Making Sense of Spider-Man 2099
If you’ve read more modern comics about Spider-Man 2099 you’re probably wondering how it all fits into the original Spider-Man 2099 series. In fact, if you were trying to figure out where it all fits you’ll find that it doesn’t. There have been many alternate takes on 2099 and some of these are alternate versions of 2099. Some are similar to the 2099 that was published in the 90s, others are derivative of that title but are different, while others are as yet unexplained. See if you can keep up….
Let’s Talk About the Original 2099 Run
In the 1990s, Stan Lee came up with the idea of doing stories about the Marvel Universe in the distant future of 2099 AD. Stan, ever the idea man, didn’t really add much than that, leaving other creators to actually build this world (this is being Stan’s usual MO if you ask anyone who worked with him instead of fanboys who like to fellate themselves over Stan’s “legacy”, but I digress) At the start of the run titles included Spider-Man 2099, Ravage 2099 (a brand new character who was terrible), Doom 2099, and Punisher 2099. The idea was a huge hit to start but it suffered from the same issues that plagued comics in the 1990s. Marvel expanded the imprint to include more titles including X-Men 2099, 2099 Unlimited (featuring Spider-Man and the Hulk), Ghost Rider 2099, Fantastic Four 2099, and X-Nation 2099. Overseeing all the titles and ensuring they were interconnected was editor Joe Cavalieri. Focusing specifically on Spider-Man 2099 for a moment, it was consistently written by Peter David during this period.
When the 90s comic bubble burst, Marvel decided to cut costs on its 2099 imprint. They fired Cavalieri, and as an act of solidarity, most of the writers (including Peter David) quit their respective titles. All the 2099 titles were condensed into a single series, 2099: World of Tomorrow which lasted 8 issues before it was canceled. The entire 2099 saga was wrapped up with a one-shot titled 2099: Manifest Destiny.
How this affects Spider-Man 2099 is the fact that with the departure of Peter David, other writers dropped plot points and went in different directions.
The biggest issue here is that Peter David intended Father D’Angelo to be the Goblin 2099, while replacement writer Ben Raab had it revealed that the Goblin was actually Spider-Man’s brother, Gabriel O’Hara. Later still, in Manifest Destiny, it was later revealed that this was not the real Gabriel O’Hara, but an alien imposter because… reasons?
The Spider-Man 2099 run followed a very specific timeline:
Miguel O’Hara becomes the new Spider-Man, he fights Alchemax and various foes
His mother shoots Tyler Stone, who ends up in a wheelchair
Miguel goes to Mexico on vacation
On his way back Doctor Doom becomes president of the United States
Miguel takes over Alchemax
He fights Venom and Goblin 2099
The Atlanteans flood Nueva York
Miguel’s mother kills Tyler Stone and dies herself.
The Goblin is revealed as Miguel’s brother, Gabriel.
Earth’s heroes prevent the Atlantean invasion
In the year 3099, Miguel becomes the new Thor
It’s got a beginning, middle, and end. Despite the last-minute changes when the original writer quit, there is a cohesive story with little to no wiggle room.
So when Spider-Man 2099 reappeared years later in Superior Spider-Man it raised a lot of questions. See, Marvel has indexed the original 2099 storyline as happening in an alternate reality of Earth-928. In those later stories, particularly in the Spider-Verse event, it was said that that version of Miguel O’Hara came from Earth-928 and that his reality is the future of Earth-616 (the mainstream Marvel Universe). To the uninitiated, you can call it Earth-928 and call it a day. However, there’s a problem, it’s that what we got in Superior Spider-Man/Spider-Verse does not fit neatly into the continuity of the original run of Spider-Man 2099.
When you compare the two storylines, the later Spider-Man 2099 comes from a world that not only ignores the plot points that happened after Peter David et. al. left the 2099 books, but also ignores some other major plot threads that occurred during Peter David’s run, particularly what happens to Tyler Stone and Doctor Doom taking over America.
My take is that the Spider-Man 2099 who appears in Superior Spider-Man/Spider-Verse is not the same one as the Miguel O’Hara who appears in the original 2099 run and there is plenty of evidence to support that. But first lets get into some theory.
Time Travel in the Marvel Universe
There are some concrete “rules” to time travel in the Marvel Universe, even though not all writers follow those rules they exist. The idea is that someone traveling from the present into the past or into the future doesn’t change history, it only creates a divergent reality. So you couldn’t go back in time and kill Hitler and change history. You just create a divergent timeline and you can travel to the present day of that alternate timeline but you own present remains unchanged.
This set of rules has also come into play when characters from the future go back in time to the present. That present may have been possibly been connected to that future at one point but the simple fact of going back in time assures that the future you go back to might be the same one you came from. It could be one of many alternate futures. Or you might end up back in your future and nothing as changed at all, however at least for the present they visited, that timeline will go in its own direction.
The Theory on an Implied Future
I have a theory on how future timelines work in the Marvel Universe. That these futures are not sold immutable futures, but futures that are based on everything that is known about the present and the implications of how what is already known could shape the future. What it doesn’t do is account for what will be known in the present.
To explain it differently: Time travel stories that deal with such advanced years (like 2099) do is make a best guess based on what has already been published. It does not (and cannot) account for what will be published in the future and how that will affect the distant future. The best example I can make is the Days of Future Past storyline. It was originally written in the early 80s and that future is based on what was going on in X-Men comics at the time. If you were to take the original Days of Future Past and try to make it fit with X-Men comic books today, it could not fit wit modern continuity. Conversely, every time the X-Men has interacted with a Days of Future Past style storyline moving forward it introduces a new version of that future that fits with modern continuity. For example, the series Weapon X: Days of Future Now, tells a Days of Future Past story that incorporates characters that existed in X-Men books of the era that had not been created when the first Days of Future Past story were written. Also, the history from that story does not fit with the original Days of Future Past story. Correctly so, Marvel attributes them to two different realities, the original is Eart-811 while the latter is Earth-5700. At the time of this writing, Marvel has at least 12 different variations of Days of Future Past. Each one fits neatly with the continuity of the mainstream X-Men books around the time they are published.
What is implied here is that a possible future is one without all the facts since the present day will ultimately move in different ways unaccounted for due to different creative teams adding their own takes on a mythology that has been worked on for over 50 years (80 if you want to go back and count stuff from the Timely era) The reality is, a writer doing a story about the future isn’t going to know what writers are going to do 30 years after they’ve finished their work. Likewise, a new creative team that wants to revisit themes of a previously seen future timeline usually has to create a similar reality with the additional awareness of plots and character development that has been added in those 30 years.
The futures that are seen in a comic book today are an implied future based on the facts of what is known because the present is always moving forward and changing to the point where that future timeline is no longer compatible.
How Does This Apply to 2099?
Based on all the available data, 2099 works on this principle and every time it has been visited it is a different 2099. For example. There are 22 different 2099 timelines in existence. Some are derived from the original 2099 series, others are wildly different.
For the sake of clarity, let’s focus on the ones that are derivative of the original 2099 run. You have to stop and remember that the original run (which was published almost 30 years ago) what we thought the future would be is vastly different with what we think of it now. If you go back and re-read the original 2099 run a lot of details about it are very dated despite the fact that it takes place about 70 years in our future.
My argument is that the year 2099 is different every time it is visited and every visit is different in minor or major ways. In fact, that was the whole point of Peter David’s run on Spider-Man 2099 Volumes 2 and 3, which take place after Spider-Verse. Those stories feature Migue O’Hara trying to get back to his version of 2099. However, every time he steps through his time portal, changes in the present cause the year 2099 to be vastly different each time he went. One future was like the Future Imperfect Hulk work (also written by Peter David), another had a Civil War-esque plot involving the Skrulls, another was a wasteland. The last one he arrives in is celebrating New Years Day 2100.
And that’s the other thing. 2099 is a single year, you only have 365 days to work with and eventually, you have to acknowledge that the year will elapse. Constantly going back and trying to cram more stuff into that single year means you are going to run out of ways to make the continuity work.
My theory gets even more credibility in the recent series of 2099 One-Shots that Marvel put out that tied into a storyline in Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 5) that came out in 2020. That introduced a new version of 2099 AD. It is a modern take since writers realized that going back to the original timeline just won’t work because it is dated.
Another point to make is that the Unofficial Appendix to the Handbook to te Marvel Universe has recently attributed a new reality number specifically to 2099: Manifest Destiny. Since they are considered semi-official (since most of the guys over there write for the Official Handbook). To that way of thinking the story Manifest Destiny is a possible future of a possible future.
Exiles Gave Us A Solution
Spider-Verse states that the main Spider-Man 2099 that appears in that story is from Earth-928. So how to you explain it? If you want an in-universe explanation you need not look further than Exiles #75-76 published in 2006. That series featured a team of reality hopping X-Men characters fixing realities where things have gone wrong. Picture the X-Men meets Sliders and Quantum Leap. In that two-part story, the X-Men are chasing Proteus a reality-bending mutant that is hopping to different realities to try and find a perfect host body. He actually appears on the 2099 AD (Earth-928) interrupting the flow of events of a storyline (the one in Spider-Man 2099 #13). The first issue identifies the reality of Earth-928, however, because the Exiles interfere with a pre-established storyline they created a divergent reality that was designated as Earth-6375 in the next issue.
The fact that they interfered with that timeline and even removed Spider-Man from that timeline was disruptive enough that it created an alternate timeline.
When Spider-Man 2099 appeared in the pages of Superior Spider-Man is was in the aftermath of the Age of Ultron storyline which saw time being broken by the constant use of time travel by individuals in the present. This causes events that threaten 2099 that is seen in that future.
One could assume that the events of Age of Ultron created a divergent 2099, one that borrows elements from the original timeline but different and separate from that original timeline. It was once recognized as Earth-928 but it was vastly different. Why did the Master Weaver refer to it as both Earth-928 and the future of Earth-616 in Spider-Verse? Well cut the Weaver some slack, he just got the job after the original Weaver was killed. His predecessor was also busy trying to prevent the web of existence from being ripped apart, excuse them for not having reality numbers hammered down.
How Marvel Chooses to Specify It
According to the Spider-Geddon Handbook #1, the Spider-Man 2099 that is involved in Superior Spider-Man and Spider-Verse is from Earth-928.
However, they have yet to write a brand new or updated profile for Spider-Man 2099 since one appeared in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #11, as such the discrepancies from the original Spider-Man 2099 run and the Spider-Man 2099 seen more recently remains unexplained.
However, there have been instances where Marvel re-classifies reality numbers. Presumably, they wanted the Spider-Man 2099 who appeared in Spider-Verse to be the Spider-Man 2099 (or the “prime” Spider-Man 2099 among a sea of alternates) and changed the reality indexing to suit their whimsy.
Where Does This Divergence Happen?
In Superior Spider-Man #17, the Spider-Man of 2099 goes back in time at a period of time when he knows that Tyler Stone is his biological father (a fact revealed in Spider-Man 2099 #25) and also has previously encountered Peter Parker (in Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man #1). Also true here, is that this has to happen while Tyler Stone is not disabled (he was shot and confined to a wheelchair in issue #34 of Spider-Man 2099). Per the Marvel Chronology Project, Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man #1 takes place before Spider-Man 2099 #27, which has Miguel going on a long road trip to Nightshade and then Mexico before returning to America to discover that Doctor Doom is now the President othe United States, Tyler has been shot, and he is made the head of Alchemax.
As such, the events of Superior Spider-Man #17 would have to happen immediately after Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man #1, and the 2099 reality diverges from there.
This point of divergence is somewhat confirmed in the Tyler Stone entry in the Secret Wars Official Guidebook to the Marvel Multiverse #1. That entry also references stuff that happened in Spider-Man 2099 #27 onwards, suggesting that Miguel ends up back and resumes the proper timeline as it was originally published. However, that entry was written before Spider-Man (vol. 3) concluded which ends with Miguel making it back to his home reality (or one like it) on New Year’s Eve 2100. It also doesn’t take into account that Earth-928 gets replaced with a new version of 2099 AD in the 5th Volume of Amazing Spider-Man and that the Miguel O’Hara of Earth-928 ends up retiring on a private island on modern-day Earth-616 with Tempest Monroe and their baby. In other words, Spider-Man 2099’s timeline confirms that Earth-928 diverged at this point and anything from Spider-Man 2099 #27 onwards happens on a divergent reality due to the rules of time travel in the Marvel Universe, the instance of Miguel going back in time to the modern age would have created a divergent reality separating it, as we saw was the case in Exiles #75-76 when a time travel event interrupted the pre-established history of Reality-928. The divergence would work like this:
How I Choose to Interpret it.
The original 2099 series is its own thing. It has a beginning a middle and end, even without Manifest Destiny included in the mix. The 2099 seen in Superior Spider-Man and Spider-Verse is a different reality but in many ways very similar to the one that was originally published. This was done to save a lot of unnecessary exposition but also allows the freedom to go in new directions and do things differently.
That said, Marvel has chosen to refer to the Spider-Man 2099 seen in Superior Spider-Man as coming from Earth-928. The only conclusion one can draw then is that the events of Spider-Man 2099 (vol. 1) needs to be designated a new reality number since that series and what comes after do not fit.
Marvel has yet to do that. As such, to make a distinction, I will henceforth refer to the original Spider-Man 2099 as coming from Earth-928-1.0 and the more recent one who appeared in Superior Spider-Man and Spider-Verse as coming form Earth-928-2.0.
The divergence would happen like this:
