Spider-Man 2099 #32 — Nick Peron

Feb 22

Feb 22 Spider-Man 2099 #32

Day of the Dead

In Mexico City, a police officer catches a man digging up a grave in a cemetery. Even though it is the night before the Day of the Dead celebration, such an act is very obscene. The grave robber, a man named Nando Morgez beats the officer to death with his shovel. Elsewhere, at the Sanctum Sanctorum of Strange, the female Sorcerer Supreme, her teacher shows her image of Spider-Man in the Orb of Agamotto.[1] He tells her that Spider-Man will be her ally on her next mission, much to her delight.

The next day, Miguel O'Hara and his ex-girlfriend Xina Kwan arrive in Mexico City. Seeing the Day of the Dead celebration in full swing, he remembers the last time he was in Mexico City. When he purchased the very costume that later became his Spider-Man costume.[2] In their hotel room, Xina wakes up and is surprised to see that Miguel spent the entire night on the couch. When Miguel says that he is not looking for romance, she tells him that she isn't either. He becomes incredibly bashful when she gets out of bed and he sees that she is naked. Despite this, Xina tells Miguel that she doesn't mind that he looks before walking out of the room. Looking out the window to get his mind off of the temptation being waved in his face, Miguel is shocked to see his brother Gabriel looking outside from the room next door. The shock causes Gabriel to fall out the window, but Miguel saves him with a web line and pulls him into the room. As Gabriel is explaining what he is doing in Mexico City when Xina walks out of the bathroom. Having just finished taking a shower, she walks out in the nude to try and get another rise out of Miguel, but when she discovers that Gabriel is in the room she runs back into the bathroom.

Meanwhile, at the apartment of Nando Morgez, his landlord is pounding on his door. He has come to investigate the smell that the other tenants are complaining about. Nando allows the door to open a crack so his landlord can get a look into the apartment. What he sees horrifies the landlord so badly he flees. With the interruption over, Nando needs to get more moonlight into his apartment. He tosses a rock through his window, letting moonlight to shine in on the corpse he dug up out of the cemetery. Later, Miguel and Gabriel take Xina and Kasey out into the celebrations. This gives the two brothers time to talk about Gabriel's current problem, that Kasey thinks that he is actually Spider-Man. When the two women ask the O'Hara brothers what they are talking about, they say its nothing. Not far away, Strange arrives in Mexico City. At that moment, Nando Morgez uses an ancient amulet to cast a spell that will bring the dead body in his apartment to come back to life. It causes a beam of mystical energy to shoot up into the sky. Seeing this from the street briefly blinds Miguel due to his enhanced vision. Also seeing this is Strange, who orders her flying craft to stop. Unfortunately, Nando's spell does nothing to bring the corpse back to life. As it turns out, this is the corpse of Nando's sister Nita. He thinks about how close they were as children and apologizes for not being able to bring her back to life because he blames himself for her death.

However, the spell wasn't entirely ineffectual, as bodies begin to rise from their graves in a nearby cemetery. By this point, Miguel has been brought to the hospital where has his eyes being treated. After telling Gabriel, Xina, and Kasey that Miguel has a sensitivity to light, he assures them that he is expected to recover and that he won't be going anywhere anytime. Unfortunately, the doctor is far from correct, as Miguel has this opportunity to sneak out of the hospital and change into Spider-Man so he can investigate the strange light he saw earlier. He is confronted by Strange, who Spider-Man briefly confuses for his foe Risque.[3] She explains that she has come to Mexico City to stop some kind of mystical crisis and needs his help. When Spider-Man asks her what this crisis is, Strange doesn't know, all that she knows is that it will be grave. As she says this, the dead begin to walk the streets of Mexico City.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Strange, Xina Kwan, Gabriel O’Hara, Kasey Nash, Nando Morgez, Nita Morgez

Continuity Notes

The identity of this teacher is not revealed. It is certainly not Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme of the Heroic Age, who had disappeared during the end of the heroic age to travel forward in time. He ultimately surfaces in Fantastic Four 2099 #5.
A flashback of Miguel's last trip to Mexico City was depicted in Spider-Man 2099 #2.
Spider-Man encountered Risque during the events in Spider-Man 2099 #23-25.

Hitting the Road

Not willing to testify to a council meeting at Alchemax's School of Gifted Youngsters, Miguel O'Hara has run away to avoid repercussions from Kron Stone or his father. He is picked up by Dash, a cab driver who is surprised to see a young kid trying to thumb a ride out in the middle of nowhere.[1] Along the way, Miguel tells Dash what happened at school. This distracts Dash and he is too late to stop from running down a raccoon.

When they go out to see the poor animal, when other raccoons cross the street, Dash points out that the dead animal sacrificed its life for the greater good of the other raccoons. This hits a chord with Miguel, who agrees to be brought back to the school. There, Tyler Stone demands an end to the trial on his son's poor conduct when Miguel arrives to answer their questions.