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Down But Not Out

by Drew Clements westofmiskatonic@gmail.com

Welcome to the fourth edition of Down But Not Out. I hope everyone took part in Free Comic Book Day this past Saturday. If you happened to be at Titan Comics in Dallas then you probably met the Stumblebum Crew. If you were in Tuscaloosa, AL at The Comic Strip then chances are you pushed past me to get to the comics. Either way, I hope you had a good time. Now, get ready as we jump right back into the world of 2099! Spider-man 2099 #2 Original Release Date: December 1992 Writer: Peter David Penciler: Rick Leonardi Inker: Al Williamson Letterer: Rick Parker Colorist: Noel Giddings Editor: Joey Cavalieri In last week’s column I covered the first issue of Spider-man 2099. This week, as you should have guessed from the title above, I’m covering the second issue, which continues the origin of our title character. This issue picks up exactly where issue number one left off. Not-so-nice coworker, Aaron Delgato, after sabotaging Miguel’s experiment to regain his regular DNA and rid himself of The Rapture, looks on in wonder at the sight before him: Miguel has survived. But O’Hara has changed a little bit in appearance. He’s got fangs and his eyes have no pupils. Oh, he’s also naked and that alone spooks Aaron enough to cause him to pull out a gun and start shooting (I know it would me!). Delgato believes that Miguel is out to kill him, when in reality Miguel is just dodging his coworker’s bullets. Of course, a stray bullet hits a big canister marked “Danger” (are there any other kind?) and an explosion occurs, blowing a giant hole in the side of the building. Miguel ends up hanging out the side of the building, trying to hold on to the very man that just tried to kill him. In a sequence that is both shocking (for a Spider-man title) and even a bit gruesome, Delgato screams that he is in pain. Miguel is unsure why, but as the flesh is torn from Delgato’s arm, causing Miguel to lose his grip and Delgato to plummet to his death, O’Hara finds that he has talons. This scene really helps set up the reader for a much darker series than perhaps they’re used to with the regular Spider-man titles. There’s a level of violence in this series that there just wasn’t in the mainstream titles and it’s not inappropriate. The violence fits well with the vision of the 2099 universe and really sets it apart from the regular Marvel Universe. The Public Eye bursts into the room, finding a lone figure, Miguel (but they don’t know that), standing near the opening of the hole in the wall. Our hero freaks out as he realizes just what has happened to him. The Public Eye opens fire and Miguel dives out the window, hoping to end his life before having to live it as a spider-freak. Fortunately for us, on the way down he changes his mind and clings to the side of the building. He climbs to the top of the Alchemax building and searches his thoughts as the Public Eye begins entering the building en masse. A cool set of panels here as we see the Public Eye responding to the emergency call at Alchemax as well as two flying “Fire Control” ships putting out the fire on the floor of the explosion. It helps flesh the 2099 world out just a bit more. Miguel hitches a ride on a Thorite’s sky kite (a glider). Now, a Thorite is a member of a cult (no kool-aid or comets involved) that believes Thor will one day rise again and save the world of 2099. The Thorites are a wacky bunch that add yet another level of coolness and depth to the 2099 world. They play pretty big parts in future arcs so this isn’t the only time you’ll see them if you decide to grab up some 2099 comics. So this particular Thorite that Miguel hitches a ride with catches a joke Miguel makes about being Spider-man and immediately launches into a hysterical tirade about Spider-man being the harbinger of Thor. So O’Hara, when hitching a ride, accidentally claws the sky kite, making it less than sky-worthy. The two crash and Miguel uses bits of the material the sky kite is made from to cover his face in order to keep his identity from the Public Eye just in case they caught site of him. There is an interlude in which we see Tyler Stone, the head of Alchemax, calling in a character by the name of Venture, a cybernetic cowboy tracker of some sort. He has inspected the “crime scene” where Delgato was “murdered” and the explosion took place. He has the ability to reconstruct what happened in a hazy type of way by using an infrared afterimage. He loads the reconstruction onto Stone’s computer using a disc that he ejects from the side of his head. Cool huh? Using his abilities to track, Venture is sent to find the person responsible for the destruction. Back at Miguel’s apartment, he awakes to Lyla, his holographic AI program, informing him of a priority call. O’Hara gets up to find that he has ripped the sheets in his bed to shreds with his talons, yet he doesn’t have a scratch on him. He finds that they automatically retract whenever they come into contact with the rest of his body. Peter David uses this moment to bring back what is signature Miguel O’Hara wit as Miguel cracks that it’s a good thing that they retract “Otherwise going to the bathroom would be an adventure, and picking my nose would be lethal.” In my last column I did a good bit of speaking about how crisp and fun the writing is and I’ll continue to praise it because as the series goes on, it only gets better. The priority call ends up being from his brother, Gabriel, who goes on to talk about how Dana, Miguel’s fiancée called him up freaking out about Miggy being on drugs. He’s concerned and wants an explanation. Miguel refuses and Gabe announces his intention to visit immediately. Miguel, going through his closet trying to find something that he won’t shred to bits, comes across a costume he bought in Mexico for the Day of the Dead festival there. It’s a full-body, dark costume made of, you guessed it, Marvel’s go-to material developed by Mr. Fantastic, unstable molecules. The design for the Spider-man 2099 costume is fantastic. It’s sleek, dark, and slightly menacing which reflects the character’s persona and environment, much as the brighter original Spider-man costume reflects a lighter character in Peter Parker. Gabriel arrives just in time to spout some knowledge about The Rapture. Miguel lets him know that he’s beaten the addiction. Before being able to answer how, he uses his enhanced vision to spot Venture on the street below and throws his brother out of his apartment. Miguel works for Alchemax, so it’s only natural that he recognizes a fellow coworker. It’s not like YOU would forget what a “psionically enhanced heat tracker and cyborg” looks like when he works in the cubicle next to you. O’Hara immediately knows that he’s being tracked by Venture using his heat signature, so he dons his Day of the Dead costume and heads out to stop Venture from following his signature all the way to his apartment, which would give away his identity. That would be bad. Remember that material from the Thorite’s sky kite Miguel used to cover his face? It’s called Light Byte. He attaches this material to the back of his costume in hopes that it will help keep him aloft on his journey down. “Journey down?” you ask (if you didn’t, lie and say you did)? Yup, Miguel jumps through the window of his apartment in a super high-rise and falls from an incredible height. The Light Byte material doesn’t seem to slow him down too much, but that doesn’t matter as he crashes right into Venture. After regaining his composure, Miguel wants to say something that will strike fear into Venture, to show him who is boss. “Hi.” Doesn’t seem to be the word he was looking for, but it’s what comes out. How does our inexperienced hero tackle a cyborg? Come back next week when I wrap up this three-part series on the origin of Spider-man 2099!