Spider-Man 2099 Finally Gets Some Shine

The long-awaited debut of Spider-Man 2099 #1 has finally arrived, and writer Peter David wasted no time throwing him into action in dramatic fashion.

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For those unfamiliar with Spider-Man 2099, let me give a little history on this futuristic Spidey. First, Spider-Man 2099 (also known as Miguel O’Hara or “Miggy” for short) got his powers in the year 2099 (of course) when an experiment to replicate Peter Parker’s spider powers was used on him, transforming his DNA from pure human to 50% spider. With the help of his helpful hologram Lyla that resides within a wristlet Miggy wears, he has taken on the task of fighting the good fight and taking up the mantle of Spider-Man with some new and enhanced powers and abilities. This Spidey of course has the superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, healing and durability like the original Spider-Man; but he also has enhanced vision (telescopic vision to allow him to see from extreme distances, and night vision to track prey in the shadows), bendable talons (not retractable, such as Wolverine’s claws) on his toes and fingers that allow him to wall crawl, venom fangs that can temporarily paralyze foes, and organic webbing from his forearms. However, unlike the Peter Parker, Miggy does not posses a spider sense, which is a huge downside because that was one of Peter’s most valuable assets as Spider-Man. Miggy also cannot stick any part of his body to surfaces; he relies only on his talons to stick to surfaces. And because of his enhanced vision, Miggy must wear protective glasses to prevent him from being blinded by normal lighting conditions. His costume is indestructible, made of unstable molecule fabric (which is probably based on a combination of Reed Richards, Tony Stark, and Peter Parker technology from previous costumes they have worn) and gives him the ability to glide in the air for periods at a time (very much like the suit Tony Stark designed for Peter during the Civil War). Miggy is also a brilliant geneticist with genius-level intelligence, which he benefits from greatly both in and out of battle.

For those unfamiliar with why Miguel is here in 2014, here’s a recap. Back in Superior Spider-Man, Miggy had time traveled to the year 2014 to protect the life of his grandfather Tiberius Stone, who happens to be one of the founders of the megacorporation Alchemax, and preserve the timeline. To make an extremely long story short, he was stranded here by Alchemax employees from the his time and now he has taken up a job at the present Alchemax under the guise of Michael O’Mara (or “Mike” for short) as Tiberius Stone’s personal assistant to keep a close eye on the behind the scenes activities of the megacorporation.

Now that he is here in 2014, there is apparently someone from an even more distant future than 2099 that sees Miggy as a correctable anomaly. A time corrector known as an Adjuster was sent from the year 2211 by an organization called T.O.T.E.M. (Temporal Oversight Team Eliminating Mistakes). After a brief battle, the Adjuster is zapped into nonexistence with his own laser blast and Miggy ends up saving Liz Allan’s (mother of Harry Osborne’s son Normie and one of the heads of Alchemax in 2014) life. Liz then becomes suspicious as to how Spider-Man got into the building and develops a theory that he has to be an Alchemax employee, which inevitably leads to her believing that she can manipulate Spider-Man into doing superhero work for her. Seeing as how Liz was involved with the Goblin in the Goblin Wars not long ago, her newly developed plans to exploit Miggy most likely will spell trouble for the futuristic hero.