BACKGROUND: Spider-Man had visited an alternate dimension called the Negative Zone a few weeks prior to the start of the Identity Crisis Crossover and had acquired a costume that allowed him to blend into the night and become practically invisible. To this he added a utility belt that contained gas, smoke and stun grenades. Spider-Man called this new persona: DUSK.

HISTORY: Having been caught on tape beating up Norman Osborn (a.k.a. The Green Goblin) and being under investigation for the murder of a street thug named Joey Z, and more importantly, having to deal with a five-million dollar bounty on his head, Spider-Man had decided to create not only one but four new identities for himself: The Hornet, Prodigy, Ricochet, and Dusk.

Utilizing the individual attributes of each of the personas, Spider-Man found evidence that exonerated himself from all charges (the real killer was in fact the Trapster who confessed to the crime on TV to get back at Osborn) and managed to manufacture evidence to prove that the Spider-Man on Osborn's videotape was actually an impostor (Read the last issues of Spectacular Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man Volume I, Sensational Spider-Man and Peter Parker: Spider-Man Volume I for further details).

Once the Identity Crisis Crossover was all over with, Spider-Man retired the four identities. However, he donated them to Dan Lyons (a.k.a. The Black Marvel) who recruited four teenagers to form a new team of superheroes: Ritchie, an athletic loner type with super-strength became Prodigy, Eddie, a real bright kid with a crippled arm became The Hornet, Johnny, a mutant, became Ricochet, and an ex-Goth named Cassie became the new Dusk.