Leo Zelinsky has his own shop on 23rd street, Leo's Tailoring. He serves regular customers, but also runs a secret business mending and designing costumes for superpowered clients. Leo also looks after his grandson, Mike, because the boy's father was killed on duty as a police officer.[1]
History
Leo's superhero tailoring started on a fluke, when the Thing's costume was burnt off during a fight and he walked into Leo's shop to order new pants. Word quickly got around, and other superheroes such as Daredevil, members of the Avengers and the X-Men, and Captain Marvel started coming to Leo in secret to have their costumes repaired or to commission new designs.[1]
Captain America once visited Leo after having taken a slash across the chest. Leo suggested that he should go see a doctor before getting his shirt mended, but Cap said that "The important things have to be fixed first" (referring to the flag on his uniform). Leo considered it an honor to serve him.[1]
However, word of Leo's underground tailoring business also got around to the wrong kind of people. Doctor Doom showed up and demanded that Leo fix his cloak, and things got complicated as more and more villains such as the Blob wanted their costumes fixed. Leo got around this by serving heroes and villains on alternating days: Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the good guys, and Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday for the bad guys. He even alternates his magazine rack, putting out newspapers, Newsweek and Time for the heroes, and Penthouse or Guns and Ammo for the villains.[1]
One day Leo overheard one of his customers, Killshot, planning a murder over the phone, possibly of the local District Attorney. Leo was disturbed by this but didn't want to go to the police, both because his tailoring business depends on him keeping his customers' secrets and because he was afraid that Killshot would retaliate by coming after his grandson. However, Mike begged his grandfather to do something to stop the assassination, and this spurred Leo to tell Spider-Man everything when they ran into each other on a late night walk. He asked Spider-Man to intervene, knowing by Peter's accent that he was from the neighborhood. Leo hoped that if it seemed like Spider-Man had just stumbled onto the scene by chance, Killshot wouldn't make the connection that Leo had tipped him off.[1]
Spider-Man prevented the assassination, but Killshot escaped and came after Leo, who got shot in the arm protecting his grandson before Spider-Man swung in to rescue them. The DA stopped by in the aftermath to say that Killshot told the police about Leo's secret business, but that he wasn't going to search the premises because if what he heard was true, he owed both Leo and Spider-Man his life. In gratitude, Leo gave Spider-Man a new costume design he came up with to solve some of his current outfit's design flaws. When Spider-Man later looks at the design, it is revealed to be the suit worn by a possible future version of himself.[1]
Leo went on to do costume work for Spider-Man on at least two other occasions, repairing his suit [2] and designing a new uniform for when he joined the Future Foundation. [3]
Leo later provided Robbie Baldwin, now Penance, with a new armored costume. He tried to back out of their deal when he realized that Baldwin intended to wear the suit himself, constantly being pierced by the spikes within, but relented when Robbie threatened to ruin his business.[4][5]See Also
- 3 appearance(s) of Leo Zelinsky (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) of Leo Zelinsky (Earth-616)
- 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Leo Zelinsky (Earth-616)
- 1 image(s) of Leo Zelinsky (Earth-616)