Comic Info
Comic Name: Amazing Spider-Man (Volume 3)/Spider-Man 2099 (Volume 2)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Will Sliney/Rick Leonardi
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2015
Spider-Man 2099 (2) #1 Variant
Reprints Amazing Spider-Man (3) #1 and Spider-Man 2099 (2) #1-5 (June 2014-December 2014). Miguel O’Hara is trapped in the past and desperately trying to return to 2099. Working at Alchemax (the business his grandfather founded), Miguel tries to cover his tracks as Spider-Man while working with Liz Allan. Miguel finds he’s working with his own grandfather and tries to shape his grandfather’s future actions by influencing him in the past. Unfortunately, the barriers of reality are about to break down and Morlun is out to kill every Spider-Man he can find.
Written by Peter David and illustrated by Will Sliney and Rick Leonardi, Spider-Man 2099 1: Out of Time collects the first five issues of the second volume of Spider-Man 2099 in addition to the short story from Amazing Spider-Man (3) #1 (June 2014). The series also serves as a lead-up to the cross-title “big event” storyline of Spider-Verse.
The ’90s were a vast wasteland of comics. Too often, Marvel (and DC for that matter) just seemed to pump out comics based on art and style (to combat the new Image) and filled them with generic heroes with no dimension. Spider-Man 2099 was one of the exceptions. Despite being a gimmicky title (how long can “2099” last before it becomes 2100), Spider-Man 2099 was a lot of fun…and this series continues on some of that fun.
Spider-Man 2099 (2) #5
I really enjoyed the character of Miguel O’Hara. He was a completely different Spider-Man with different abilities and variations of Spider-Man’s villains. Of the 2099 titles, Spider-Man 2099 was the most develop, and Peter David was his creator. That gave me hope for this series, but unfortunately by putting Miguel in the proper Marvel Universe of Earth-616, the comic lost a lot and was forced into the Spider-Man world created by Dan Slott.
Miguel does remain an interesting character however. The idea of him being trapped in the past is a valid one, but I wish that the series would return him to his proper time after the storyline. Miguel’s presence means just another Spider-Man character in an already crowded Spider-Man “Marvel Universe” and I think he would best be served in 2099 in a whole world created for him. The series also suffers from being trapped in the Marvel Universe which means it’s is subjected to big crossovers like Spider-Verse which slows the momentum of the series down…no more examination of what it means for Miguel to sculpt his own grandfather’s past; instead you get bad crossovers.
Spider-Man 2099 is still the only Spider-Man title I can stomach now, despite Marvel’s attempts to sabotage it. David has a decent storyline and I think he has a plan…which cannot be executed properly with all the crossovers. Spider-Man 2099’s second volume wraps up in the next collection before Marvel unnecessarily relaunches it…just another way to steal Spider-Man 2099’s thunder. Spider-Man 2099 1: Out of Time is followed by Spider-Man 2099 2: Spider-Verse.
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