Exiles #76

Background

The Exiles have met Kevin MacTaggert, aka the reality-bending mutant known as Proteus, which resulted in his possession of Mimic's body. Using his abilities, Proteus traveled to the alternate dimension known as the New Universe where he discarded Mimic's withered husk for that of John Tensen, aka Justice. After his defeat by the Exiles with the help of Longshot, Proteus' next stop was the 2099 universe where he found the perfect body: Hulk 2099!

CURRENT EXILES:

SABRETOOTH (Victor Creed): Enhanced senses and healing.

BLINK (Clarice Ferguson): Teleportation.

MORPH: Shape-shifting.

SASQUATCH (Dr. Heather Hudson): Super strength and senses.

LONGSHOT: Agility and luck powers.

SPIDER-MAN 2099 (Miguel O'Hara): Spider-like powers and talons.

Story Details

Spider-Man 2099 and Longshot look at what was once the Stark-Fujikawa building, now twisted into a sinister face...complete with a mouth that spits out Morph and Sabretooth. Spidey saves Sabretooth as Morph glides himself to safety, while they all realize that Blink is still trapped inside...with him. Proteus tells Blink about the residual feelings he has for her from Calvin, before purging the building of all its employees to give them some privacy to talk. Morph and Spidey provide cushioning for all the people, while Longshot uses his luck powers to get himself back into the building. He grabs Blink, shields her, and allows her to use her power to get them out of there.

Spidey does his best to get inside the building to help the hero whom he believes is suicidal, while trying too bat away the Public Eye cameras. Meanwhile, across the world interest parties watch the feed with thoughts on how they can turn it towards their advantage. Back in New York, Stark-Fujikawa specialists descend to try and reclaim their company for their boss. Proteus easily smashes through them, then catches Spidey as he tries to help Boone escape. Curious if he was the same Spidey as on his world, Proteus unmasks him in front of Boone and several Public Eye cameras where Tyler Stone and rival corporate executives watch.

Each one of them, including Dr. Doom, offer Hulk their services to find the perfect host if he works with them, but Spidey tells him about how they'll cage him like a rat to study if he agrees to go with any of them. After a reality check on Boone's part, he backs Spidey's story up. Proteus realizes he's done with this world and moves on just as the Exiles arrive. Finding his departure, the team gets ready to leave as well when Spidey asks to join them now that his over's blown and his convincing Proteus to leave makes whoever else he puts in jeopardy his responsibility.

Meanwhile, Boone is chewed out by Stone for bringing Proteus here, which sparks interest in his project by his competitors. Boone has just found himself a new payday.

General Comments

A pretty good conclusion to this part of the story, with a new twist thrown in that may offer some complications down the road. Although the story was good, it was kind of disappointing the whole expedition to this universe was left almost exclusively in the Spidey 2099 world with a brief cameo by Doom 2099 and of course Hulk 2099, with absolutely no venturing outward to any of the other characters that appeared during the time of that imprint save for the covers of the last two issues. But despite that, the story continues to entertain and chug along strong.

Overall Rating

4 Webs. Disappointing not many 2099 characters made it into this adventure, but what we got was still good none the less.

Footnote

In every issue, Morph takes on some familiar and unusual forms. Here, we'll try to chronicle as many as we can in a section we'll call: MORPH'S MORPHS!

Morph's morphs: hang-glider, air bag, J. Jonah Jameson