Spider-Man 2099 in the MC2?!

 

The release of Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is upon us and with it we will get to see Miguel O’Hara make his first full appearance on the big screen following his cameo teaser in the end credits of 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I am very excited for this and so today I wanted to look at how Spider-Man 2099 and the MC2 are connected. I’ve already written individual posts about Six-Arm Spider-Man, the original Spider-Armor and the Bombastic Bag-Man so be sure to give those a read too.

 

First, some context, as always! Spider-Man 2099 first appeared in Spider-Man 2099 #1 (unless you want to count a preview of that issue in Amazing Spider-Man #365) and was created by writer Peter David and penciller Rick Leonardi with MC2-alumni Al Williamson on inking duties. On Earth-928 in the year 2099, the brilliant scientist named Miguel O’Hara worked as project head for the megacorporation Alchemax’s genetics program. After being forced into a human trial of his work results in the test subject dying, Miguel attempts to quit Alchemax in protest, but is poisoned with the addictive Alchemax-distributed drug called Rapture by his boss Tyler Stone to ensure he remained with the company.

 

 As Rapture bonds to a person genetically, it leaves a person permanently addicted. Miguel breaks into his Alchemax lab and attempts to restore his genetic code using the blueprint of it he had on file. However, his disgruntled co-worker Aaron Delgato tampers with the equipment causing O’Hara’s genetic code to be combined with the genetic code of a spider Miguel had been researching earlier in hopes of endowing humans with extra abilities like the ‘Heroic Age’ figure, Spider-Man (Spider-Man 2099 #1).

  Aaron dies following an ensuing explosion and Miguel learns he has gained spider-powers while escaping the Public Eye. With the aid of torn ‘light byte’ cloth from a ‘skysail’ gifted by a Thorite (a believer in the second-coming of Thor) and an old black and red Day of the Dead costume made from unstable molecule fabric, O’Hara fashions a disguise to throw Alchemax’s cyborg tracker Venture off his trail as he back-tracks through his apartment. After a chase across the city of Nueva York, Miguel as Spider-Man is captured but manages to free himself using his talons and battles Venture, discovering his ability to produce webbing and in the process defeating the bounty hunter. Thus, the year 2099 gained its own Spider-Man (Spider-Man 2099 #2-#3).

 

In Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man, a special one-shot story, Miguel O’Hara finds himself unexpectedly transported to the present day, waking up next to Mary Jane Parker. Meanwhile Peter Parker finds himself in Nueva York in 2099 evading the Public Eye before battling the Vulture of 2099. Miguel learns thanks to a trip to the Daily Bugle that he ended up in this time as a result of the small company Fujikawa (in O’Hara’s time known as Stark-Fujikawa) demonstrating a new energy source, temporal energy, which will lead to the end of the Heroic Age with the heroes of Peter’s time vanishing mysteriously.

 

 Meanwhile, with the help of Miguel’s brother Gabriel, Peter learns the centre of technology and research in Nueva York is the Alchemax Building and decides to start his search for a way home there. After a proper conversation with Mary Jane, on his way to the source of energy waves only perceptible to his accelerated vision, Miguel is waylaid by a fight with Eddie Brock aka Venom.

 

With both men reaching the source of the temporal energy waves, the two Spider-Men finally meet one another. Finding themselves in a desolate future landscape, they encounter the Hobgoblin of the year 2211 who attacks the two heroes with Retcon Bombs, intending to erase them from the time stream, only to be thwarted by the Spider-Man of 2211. As they are being sent back to their own times, Miguel and Peter tell each other they became Spider-Man because they had to, with Miguel adding he was partly inspired by Peter, in much the same way Peter was by his Uncle Ben. With the day saved, Miguel discovers that history seemingly has not changed, but the date the heroes vanished in the past is no longer recorded and now no one remembers it. Peter reunites with Mary Jane, telling her he knows his actions affects and inspires people who are not even born yet.

 

Now, how does all this have any bearing on the MC2? Well, we know for sure these events transpired in the past of the MC2’s Peter Parker thanks to an unlikely source; Spider-Man Family Vol. 1 #1. Therein we have a story (seemingly) set during the mostly unexplored point in time after Baby May is rescued and returned to Peter and Mary Jane Parker by Kaine but before Peter loses his leg in his final battle with Norman Osborn aka the Green Goblin. Lured into a trap by the villain Jack O’ Lantern aka Maguire Beck, Spider-Man meets and teams-up with Araña and her *sidekick* Miguel as they battle a variety of museum like room full of Spider-Man robot’s designed to resemble various costumes and points in Peter’s career. Among these we see a robot Spider-Man   in Miguel O’Hara’s Spider-Man 2099 costume. This robotic Spider-Man 2099 duplicate is destroyed by Spider-Man who alongside Araña and (the other) Miguel go on to defeat the mastermind Jack O’ Lantern.

 

Much like with the case of Six-Arm Spider-Man, the original Spider-Armor and the Bag-Man there is the lingering question of how Jack O’ Lantern came to know of the connection between Spider-Man and the Spider-Man 2099 costume given it’s not particularly spider-themed. The answer is fairly straightforward. Given the fact O’Hara spent a decent amount of time at the Daily Bugle and openly announced he was Spider-Man from the year 2099 to a room full of reporters, it is not hard to believe that word got out, even if it was distorted. Thus, Jack O’ Lantern incorrectly assumed the two were the same person.

Unless I’m mistaken, the Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man story is the first instance of a legacy Spidey character meeting their namesake (and no, I’m not counting clones as legacy characters). This may also be the beginning of the ‘Spider-Verse’ concept as it is known today.

 

Until I miss out on seeing Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on opening day due to a temporal anomaly, I remain

 

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