Spider-Man 2099 (vol. 2) #1
On a highway heading into New York, a truck driver is putting the pedal to the metal in order to get his shipment in as early as possible. Suddenly, there is a bright flash of light and a man in a suit of high tech armor appears in the middle of the road. The trucker tries to stop but ends up crashing into the man. However, the man in the road shrugs off the impact. When another driver stops to see if anyone needs help, the man in the high tech suit deems that he is not important to future timelines and snaps his neck, and then takes his car.
The following morning, Miguel O’Hara uses his lottery winnings to get an apartment in New York City. Although he takes the apartment, he is bothered by a bloodstain on the floor. The landlord assures him that it’s not blood, but mercurochrome, and calls the super-intendant to clean it up. When the super comes up to clean the floor, Miguel is surprised that it is the woman he saved previously.[1] Miguel is introduced to the woman, Tempest, but she is uninterested in learning his name. When the landlord goes down to get the final paperwork and Miguel’s keys, he tries to make small talk with Tempest. She is unimpressed when he tells her that he works for Alchemax. When she leaves, he finally gets her to smile by insulting her before thanking her for the clean-up job.
Web-slinging as Spider-Man across the city, Miguel can’t stop thinking about Tempest. He thinks about how she acted with no regard to her own safety when she was being mugged and wondered why someone would be so cavalier with their life. As he approaches the Alchemax building, where he works as “Miguel O’Mara”, he tries to put thoughts about this alluring woman out of his mind.
Unknown to Miguel, the man in the high tech armor has appeared in the lobby of Alchemax. The man in the suit tells them that he has come for the Spider-Man from the year 2099 in order to erase him from existence. When the guards threaten to call the cops, this mystery man informs them that one of them doesn’t play an important part in history and threatens to erase them from existence if they do not comply. When that guard tries to reach for his gun, the time traveler erases him from history. He then informs the surviving guard that one of the twins he is yet to spawn will play an important part in the future of cancer research and while he cannot erase this man from existence, he can hurt him. The horrified guard tells him that Spider-Man can be found on the eighteenth floor of the building. The time traveler thanks him and heads for the elevator. This — as far as the guard was concerned — was a lie and it gives him the opportunity to call the police.
Upstairs, “Miguel O’Mara” has just learned that Tiberius Stone has succeeded in making a sale of Alchemax’s Spider-Slayer robots to the nation of Trans-Sabal. Miguel is horrified to hear this because Trans-Sabal is a dictatorship with a poor human rights record. Stone is unconcerned with this and tells Miguel that he will be accompanying him when they deliver the robots. That’s when the alarm begins going off and Tiberius, true to form, hides in his office’s panic room leaving Miguel to deal with whatever is coming their way. The time traveler in the mechanical armor bursts into the room and instantly recognizes him as the Spider-Man of 2099. The intruder introduces himself as an agent of the Temporal Oversight Team Eliminating Mistakes, an organization from the year 2211. At first, Miguel hopes that this TOTEM agent has come to return him to his own era. Unfortunately, this man has come to erase him from history instead.
Miguel drops his holographic disguise, leaving him in his Spider-Man costume. He begins evading the TOTEM agent’s attacks when an NYPD SWAT team arrives on the scene. When they begin opening fire, Spider-Man leaps up into the ventilation system to try and get away. It leads him into Liz Allan’s office and the CEO of Alchemax is less than happy to see Spider-Man in her building.[2] While she is arguing with him, the TOTEM agent comes crashing through the wall. Recognizing Liz, he confirms that she has already given birth to her son.[3] With this in mind, the TOTEM offers Spider-Man a deal, allow him to eliminate Liz and he will let Spider-Man live.
At first, it appears that Spider-Man is willing to let the TOTEM agent erase Liz. As he prepares to erase the woman from existence he explains that Spider-Man’s interactions with Liz will have a catastrophic effect on the future. However, as the TOTEM agent’s weapon charges up, Spider-Man uses a web-line to pull up his blaster so the TOTEM agent shoots himself in the face, erasing himself from existence. With the danger over, Spider-Man makes a quick exit. That’s when one of Liz’s assistants comes into the room to ask if she is okay. She assures him that she is fine and after learning that none of the windows of the building were broken she correctly deduces that one of her employees is secretly a super-hero. She asks her assistant for all of her personnel files and begins plotting what she can do with a super-hero that is on her pay roll.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man 2099, Tempest Monroe, Liz Allan, Tiberius Stone, TOTEM
Continuity Notes
Miguel, as Spider-Man, saved Tempest from muggers in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 3) #1. However, she was less than enthusiastic, telling Spider-Man that she could have handled the situation herself.
Liz Osborn met Spider-Man 2099 in Superior Spider-Man #17-19.
Liz’s son is none other than Normie Osborn, who was born way back in Amazing Spider-Man #263.
