Marvel 2099

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Marvel 2099
Variant cover art to Spider-Man 2099 vol. 3 #4 (December 2015).
Art by Pasqual Ferry
Publication information
ScheduleVaried
FormatsVaried
Original languageEnglish
Genre
Publication date1992–1999

Marvel 2099 was a Marvel Comics imprint, started in 1992, that was originally about one possible future of the Marvel Universe, but later revealed[1] 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.

Publication history[edit]

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".[2]

Growth and decline[edit]

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.[3]

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.

End of the imprint[edit]

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.

Subsequent appearances[edit]

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.[4]

In 2019 in Amazing Spider-Man #25, Lizard (character)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.[5] 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.[6]

Setting[edit]

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).

Card system[edit]

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.

Characters[edit]

This section contains the characters from each of the 2099 realities:

Heroes[edit]

Protagonists[edit]

X-Men 2099[edit]
  • Bloodhawk (Lemuel Krugg)
  • Cerebra (Shakti Haddad)
  • Junkpile
  • Krystalin (Krystalin Porter Ogada)
  • La Lunatica
  • Meanstreak (Henri Huang)
  • Metalhead (Eddie Van Beethoven-Osako)
  • Serpentina (Kimberly Potters)
  • Skullfire (Timothy Sean Michael Fitzgerald)
  • Desert Ghost (Xi'an Chi Xan)
X-Nation 2099[edit]
  • Cerebra (Shakti Haddad)
  • Clarion (Hayes Isaacs)
  • December (December Frost)
  • Metalsmith
  • Nostromo
  • Twilight
  • Uproar
  • Willow
  • Wulff
Fantastic Four 2099[edit]
Other heroes[edit]

Villains[edit]

  • Adonai (leader of LA "locusts")
  • False Aesir (Thor/Cecil McAdams, Hela/Tiana, Loki/Jordan Boone, Balder, Heimdall)
  • Anti-Hulk
  • The Architect (Ryu Kobolt)
  • Avatarr (CEO of Alchemax; secretly an alien)
  • Brimstone Love and the Theatre of Pain
  • Captain America (an impostor posing as Steve Rogers)
  • Coda
  • Dethstryk and the Mutroids of Hellrock
  • Discord
  • Doctor Octopus 2099 (an Atlantean with octopus tentacles)
  • Draco
  • Electro 2099
  • Exodus
  • Fearmaster (Darryl King)
  • Fever
  • Flipside
  • Goblin
  • Glitterspike
  • Gearbox
  • Goblin
  • The Golden One
  • Halloween Jack (Jordan Boone, also known as Loki; later traveled to the present in X-Force #92)
  • Heartbreaker
  • Anderthorp Henton (Director-General of ECO)
  • Hotwire (Dean Gallows, son of Jake Gallows)
  • Multi-Fractor/Jigsaw
  • Dyson Kellerman (CEO of Transverse City Security)
  • L-Cypher
  • Master Zhao and the Chosen (One-Eyed Jack, Psycho-K, Frostbite, Wingspan, and Monster)
  • Masters of Evil 2099
  • The Norns of the Theatre of Pain (Felicity, Bliss, Euphoria)
  • Public Enemy (Saber Hagen)
  • The Rat Pack (the Dealer, the Suicide Master, Mister Entertainment)
  • Sandwoman
  • Scorpion (Kron Stone from the "Timestorm 2009–2099" reality)
  • The Shadow Dancer
  • Sinister Six 2099 (Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Sandwoman, Venom, and Vulture)
  • The Specialist
  • Tyler Stone (dictator of Latveria in 2099 and former employee of Alchemax)
  • The Synge Family (Noah, Lytton, and Desdemona)
  • Technarchy/Phalanx
  • Thanatos (Aaron Delgado possessed by an alternate-reality version of Rick Jones)
  • Tiger Wylde
  • Vengeance 2099
  • Venom (there are two known Venom 2099 versions)
    • Venom (Kron Stone)
    • Venom (Alea Bell)
  • Venture (Queeg)
  • Vulture 2099

Mega-corporations[edit]

  • Alchemax (CEO Avatarr; VP Tyler Stone) and its subsidiaries
    • ECO Corp. (CEO Ravage; Director-General Anderthorp Henton)
    • Public Eye (Director Fearmaster)
    • R&D Department (Director Tyler Stone; employees include Miguel O'Hara, Jordan Boone, and Aaron Delgado)
  • Cyber-Nostra (controlled by Fearmaster)
  • D/MONIX (Data Manipulation and Organization Networks) (CEO Dyson Kellerman; employees include Harrison Cochrane [Ghost Rider's father])
  • Greater Nevada Syndicate (controlled by the Synge Family)
  • Green Globe PLC (founded by the Ravage family)
  • Ninja-Nostra
  • Stark-Fujikawa (formerly Stark Enterprises) (CEO Hikaru-sama)
  • Synthia (CEO Darrius Rush; employees include Mannix Dunn, Dana D'Angelo [Spider-Man's fiancée], Alain Gris [Group Manager for Sky Plantations])

Marvel Knights 2099 heroes[edit]

2099 series and one-shots[edit]

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[8] 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

In other media[edit]

Television[edit]

  • An original incarnation of Iron Man 2099 appears in a self-titled episode of Iron Man: Armored Adventures, voiced by an uncredited actor. This version is Andros Stark, grandson of Tony Stark who travels back in time to kill him before he can create an A.I. called "Vortex", which goes on to kill most of humanity. Along the way, he allies himself with Justin Hammer who is reputed as a hero by 2099. Andros eventually succeeds in killing Tony, but the latter infects his armor with an advanced virus. Realizing it will evolve into Vortex, Andros travels back in time to stop himself, successfully changing history at the cost of his existence.
  • Spider-Man 2099 and Earth-928 appear in the Ultimate Spider-Man episode "The Spider-Verse: Part 1", with Spider-Man 2099 voiced by Freddy Rodriguez. Additionally, a 2099-inspired incarnation of J. Jonah Jameson (voiced by J.K. Simmons) appears as well.
  • A cyborg descendant of Heinrich and Helmut Zemo from 2099 makes a minor non-speaking appearance in the Avengers Assemble episode "The House of Zemo", voiced by an uncredited actor.

Film[edit]

Video games[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ In the Superior Spider-Man "Goblin Nation" arc and Amazing Spider-Man vol. 3 #14
  2. ^ "Wizard Market Watch". Wizard. No. 22. June 1993. pp. 134–5.
  3. ^ 2099 Apocalypse. Marvel Comics.
  4. ^ Gerding, Stephen (October 20, 2015). "'Vader Down' Concludes, Deadpool 2099 Debuts & More Marvel January Highlights". CBR.com.
  5. ^ "The Future is Now: See the 2099 Variants Coming to Marvel Comics This November".
  6. ^ Spider-Man 2099: Exodus Omega #1. Marvel Comics.
  7. ^ Kaminski, Len (w), Wood, Ashley (p), Daly, Jim (i). "Chthonic Park", "Hell on Earth", Ghost Rider 2099 #18-19 (October–November 1995). Marvel Comics.
  8. ^ Deadpool 2099 stories were featured in Deadpool (vol. 6) #6, 12, 19 and 25.
  9. ^ Kleinman, Jake (November 28, 2018). "'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' Post-Credits Has an Oscar Isaac Cameo". Inverse. Archived from the original on November 29, 2018. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  10. ^ Coggen, Devan (4 December 2021). "Miles Morales is back in first look at Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One)". EW.com. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2021.