Spider-Man 2099 (Vol. 1) #28 (Story 1)

Background

Xina and Miguel take a ride to visit their old head mistress in school, Angela Daskalakis at her company, Nightshade. Meanwhile, Alchemax deploys the powered-up Corporate Raiders to make a hostile takeover of Nightshade. When the Raiders attack, Spidey is caught between them and Nightshade's resident monster, Subject 394!

Story 'Travesty'

Though appearing like a mindless beast, Sgt. Estevez, now known as Subject 394 (note: never directly called "Travesty" in this issue), has kept his mind - and his mind is focused on revenge! Angela transmits her voice to 394, directing him to concentrate on the Corporate Raiders, not Spider-Man who has a solid anti-corporation record. Estevez ignores the direction, saying revenge on Spidey was the main reason he allowed himself to be transformed.

Spidey is outnumbered. Attacked by too many fronts, he heads for the skies while dodging killer briefcases and Subject 394.

Meanwhile, Gabe and Kasey enjoy a peaceful night. The peace is disturbed by Kasey's insistence that Gabe is secretly Spider-Man - a misunderstanding that Gabe is hopeless in persuading her towards the truth!

Nightshade's troops gather and fire upon the Corporate Raiders. Their firepower simply bounces off of the 6 Raiders. Spidey is pinned by 394's tentacles, but manages to escape by the aerial attacks of the Raider's briefcases. Angela prepares to evacuate and self-destruct her office. Spidey turns from defense back to offense against the Raiders. 394 grabs one Raider and kills him with his four arms.

The Corporate Headhunter breaks into Nightshade, and announces to Angela that she is now a division of Alchemax. She spits upon him, while the remaining four recognize the self-destruct sequence. Spidey manages to knock 394 down. The Headhunter runs past Spidey. Spidey tackles him, but hears a scream from inside the self-destructing R&D center. Spidey leaves the Headhunter (who's stuck facing 394), and discovers Angela injured on the floor. With 8 seconds before the explosion, 394 catches up to them. The building is seen exploding. Who makes it out alive? Stay tuned for Spidey 2099 #29!

General Comments

A well-made issue. Plenty of solid intense fighting that was well choreographed. I felt it had been awhile since I read a decent fight scene in Spidey 2099, and this was a nice mixture of action with the running "hostile takeover" gags adding the tongue-in-cheek tone that's run throughout the series. Still not crazy about the art style - but layouts and angles are all well designed.

Overall Rating

Part 2 of the Nightshade story made up for the slow Part 1.