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| Marvel 2099 | |
|---|---|
Variant cover art to Spider-Man 2099 vol. 3 #4 (December 2015).
Art by Pasqual Ferry | |
| Publication information | |
| Schedule | Varied |
| Formats | Varied |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | 1992–1999 |
[1]Marvel 2099 was a Marvel Comics imprint, started in 1992, that was originally about one possible future of the Marvel Universe, but later revealed[2] to be the Earth of the main Marvel continuity in the distant future. It was originally announced by Stan Lee in his "Stan's Soapbox" column as a single series entitled The Marvel World of Tomorrow, which was being developed by Lee and John Byrne. This later changed to a line of books under the banner Marvel 2093 (the date being one hundred years from the year in which the titles launched) before finally being published as Marvel 2099.
Three of the initial four titles launched—Doom 2099, Punisher 2099, and Spider-Man 2099—starred futuristic takes on pre-existing characters. The fourth, Ravage 2099, featured an all-new superhero, scripted for several months by Stan Lee. The 2099 line soon expanded to include 2099 Unlimited, Fantastic Four 2099, Ghost Rider 2099, Hulk 2099, X-Men 2099, and X-Nation 2099. While it has been confirmed to be a possible future version of Earth-616, the mainstream Marvel Universe, the 2099 universe has been officially designated as Earth-928 and alternatively dubbed as Earth-616 circa 2099, or simply Earth-2099.
The initial universe began with Spider-Man 2099, Ravage 2099, Doom 2099, and Punisher 2099 being launched in subsequent months. Peter David wrote Spider-Man for the bulk of the series, and it was consistently the most popular series.[citation needed] It satirized corporations, with Spider-Man constantly clashing with Alchemax, which employed him in his secret identity. Stan Lee wrote the first eight issues of Ravage as an extremely political story about corruption, corporate pollution, and the environment. After Lee left, he was replaced by a series of writers. In 1993, Wizard reported that the 2099 line had "gone over fairly well with the fans".[3]
Fans requested further titles, and Marvel provided X-Men 2099. They also introduced a Hulk 2099 in the series 2099 Unlimited, which featured occasional Spider-Man 2099 stories, as well as early work by Warren Ellis. The comics had a strong degree of interconnectivity that was similar to comics published by Marvel in the 1960s due to the imprint's editor Joey Cavalieri. The only cross-title crossover within the 2099 universe, The Fall of the Hammer, detailed a plot by the corporations to technologically recreate the Norse pantheon, along with a new Thor, to distract attention from the anti-corporate superheroes.
The 2099 series expanded to include Ghost Rider 2099, about a hero whose consciousness had been downloaded into a robotic body. Hulk 2099 was also given a brief chance at his own series. As sales began to flag on all titles besides Spider-Man and X-Men, Marvel commissioned ideas from various writers, including a proposal by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, before accepting Warren Ellis's idea that Doom 2099, revealed to be, in fact, Victor Von Doom, would take over the United States.[citation needed] Each title had the modifier "A.D." ("After Doom") added on the logo to reflect the change. The new storyline allowed Marvel to cancel several low-selling titles (Hulk, Ravage, and The Punisher).[citation needed] The in-universe reason for the heroes' deaths was President Rogers (an impostor Captain America who was instated after Doom was violently ousted from office) ordered the execution of the super heroes, including Punisher, Hulk and a handful of low-tier heroes who had appeared in 2099 Unlimited.[4]
In 1996, when Marvel, during a cost-cutting exercise, fired Cavalieri, many of the 2099 creators (including Peter David and Warren Ellis) quit the line in protest. With the line floundering, two additional titles were launched: X-Nation 2099, a spin-off of X-Men 2099, and Fantastic Four 2099, which featured characters who were apparently the present day Fantastic Four accidentally sent into the future.[citation needed]
Around this time, Doom 2099 became the only 2099 comic to crossover with a present-day Marvel comic when he traveled back to 1996 and met Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, and Namor in a story partially told in Fantastic Four #413. Spider-Man 2099 met the original Spider-Man in a special one-shot issue, making them the only characters to meet their counterparts.
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Parts of this article (those related to Timestorm and the second Spider-Man title) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (October 2014)
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After sales slumped, the 2099 titles were canceled and replaced by 2099: World of Tomorrow, a single title featuring the surviving characters from all the titles. The series lasted only eight issues before being canceled.[citation needed]
The 2099 line was concluded with a one-shot, 2099: Manifest Destiny (March 1998), in which Captain America was found in suspended animation and, with Miguel O'Hara, assembled various 2099 heroes into a new team of Avengers. The story summarized the years from 2099 to 3099, with humanity transforming the corporate world of 2099 into a utopia and then expanding into space.
The 2099 world has been seen occasionally since, most notably in Peter David's "Future Tense" storyline in Captain Marvel, which revisited both Spider-Man 2099 and the alternate future of the Maestro that David created in The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect, explaining a plot point which had been left dangling since David had abruptly left Spider-Man 2099.
In 2004, writer Robert Kirkman wrote a series of one-shot comics for the fifth anniversary of the Marvel Knights imprint, under the heading Marvel Knights 2099. The future portrayed in this series is unconnected to the original 2099 Universe, which included a different Punisher 2099.
In 2005, the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe one-shot, involving alternate universes, designated the Earth of 2099 as Earth-928, with Marvel Knights 2099 designated as Earth-2992. A cover of a second printing from the Spider-Man storyline "The Other: Evolve or Die" features Miguel O'Hara / Spider-Man 2099.
In 2006, the Exiles visited the Marvel Universe 2099 in Exiles #75-76 as part of the "World Tour" arc. This future had split apart from the mainstream 2099 fairly early, as Doom 2099 had not yet met Spider-Man 2099. Spider-Man 2099 joined the Exiles and left with them.
In 2009 Marvel published miniseries "Timestorm," crossing the current Marvel Universe with yet another alternate version of 2099. The Spider-Man 2099 of this reality is a teenager.
In 2013, Spider-Man 2099 became trapped in the mainstream Marvel Universe in The Superior Spider-Man. In 2014 he would star in an ongoing series and become involved in the "Spider-Verse" storyline, along with numerous other alternate reality Spider-Men. Notably the Spider-Men 2099s of the "Exiles" and "Timestorm" series are killed during this event. At the end of this storyline, the 2099 timeline has been altered.
The 2099 universe is involved in the 2015 storyline "Secret Wars".
In 2016, an issue of Deadpool debuted the 2099 version of Deadpool.[5]
In 2019 in Amazing Spider-Man #25, Dr. Connors is giving a lecture on the negligence of the world and environment due to focus on the countless occurrences of superhero activity will end up negatively impacting the future, to the point of catastrophe. Meanwhile, set to his lecture, strange weather phenomenon is occurring above a burning oil rig. A rift opens in the sky and a figure falls out of it, landing on the dock of the rig. The workers un-bury the figure, revealing an unconscious Spider-Man 2099. There was later a series of one-shots to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Marvel 2099. It incorporated the ongoing storyline from Amazing Spider-Man that not only reintroduced Spider-Man 2099, Fantastic Four 2099, Doom 2099, Punisher 2099, and Venom 2099 in individual one-shot issues, but also introduced Conan 2099.[6] Ulana the Watcher narrated that this reality of Earth-2099 is a combination of Earth-928 and the other Marvel 2099 realities which have been rewoven together.[7]
The world of 2099 is a cyberpunk dystopia (similar to the world of Blade Runner). North America is a corporate police state ruled by a few huge megacorporations, most notably Alchemax, which owns the private police force the Public Eye (which primarily punishes criminals' bank accounts). There were, prior to the launch of the comics, no active superheroes in this world, and the previous heroes are mythologized through religion, as with the Church of Thor. The present-day Marvel continuity is referred to as an "Age of Heroes" that abruptly ended in a catastrophe a century before that also set back society (this catastrophe was averted in the present when Miguel O'Hara- Spider-Man 2099- temporarily swapped places with his past self shortly before the cataclysm, turning Miguel's world into an alternate future of the Marvel Universe rather than the future).
In the 2099 Universe, the monetary currency system uses implants commonly known as cards, which are credit ID implants. There are aluminum cards, gold cards, and platinum cards. Another type of card are black cards, which give the owner unlimited funds and law immunity.
This section contains the characters from each of the 2099 realities:
| Title | Issues | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 2099 A.D. | 1 | May 1995 |
| 2099 A.D. Apocalypse | 1 | December 1995 |
| 2099 A.D. Genesis | 1 | January 1996 |
| 2099 Alpha | 1 | January 2020 |
| 2099 Limited (Ashcan) | 1 | 1993 |
| 2099 Manifest Destiny | 1 | March 1998 |
| 2099 Omega | 1 | February 2020 |
| 2099 Sketchbook | 1 | September 1993 |
| 2099 Unlimited | 10 | July 1993 – October 1995 |
| 2099 World of Doom Special | 1 | May 1995 |
| 2099 World of Tomorrow | 8 | September 1996 – April 1997 |
| Black Panther 2099 | 1 | September 2004 |
| Conan 2099 | 1 | January 2020 |
| Daredevil 2099 | 1 | September 2004 |
| Deadpool 2099 | 4[9] | January 2016 - January 2017 |
| Doom 2099 | 44 | January 1993 – August 1996 |
| Doom 2099 (vol. 2) | 1 | February 2020 |
| Fantastic Four 2099 | 8 | January – August 1996 |
| Fantastic Four 2099 (vol. 2) | 1 | January 2020 |
| Ghost Rider 2099 | 25 | May 1994 – May 1996 |
| Ghost Rider 2099 (vol. 2) | 1 | February 2020 |
| Hulk 2099 | 10 | December 1994 – September 1995 |
| Inhumans 2099 | 1 | September 2004 |
| Mutant 2099 | 1 | September 2004 |
| Punisher 2099 | 34 | February 1993 – November 1995 |
| Punisher 2099 (vol. 2) | 1 | September 2004 |
| Punisher 2099 (vol. 3) | 1 | January 2020 |
| Ravage 2099 | 33 | December 1992 – August 1995 |
| Secret Wars 2099 | 5 | May 2015 - September 2015 |
| Spider-Man 2099 | 46 | November 1992 – August 1996 |
| Spider-Man 2099 (vol. 2) | 12 | July 2014 – June 2015 |
| Spider-Man 2099 (vol. 3) | 25 | October 2015 – July 2017 |
| Spider-Man 2099 (vol. 4) | 1 | February 2020 |
| Spider-Man 2099 Annual | 1 | 1994 |
| Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man | 1 | November 1995 |
| Spider-Man 2099 Special | 1 | November 1995 |
| Venom 2099 | 1 | February 2020 |
| X-Men 2099 | 35 | October 1993 – August 1996 |
| X-Men 2099 Special | 1 | October 1995 |
| X-Men 2099: Oasis | 1 | August 1996 |
| X-Nation 2099 | 6 | March – August 1996 |
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