Before I start this week, just wanted to give some love to “The Mighty Boosh” which is where I stole my Excerpt from this week. Boosh is a terrific British comedy troupe who do some brilliant and weird things. If you ever get a chance to check out their short-lived TV series from Britain, it’s definitely worth it.
2099
This week’s column is going to talk about one of my all time favorite imprints. Back in 1992, Marvel announced the 2099 line. It would jump a hundred years into the future, and show what the far future of the Marvel universe would be like. Most of the titles would show the legacies of current day heroes and villains.
I have never heard this before, but according to Wiki, 2099 was originally announced as one series called “The Marvel World of Tomorrow” by Stan Lee and John Bryne. Instead, it was launched with four titles: Spider-Man 2099, Ravage 2099, Doom 2099, and Punisher 2099. I wonder how different that original idea would have been!
For the most part, the series were all set in the same universe at first, but stayed distinct from each other. But, because it was the mid-90’s, more and more crossovers started happening. More on how that ruined 2099 later in this column…
Within a few years, sales started to decline. Marvel would end up firing the editor (Joey Cavalieri). Peter David ended up leaving Spider-Man 2099 and Warren Ellis left Doom 2099 a few issues before the end out of protest because of Joey Cav’s firing, which was pretty much the final nail in the coffin. The whole line was contracted into one series called “2099: World of Tomorrow.”
In 1998, a final one-shot called Manifest Destiny shut down the line for good. Spider-Man 2099 has shown up a few times after (including the video game Spider-Man: Shatter Dimensions), but for the most part, 2099 seems to be gone for good. Every now and then Marvel seems to do something with 2099, like Timestorm or Marvel Knights, but those have just about no connection to the original imprint.
So, were these books any good? Well…like most comic lines, some were…some weren’t. I’m gonna take this on a book by book basis…
Spider-Man 2099 Spider-Man 2099 was the first 2099 book to be launched. It was also by far the most successful book they did. It was written by Peter David and the first twenty five issues were drawn by Rick Leonardi.
This Spider-Man has no direct connection to the original, but Peter David does a nice job of showing parallels. Just like Peter Parker, at first Miguel O’ Hara wants to use his powers for personal gain ( in Miguel’s case, revenge against his employer who turned him this way), but over time he develops into a hero. We even get some new versions of classic Spider-Man villains like Vulture, Venom and Green Goblin.
Spider-Man 2099 was just a fun comic to read. A great supporting cast, lots of action and humor, and it tended to stay away from some of the more angsty territory some of the other 2099 books would wonder in to.
Ravage 2099 – Ravage was the only 2099 character to get his own book that didn’t have a direct analog in the modern Marvel universe.
The character was created by Stan Lee, and at first, he almost seemed like he would be a Punisher type of character. A vigilante who fought back against corruption with unusual weapons The book also introduced some environmental themes, but Stan Lee did a nice job (at first) of making Ravage feel like a proper Marvel hero.
Of all the 2099 comics, Ravage started out with so much potential, but it became clear the book had no real direction. First Ravage gets the ability to fire bio-blasts from his hands, and then he mutates into a beast creature. The book gets mired deeper and deeper in the “save the environment” themes, and by the end, it was just about unreadable. I stopped when he got a telepathic batwoman sidekick.
I did like Deathstryk (despite the terrible 90’s name) who seemed to have potential to be a major villain in the 2099verse, but he ended up tapering off to a non-entity pretty quickly.
Doom 2099 – Doom was definitely the oddest of the launch titles. Take a major Marvel villain, and instead of making an analog, send what seems to be the original Doom into the future and reshape him into a heroic figure. Doom 2099 was written by John Francis Moore for its first two years and by Warren Ellis for the rest of the run.
Doom was probably the deepest 2099 book. Lots of mystery and political intrigue. Unfortunately, it also is where the biggest problems of 2099 started. Relatively early in the run, Doom ends up winning. Essentially, the whole world becomes ruled by Doom, and all the books take a drastic shift in direction. But, really, none of them were nearly as good as when they started.
Instead of focusing on a ragtag group of rebels trying to take back Latveria, Doom 2099 ended up losing most of the great supporting cast. Ellis did an excellent job on the book anyway, but it still felt hallow compared to the earlier issues.
Punisher 2099 – Punisher was the last of the initial wave of 2099 books, and after Ravage came out, I wasn’t sure it had a real role.
But Punisher came out of the blocks hard and proved me wrong. It does a great job of giving us insight into the Public Eye (the 2099’s police force for hire), and we also get to see how a lot of the technology in this world works. Punisher 2099 just had a lot of cool gear!
They also got pretty deep into the psychology of the character. Jake Gallows really did seem to think he was doing the right thing, but the character was genuinely scary at times as we got more insight into what made him tick. Again, after 2099 AD, the book seemed to lose its way, but the first two years might be some of the best Punisher stories I’ve ever read.
X-Men 2099 All in all, X-Men 2099 might have been my favorite 2099 title. I loved the way it built on the legacy of the X-Men, and the story was constantly full of twists and surprises.
The X-Men also had the best rogues gallery in 2099. I especially liked the Chosen, a group led by a prior leader of the X-Men who was looking to recreate the original team.
X-Men 2099 was also the book that was least changed by 2099 AD, so that definitely helped maintain the quality all the way through.
Wow, this column has gone a lot longer than I intended. Lightning round time.
2099 Unlimited – I love anthology books. I was a little annoyed that they felt the need to slip Spider-Man into most issues of 2099 Unlimited (often not written by Peter David) to boost sales, but for the most part, this book helped show us all the corners of the 2099 universe. It also introduced us to Hulk 2099.
Hulk 2099 – This series takes a huge decline in quality from Hulk’s appearances in 2099 Unlimited to getting his own book. It basically tossed aside everything that felt original about the character, and tried to shoehorn him into stories that just didn’t work all that well.
Ghost Rider 2099 – I wasn’t always sure what was going on in this book. Sometimes it got a little too out there, but I still loved the sharp dialouge and terrific art. Pretty much every issue I wasn’t sure I was going to buy it until I got to the comic shop and found I couldn’t pass it up.
Fantastic Four 2099, X-Nation 2099 and World of Tomorrow These came out very late in 2099’s lifespan, and I don’t think I ever read any issues of FF 2099 or WoT. I did own them much later on, but never got around to reading them. I did like X-Nation quite a bit (though I didn’t think Humberto Ramos’ art was a great fit for the book). I especially loved Sister Nicholas of the Howling Commandos!
All those crossovers Fall of the Hammer was the first 2099 Crossover. It was pretty simple, one issue each of Spider-Man, Ravage, Doom, Punisher, and X-Men. It picked up a lot of threads hinted at in the other series, and brought all the characters together. It actually was a very good crossover (though it was a bit of a stretch to get the X-Men involved).
After that, they put out a bunch of holographic cover one shot crossover series that kept reshaping the world. 2099 A.D., 2099 A.D. Apocalypse, 2099 A.D. Genesis, and 2099 Manifest Destiny. To be honest, they all kind of run together and weren’t all that memorable. I just know they kept reshaping the universe into less and less appealing stories.
There are plenty of real gems in the 2099 books. I definitely recommend X-Men and Spider-Man. In a lot of ways, these books were as good, if not better, than the actual Marvel Universe versions of Spider-Man and X-Men at the time. Punisher and Doom were both excellent before 2099 AD, and 2099 Unlimited and X-Nation are a lot of fun too.
You can easily find most of these comics in quarter bins. When I rebuilt my comic collection a few years ago, I had no trouble finding every 2099 comic. I had always intended to read them again, but never got around to it.
Tip of the Baseball Cap/ Wag of My Disapproving Digit
This week’s Tip is an easy one. Happy 26th birthday to my friend and editor, Graham Scherl. Grey has been a friend for just about five years now, and even though we don’t always agree, we can have long debates that never turn into flaming. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure that’s how our friendship started over on GameFAQ’s.
And a Wag of My Disapproving Digit to the Super Bowl Halftime show. I don’t drink or do drugs, so maybe that’s why I didn’t get it. As far as I can tell, aliens decided to invade the game. They were dressed like the bastard love children of KISS and Tron. Will.I.Am got turned into a Borg…and then they joined forces with the Blockheads from Gumby. And then for some reason, Usher dropped out of the sky, dressed all in white like he was out of the Matrix. I am not sure if he was fighting off the invading alien forces, or joining them.
Look, I am all for trying something different in the name of art, but this was just painful and disturbing. The last few years, we had gotten great performances from Tom Petty, The Who, Bruce Springsteen, and Paul McCartney. Sadly, we are going back to the pre-“wardrobe malfunction” Super Bowl Half Time Suckfests. These are dark times, indeed.
Other Thoughts
Typically I try to keep my columns as least somewhat relevant to the current state of the comic industry, but I was really just in the mood to talk about 2099 this week. I hope you enjoyed this trip through my back issue box.
As always, I love hearing from the readers. Please drop me a line with any comments, criticisms, or suggestions for other books you’d like to see me take on.
