horde to test them as a team.
(Slingers#12) - Clearing the battlefield, Dusk and the others were given the opportunity to leave Mephisto's realm. Joining the others in their stand against Mephisto, the four forgave the Black Marvel, letting go of their hate and giving up their armaments provided by Mephisto. Knowing little of her power source, save that Mephisto had nothing to do with it, Dusk led the others back to New York. As they prepared to go their separate ways, Dusk admitted she was ready to start figuring out who she was and what she was supposed to be. Hornet asked Dusk if they'd ever see her again. Dusk told Hornet all they have is hope, before teleporting away.
(All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #10 (Slingers)) - Dusk began exploring the origins of her powers.
(Contest of Champions II#1/All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #10 (Slingers)) - Dusk was among the group of heroes teleported off Earth to compete in a "contest of champions."
(Contest of Champions II#3) - Dusk, Hornet, Prodigy and Ricochet, collectively referred to as "The Slingers", were reunited to compete against the New Warriors in a game of basketball. After a heated match, the Warriors were crowned the victors and the Slingers were teleported away.
(Contest of Champions II#5/All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #10 (Slingers)) - The heroes, including the Slingers, were separately returned to Earth.
(Loners#5) -
Having been hired to investigate whether Johnny Gallo had any
information on their daughter, Mattie Franklin reported that there was
no evidence Johnny knew anything of her. Unseen by Mattie or the
sleeping Johnny, a formless shadow of a woman appeared behind Mattie (see comments).
(Ms. Marvel II#18 (fb) - BTS) - Dusk was captured by the Puppet Master's acquisition teams and held in Puetro Maravilla, Chile, to be sold as "interactive art."
(Ms. Marvel II#18) - Dusk was part of the Puppet Master's "gallery" of women and shown to a prospective buyer.
(Ms. Marvel II#19) (see comments) - Dusk and the other kidnapped superheroines -- Araña, Stature, Silverclaw and Tigra -- stood by while the Puppet Master forced his prisoners to fight each other and harm themselves.
(Ms. Marvel II#20 - BTS) - The Puppet Master's control over the kidnapped superheroines' minds was broken. Although Dusk was freed, she was not among the superheroines noted as receiving medical attention, presumably departing immediately following the release of the mind-control.
Comments: Created by Joseph Harris (writer), Adam Pollina (pencils) and Jimmy Palmiotti (inks).
Slingers#0 was released as an insert in Wizard Magazine#88.
Slingers#1 shipped with four different covers, each spotlighting one of the four leads. More than just a cover gimmick, each variant included different story pages, eight near the beginning of the issue giving a different interlude with each character plus eight near the end of the issue with a different view of their actions during the train disaster. The pages specific to the Dusk variant are noted as they appeared along with the pages carried in each version.
Dusk was profiled as a member of the "Slingers" in the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #10. This profile revealed her connection to the Darkforce.
As revealed in The Loners#5, Cassie's parents hired Mattie "Spider-Woman" Franklin to find her, presumably following up on her disappearance from Slingers. However, with her concurrent kidnapping in Ms. Marvel, it's possible that Dusk went back to see her parents before being taken prisoner by the Puppet Master, and they were looking for her for that reason. It's worth noting that Dusk appears in Ms. Marvel II#18 and not in the other chapters of the storyline (there's an unidentified woman who might be her in #19 and she doesn't appear in #20), making it possible that the Ms. Marvel team weren't aware of what was going on with the character in The Loners and tried to write her out to avoid conflicting with that. Additionally, Dusk may have appeared (in the shadows, naturally) in Loners #5, lurking around Franklin after she contacted her parents.
The source of Dusk's powers and cause for her resurrection have yet to be revealed. The only hint so far was mentioned in the letters page of Slingers#12, referring to "Dark Dusk," the source of Cassie's "bleenking."
One final note about "The Slingers": Although the team has been referred to as "The Slingers" in several Marvel titles (including both Civil War handbooks) and by several Marvel characters, at no point in the actual Slingers comic did Dusk or the others refer to themselves by this name. Johnny Gallo (Ricochet) affirmed this in Runaways II#1. It's obvious why the name is used for the characters (writers mistakingly assuming it was the group name), but there's been no in-story explanation for its use. The only incident where the name was used as a title for Dusk and company in their presence was in Contest of Champions (as noted in the Group Membership listing), and since the characters did not refer to themselves as such, it is used loosely as a name for the group (at least by those of us who remember it was never supposed to be the team name and stubbornly hold to that).
Profile by G Morrow.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Ricochet has no known connections to
Dusk should not be mistaken for:
Cassie's parents discussed her frequent absences over dinner. Cassie's father went up to her bedroom to talk to her, but she didn't answer her door. Later, suspecting that Cassie might be the costumed body found in the alley, the detectives handling the case contacted Cassie's parents in Salem Center, Westchester County. The detectives visited the St. Commons to tell them that the body was removed from the morgue, and to ask about the costume.
Cassie's parents later hired Mattie Franklin (Spider-Woman), to get close to Ricochet and learn if he'd been in contact with Cassie or knew her whereabouts. Franklin contacted Mr. St. Commons when she'd made certain that Ricochet did not have any information on his daughter.
--Slingers#1 (Dusk variant) (Slingers#2, The Loners#5
images:
(without ads)
Slingers#0, p3, pan1 (main Image)
Slingers#6, p8, pan1 (Cassie St. Commons)
Slingers#7, p22, pans1-3 (Dusk Unleashed)
Slingers#2, p11, pan2 (Mr. St. Commons)
Slingers#2, p11, pan3 (Mrs. St. Commons)
Other
Appearances:
Slingers#0 (December, 1998) - Joseph Harris (writer), Adam Pollina
(pencils), Jimmy Palmiotti (inks), Ruben Diaz (editor)
Slingers#1 (December, 1998) - Joseph Harris
(writer), Chris Cross (pencils), Rob Stull (inks), Ruben Diaz (editor)
Slingers#2 (January, 1999) - Joseph Harris
(writer), Chris Cross (pencils), Rob Stull (inks), Ruben Diaz (editor)
Slingers#3 (February, 1999) - Joseph Harris
(writer), Chris Cross (pencils), Rob Stull (inks), Ruben Diaz (editor)
Slingers#4 (March, 1999) - Joseph Harris
(writer), Oscar Jimenez (pencils), Felix Alpuente (inks), Ruben Diaz
(editor)
Slingers#5 (April, 1999) - Joseph Harris
(writer), Chris Cross (pencils), Rob Stull (inks), Ruben Diaz (editor)
Slingers#6 (May, 1999) - Joseph Harris
(writer), Chris Cross (pencils), Rob Stull (inks), Ruben Diaz (editor)
Slingers#7 (June, 1999) - Joseph Harris
(writer), Greg Luzniak (pencils), Bob Almond with Jimmy & Peter
Palmiotti (inks), Ruben Diaz (editor)
Slingers#8 (July, 1999) - Joseph Harris
(writer), Greg Luzniak (pencils), Bob Almond with Candelario &
Minor (inks), Ruben Diaz (editor)
Slingers#9 (August, 1999) - Joseph Harris
(writer), Chris Cross (pencils), Rob Stull (inks), Ruben Diaz (editor)
Contest of Champions II#1 (September, 1999)
- Chris Claremont (writer), Oscar Jimenez (pencils), Eduardo Alpuente
(inks), Ruben Diaz (editor)
Slingers#10 (September, 1999) - Joseph
Harris (writer), Chris Cross (pencils), Don Hillsman & Rob
Stull (inks),
Ruben Diaz (editor)
Contest of Champions II#3 (October, 1999) -
Chris Claremont (writer), Oscar Jimenez (pencils), Eduardo Alpuente
(inks), Ruben Diaz (editor)
New Warriors II#1 (October, 1999) - Jay
Faerber (writer), Steve Scott (pencils), Walden Wong (inks), Bobbie
Chase (editor)
Slingers#11 (October, 1999) - Joseph Harris
(writer), Javier Saltares (pencils), Perrotta, Mahlstedt (inks), Ruben
Diaz (editor)
Contest of Champions II#5 (November, 1999)
- Chris Claremont (writer), Oscar Jimenez & Michael Ryan
(pencils), Eduardo Alpuente & Livesay (inks), Ruben Diaz
(editor)
Slingers#12 (November, 1999) - Joseph
Harris (writer), Javier Saltares (pencils), Minor, Perrotta, Ramos and
Rubenstein (inks), Ruben Diaz (editor)
All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #10 (October, 2006) - Jeff Christiansen (head writer/coordinator)
Loners#5 (October, 2007) - CB Cebulski
(writer), Karl Moline (artist), Molly Lazer (editor)
Ms. Marvel II#18 (October, 2007) - Brian
Reed (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Matt Ryan (inker), Bill
Rosemann & Steve Wacker (editors)
Ms. Marvel II#19 (November, 2007) - Brian
Reed (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Matt Ryan (inker), Bill
Rosemann & Steve Wacker (editors)
Ms. Marvel II#20 (December, 2007) - Brian
Reed (writer), Greg Tocchini (pencils), Roland Paris (inker), Steve
Wacker (editor)
First posted: 01/26/2008
Last
updated: 01/23/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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