2099: Genesis

Background

The heroes are dead. Long live the heroes!

Galahad, Hulk, Metalscream, and Punisher were all killed off in 2099 A.D.: Apocalypse #1. Does this signal the end of the Marvel 2099 line?

The short answer is no.

Story '"Midday Sun"'

We start our story off in the Negative Zone. There are four stasis pods being guarded by some guys in spacesuits. Suddenly, an electrical storm turns up and the security force has to evacuate the station. The power surge from the storm activates the stasis pods, however, and they slowly begin to open.

Before we can see who emerges (like you don’t know already) we cut to a bleak and dusty desert. A bare-chested guy with a long, brown duster and a cowboy hat on is reminiscing about old times. He’s on a mission, and must reach Halo City (the base of the X-Men 2099 and haven for mutants that was established while Doom was ruler of America).

Now let’s move over to New York City, to the neighborhood formerly known as Hell’s Kitchen. A man dressed all in black stands on a rooftop, thinking back on the Night of the Long Knives (detailed in 2099 A.D.: Apocalypse #1). Instead of wallowing in despair at the loss of the heroes, he was inspired to do what he could to fill their shoes by protecting the innocent.

Next up comes four single page pin-ups of the survivors of the aforementioned massacre. We’re treated to short introductory bios of Doom, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man and the X-Men.

Back in Hell’s Kitchen, Daredevil is beating up some drug dealers. As he goes into battle two red D’s light up on his chest and a glowing red baton forms in his hand. He takes the drug dealers out easily, and gets the name of their supplier – Frank Wilson, a bigshot executive that works for Alchemax.

Meanwhile, in Halo City, Dust meets up with Shakti of the X-Men and convinces her to take him to Morphine Summers, the de facto mayor. Once they get to his office, Dust forces him to taken them down to a dungeon where he’s holding some supposedly dangerous mutant outlaws. We can’t see their faces because they’re in shadows, but you can tell that they’re just a bunch of kids.

Then Dust launches into a long speech about how he received a vision, and that one of the kids before him is destined to become the Mutant Messiah. He also says that back in the days of the original X-Men he had turned his back on his own people, and he didn’t want the kids to make the same mistake he did. It’s all very melodramatic and convoluted (just like every other X-Men storyline I’ve ever read).

In New York, Daredevil visits the office of Frank Wilson. He roughs him up a bit, and tells him to keep his hands off Hell’s Kitchen. Then he jumps out the window and disappears into the sunset.

General Comments

Well, at least this book was a lot cheerier than the last one, even if it was just as hard to follow.

Overall Rating

Let’s take a moment and break things down. Daredevil 2099 and Fantastic Four 2099 are retreads from the 616 Marvel Universe. X-Nation is the only “new” characters introduced in the book and they’re really just an offshoot of the X-Men 2099. It doesn’t look like there’ll be a lot of original ideas in the new and improved Marvel 2099!

Footnote

Out of the three “new” characters (or groups) introduced, only the Fantastic Four and X-Nation get their own monthly books. And while Daredevil looked really cool, it was probably for the best that he didn’t get one because the other two series couldn’t even make it past 8 issues.