Review: Spider-Man 2099 #11

“Yeah, I’m hilarious. Let’s get you to bed…”

WRITER Peter David
ART Will Sliney
COLOR Antonio Fabela
LETTERER VC’s Joe Caramagna
EDITOR Devin Lewis

Miggy finds his way back to Earth-616. So! What the shock is happening?

SUMMARY: Back in his new temporary home timeline, Miguel wastes no time in trying to cure his superintendent (and possible love interest) Tempest of her cancer. Keen readers will remember that he picked up a cure from Alchemax back in 2099 while dealing with Daemos clones with the Steampunk Lady Spider. It doesn’t go off without a hitch, though. As Miguel sprays the cure onto a sleeping Tempest, she wakes up and is startled – and angry – to find Spidey 2099 in her apartment.

Back at Liz Allan’s Alchemax, Miggy walks into a meeting over plans for the super prison Alchemax wants to build, seeking to compete directly with Peter Parker’s company, Parker Industries. Miggy has legitmate concerns over Mac Gargan being involved in the planning, but the Scorpion explains that if you want to build a super prison then getting input from someone who has been incarcerated in them is a positive step. Liz also makes it clear that she is not worried about competing with Peter.

Across town, Spidey (the first one, not Miguel) is battling the Spot during a dinosaur fossil heist. Miguel shows up and distracts Spot with webbing long enough for Spidey to drop Spot with a hard left-fisted punch. The two then share notes atop the Chrysler building. Miguel catches up on his run-in with the Maestro back in 2099, and also tells Peter that he needs to win the prison bid. Peter makes it clear that he’s not worried about Liz, which worries Miguel, who knows Liz has become a force to be reckoned with.

Back at his apartment, Miguel checks on Tempest, who is drunk in celebration. She reveals that her doctor told her that her cancer is gone, meaning the Alchemax cure from 2099 worked. Relieved, Miguel continues to talk with the very tipsy Tempest, who starts putting the moves on Miguel. As they start kissing, Tempest suddenly transforms into a monstrous creature that appears to have fly wings.

ANALYSIS: Peter David returns us to our regularly scheduled programming, and it’s very welcome. We finally get progression on the Alchemax prison and Tempest stories, which the Spider-Verse event and Secret Wars seeding interrupted for several issues. With Peter David, anything can happen, and there are rarely any clean, easy answers for the characters he writes. Having Tempest suffer unforseen consequences after being cured of cancer is the writer’s bread and butter. There’s almost always a twist.

Of course Mac Gargan is up to no good working with Alchemax, but Liz’s ambition seems to make her see things less clearly and she can’t perceive the threat. Then again, Liz may have different views on supervillains, since she was the Green Goblin’s daughter in law, the second Green Goblin’s wife and is the step-sister of yet another villain. Peter David goes out of his way to emphasize that neither Liz nor Peter consider one another serious competition, and I look forward to seeing how that plays out in the end. If we get to see it, that is. We’re getting dangerously close to the new event du jour and the reboot/non-reboot of the Marvel Universe.

Will Sliney continues to shine on this book. I really enjoyed his work on the Spot/Spidey fight and also loved the way he showed us Peter and Miguel catching up on the Chrysler building. Sliney’s been a boon for this book.

REVIEW: A

We’re back to basics and back on track, though we’re swiftly coming to the end. Despite that, Peter David & Will Sliney’s Spider-Man 2099 continues to be the best Spider title Marvel is currently publishing.

–George Berryman!