When word got out at New York Comic Con that Peter Parker would not be behind the mask in the new ‘Superior Spider-Man’ series, many names began to circulate among fans as possible replacements. Ben Riley, Eddie Brock, Richard Parker, and Kaine were just a few of the characters talked about in regards to taking up Spidey’s mantle, but I definitely remember the name of Miguel O’Hara popping up in that panel discussing the upcoming projects coming from the Spider-office. In fact, I said in my report that there was talk about Spider-Man 2099 making a comeback, but the panelists were tight-lipped about the character, which lead me to believe that he would be the web-slinger after ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ #700.
Of course, that huge issue came and went. It was revealed that Otto Octavius was the one to step into Parker’s shoes as the (sometimes) friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. But what about the Spider-Man of the future? There had been no new reports on the character appearing in the Marvel NOW era since the con, but at C2E2, a new development surfaced.
According to Marvel, ‘Superior Spider-Man’ writer Dan Slott and artist Ryan Stegman announced at the Chicago convention over the weekend that they would be bringing Spider-Man 2099 face to face with his present day counterpart in issue #17. Though this is the first time that they’re officially acknowledging the team-up, Slott revealed that he has been throwing in hints for the appearance since the beginning of the title:
“Technically, the seeds have been sown for this as far back as the Big Time era. You’ll have to search for it and find it but it is there. This is something that has been in the works for some time.”
He continued to say how excited he was to get to write Miguel O’Hara because of his love for the 2099 series from the 90s:
“It’s Spider-Man of the future! How can you not love Miguel? He’s awesome. I, like everybody in the 1990’s, was reading the 2099 books, and ‘Spider-Man 2099’ and ‘Ghost Rider 2099’ were my favorites. For some time, I’ve wanted to do a Spidey 2099 meet-up or have things from the present affect the future and what was weird was that I later got to write the ‘Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions’ video game. And it was like, ‘Heyyy…’ So that worked out but you will notice that there is a big hint slash clue running around in Big Time that shows that things were all aiming this way.”
Then, the writer divulged that a member of the Osborn family would be playing a role in all of this, but not the one that readers are thinking:
“Well, we are assuming that it’s not Norman and that’s an assumption that you are making. You will see that there is an Osborn family member involved. And we’ve been building stuff up with the Green Goblin since ‘Superior Spider-Man’ #4. I’m not going to say whether it’s Norman ‘cause all we’ve really [seen] since then is that his bed in the coma ward is empty and that the Green Goblin has shown up. We have not seen the mask off yet.”
Finally, Slott addresses that Spider-Man won’t be the only one affected by this time jump. He points out that there’s a ton of time travel going on in the Marvel Universe these days and vaguely addresses the consequences of Miguel meeting Octo-Pete:
“This storyline will set-up a threat, not just for the world of Spider-Man but for the Marvel Universe. Everyone will feel the impact. You will notice that in the Marvel Universe, a lot of things have been happening. The time stream. We’ve had the ‘Age of Ultron’, we’ve had young X-Men showing up, we’ve had all these different things happening in the time stream of the Marvel Universe and now, Miguel O’Hara is showing up. What could it mean?”
The time travel thing has been something that has not gone unnoticed. There’s a good bit of it going on in various Marvel titles at the moment, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all ties together.
But even before we can get interested in that, we have the return of Miguel O’Hara to be excited about. Are you looking forward to seeing how Spider-Man 2099 factors into ‘Superior Spider-Man’? Which Osborn do you think will be the one to play a part in the proceedings? And how will all this time travel affect the Marvel Universe in the long run? Speculate away in the comments.
