“Oh my God. Oh my shockin’ God.”
WRITER Peter David
ART Will Sliney
COLOR Rachelle Rosenberg
LETTERER VC’s Cory Petit
EDITOR Devin Lewis
Captain America 2099 tries to stop a 2099 intruder, Miguel’s latest enemy steps in to rescue said 2099 intruder and one of Parker Industries’ scientists is transformed by Terragen Mist.
UPDATE: Again I have to apologize for getting to these, folks. I thought I would have time to still do reviews but so many things are soaking up my time right now. I’m working, I’m seeing someone… it has become harder and harder for me to get reviews up, let alone get to the comic shop in a timely fashion.
You Crawlspacers deserve better!! And because I am not able to keep a schedule these days, I’m going to find a replacement to take over the 2099 review duties. That way you won’t have to wait so damn long in between reviews!
SUMMARY: Robert Mendez, the Captain America 2099 from the Secret World tie-in for 2099 who has been working for Miguel O’Hara’s branch of Parker Industries, is goaded by her Captain America personality to investigate Miguel’s lab – which has a portal back to 2099. While investigating, she runs afoul of a dangerous intruder from the home dimension named Qweeg – who may be someone 2099 fans are familiar with.
When Lyla alerts Miguel that someone has entered the 2099 portal lab, Spider-Man 2099 makes the scene to see what’s going down. There he finds Robert, whose body mass has severely increased due to the Super Soldier Serum, fighting what looks to Miguel to be Venture – one of the first adversaries he went up against in his hero career. Qweeg/Venture manages to escape, momentarily sealing Spidey and Roberta down in the 2099 lab.
Later, in issue #5, Qweeg revels in the possibilities of the 616-whatever-it-is-now-Hickman-secret-verse and is promptly hit by a bus. Before Spidey and Captain America 2099 head out on his trail, they stop by Roberta’s apartment. Captain America 2099 explains the dual personality situation to Miguel, as well as the fact that Robert thinks she is still living with her family.
Qweeg runs afoul of the law when the cops arrive on the scene of the bus accident. After a brief skirmish with them, Spidey and Captain America 2099 show up to apprehend him. Qweeg proves to be a dangerous opponent, even endangering the crowd to buy himself time against the heroes. Before they can take Qweeg down, a military craft arrives and deploys a tank to battle the heroes while a mysterious figure exits and helps Qweeg escape. As Spidey and Captain America 2099 defeat the tank and realize it was an automated attack vehicle, Qweeg escapes with his rescuers. Spidey and Captain America 2099 head off, and the mysterious figure reveals herself to Qweeg, calling herself Aisa – leader of the Fist. And their aim is to destroy the United States.
Finally, in issue #6, scientists at Parker Industries are researching a canister of Terrigen mist given to them by Medusa to figure out of they can find a way to counteract the effect it is having on mutants. One scientist, Rhonda Fleming (girlfriend of Miggy’s assistant Jasmine) has a reaction to the mist and is encased in a bio-cocoon.
Elsewhere, Miggy is seeing to the well-being of Roberta Mendez back at her apartment. The Super Soldier Serum has worn off, the Captain America 2099 persona has retreated, and Miguel tells her to take the day off after coming up with a story to explain why she woke up in her apartment. As he is leaving, Jasmine contacts him explaining the situation back at the office with Rhonda Fleming.
Miguel shows up in the lab just in time, as some sort of Inhuman character ports into the lab in order to retrieve the cocoon. This leads to a dust up between the Inhuman and Jasmine and Raul, and as the Inhuman attempts to leave, Spider-Man 2099 swings in to attack – and to wrest the cocoon away. Their fight continues down on the streets in New York, and the Inhuman is proving to be a dangerous match against Miguel. Eventually the Inhuman teleports them both, along with the cocoon, to the Congo, above the rim of what appears to be a volcano.
Eventually the cocoon erupts, and Rhonda Fleming emerges – apparently having been transformed into some sort of massive fire-angel.
ANALYSIS: I love Peter David, I love Miguel O’Hara, I love Will Sliney’s strong work on this book. But the story is slowly starting to lose me. This title works best when Miguel is the center of the story, and in issues #4 and #5 he winds up taking a backseat to Captain America 2099, who I’m not really all that interested in to begin with. I didn’t read the 2099 SecretHickmanWars tie-in and I don’t care for any of the characters that might have popped up in it. I do care about Miguel O’Hara.
I’m also over the new-fangled rocket powered Spidey suit and the continued intrusion of all things Parker in this title. I wish the book had kept Miguel working with Liz. Hell, I wish Liz was still here, too. The long-delayed Secret Wars event du jour, and all the backward changes it brought across the Marvel Universe, really derailed this book for me.
The Inhumans stuff thing feels like another intrusion. The Inhumans are now the mutants of the post-Hickmanverse, largely due to Marvel’s new direction that seeks to sidestep things they don’t currently have the film-rights for such as the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. The Inhumans re-imagining has been “the new hotness” for awhile now, and it feels like that’s the only reason it’s in here now. If it’s editorial driven, I do still expect Peter David to have it be an engaging story. Because that’s what he does; he’s the best writer currently working for Marvel and this book is lucky to have him.
I’m not dropping the book; that’s not what I am saying. Just that I am not enjoying all the new trappings of the new status quo, and it makes me pine for the previous pre-Hickmanverse volume, which was tragically short-lived.
REVIEW: (#4) B- (#5) B (#6) B
Peter David and Will Sliney are still telling stories well – it’s just not the sort of stories I wanted from this title.
–George Berryman!
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Thanks folks! 😀
We’ve got a replacement reviewer now and I think you’ll be happy!
@#7- ditto!
“You Crawlspacers deserve better!! And because I am not able to keep a schedule these days, I’m going to find a replacement to take over the 2099 review duties. That way you won’t have to wait so damn long in between reviews!”
Part of the reason I enjoy the reviews is because it’s you reviewing them. So what if it’s late. Not like people are paying you to do this.
@#4: Various comics have captioned the main universe as Earth 616 or Earth Prime. I think of it in terms of Batman. You can call him Batman or the Caped Crusader or the Dark Knight. They are different names but they ultimately just describe the same person.
Thus far George the Marvel Universe post Secret Wars is literally the exact same place it was before the event, only Miles Morales is living there now. It’s not like it was soft rebooted. It’s the equivalent of Age of Apocalypse when the MU was erased and replaced with a new timeline before things went back to normal but X-Man, Dark Beast, Sugarman and Holocaust migrated over. It isn’t as if in the history of the Marvel Universe if you went back in time you’d find a baby Miles Morales. Everything though happened, including everyone dying. They just got brought back to life is all. This isn’t a New52/Post Crisis situation.
I honestly thought that issue four was a lot stronger than the other two. I guess I mostly liked four because it bought back Venture a villain from the 1990s comics. Issue six really did not do it for me at all though.
@2 – “I wouldn’t call the post-Secret Wars MU the Hickmanverse, since he really had no involvement with the stories currently being published or really altered the universe that much with Secret War. the Richardsverse would probably be more accurate given what happened in the story”
The event du jour that broke it and put it back together was written by Hickman. I stand by Hickmanverse. 😎
“I think Marvel wants people to start using Earth Prime, because Brevoort hates 616 for some reason, but most people are probably going to still call it 616.”
All the more reason for me to keep calling it 616. Guess I need to switch back to that now. Heh!
“Sorry you don’t like or can’t get into Roberta/Cap 2099 George. I really liked her in the Secret Wars mini and I was glad to see her join Miguel’s supporting cast. I think she’s a real interesting addition to it.”
I bought two SW comics – the first issue of SW and the first issue of SW 2099. The first was amazingly underwhelming; the second just wasn’t what I was wanting.
@3 – “You are not the only one feeling this way. I love PAD’s writing and the character of Miguel, but I found myself not picking this one up. It wasn’t a conscious decision to boycott it or anything, I just wasn’t moved enough to pick it up and pay the money.”
I’m really hoping things change after this Inhumans story but my gut tells me this is all editorial-driven at this point.
You are not the only one feeling this way. I love PAD’s writing and the character of Miguel, but I found myself not picking this one up. It wasn’t a conscious decision to boycott it or anything, I just wasn’t moved enough to pick it up and pay the money. It would be interesting to find out from PAD if he chose to bring other 2099 characters in and to ditch the Liz story, or if her was told to do so. Maybe someone could drop that question on his blog and sees if her answers it.
I think “backwards changes” is a bit much considering Secret Wars actually hasn’t changed that much as far I can tell. Most of the new status quo’s, for better or worse, seem more a result of time jump that could have happened with or without Secret Wars, and the event doesn’t seem that responsible for them. I don’t think PAD had to have Miguel jump ship from Alchemax to Parker Industries, so I have to assume he thought it served the ongoing story he wanted to tell.
I wouldn’t call the post-Secret Wars MU the Hickmanverse, since he really had no involvement with the stories currently being published or really altered the universe that much with Secret War. the Richardsverse would probably be more accurate given what happened in the story. I think Marvel wants people to start using Earth Prime, because Brevoort hates 616 for some reason, but most people are probably going to still call it 616. The universe isn’t that different enough to warrant a new universe designation anyways.
Sorry you don’t like or can’t get into Roberta/Cap 2099 George. I really liked her in the Secret Wars mini and I was glad to see her join Miguel’s supporting cast. I think she’s a real interesting addition to it.
Couldn’t agree more with you on the Inhuman stuff though.
I wonder in all honesty how much editorial mandates there are now compared to before Disney and the mcu took form. It’s puzzling to me how a lot of these writers who are exceptionally talented can be okay with being handcuffed to ideas or themes that have nothing to do with their book.