PRIEST | JOE BENNETT | DANNY MIKI | CRIME
LAB STUDIOS |
danny
STOP MUSIC4 In
issue #3 we introduce Danny Vincent, who has just moved into
Little Mogadishu to take over his late father's failing dry cleaning
business. He's interviewing for store employees when word of the
derailment comes over the news. In personality, Danny is very much like
the Mark Wahlberg character from Three Kings, a kind of hardened
indifference to life in general.
Danny is a liar. Danny is always lying. Danny’s dad never owned any dry
cleaner. Danny has never actually MET his father. He is a hardened,
cynical New Yorker who has dual citizenship in America and the rogue
state of Vulcan Domuyo. Danny is a friendless, family-less guy who’s
wasted his entire young life playing black ops games for his clients.
Trust is not in Danny’s vocabulary, and human social contact is a bit
beyond him (unless, of course, he’s working on a black op).
Danny is JUNTA, an ex-spy, who used to work for them, us, and everyone
in between. Nobody is returning his phone calls anymore, and the guy’s
one Con Ed statement away from driving a bus. Danny has moved into The
Mog as part of an effort to get back into the spy game.
Danny knows that Grace & Tumbalt, the gang-owned corporation that
developed Princeton Walk (and consequently created Little Mogadishu)
launders money for the CIA. Danny reasons G&T's gang and covert
connections are his way back into the spy game. He ingratiates
himself with G&T exec and gang boss Nigel "Triage" Blacque, who
sends Danny to the Money Train derailment as a test of his
abilities.
Danny giddily suits up as JUNTA and races to the derailment site. His
ship has come in at last. What he finds is a war zone of cops and gang
bangers and others. Using his powers (Danny has limited gravity-based
powers whose origin is yet to be revealed), and his Mission Impossible
spy shtick, he makes it to The Money Train, only to find
The White Tiger pinned
down by crossfire.
Danny has absolutely no interest in Tiger whatsoever. He rescues Tiger
as a matter of convenience— more to get him out of the way. He explains
his powers by telling Kasper he’s the son of a super-villain, Henchman
#5 in Mysterio’s old gang or some such.
Being a sharp guy, Kasper (The White Tiger) sees right through Danny, knows from Black
Panther’s files that Danny is actually the super-spy Junta, but plays
along with Danny’s outrageous Huckleberry Finn lies so Kasper can stay
close to him. Kasper’s main motive is to arrest Danny and get his
promotion and, thus, his new apartment.
Danny and Kasper end up in a losing firefight, a la Black Hawk Down, as
human wave after human wave of bad guys come after them. It looks like
the jig is up. Kasper looks for evidence he can use to expose the
gangs-cops-politicos-Money Train connection, but he finds none. Suddenly they both hear a
voice coming over Kasper's comlink in his costume. The voice leads them
out of the war zone, allowing them to escape, exiting the subway tunnels
some miles away. There they find the voice that had guided them—
RHODEY.
JUNTA
To: Tom Brevoort
From: Priest
Subject: I Got The Guy
I am SO on
drugs. If we're going the make-him-up route, the perfect guy is
Danny Vincent, aka Vicente aka JUNTA. From ENEMY OF THE STATE I
& II in BLACK PANTHER.
Meets the specs perfectly. white guy, very young, very connected
to both law enforcement and the underworld. Lots of hidden
agendas. Cocky, very Brooklyn Cop speech pattern (he and Kasper
speak the same street lingo). Has minor powers that are useful
without being overwhelming.
Has fun gimmick in this little orbital 'bot he's programmed with
his mother's personality; a spin on Kirby's "Mother Box."
Best of all: Danny would sell out Kasper and/or Rhodey at the
DROP of a HAT. He is COMPLETELY amoral, cares only about Number
One.
Danny has infrastructure and backstory but we've seen virtually
NONE of it on the page yet, so it's easy to present this guy as
DAY ONE. PAST continuity can be summed up in a single sentence:
I used to be a spy, I helped overthrow Panther once. No biggie.
That's all you need to know about yesterday.
CURRENT continuity: he's homeless, cut off from his spy pals,
his homeland, and the US Feds. Is motivated to find a way back
in. Working this Night stalker case is his way back.
