Dusk (comics)

Dusk was an identity used by several fictional superheroes in the Marvel Universe. It was eventually adopted by college student Cassie St. Commons, who appeared in the Marvel Comics' series, Slingers.

Negative Zone

During one of his adventures, Spider-Man travelled to the Negative Zone. While there, he befriended a group of rebels battling the tyrannical Blastaar. Their leader had been a hero called Dusk, who wore a completely black costume. Dusk's name and costume had in fact been taken up by a series of people as a symbol of freedom—but the latest man to take up Dusk's mantle had been killed shortly after Spider-Man's arrival. At the rebels' request, Spider-Man wore the costume and led the rebels to victory. When he returned to the normal universe, he still had the costume.

Later, a new Dusk took up the name and costume in the Negative Zone.

Peter Parker

When Spider-Man was accused of murder during the Identity Crisis storyline,^[1] he donned several different costumes to continue saving lives without anyone knowing it was him. One of the identities he adopted was that of Dusk. As Dusk, he pretended to be a mercenary with a quiet and serious personality, and teamed up with Trapster, who had in fact framed him for murder under Norman Osborn's orders by using a duplicate of Spider-Man's webbing to kill a small-time crook called Joey Z. After helping the Trapster escape an attack from the Shocker, Trapster and Dusk became regular allies, taking out some of Osborn's various criminal activities across the city. Although Dusk failed to record a confrontation between Trapster and Osborn where Osborn admitted his role in the murder, he was able to convince the Trapster that the best way to hurt Osborn now was to admit his role in framing Spider-Man for Joey Z's murder. When he cleared his name, he abandoned the costume.

Although the hero called Black Marvel later gave Cassie St. Commons a duplicate Dusk costume, Spider-Man remained in possession of the original. It has not been worn/seen since.

Powers and abilities

In addition to his regular abilities, the Dusk costume allowed Spider-Man to become virtually invisible in shadow, and glide short distances.

Cassie St. Commons

Dusk
Dusk from Slingers #1. Art by Chris Cross.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Slingers #0 (December 1998)
Created by	Joseph Harris Adam Pollina
In-story information
Alter ego	Cassie St. Commons
Team affiliations	Slingers
Abilities	Teleportation Darkforce projection Shadow manipulation Regeneration Clairvoyance

Fictional character biography

Cassie St. Commons was a college student at ESU with jet black hair, facial tattoos, and nose and tongue piercings. She was invited to join the Slingers, and was presented with the Dusk costume by the Black Marvel. She accepted, but had to undertake an "initiation" into the group by making a heroic leap across the rooftop of one building and land on another. While her teammates, Prodigy, Ricochet, and Hornet all had powers (or equipment) that enabled them to easily make the jump. When the others were distracted, Cassie did not actually jump, but instead purposefully fell to her death.

But Cassie was reborn, no longer dead, but not truly alive. She was Dusk. She found that she could teleport anywhere in a swirl of shadows, and she had some kind of psychic awareness that enabled her to feel her teammates. When she returned, her fellow Slingers were shocked to see their friend back from the dead. But being dead didn't stop Dusk from developing a crush on Ricochet, or having Hornet fall in love with her. But she kept both boys at a distance, since she felt that they couldn't know what it was like to be alive, yet not have a heartbeat. Dusk's powers began to evolve to the point where she could use her powers to transport other people, and manipulate shadows, and she proved herself to be an invaluable ally. Her talent to sense the location and well-being of her teammates saved Hornet, when she "knew" that he was captured by a killer rat-man. When she learned that Black Marvel had been taken by Mephisto (an evil demon) she was shocked, and when she learned that her costume was given to Black Marvel by the demon, she was horrified. But Dusk used her control over the darkness to help her team free Black Marvel's soul from Mephisto when he was captured. The team disbanded, and Dusk left to discover what she truly was.^[2]

Dusk was next seen being held captive by the Puppet Master. Puppet Master used an improved version of his magic clay to capture various women, including female heroes and villains along with Stature, Araña, Tigra, and Silverclaw, and hold them in a state of suspended animation. He intended to sell the captives off as "interactive art". Dusk made no further appearances during the storyline, which concluded with Puppet Master's defeat and the release of his other captives. Her current whereabouts are again unknown.^[3]

Meanwhile in the Loners series, it was shown that Mattie Franklin had been hired by Cassie's parents to find out if Ricochet knew the whereabouts of their daughter. During the scene that revealed this, a female shadow resembling Dusk was visible behind Mattie.^[4]

Powers and abilities

Dusk has many supernatural abilities. Her primary power is the ability to teleport herself (or others) anywhere she wishes to be. She can manipulate shadows to form objects or constructs of solid dark energy, a power she used to great effectiveness during the battle against Mephisto's horde of demons. She also can regenerate damaged tissue and she has a clairvoyant ability to sense the whereabouts of her teammates, and know if they are in danger, no matter how far away she is from them.

In other media

Video games

• Dusk appears as a downloadable costume in Spider-Man: Edge of Time.^[5][6]

References

External links

• Cassie St. Commons at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe