Category: x-personal

Before anyone asks, yes I did check with the mods and it’s okay to discuss He Who Shall Not Be Scanned over here as long as there are no scans (of course) and he’s treated with the same respect shown any other creator.

With that said, let’s talk about the relaunched Spider-Man 2099. It’s interesting to read a character that’s been so heavily, almost exclusively, written by a single author. Sure, Miguel has shown up in Exiles before, and a few 2099 one-shots and minis, and most recently Dan Slott re-introduced the modern audience to Miguel over in Superior Spider-Man, but Peter David is still the author to have written him the most. So I have to assume that PAD has the best handle on who Miguel is, what makes him tick, and how he’d react to the present world he finds himself trapped in. And yeah, Miguel was always kind of brusque, and something of a jerk, but not dickishly so. So why do I feel like he’s more of a jerk now than he was in the nineties?

The issues themselves have been pretty good so far. I guess Marvel was treating Miguel’s appearance over in Superior as the big introduction/explanation issue, so reading the first issue it really felt like a second issue instead of a first and reading issue #2 felt like something from later in the series.

In issue #1 we’re introduced to an agent of T.O.T.E.M., the Temporal Oversight Team Eliminating Mistakes. He’s been sent back from the year 2211 to eliminate Miguel. He’s ruthless but not emotionless. He spares a guard because one of his future kids will do important research, but gives his condolences on the future death of the other son who hasn’t been born yet. I honestly laughed out loud at Miguel telling a bad joke because Liz Allen complained that he couldn’t be Spider-Man because he wasn’t cracking any jokes. It’s a nice one and done issue that sets up a couple of plot points that look like they’ll be important in the future.

Issue #2 start with Miguel stopping a bank robbery (instead of depositing his check) in the first four pages (and again, laughing out loud at the robber who tried to blame it all on peer pressure) and the rest of the issue introduced further complications with the major women in his life, the superintendent of his building and his boss, Liz Allen. This issue was purely character work and setup and the I fell like bank robbery at the start was only there to assure readers they hadn’t picked up the wrong comic.

On art duties we’ve got Will Sliney on interiors and Antonio Fabella on colors. I really appreciate the effort Sliney has put in to make Miguel’s moves so different than Peter’s. They’re both extremely agile characters, but Sliney makes Miguel look much more spider-like while moving. I particularly enjoyed the fight scene in the bank and the way Miguel got a hostage out of harm’s way.

The cover to #2 though, by Alexander Lozano? On first glance, pretty awesome. But as you look deeper the fact that Miguel’s costume looks like it had Twizzlers glued on instead of red patches of fabric takes away from the cool factor.

Overall I’m having fun, and it’s tweaking all the right nostalgia buttons, but I’m just not as into it now as I was twenty years ago as a teenager.