Just like it would with Ultimates, years later, Marvel kicked off a new universe with a Spider-Man legacy version. And they brought A-list talent.
The 2099 universe may (or may not) be the future of the 616. It’s probably not, though.
So why am I covering it? Well, I’m really not. I’m just creating an entry to note that it existed. But I will tag collectively as 2099–no specific characters, etc. I’ll paint with a broad brush, but I thought it would be worth including them on my site since the 2099 line started out pretty darn strong and lasted many years.
Before this first issue, Stan Lee in Marvel Age announced that this new cluster of books would be coming soon…
The first issue, Spider-Man 2099 #1, starts with Miguel O’Hara working and designing products for a big corporation, Alchemax, run by a vaguely evil-ish old white dude. As a result of the company’s research, Miguel gets his powers. A lab accident fuses his DNA with a spider–much like the movie The Fly, which is referenced in the story. Sound familiar? That’s because both Ultimate Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man movie borrowed heavily from this narrative.
Peter David does a great job at creating a distinct universe, one that isn’t full of cyphers of folks who surround Peter Parker in the 616, but he also pays appropriate homage through the character of Lyla, O’Hara’s constant computer-hologram companion…
We also meet his first arch-enemy Venture.
He’s basically Kraven. The evil corporation Alchemax hires to kill or capture Spider-Man.
There’s a neat little subplot with the Church of Thor, establishing that in 2099, people remember Thor as a God–not a superhero.
From there, Marvel launched Doom 2099.
Doom 2099 in many ways was the most interesting. Unlike the other books, this title actually stars the “real” Doctor Doom, who is time displaced and arrives in 2099 Latveria confused and angered by what has happened to his country. In this way, writer John Francis Moore turns Victor Von Doom into a future version of Captain America: A man out of time, a symbol of what his country once was, and a champion of the values of the past.
It even turns him from a megalomaniac into a protector:
So of all the 2099 line, this one appears to actually be canon. Maybe.
Doom 2099 stands in stark contrast to Punisher 2099. The latter is extremely similar to the Punisher of the 616, even down the ominous character name (Jake Gallows). But where Doom is a time traveler, Gallows finds the original Punisher’s War Journals, and uses them to create his own vigilante identity and avenge wrongs done to his loved ones. The similarity of storyline and character should not dissuade you from reading the book, however: Punisher 2099 is, based on the first half-dozen issues I’ve read of it, one of the best Punisher stories ever.
The author, Pat Mills, came to Marvel from writing Judge Dredd—a horrendously violent antiauthoritarian book about a lawman who serves as judge, jury, and executioner. Similarly, Punisher 2099 is a police officer who wears the white skull shirt on his off time. The writing, as you can see above, is gritty and tough—and very well done. But it’s flourishes that make this book so neat: Punisher has his own prison in the basement, and a gallows–how is it the 616 Punisher never did that?
The launch was successful enough that X-books followed, as well as a Ghost Rider who was basically the same as every other Ghost Rider: He looked cool, but his comic sucked.
Cool.
Interest in the titles started to wane after a few years, and by then Marvel was careening towards bankruptcy so the imprint was scrapped.
R.I.P. 2099
In 2015, Marvel launched its fourth (and best) Secret Wars event, and briefly brought back the 2099 as part of the universe-reorganizing event.
And there was this…
Out of all the 2099 titles, I enjoyed Spider-Man 2099 the most. I also felt that 2099 wasn’t far enough in the future. I think maybe 2199 or 2299 would’ve been better.