2099 World of Tomorrow #3

Background

It's August 1996, and all of the original Marvel 2099 titles have officially been canceled. Was this the end of the line as a whole? Nope, it had one last gasp in this series, which threw all the heroes of 2099 (that is, those that managed to survive “The Night of the Long Knives” as detailed in {{2099 A.D.: Apocalypse #1}}) into one big book. All your favorites are here – Spider-Man 2099, Doom 2099, and... X-Nation 2099?!? But even all that (questionable) star power wasn't enough to extend its lifespan past eight issues.

Story 'Revelations'

Beneath the Savage Land, Bloodhawk and his posse are still squabbling. Willow, the mutant metamorph, is stuck in the form of a big, green alien. (She looks veeerrryyy similar to the Takers from Mars but the story doesn't go out of its way to make that connection clear.) Anyway, overcome by her bestial nature, she attacks Winn, the guy she had previously been flirting with. Nostromo pulls him out of harm's away while Hodge blasts away at her. She easily smacks him away. Next up is La Lunatica who tackles Willow from behind but gets a fist to the face for her trouble.

Back over at the Hate Boat™, Uproar is sitting in his cell being taunted by the Wild Boys. That rando girl from last issue, Fiona, tries to talk him into cooperating with his captors but he still refuses to take a life.

Meanwhile, back at the Last Refuge, the humans are revolting after they find out that the Fantastic Four have disappeared. Naturally, they think the mutants are to blame. A mob starts to form but they are stopped in their tracks by the fortuitous intervention of Victor Ten Eagles, an old colleague of Xian's from his Lawless days (see back issues of X-Men 2099 for details). It seems since Spider-Man left the populace has split into two groups – Shakti Haddad aka Cerebra is the de facto leader of the mutants and now Victor will be taking the lead for the humans. (Where he was hiding before his dramatic reappearance is anyone's guess.)

After that situation is defused, we see Shakti wandering around Reed's abandoned lab. Maddie, the girl that first arrived at the Savage Land in 2099: World of Tomorrow #1, surreptitiously follows her. They meet up in front of the Radio Shack reject dubbed Franklin, Reed's last gift to humanity. They stare dumbly up at him while he spouts dumb definitions. Neither have any idea what purpose he serves (that makes all of us).

Meanwhile, Miguel aka Spider-Man 2099 is having a meeting with the All-Father aka Doom 2099 in Castle Doom, one of the only pieces of Latvian real estate that remains above sea level. Doom gives Miguel an info dump to catch him (and us) up on things. The planetoid hovering over the world is the harbinger of an alien race (duh) that plans to take over and assimilate the earth (double duh). Doom also discloses that he has agreed to aid the aliens in their quest. You see, for some reason this advanced alien race needed a “scout” to begin the invasion proper and our man Doom has him. Well, maybe he's just hiding him away from the aliens at this point. (It's not clear whether he's in possession of this MacGuffin yet or not.)

Miguel is understandably upset at all these revelations, specifically the part where Doom sold out the entire human race. Doom waves that off by saying he only made the deal so he could get a closer look at their computer code, which he plans on using against them. And, which, for some reason he needs Miguel's help in decoding. Miguel still doesn't want to play ball with a traitor so Doom pulls his ace card – he can help Miguel find his lost brother Gabriel (aka Green Goblin 2099) who was last seen in Spider-Man 2099 #45.

Meanwhile, on Mars, Metalsmith and December argue with the Ares colonists about going out to search for Twilight. The colonists forbid them from going out looking for their missing friend, but of course they decide to disobey.

Back on Earth, or rather, underneath it, Strange is now fighting a horde of Mole Men (don't ask me where they came from) with her talking lizard friend Umi. She uses a spell of tranquility (the first clever use of her powers I've seen) to walk over their heads and down some steps. What's waiting for her at the bottom? A statue of Chimera. I already hear you asking... Chimera who? Well, she was the sidekick of the Fantastic Four that helped the group navigate the world of the future. (Unfortunately, she was killed off in X-Nation 2099 #6.)

Meanwhile, at the Last Refuge, Victor Ten Eagles is busy trying to get Xian to lend a hand in building a more compassionate and inclusive society where mutants and humans can live together in harmony. Or some such blather. The ex-leader of the X-Men, as per usual, isn't interested. Morphine Summers inserts himself into their conversation, however, and offers Victor a role as the human liaison in his new world order of mutants. Victor doesn't bite.

Leaving that non-scene, we move back to that same dang ocean liner where Uproar and Wulff are the unwilling guests of the Wild Boys. The bad guys have finally cut to the chase and pitted Uproar against his now fully transformed wolf buddy in the Rumble Bubble™. Uproar is still hesitant to use lethal force, instead trying the ol' talking sense into him routine... “Snap out of it, butt munch or I'll neuter you.” Not exactly “Search your feelings, Father, you can't do this. I feel the conflict within you. Let go of your hate.” But, hey, it can't all be poetry...

Surprisingly Uproar's ploy works and now the two X-Bruhs™ team up and break out of the arena. Fiona once again shows up out of nowhere and helps them escape. But, Wulff doesn't want to jump ship until he meets the Big Boss everyone has been talking about. Sigh...

We then segue back underground, where Willow is still beating the crap out of her teammates. Bloodhawk knocks her into a deep pool of water and she sinks down to the bottom. Nostromo quickly jumps in after her. Now, there's two members of the group that are in danger of drowning. La Lunatica starts to dive in when Willow (in her normal form once again) resurfaces. When she finds out Nostromo switched places with her at the bottom of the pool then she plunges back in to retrieve him! What is even going on here?

Meanwhile, we don't see Miguel's response to Doom's blatant bribery, but the next time we see him he is looking through a microscope (Science!) in the Fatherland's super hi-tech lab. It looks like he's already figured out a way to shield people from the techno-organic virus that the aliens use to assimilate their foes, but can't quite figure out how to fully control it yet. The Emissary pops in from wherever he is hanging out and reveals the satellite is really the Phalanx - a race of computer beings who originally tried to take over the earth 100 years ago.

On Mars, Metalsmith and December evade the security robots of the Ares colony with the help of Dr. Isaacs, who is doing her best Evil Knievel impression with a borrowed hovecycle. (Speaking of, where exactly is Ghost Rider 2099 while all this is taking place? Surely his powers would come in mighty handy right now!) The three are knocked off their ride, however, by a blast from a group of Takers who loom menacingly over them.

Back on earth, Shakti uses her telepathic powers to probe Franklin's “mind” and is knocked unconscious. Maddie runs to get help.

And for our final meanwhile, we see Strange fighting the statue of Chimera using up all her mystical powers and thus knocking herself out. The statue hints that Chimera is connected to the Sorceress Supreme's brother in some way (we'll find out how next issue) but the full story is cut short by the big reveal of the mastermind behind this whole Journey to the Center of the Savage Land™ - Garokk aka the Petrified Man (an old Ka-Zar foe, who at the time hadn't appeared anywhere for the last ten years or so)!

General Comments

The Phalanx being revealed as the Big Bad was supposed to be the big twist of this issue, and it lands with a big thud. This techno-organic computer collective was first introduced in Uncanny X-Men #305 circa 1993, so I guess you can count this as a sort of lame X-Men crossover if you want. I won't pretend to know much more about the lore of these guys, but just like everything the X-Men touch it's probably both overly complicated and completely derivative. Anyway, I think by 1997 all the originality had been wrung out of the concept and why the writers resurrected them for this storyline is anybody's guess.

Overall Rating

Wow, talking about underwhelming.