Spider-Man 2099 #3
SUMMARY
The story opens onto a bunch of Thorites coming out of nowhere to aid Spider-Man, who they consider to be the Harbinger of Thor, against Venture. A quick trip to the present shows that Spider-Man in his civilian form informing his hologram Lyla that he has no idea where the shock they came from, but knew that Venture would easily beat them all up if he didn’t disregard his original plan to throw Venture off the trail leading to his apartment and fight him right then and there. We then cut back to Venture already in the process of beating up several people before Spider-Man leaped, but getting tossed over and getting his right arm numb after getting hit by Venture’s rod. Spider-Man realizes that he is outmatched and begins thinking that he should probably surrender and hopes Alchemax won’t punish too severely.
But before he could say anything, one of the Thorites tried to sneak attack Venture and is killed for the trouble and says that he doesn’t care if he has to kill anyone or even all of them, prompting Spider-Man to lash out Venture and try to take him down. For a couple of seconds, he seems to have much luck as before while Venture mocks him, when Spidey docks him with a right while shouting “Shut up!” He then immediately backs off, trying to switch back to his original plan to get Venture to follow him until it is no longer suspicious that he was inside Miguel’s apartment, Venture can follow heat signatures or something similar and Alchemax most likely developed it explaining how Miguel would know, via leading him through it. They also pass by Gabe on the way, who appears to recognize Spider-Man.
Spider-Man manages to get his plan working so far and even makes sure that Venture won’t be too suspicious about a broken window or the possibility that he is leading the latter to his apartment on purpose by having Lyla just pointing to the broken window and claim it was just made. Spider-Man is then free falling while Venture chases him while mentioning that his arm is itching even more but at least the numbness is gone. The two then battle for a bit until it ends with Spider-Man captured.
We then cut quickly back to Miguel’s apartment where Gabe confronts Lyla about what just happened and the scene ends with asking where Miguel is, when she last saw him, and what he was last wearing. (Stopping the summary to point out this is obviously referring to the fact that when he saw Venture chasing Spider-Man earlier, he possibly recognized the costume which was what Miguel had worn for a Day of the Dead festival. Reason I am stopping the summary to say this, is because I didn’t want people who didn’t pick that up from a single sentence and think of something else.) We cut back to Venture telling Tyler Stone about his successful capture of Spider-Man and states that he doesn’t know how Spider-Man can climb walls yet, which was the only ability Stone had saw being utilized, but guesses it might be a suction mechanism. Spider-Man interjects with the fact that he actually has talons right after freeing himself and slashing Venture’s jet boots causing him to go off balance.
The two battle even more and Venture tries to rip Spider-Man’s arm off when he accidentally caused a web to shoot out surprising them both. Spider-Man concludes the itchiness in his arms is because he is growing spinnerets there and jokes that he might start becoming more spider like and will start hungering for flies. He begins laughing mad for a bit, until he realizes that out of control Venture is heading into traffic. Spider-Man jumps off and onto a nearby billboard while Venture gets up without any harm and removes his hi tech goggles and says that he sees Spider-Man now and he is gonna kill him.
But Spider-Man concludes that he is actually not able to see so well without the goggles since he is aiming to Spidey’s left, but it is not worth risking any civilians being hurt by wild shots. He then grabs one of the flying cars, which are called Maglev cars and are powered by magnetism, and states that he could use the polarity of it to repel Venture into the next county. While Venture was able to resist this, his does lose his big gun. Venture then begins to brandish his rod while Spider-Man drops the car and leaps at him. Spider-Man manages to dodge the attack and slashes Venture’s robotic leg with the talons on his feet and the two struggle against each other for a bit until Spidey notices that Venture’s huge gun is being magnetized to his back. As Venture is stunned by hit by his own weapon, Spider-Man grabs the rod and proceeds to shock Venture by jamming it into the exposed wires in Venture’s leg until he is unconscious.
The story cuts back to present day where Miguel finishes the tale by saying he was moving all over the city both in and out of costume for a couple days just to make sure no one can realize that Miguel O’Hara is Spider-Man. He was also thinking about what to do next until deciding to just come back home and start off from square one. He rehashes his newfound abilities and newly made genetic quirks and everything currently wrong with his life and concludes it can’t get worse. Tyler Stone then knocks on his door saying he wants to talk to him about Spider-Man.
REVIEW
While I thought it was odd that the Thorites came in out of nowhere, they do serve a purpose. Namely to give Spider-Man a reason to not think just for himself and showing how decent of person he is. Without the Thorites, Spider-Man would have eventually just surrender like he almost did after Venture easily deflected an attack and caused his arm to go numb. But then he went into heroic mode after one of the Thorites died trying to save him and Venture claiming that he doesn’t who he kills as long as he gets Spider-Man. I just really love the panel that just shows him just standing there in shock and anger before proceeding to forgo any thought surrender and go all out and even managing to uppercut the clearly more skilled Venture.
The whole chase and fight scenes were epic. With a lot of foreshadowing laid here and the previous issue about Spider-Man’s ability to make organic webs. Thinking creative ways to defeat Venture without simply beating him until he is unable to move. This also illustrates how unlike Peter, he is only sarcastic and snarky in his civilian form and isn’t nearly as talkative as Spider-Man, mainly because he isn’t quite as capable of doing so while unlike Pete who does it as a reflex. The fact this lead to Miguel’s brother Gabe learning his identity is also intriguing and serves more of a way to make this a more unique take on the Spider Mythos than simply rehashing this as Spider-Man in the future.
This is also the best art work of the series yet, with none of the coloring issues and with more better depictions of Spider-Man, especially where he is falling from his apartment again. The only thing I found odd is that very panel though, as the sky seems to missing.
The only other weak part, although the whole sky is missing isn’t that big of a deal, is Venture. He still looks awesome, but he became kind of a generic stock villain. Not having much motivation than being a big a**hole and wanting Spider-Man so he can get paid. But he does still make a great foe, testing the inexperience Spider in both mental and physical aspects and gives him a reason to be more heroic. Plus, he isn’t as nearly as one note evil as Tyler Stone and his “will drug you with the most addictive drug in the world for daring to quit”. But to give credit to Stone, that isn’t the same as making dumb move just to show he is evil like Mr. Henton from Ravage 2099.
So all in all, a very satisfying conclusion with promises of an interesting subplot dealing Gabe realizing that Miguel is Spider-Man and his ongoing struggle with Alchemax. I was planning and putting this as the same score as the last issue because of the genericness of Venture, but then I realize he doesn’t need to be complex if he still manages to challenge Spider-Man in few ways that other villains could and can potentially be characterized more in future issues. So 8.8 webs out of 10.
Tomorrow! More Ravage 2099. Yay...
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