Across the Spider-Verse’s Spider-Man 2099, explained

Sometimes, a movie doesn’t need a villain; a jerk will do. Spider-Man Across the Spider-VerseEach of the following is available.

For the former, there’s the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), one of the odder villains in the Spider-Man canon, a guy who can generate portals at will and cause all sorts of spatial chaos. As for the jerk, that’s Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), aka Spider-Man 2099, head of a cross-reality elite task force of parallel-world Spider-Mans. The Spot’s whole story is explained thoroughly in Across the Spider-Verse, Miguel is largely a mystery in this movie — we get You can find out more about this by clicking here. backstory for him, but it’s mostly vague hints. Those hints suggest he’s different somehow, maybe even disturbingly so. This is likely due to Across the Spider-Verse is just the first of a two-part story, the movie doesn’t follow up on the clues it lays down.

[Ed. note: Mild spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse follow.]

For a film that’s so packed with exposition, Across the Spider-Verse’s dodgy characterization of this particular alternate-universe Spider-Man can be frustrating. Throughout the film, we learn that he’s kind of a vampire (which is never explained), he secretly takes a drug of some kind (also not elaborated on), and most crucially, he’s the one Spider-Man who’s never funny. It’s insulting to the rest of Spider-Man, in fact.

It’s like a lot in Across the Spider-Verse, it’s easier to appreciate Miguel if you know his whole deal from the Marvel comics he first appeared in. However, there’s a caveat here: While the Spider-Verse films lovingly pull from Spidey comics and their many adaptations, most of the movies’ characterizations are original to them. The backstory of Miguel is actually a part of the film. It is a good idea to use get in this movie is new to this film — the way he mirrors Kingpin in Into the Spider-Verse, attempting to interlope in another reality where he could have a family, doesn’t come from the comics.

Image: Sony Pictures

Take this information as a grain of salt before you dive in. Miguel is one of the strangest versions that Marvel has ever published. a lotHe might be the comics that he is. a lotStranger in the Spider-Verse movies

First off: 2099 IS a year

The name “Spider-Man 2099” is not, strictly speaking, Miguel O’Hara’s nom de guerre. The Spider-Man is his name. The following are some examples of how to use The year 2099. Like a lot of weird comic book ideas, this one came about in the ’90s.

In 1992, Marvel launched a line of comics set in the Marvel Universe’s future, in the year 2099. In the 2099 comics, everything in the main Marvel comics line was canonically referred to as a legendary “heroic age.” Many familiar superheroes, like Spider-Man and the Punisher, were reimagined for the new era’s cyberpunk dystopia, as new characters assumed classic alter egos. Doctor Doom and The Fantastic Four were among those who visited the future in the Marvel Universe.

Spider-Man is the best-known and longest-lasting character of the 2099 comics. Miguel appeared intermittently in Marvel Comics for many years after the 1998 series ended. In 2014, he was brought into the Marvel Universe as a main character. Spider-Man 2099 series.

Current comics took Miguel back to his proper time, but he’s remained a fixture ever since.

Who is Miguel O’Hara?

Created by Peter David and Rick Leonardi, Spider-Man 2099 brought a cyberpunk flair to comics’ favorite webhead, reimagining him in a techno-thriller set in the futuristic “Nueva York.”

Rick Leonardi/Marvel

Across 44 issues, David, Leonardi, and a cadre of other artists spun a new story about Miguel O’Hara, a half Irish, half Mexican American geneticist working for the Alchemax mega-corporation. Miguel O’Hara is working with Alchemax on a genetically-enhanced super soldier project, but, after having a moral crisis, wants to give up. Too bad his superiors won’t let him.

In what to this day remains one of the wildest origin stories for a popular Marvel Comics character, Miguel’s boss slips him a highly addictive designer drug called Rapture, making him dependent on Rapture’s only legal distributor: Alchemax. Miguel, in an attempt to clean up his act, becomes Spider-Man. He uses the same machine that he used for his experiments with super-soldiers to return his genome to a pre-Rapture condition. Unfortunately, a rival sabotages that process, setting the machine to rewrite his genetics so he’s 50% spider.

The big twist here is that Miguel’s transformation is more monstrous than Peter Parker’s, adding a bit of body horror to the character. Most of their powers are comparable, but Miguel’s work in slightly more horrifying ways. The talons on his feet and hands allow him to grip walls. In place of spider-sense, he is equipped with enhanced vision and sound that makes him unable to tolerate daylight and his pupils will disappear. Long before Sam Raimi gave Peter Parker organic web shooters, Miguel O’Hara found spinnerets in his forearms. Most striking is the fact that he can’t retract his poison-secreting fangs. Miguel has to speak with a muffled voice in order to avoid being noticed.

One of Across the Spider-Verse’s more alarming throwaway lines is when Gwen notes that Miguel is a “ninja vampire.” In the comics, he isn’t a blood-drinker, or undead, or anything like that — vampirism isn’t really an issue for him. Gwen’s line might just be a flippant reference to his creepy fangs. Unless…)

Rick Leonardi/Marvel

Miguel then adopts the costume that he purchased for the Day of the Dead Festival in Mexico and attempts to heal his illness while seeking revenge against those who destroyed his life. Lyla is Greta’s AI assistant in the films. She isn’t really part of his crime-fighting package; she’s essentially just a more sophisticated Siri who runs Miguel’s apartment in the comics. Miguel becomes a superhero in the end. It is the king.

The year 2099 will only be a mental state

Knowing all this, it’s very possible that the Miguel O’Hara of Across the Spider-VerseIt is very faithful to the original comics, with a few minor changes. It seems that he relies a great deal more on his The following are some examples of how to useHigh-tech costumes, as an example.

It’s also possible that the filmmakers want to pay homage to the character’s comic book origins before doing something radically different with him — something they’ve already started with the character, given his movie status as a multiversal Spider-Cop.

Image: Sony Pictures

Mostly, Miguel is useful as one of the more prominent Spider-People in Marvel history who aren’t variations on Peter Parker. Miguel is a Spider-Man that has grown up, unlike Peter and Miles. He’s a Spider-Man, who at first embraces corporate surveillance, but later becomes complicit. Miguel has to reckon with a world he helped make, and when you hold his story up against Miles’ or Peter’s mantra about power and responsibility, he makes more sense as someone who would have a more hardline stance on how to put it into action.

Which means, yeah — he’s a bit of a jerk. Will? Beyond the Spider-Verse prove he’s ultimately a jerk for the greater good? He will remain the way he was in Across the Spider-VerseIs he a morally rigid jerk? We’ll find out in 2099 2024.