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

 

frogoat

Omissions and Additions: The High Evolutionary and Jessica Drew

 

I always appreciate feedback on the posts I produce, especially if it leads me to learn something new. And so today I would like to make a small supplemental entry to my post about The High Evolution and Jessica Drew. Thanks to Richard at the MC2 A Day blog for pointing out these omissions and additions. Without further ado, let us jump straight into it!

 

As I noted last time, the High Evolutionary blasts off into space with his Knights of Wundagore in The Mighty Thor #135 (1966), while the evolved cow-woman Bova remains behind with the child Jessica Drew as seen in West Coast Avengers Annual #3 (1988). However, we first see Jessica under the care of Bova in a flashback from Spider-Woman #20 (1979) where we see it did not take long for her to realize she was unique among the New Men of Wundagore who ostracized her, keeping with her earliest origin story. This is where we first see a young Jessica alongside Bova watching the High Evolutionary’s ship leave earth. We also first learn that Bova raised Miss Drew to maturity before she was sent to an orphanage in a nearby village to be nurtured by her own kind. From here, the events play out similar to previous depictions, with Jessica being ostracized even among humans before her deadly bio-electric venom-blast leads the villagers to attempt to destroy her.

 

Jessica is rescued by the leader of Hydra’s European branch, Count Otto Vermis. Outfitted with a special costume and trained, Drew was brainwashed into believing she was an evolved spider in order to alienate her further, ensuring her loyalty to Vermis. Jessica recalls how she escaped Hydra’s clutches and learned more of her past from Mordred and a magician named Magnus, noting she only knows what these men had revealed to her. This issue also marks the inevitable meeting between Spider-Man and Spider-Woman, with Peter Parker giving Jessica’s super heroic alias the benefit of the doubt in a burglary case due to his own storied history of misunderstandings and bad publicity (Spider-Woman #20).  

 

Jumping back just a few short months to Avengers #186, published in May 1979, Bova recounts her own origin to the Avenger named Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver, beginning with the High Evolutionary evolving her as one of his first projects and tasking her with the caring for the children his New Men. Bova notes that the High Evolutionary was preoccupied with matters coinciding with the unexplained return of his assistant Jonathon Drew. Via these flashbacks we see that while Jonathon and the High Evolutionary were occupied, the pregnant woman Magda arrived seeking asylum and the two became very close over the weeks preceding the birth of Magda’s twins: Pietro and Wanda, later known as the Scarlet Witch. During their birth, Bova noted Wanda’s tiny form mirrored the mysterious lights which filled the sky that night. These strange lights, of course, relate to the manifestation of Chthon.

 

Shortly after the twins are delivered, Magda disappears, leaving only a note expressing fear that her unnamed husband might force the revelation of her children’s existence from her if she remained alive. This is a direct reference to Uncanny X-Men #125 and the master of magnetism himself, Magneto, but we will save talking about him for another time. We then glimpse the subsequent tragic events involving Madeline and Robert Frank and their own stillborn child, followed by the High Evolutionary appearing before Django and Marya Maximoff to entrust them with Wanda and Pietro. With Pietro unable to recollect his childhood clearly, Bova relates her own sense of emptiness when she elected to remain behind ‘for…personal reasons’ as the High Evolutionary’s Wundagore Citadel left for the stars. This is evidently in reference to the aforementioned Spider-Woman #20 and Bova’s duty as carer for the young Jessica Drew (Avengers #186).

 

It must be noted that all these interconnected and overlapping characters and events were woven together by the writer (or co-plotter) of Avengers #186, Spider-Woman #20 and the various ‘Evolutionary War’ Annual’s back-up stories which detail the history of the Herbert Wyndham aka the High Evolutionary; none other than the keeper of continuity himself, Mark Gruenwald. Rest in Peace, Mr Gruenwald.

 

Until I become miraculously infallible like Mobius M. Mobius, I remain

 

frogoat