Spider-Man 2099 (Vol. 1) #36

Background

President Doom has made offers you can't refuse to Miguel as both himself and Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Conchata has popped Tyler, sending him to the hospital where the Venom symbiote and his new host has stopped by to visit the patient.

Story 'Venom 2099'

Venom and Spidey tumble out the window of Tyler's hospital room. While Dana sees to Tyler's safety, Spidey and Venom trade punches in a freefall. Venom secretes a acid that burns into Spidey's skin, causing him to react with a merciless blow sending the symbiote plummeting to the earth. The impact did little injury, as Venom quickly recovered.

In Miguel's apartment, Xina asks Lyla for Miguel's whereabouts. Xina spars with Lyla's literal translations with nobody to blame but herself for her programming.

Venom shifts the battle back inside the hospital, where he quickly burns some innocents. Spidey tries to web him, but Venom returns the sticky snare back onto Spidey. Venom smashes Spider-Man into several walls and flings him back outside again. With moments to spare, Spidey saves himself with a cushion of webbing. Venom, meanwhile, kills a few more people in the elevator before facing the S.H.I.E.L.D. troops. Tyler is gone, and Venom plows through the soldiers before disappearing.

Xina talks to Conchata's hologram, who doesn't know where either of her boys are. After she hangs up, Conchata resumes a recording to Gabriel to explain why she is about to kill herself.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers are no match for Venom. While Spidey recovers and works his way back into the hospital, Venom heads back towards his original target, Tyler Stone. At the same time, Kasey is greeted by her ex-boyfriend, Gabriel. She broke up with him when she realized that he really isn't Spider- Man, and is quick to dismiss him. Gabe mysteriously asks her what she would think if he actually were something he's not. She tells him to get out of her life.

Back at Alchemax, Miguel feels the benefits of sitting in Tyler Stone's seat for the first time. He gives some orders to Winston, asking him to consider the new Alchemax may now have a conscience to go with the resources. Miguel sends Winston to look up historical info on Venom, and to tell the S.H.I.E.L.D. reps to leave Spider-Man alone. Miguel calls his mother and is surprised to receive her approval of taking the promotion. Conchata hangs up, puts a gun under her chin and a gun is heard firing from outside her apartment.

Xina meets up with Miguel at Alchemax and is disgusted to see him about to become that which he hates most. Outside the office, Venom impales Winston through his chair. Xina leaves as Dana arrives. A shadowy winged figure on a rooftop confronts Kasey in Downtown. There's are screams and Miguel rushes outside his office to find Xina and Dana gripped by Venom. Venom asks Miguel to choose which woman in his life is to live or die - or else both will die.

General Comments

This was an action packed issue with an interesting villain - and late 70's / early 80's Spidey artist Keith Pollard as icing on the cake! Vancata's inks were well done too - don't know what happened to him. Looks like Xina has returned to having an Asian face, something Wildman seemed to have ignored. It's the old "Jubilee Syndrome" - why can't people draw an Asian to look like an Asian? That is...if Xina is supposed to be Asian!

The humor was light (Xina and Lyla's banter as the highlight) in a mostly gruesome story. I was glad to see Venom in 2099 - the fans seems to be a bit mixed at the time, but I was happy to see some connection to the modern era Spidey. The disconnection has been too much up to now, as far as I'm concerned. What's the harm in an occasionally look back at the way Peter Parker handled life with the webs? When this issue came out, the Peter - Miguel team-up was imminent, so Venom 2099 wasn't too much of a surprise.

Overall, the art was solid, the pacing was good, and the plot advancement ambitious considering the number of events that occurred concurrently, but it worked.

Overall Rating

A nice 4-web comic. All this praise, why not go for 5 webs? Hey, it didn't change my life, and frankly 9 years later I had forgotten most of the content, but a very well made comic.