DREAD DEALERS

Membership: "Sigil," Starion (Denny Drake), "Voltaic," "Yaguara"

Purpose: Assassins for hire

Aliases: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: New Warriors (Blackwing/Barnell Bohusk, Decibel/Jonothan Starsmore, Night Thrasher/Donyell Taylor, Ripcord/Miranda Leevald, Skybolt/Vin Stewart, Phaser/Christian Cord, Renascence/Sofia Mantega, Tempest/Angel Salvatore, Wondra/Jubilation Lee), S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed

First Appearance: New Warriors IV#16 (September 2008) 

History:

 
(New Warriors IV#16 (fb) - BTS) - The Dread Dealers were a team of well-paid assassins led by Starion and wanted by S.H.I.E.L.D. Despite their profession, they were known to have some scruples, particularly in regards to children (see comments). Seeking to apprehend them, the New Warriors had one of the team, Ripcord, use holographic technology to pose as a young orphaned child, approaching Starion while he was fetching groceries (see comments) and tricking him into taking her to the team's current hideout in an old factory in upstate New York.   

(New Warriors IV#16) - Concerned over Starion bringing the child "home," Yaguara cautioned his teammate, concerned that someone might be looking for the girl and that taking her in could get them all captured. Starion dismissed this, recalling his own unhappy history growing up in the foster system and insisting that was no way for a kid to live. While the apparently weary Sigil rested his head, Voltaic asked the girl her name, getting the response "Miranda." Fishing an apple out of the grocery bag, Starion handed it Miranda, complementing her on her pretty name and telling her his own real name, Denny. To all the Dread Dealers' shock, Miranda rhetorically asked if that was Denny Drake, a.k.a. Starion of the Dread Dealers that S.H.I.E.L.D. was after. When the stunned Starion asked her how she knew all this, a smirking Ripcord dropped the disguise hologram and signaled her own team. Before the Dread Dealers could react, the roof exploded inwards, heralding the New Warriors' arrival. Ripcord gassed the still reeling Dread Dealers with Pym Particles, rapidly shrinking them down and trapping them within a transparent sphere. Looking out at his grinning captor, Starion bitterly complained that he had trusted her, but Ripcord was unrepentant at her betrayal, deriding their reputation as assassins for being caught by her ruse (see comments). 

Comments: Created by Kevin Grevioux (writer), Reilly Brown (pencils) and Juan Vlasco (inks).

    Only Starion is named in New Warriors IV#16, so the other names above are unofficial, placeholders picked by me to make it easier to follow their history section - I put them in quotes for the members list to show that, but didn't for the history, because it clutters stuff up too much to do it every single time. If they do ever come back, and get official codenames, then the sub-entries below will be replaced eventually by proper individual entries. I can't help but wonder if the Dealers are based on another company's characters, like another team Kevin Grevioux created for a throwaway battle a few issues earlier, Alphaclan. Certainly, Yaguara could be a nod to Archie/MLJ/Red Circle's Jaguar, and Sigil has a very slight passing resemblance to the same company's Hangman. However, I couldn't find a decent match for Starion or Voltaic. I also wondered if we might be looking at homages to Holyoke characters, with Yaguara matching to Cat-Man, but he was the only match I could make. So if the Dealers are a homage to others, I have thus far failed to pin down who Starion or Voltaic are based on (and I'm far from sure about Sigil).  

    Some suppositions in the history:

• We aren't told that Starion and his teammates have scruples regarding children, but I can't imagine that Ripcord would have even remotely considered posing as a child to get close to them if their reputation hadn't led her to believe that had a chance to work. Try that ploy on the wrong villain and the best you could hope for is that they'd ignore the "homeless child."
• Starion was out fetching groceries when he ran into Ripcord. The dialogue from Yaguara makes it clear that Starion has just taken Miranda in; if the others had been with him when he met the girl, you'd expect the conversation about whether or not to take her in would have happened at that initial juncture, not back at their hideout. Starion has a paper groceries bag at his feet, from which he plucks an apple to give Miranda. Given they are in a warehouse, this is something the Dread Dealers brought to the hideout, and you don't tend to leave groceries sitting in the middle of the floor. Could the Dread Dealers have all just been in the warehouse, and Ripcord entered the place in disguise to get close to them, rather than her meeting Starion somewhere outside and using him to lead her to the group? In theory, but if the New Warriors had known from the start where the Dread Dealers were hiding, why all the subterfuge? Just smash in and grab them!

    The Dread Dealers' fate after being captured is unrevealed; themselves wanted by the authorities for unlicensed superheroing, the Warriors intended to drop the Dealers off near a police precinct, but moments after capturing the Dealers, the Warriors were attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D. Cape-Killers, and Ripcord was blown up. She got better (used the Pym Particles to shrink into the Microverse to escape the blast?), but it isn't shown what she'd done with the sphere. Maybe she dropped it, and the Dealers forgotten in the subsequent rush of events, allowing them to subsequently escape and be restored to normal size. Or maybe Ripcord had the sphere on her when she was caught in the explosion, in which case the Dread Dealers might have been slain.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Dread Dealers have no known connections to:

• Dread, Conan's dog --Savage Sword of Conan#145
• Dread, foe of Vengeance --Ghost Rider III#47
• Arkady Dread, psychic ghoul --Nightside#1
• Marie Dread, sister of Arkady --Nightside#1
• Dreadbot, Mad Thinker robot --All-New, All-Different Avengers I#5
• Dreadbusters, A.I.M. assault robots --Iron Man I#246
• Dread Citadel, heart of the Battletide --Battletide II#1
• Dreadcliff Manor, former headquarters of BEST --Howard the Duck II#4/2
• Dreadface, alien that possesses others -- [Fantastic Four I#359], 360
• Dreadknight, Latverian supervillain --Iron Man I#101
• Dreadlord of Eurth --[Avataars#1], 2
• Dreadlox, robots that incinerate --Power Man & Iron Fist#79
• Dreadlox, viral swarm --Secret Defenders#1
• Dreadnaught, British Super Soldier --Super Soldiers#1
• Dreadnodes, robots of 2099AD --2099:World of Tomorrow#6
• Dreadnoughts, Hydra and Maggia robots --Strange Tales I#154
• Dreadnoughts, Deviant battlecruisers --Eternals II#3
• Dread Red of Earth-Timeslip: Molecule Man --Marvel Visions#22
• Kalla Dreadstar, daughter of Vanth --Dreadstar II#1
• Vanth Dreadstar, destroyer of the Milky Way --Epic Illustrated#3
• Dreadwings, agents of Shagreen --Nightcrawler I#3
• or any other "Dread" characters

Sigil has no known connections to:

• anyone with a similar name

Starion has no known connections to:

• any other "Star" characters - there's way, way too many to list

Voltaic has no known connections to:

• Voltar, Shi'ar Imperial Guard --Realm of Kings Imperial Guard
• Volton, android of the Battle Axis --Cat-Man II#3
• Dr. Emil Volton, creator of the robot Eddies --Strange Tales I#47/4
• Voltor, Shi'ar Imperial Guard --Rom Annual#4
• Voltorg, construct of Yandroth --Strange Tales I#165
• or any other "Volt" characters

Yaguara have no known connections to:

• Jaguar, Scourge victim --Daredevil I#120
• Jaguar, codename of Major Buxley --[Captain America: Dead Men Running#1], 3
• Jaguar, any of the various incarnations of Archie Comics' animalistic hero --Adventures of the Jaguar#1
• or any other "Jaguar" characters

"Sigil"

Sigil had numerous mystic looking markings (tattoos?) over his upper body. He seemed weary at the time Ripcord infiltrated their hideout, sitting on a box and leaning his head on one hand.

Comments: I picked the name Sigil because his body seems to be covered with ornate, possibly magic, symbols. 

--New Warriors IV#16

Starion

The leader of the Dread Dealers, Denny Drake was state-raised from age six to eighteen, shuffled from one foster home to the next, an experience he hated, and one that left him with a soft spot for children trapped in a similar situation. Ripcord used this vulnerability to abuse his trust and capture him and his teammates.

Comments: If he is based on an Archie superhero, then the best bet I'd have is Blackjack, who has a similarly alliterative real identity and a red costume with a black chest symbol, the opposite of Starion's black costume with a red symbol.

--New Warriors IV#16

"Voltaic"

The only woman in the Dread Dealers, Voltaic had gray-blue skin and hair, a white costume, and appeared to have some electrical powers, as evidenced by the arcs of electricity that jumped from her body to the ground or from one part of her body to another.

Comments: At first glance I thought she had white ribbons hanging from the arms and legs of her costume, and the white costume and blueish skin made me think she might have ice powers. Then I realized that the "ribbons" were in different spots from one panel to the next, and realized they were arcs of electricity running along her body. Still not sure how that ties in with the cold coloration, but hence why I went with a name to do with electricity - it's tricky to find a decent sounding one that's not already in use! If she is based on Archie superheroes, then the closest I can see is Darkling, and that's not very close at all.

--New Warriors IV#16

"Yaguara"

Yaguara was a darker-skinned man wearing a spotted cat-costume with noticeably clawed hands.

Comments: Of all the Dread Dealers, he's the one most easily matched to a character from another company, specifically Jaguar from Archie or Cat-Man from Holyoke. The spot pattern on his costume definitely suggests a name in that vein, but since Jaguar is an Archie character, and there's precious few decent synonyms to the word Jaguar (at least no others that wouldn't force Yaguara to have to continually explain his codename's origins), I went with the original Tupian word from which we get Jaguar. 

--New Warriors IV#16

images: (without ads)
New Warriors IV#16, p5, pan 2 (main image)
New Warriors IV#16, p6, pan 4 (shrunk and imprisoned by Ripcord)
New Warriors IV#16, p5, pan 4 (Sigil)
New Warriors IV#16, p5, pan 4 (Starion)
New Warriors IV#16, p5, pan 4 (Voltaic)
New Warriors IV#16, p5, pan 4 (Yaguara)

Appearances:
New Warriors IV#16 (September 2008) - Kevin Grevioux (writer), Reilly Brown (pencils), Juan Vlasco (inks), Daniel Ketchum (editor)

First Posted: 01/21/2019
Last updated: 01/21/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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