Yancy Street Gang (Thing allies)

YANCY STREET GANG

Membership: "Two-Fisted" Tommie Boyd, Dictionary Dawson, "Little" Larry Lee, Lugwrench Lubowski, "Smooth" Manny Merengues, Roberto "Rhythm" Ruiz

Purpose: Causing ruckus and defending the honor of Yancy Street

Affiliations: Code: Blue, Justice (Vance Astrovik), Jimmy Sokolowski, "Slugger" Sokolowski, Thing (Ben Grimm)

Enemies: Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom), Doombot, Nomads Street Gang

Base of Operations: Yancy Street, New York City, New York

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#361 (February, 1992)

History:

(Fantastic Four I#361 (fb) - BTS) - In honor of their famed predecessors, Tommie Boyd and other Yancy Street youths banded together to form a new incarnation of the Yancy Street Gang. Though mischievous and not above raising trouble, picking pockets and locks, they weren't interested in committing major crimes. The gang even actively opposed illegal activities such as drug dealing. Despite their efforts to keep Yancy Street clean, they couldn't prevent their friend Jimmy Sokolowski from getting hooked on drugs.

Yancy Street Gang with Thing (Fantastic Four I#361) - Around Christmas time, Rhythm Ruiz was on a Yancy Street rooftop when he spotted Jimmy Sokolowski getting kidnapped by two mysterious men (two disguised robots working for Doctor Doom who sought to cure drug addiction). The gang started a search for him, which they briefly interrupted when they spotted the Yancy Street Gang's bitter enemy Ben Grimm (who had been contacted by Jimmy's dad "Slugger" Sokolowski to look for his son and give him a little peptalk to help keep him straight). The gang pelted Thing with snowballs, which made Ben chase them down an alley. When he cornered them, he found out his attackers were young teens. Once the gang learned that Grimm was also looking for Sokolowski, they allowed him to accompany them. Rhythm Ruiz led the group to a seemingly abandoned plant where Jimmy was being held. "Smooth" Manny Merengues effortlessly picked the lock, causing Grimm to comment he must be the most popular guy on his cell block. Once inside, they spotted all the high tech equipment and realized the place was still in production. Just then, a number of Doom's robots attacked them. Thing defeated them without any trouble, which impressed Tommie Boyd and gave Lugwrench Lubowski some fascinating new tech to study. Moments later, they were confronted by Doctor Doom who attacked his old Fantastic Four foe. Even though Thing orderded the Yancy Streeters to clear out, they refused to let anyone touch one of their own (after all, Ben was born and raised on Yancy Street). "Little" Larry Lee threw a chunk of machinery at Doom, causing the villain to drop his weapon. In response, Doom used his armor's blasters to strafe the gang, announcing they should be thankful their age protected them from his true wrath. Still, the gang's intervention gave Thing sufficient time to recover. While the gang freed Jimmy, Ben took the fight to Doom, destroying most of his lab facility. Annoyed his experiments in curing drug addiction had been thwarted, Doom left but not without annoucing it was on their heads there would be no cure. Even though the gang didn't seem to mind, the words still haunted Ben even as they reunited Jimmy with his dad Slugger. The gang and Ben parted on seemingly amicable terms, with Ben thinking they were actually "a swell bunch'a kids", unaware they had stolen his wallet and pinned a "kick me!' sign on his back.

Yancy Street Gang vs Justice (Vance Astrovik)

(Justice: Four Balance#1) - When teenage runaway Alice Gaulthing, daughter of billionaire Anderson Gaulthing, was found murdered in Yancy Street, the papers blamed the Yancy Street Gang. The organisation Child Watch approached New Warrior Justice (Vance Astrovik) to investigate Alice's death. He went to Yancy Street where he was immediately spotted by Rhythm Ruiz who banged his drums on the building's heating ducts, warning all the gang members trouble was imminent. Acting out a pre-arranged plan, Justice was led to Kirby's Malt Shoppe, where the Yancy Street Gang supposedly met. There, he was ambushed by the gang who used a fishing rod to throw the hero's cape over his eyes and even dumped the content of a few garbage cans on him. Annoyed, Justice grabbed every member of the Yancy Street Gang with his telekinesis and was about to bring them in when he was stopped by the arriving Thing who pleaded on the gang's behalf. He got the gang to agree to accompany them to the police to give testimony. A few hours later, thanks in part to testimonies from other locals that corroborated their individual statements, they were cleared of all charges and released. Tommie Boyd thanked Thing for his involvement, sarcastically stating he was an okay guy "for a walking pile of bricks".

(Thunderstrike I#13/2) - The Yancy Street Gang were about to get into a fight with the Nomads, a drug dealing rival gang determined to add Yancy Street to their turf. Before the two teen gangs could come to blows, a malfunctioning Doombot showed up and scared off the Nomads. The automaton attacked the Yancy Streeters, who did their best to avoid what they thought was the real Doctor Doom out for revenge. The teens managed to keep themselves out of harm's way, even though the Doombot caused considerable property damage. In the end, Code: Blue was sent in to deal with the mechanical menace. Using the sewers to avoid the police line, the Yancy Streeters joined Code Blue who were busy planning their strategy. Much to everyone's surprise, "Rhythm" Ruiz was Code: Blue's "Rigger" Ruiz's younger brother. The Doombot's forcefield made it impervious to most of Code: Blue's ordnance, causing them to devise a surprise attack: blow him up from beneath. Rhythm led demolitions expert Fielstein through the sewers to the Doombot's exact location. After the blast damaged the robot to such a degree it was building to a catastrophic self destruct, "Lugwrench" Lubowski used his technical savvy to disarm the bomb with only seconds to spare. The Yancy Street Gang bid Code: Blue adieu, begrudgingly admitting that they "didn't stink as much as most cops".

Comments: Created by Tom DeFalco (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks).

Tom DeFalco made a brave attempt to reinvent the Yancy Street Gang for the 1990s, giving them individual names, personalities and even a female leader. It's almost enough to gloss over the fact gangs like that went the way of the dodo by the late 1950s... Even when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the original Yancy Streeters in the early 60s, they were already a throwback to the street gangs Kirby grew up with in the 1920s and 30s on Manhattan's Lower East Side. In fact, the Yancy Street Gang was named after Delancey Street, though it's located on the west side of Manhattaan.

Late 1994 was a busy time for the Yancy Street Gang, appearing in such unforgettable titles as the debut issue of the Justice: Four Balance mini and Thunderstrike I#13, which turned out to be the gang's unlucky number, given the fact they haven't been seen since. Still, DeFalco did a nice job of finally giving the infamous Yancy Street Gang a face, even if technically speaking they were Yancy Street: The Next Generation. And, one has to hand it to "Two-Fisted Tommy D": his penchant for giving his characters clever names is on full display here. Calling a boyish girl, or a tomboy, "Tommie Boyd" is inspired on a Stan Lee "Otto Octavius" level.

There was a little confusion over "Smooth" Manny Merengues' etnicity. In his debut appearance, he's clearly latino, while he looks positively caucasian the other two times he graced the pages of a Marvel comic. With a name like "Manny Merengues", it's almost impossible he doesn't have at least some Hispanic roots.

I am pretty certain this incarnation of the Yancy Street Gang had been behind the scenes in a few more comics, but we will never know if it was them or another, even newer incarnation of the gang.
--Markus Raymond

Profile by Norvo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Yancy Street Gang should distinguished from

Yancy Street Gang, the original incarnation of the gang @ Fantastic Four I#15
or any other "Yancy" or "Street" or "Gang" characters

"Two-Fisted" Tommie Boyd

Tomboy Tommie Boyd was the no-nonsense, tough talking leader of the Yancy Street Gang. She led the group in searching for Jimmy Sokolowski, bravely held her own opposing Doctor Doom. She was on hand when Justice came to Yancy Street to investigate the death of Alice Gaulthing and freely went to the police with the others to provide statements. Some time later, she and the other Yancy Streeters were about to get into a scrap with the rivaling gang the Nomads, who planned to move in on their turf and sell drugs. Their dust up was interrupted by a faulty Doombot who Boyd and the others helped Code: Blue take down.