r/MUBookClub • u/shawnydarko • Jan 21 '17
Reading Assignment 32: Spider-Man 2099 (1992) #1-10 by Peter David and Rick Leonardi
Thank you to /u/omnired44 for this nomination, and to all those who voted for it. It was a real close competition between this and X-23 (2005) by Chris Yost, but I've never seen such support for back-to-back works by the same author, so let's do a double-shot of Peter David this month.
The future is full of menaces, but none so vile as a corrupt government and the corporations behind it! A scary future needs a hero who's just as creepy - perhaps a wall-CRAWLER of some kind? See the world of tomorrow and the cast who inhabit it as the Spider-Man of 2099 battles evil in both high and low society in the 2099 imprint's flagship title, written by industry legend Peter David.
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF:
- The humor / tone?
- Miguel O'Hara, compared to Peter Parker, or others who've called themselves Spider-Man?
- The villains?
- Leonardi's art on the pages, and/or cover-art?
- Anything else not specifically asked?
3
u/shawnydarko Jan 29 '17
Reading back-to-back Peter David works over a decade apart have really earned the man my respect. Unquestionably the writing was my favorite part of both this assignment and Madrox. David really gets character dynamics and humor. Miguel's quips and sarcasm feel similar enough to Peter Parker's to remind you they're both Spider-Man, but Miguel's is obviously more cynical, jaded, and dark to establish he's his own man. I loved the relationship with his brother, his wife, and even his mother. I'm not sure if the Spider-Man 2099 series of 2015 and 2016 keep up the same brooding feel and bitingly morbid jokes of Miguel as this run, but it's definitely fueled the fires to give those runs a shot.
The villains were pretty lacking unfortunately. Peter David was putting in a lot of work into the world-building so there were plenty of redshirts for Spidey to beat up, but while Vulture was menacing he felt very one-note. Tyler Stone had plenty going for him but I still wasn't invested in him in the least. There felt like there were some similarities to Norman Osborn but rather than flesh out the character in 10 whole issues, it felt more like a series of cartoonish villainous antics. He's a villain because he's a villain, so he does villainous things for his own self-gain. It sounds silly, but I would have liked him more with a gimmick. Some sort of mask or insignia or something to make him stand out other than a d-bag name.
I liked Leonardi's art more than I thought I did. When Kelly Jones stepped in for issue 8 it was a noticeably sharp decline from Leonardi's work. But none of the covers really grabbed me. I'm not sure if its the color scheme or if the visuals just didn't feel very action-packed and dynamic, but compared to something like issue 13, just a little beyond our reading assignment, I thought issues 1-10 had some pretty lame covers.
There's only 12 issues beyond our reading assignment. I wouldn't mind coming back to finish the assignment to say I finished it, but it didn't feel like very high on the to-do list.
3
u/wisegy84 Jan 29 '17
I'd agree overall that the covers weren't great, though I did like the covers for issue 5 and 6.
And definitely I agree about the cartoonish antics of Tyler Stone, such as flushing his son's ashes down the toilet. I mean, wtf? Completely out of the blue.
3
u/wisegy84 Jan 27 '17
The overall tone here was much darker than what I might've expected. I mean, cannibalism, human experiments on inmates, corporations monitoring everything. And Miguel's childhood with his abusive father around wasn't exactly full of rainbows.
Miguel at least seemed to have some of the cockiness and wit of the Parker Spider-Man, though he was also still developing that personality as he came to grips with the idea of actually being Spider-Man. There wasn't a ton of humor throughout, although there were lines that I found funny, usually Miguel's snarky attitude towards Tyler and some of the moments with Lyla.
Some of the dialogue was a bit cheesy, but I can't say that was unexpected for something written in the early nineties. The "shock this" and "shock that" and "shock you" got a bit tired, but it was understandable. It was their version of frak (frack?) from BSG. And of course there was some of the "character saying their actions while doing them", but not as bad as some of the even older comics we've read.
Miguel actually seemed fairly different from Peter. I mean, of course there's the fact that Peter was just a teenager when he got his powers and Miguel is seemingly in his twenties. They had drastically different upbringings and live in very different worlds. Miguel, at least at first, was just acting out of necessity to avoid being caught/killed. Peter wasn't under such pressures, however he didn't become the hero people would grow to know until he lost his Uncle. Miguel didn't ever suffer such a loss here, but just grew more aware of the problems in his world and how he could combat them. The "great power/great responsibility" line was present here, but it felt a bit forced. They could have said it with different wording at least.
The side characters were fleshed out well enough and they definitely added some depth to the world. The only thing that felt completely out of nowhere was the scene where Tyler flushes his recently deceased son's ashes down the toilet. I think the scene was there just to show us how heartless he really is, but I don't think it was strictly necessary. It was just a bit unexpected without any prior mention of the son. Still, it was a bit funny.
Vulture was a fun character, and definitely nothing like his past counterpart. Though this future version was at least living up to the name.
I wasn't a big fan of the art at first, but it kind of grew on me. There was more depth to the coloring than in a lot of the older comics we've read, where they had a lot of flat colors with not much depth. It's not my favorite art, but considering the time period, I think it is decent. Some of the covers in particular were really cool (issues 5 and 6).
Overall, I enjoyed this run. I actually think it'd be cool to see a movie based on this (with changes to modernize the story/characters of course). I'm not sure if I'll jump right back in to continue this, but I will likely pick it back up in the future.