Superior Foes of Spider-Man #4
Heroes Fight Liars
The Sinister Six has just kicked Boomerang off the team but they are still bickering over their upcoming heist. The Beetle tells them they need to take this seriously. After she storms out, Overdrive, Speed Demon, and Shocker argue over who should lead them even though they all agreed to make Beetle their leader. Speed Demon suggests they kick her out as well, even though it will further reduce the team to three people. The Beetle comes back and tells them to stop bickering and get ready. That’s when the Shocker tries to tell them about how Boomerang lied to them about his encounter with the “Punisher”.[1] That’s when Luke Cage and Iron Fist come busting through the wall to take them into custody.
Little does the Sinister Six know is that Cage and Fist were tipped off to their location by Boomerang through his parole officer Mach-VII. When the two heroes only count four members they are on guard in case there are two other members that might be hiding. Overdrive is star-struck meeting Luke Cage and his gushing gets him smacked in the face with a folding chair.[2] The Beetle orders her team to attack but Luke and Danny take them out fairly quickly. Luke calls it in to the police and then removes the Thunderbolt emblem from Shocker’s costume, telling him he doesn’t deserve to wear it anymore.[3]
Fred Myers, aka Boomerang, reports this recent development to the Chameleon, who is back in prison. The Chameleon is furious that Fred turned in his own minions as this is counter-intuitive to his demand that they recover the head of Silvermane. Fred assures the master spy that this all part of the plan, as convoluted as it appears to be. Fred explains how he was kicked out of the Sinister Six and he is working on getting back as head of the group, suggesting that they couldn’t finish the job without him.
After his visit with the Chameleon, Fred goes to his favorite bar and finds that his usual bartender has been replaced by a woman.[4] She recognizes Fred, but not for his criminal career, but for his very short career in major league baseball that ended in disgrace. Fred is impressed but his attempts to flirt with the bartender get a cold reception, making him feel like a jack-ass. After learning that his usual bartender retired to care for his sick wife, he insults the new bartender by suggesting that she is a fan of New York. The bartender is a Philadelphia fan and kicks him out of the bar before he can drink his $9 shot. When he complains about this, she remarks about how great New York is.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Sinister Six are being shipped off to prison in a NYPD prisoner van. They are bickering with each other over what happened when the Shocker tells them that they shouldn’t have kicked Boomerang off the team. That’s when Boomerang blows open the back of the van to free them. Boomerang tells them that he is back as their leader, with no exceptions, and that he is pushing up the timetable to steal the head of Silvermane from the Owl. After they are free, Override uses his powers to supe up a motorcycle as their getaway vehicle. As they speed off, Boomerang tells the rest of the Sinister Six that he’s going to show the Owl who is in charge.
Once they have gotten away, the Sinister Six take refuge in a bar. There, the Shocker asks to speak with Boomerang privately. Outside, the Shocker tells Boomerang that he knows about how the Chameleon was posing as the Punisher the other day. Unable to worm his way out of the truth, Fred lies to Herman, telling him that he orchestrated the deception because he wanted the rest of the Sinister Six to be impressed with him. He also feeds Herman the line that it was also the only way he could later convince the group to go looking for Silvermane’s head. He then swears Herman to secrecy, saying he would be embarrassed if the truth got out to the others. The Shocker agrees to keep quiet since the pair of them go way back.
Fred admits to himself that he is feeding the Shocker a lot of bull, but he meant the last part. He admits that he is a criminal and has done his fair share of backstabbing but he realizes that this cape is helping him remember what he has lost sight of: What it means to be in a crew.[5] He figures his problem though is that he works too hard and doesn’t spend enough time focusing on Fred Meyers. Deciding that he needs to work on himself, Fred returns to the bar and asks the bartender out on a date to see the upcoming New York/Philadelphia game. When she accepts his invitation he is pleased. He then gets back into he is also thinking about how he is the leader of the Sinister Six and he has to be loyal and stick by his crew. He is thinking this as he drives his car to an unfinished overpass and pushes the car over the edge with the Shocker tied up in the trunk.
Recurring Characters
Sinister Six (Boomerang, Beetle, Overdrive Shocker, Speed Demon), Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Inspector, Black Cat (in disguise)
Continuity Notes
It was actually the Chameleon, who was acting as the Punisher to help manipulate the Sinister Six into following Boomerang’s lead to find the missing head of Silvermane, as seen in Superior Foes of Spider-Man #2.
Overdrive glosses over a fair bit of Luke Cage history. The things he references are:
Luke’s “tiara phase”: Back when Cage first became a super-hero in Luke Cage: Hero for Hire #1 he wore a tiara. It was part of his iconic look for years.
“the Avengers stuff”: Luke Cage was a founding member of the New Avengers when the team formed in New Avengers #1.
“even the Fantastic Four bit”: Luke was briefly a member of the Fantastic Four when the Thing temporarily lost his powers. This stint lasted from Fantastic Four #168-170.
The Shocker joined the Thunderbolts during Luke Cage’s tenure as a team leader. See Thunderbolts #156-162.
This nameless bartender turns out to be the Black Cat as we’ll learn in Superior Foes of Spider-Man #17.
This one-page splash features the various crews that Boomerang has been a part of. The first is the Sinister Syndicate, a group of which he was a founding member of back in Amazing Spider-Man #280. When he worked alongside Blacklash and Blizzard for Justin Hammer in Iron Man #239-240. Lastly, his tenure on the Thunderbolts from Thunderbolts #152 to Dark Avengers #183.
Topical References
Dated pop-culture references: Orange is the New Black, Breaking Bad, Charles in Charge
Boomerang is stated as having played for the New York Mets. This should be considered topical because the Mets are a real-world baseball team.
Continuity Errors
Boomerang, Blacklash, and Blizzard are listed as being part of a group called the “B-Team”. This is not correct. They were independently contracted to work for Justin Hammer. The “B-Team” was actually a sub-group of reformed villains who were part of Luke Cage’s Thunderbolts team. Boomerang was not part of this B-Team.
