Spider-man 2099 is Back!

[Man-Thing]

It definitely feels like something along the lines of Fall of the Hammer, which isn't a bad thing, but it drops us into the crossover event without any of the actual series surrounding it. So it has to walk this tricky line of needing to spend pages on exposition telling us who these characters are, like in Winter Soldier, vs basically no explanation at all leaving us wondering who the heck all these new people are, like in Avengers. I think Loki is a really good issue because it's re/introducing some characters and has light exposition but also falls back on existing 2099 storylines (the aforementioned Fall of the Hammer) to prop up backstories for those like us who are familiar.

As for the actual story itself, divorced from issues I have with the character roster... eh. Like, the story itself isn't bad, really, it properly feels like the sort of thing that would go down in a continuing 2099 imprint. I just really don't like the use of The Cabal and Norman Osborne here. You have all these cool 2099 baddies that you could have showcased but instead you're just using the same ol' 2008 stable of main present-day Marvel mega-evils, and if I wanted to read "Spider-Man vs Norman Osborne" I'd just go read Amazing because that happens like every other week. And I guess that's just part of my larger niggle with this — basically every new hero introduced, as well as all the main villains, are either returning Modern Age characters or directly related to them. One of the things 2099 did really well was have the heroes & villains not really be related to their namesakes, with some exceptions, and be new twists on the concept. Even those who had similar backstories did their best to be a fresh take on things, like Eisenhart being the figurative monster while Hulk was the better personality. The new characters in this... Thirteen is literally just another Winter Soldier, from the same program as Bucky. She even gets Bucky's arm by the end of the issue. The new Widow is just Natasha's sister or somesuch. They haven't exactly flexed the ol' creative muscles on this.

That's not to say that these characters can't be good and interesting. I even quite like Thirteen, wouldn't mind seeing more stories with her. Same with the new Valkyrie and tales of the restored Asgard. And while I'm not personally interested, I'm sure Widow could have a strong and well-written run as well. And maybe we'll see that in future, maybe they'll get as much screentime and development as Roberta or Sonny and they'll come out of the oven as delicious filling meals, but right now they're just sorta half-baked.

[Huntsman Spider]

It definitely feels like something along the lines of Fall of the Hammer, which isn't a bad thing, but it drops us into the crossover event without any of the actual series surrounding it. So it has to walk this tricky line of needing to spend pages on exposition telling us who these characters are, like in Winter Soldier, vs basically no explanation at all leaving us wondering who the heck all these new people are, like in Avengers. I think Loki is a really good issue because it's re/introducing some characters and has light exposition but also falls back on existing 2099 storylines (the aforementioned Fall of the Hammer) to prop up backstories for those like us who are familiar.

As for the actual story itself, divorced from issues I have with the character roster... eh. Like, the story itself isn't bad, really, it properly feels like the sort of thing that would go down in a continuing 2099 imprint. I just really don't like the use of The Cabal and Norman Osborne here. You have all these cool 2099 baddies that you could have showcased but instead you're just using the same ol' 2008 stable of main present-day Marvel mega-evils, and if I wanted to read "Spider-Man vs Norman Osborne" I'd just go read Amazing because that happens like every other week. And I guess that's just part of my larger niggle with this — basically every new hero introduced, as well as all the main villains, are either returning Modern Age characters or directly related to them. One of the things 2099 did really well was have the heroes & villains not really be related to their namesakes, with some exceptions, and be new twists on the concept. Even those who had similar backstories did their best to be a fresh take on things, like Eisenhart being the figurative monster while Hulk was the better personality. The new characters in this... Thirteen is literally just another Winter Soldier, from the same program as Bucky. She even gets Bucky's arm by the end of the issue. The new Widow is just Natasha's sister or somesuch. They haven't exactly flexed the ol' creative muscles on this.

That's not to say that these characters can't be good and interesting. I even quite like Thirteen, wouldn't mind seeing more stories with her. Same with the new Valkyrie and tales of the restored Asgard. And while I'm not personally interested, I'm sure Widow could have a strong and well-written run as well. And maybe we'll see that in future, maybe they'll get as much screentime and development as Roberta or Sonny and they'll come out of the oven as delicious filling meals, but right now they're just sorta half-baked.

Those are fair points.

[Man-Thing]

Reading that back has made me realize that the spotlight characters in each numbered Exodus issue are all the ones getting spotlights in the current MCU phase. Winter Soldier. Loki. Moon Knight. Black Widow. Hawkeye. The only exception to this seems to be the X-Men, but considering the last episode of She-Hulk had a Wolverine tease in it...

[Huntsman Spider]

Reading that back has made me realize that the spotlight characters in each numbered Exodus issue are all the ones getting spotlights in the current MCU phase. Winter Soldier. Loki. Moon Knight. Black Widow. Hawkeye. The only exception to this seems to be the X-Men, but considering the last episode of She-Hulk had a Wolverine tease in it...

Well, it's probably still gonna be a few years before the X-Men can show up in the MCU proper, but I do see your point.

[Man-Thing]

Under a week until the final issue drops. I'd say who knows when we'll next see the world of 2099 but after checking solicits I see that the Savage Avengers will be going there and teaming up with Gallows for at least a few issues in the next couple months.

[Huntsman Spider]

Under a week until the final issue drops. I'd say who knows when we'll next see the world of 2099 but after checking solicits I see that the Savage Avengers will be going there and teaming up with Gallows for at least a few issues in the next couple months.

Yeah, Jake Gallows/OG Punisher 2099 ought to be fun, for certain qualifiers of "fun." That said, I am curious to see how the Omega issue for Spider-Man 2099 Exodus wraps up the story --- and hopefully sets the stage for another 2099 revisit down the line.

[Man-Thing]

Here's hoping. One imagines he'll get at least some spotlight when the next Spider-Verse film drops, since he's playing a larger role in that one.

[Man-Thing]

For the sake of SCIENCE(!) and the fact that is ostensibly a 30th anniversary celebration, I decided to see just how many issues of 2099 we've had. Counting all the various one-shots, Marvel Knights, and miniseries that have had "2099" as part of the issue title, we're at 337 issues as of Exodus Omega.

Not a very round number, let's see if we can fill that out.

If we include the 4 Deadpool issues, 4 Captain Marvel issues, and the 5 Amazing issues during the attempted relaunch that ran parallel with the recent one-shots... we come up to... 350. That's much nicer.

I proclaim Spider-Man 2099 Exodus Omega to be Issue #350 of the Marvel 2099 imprint!

It has also coincidentally been 358 months since November of 1992, so that just about works out!

[Huntsman Spider]

Here's hoping. One imagines he'll get at least some spotlight when the next Spider-Verse film drops, since he's playing a larger role in that one.

Yeah, true. Maybe they'll launch a more ongoing series for him.

For the sake of SCIENCE(!) and the fact that is ostensibly a 30th anniversary celebration, I decided to see just how many issues of 2099 we've had. Counting all the various one-shots, Marvel Knights, and miniseries that have had "2099" as part of the issue title, we're at 337 issues as of Exodus Omega.

Not a very round number, let's see if we can fill that out.

If we include the 4 Deadpool issues, 4 Captain Marvel issues, and the 5 Amazing issues during the attempted relaunch that ran parallel with the recent one-shots... we come up to... 350. That's much nicer.

I proclaim Spider-Man 2099 Exodus Omega to be Issue #350 of the Marvel 2099 imprint!

It has also coincidentally been 358 months since November of 1992, so that just about works out!

Indeed, it just might.

[Man-Thing]

I notice Miguel is on a few of the End of the Spider-Verse covers. Think he'll actually make it to the pages this time?

[Huntsman Spider]

I notice Miguel is on a few of the End of the Spider-Verse covers. Think he'll actually make it to the pages this time?

I hope so, too. Speaking of, there's a preview for Exodus Omega out there, and it shows Miguel and Osborn at the beginning of the climactic confrontation. For what it's worth, Osborn takes the time to mock Miguel as "the tough Spider-Man," in contrast to Peter as "the funny Spider-Man," poking fun at Miguel's lack of quipping and taciturn demeanor. Of course, that is Miguel's charm as the Spider-Man of 2099, that as Peter David conceived him, he's the opposite or inverse of Peter Parker as the late 20th/early 21st-century Spider-Man.

[Man-Thing]

Given the nature of the Spider-Wasp villains... it'd actually kind of be an opportune spot to bring Tempest back into the spotlight.

[Huntsman Spider]

Given the nature of the Spider-Wasp villains... it'd actually kind of be an opportune spot to bring Tempest back into the spotlight.

Oh, definitely. That would be interesting. A Spider-Wasp who is in love with her Spider-Man and vice versa.

[Man-Thing]

Final issue is out!

I was just talking with some people about how spoilers:

2099 shied away from introducing too many other Spider-Peoples, and that a proper Spider-Woman 2099 could be interesting some day. And here she is! ...and we know literally nothing about her. Oh well.

end of spoilers

Initial thoughts: spoilers:

Yup, that was a final issue. Wraps up the event, big brawl, Normie laid low, Valkyrie and Ghost Rider, & others from previous issues all get some nice callbacks. Avengers show up again. Remind me when Wakanda got its own planet??? A little annoyed that we never really got any explanation for things like: Why is Miguel back in 2099? Where's his wife & kid? What happened to Sonny? What happened to the other Black Widow and Hawkeye? Where's Goblin 2099? Etc etc. For a supposed 30th anniversary celebration, it brought back surprisingly few of the original 2099 characters. It was Miguel, Kenshiro, some of the X-Men, Hulk... Oh Black Panther I guess, technically, though he was barely in it. Wait was that even the same Black Panther we've seen before? Roberta & Warda came back from the recent runs... Strange and Daredevil got merced in a flashback sequence in Issue 3 with the "all the avengers are dead" spread. There's a woman in the back getting killed who's wearing Tania's Black Widow gear but her hair and skin color are wrong, wonder if we can put that down to artist error, ditto for the person in Relur's Human Torch getup but not having blue skin. Oh nevermind, Relur is colored correctly a few pages later when he gets a closeup. They really just killed a bunch of old favorites off-screen, huh. Griping about returning characters aside, eh that was a fairly decent mini. It's a nice glimpse at the corporatocracy of 2099, Miguel is a leader amongst his peers, we get to see different parts of the world and the people in it, getting brief little primers on the X-Men, the Norse gods, the Avengers, Spider-Man, and miscellaneous others. All in all a decent enough little 7 issue run and due to its nature requires basically no prior reading so you could easily toss it at someone as a jumping on point. Hoping it leads to more things in the future, and that we get to revisit these new characters sooner rather than later.

end of spoilers

[Webhead]

I enjoyed the last issue, it was good fun. Think the heavy exposition and the character-focused issue method could've been cut down a bit since as a whole it reads like super long setup and then it just wraps up.