Spider-Man 2099 #3: "Nothing Gained"

**** (four of five stars)

Favorite Quote:  "I figure I've got talons, fangs, accelerated vision...web spinners all over my forearms...which beats shooting them out my butt, I suppose..."  -- Miguel, stating the obvious to Lyla

Summary

Miguel continues to recount his last few days to Lyla.  When he last left the story he was confronting Venture and here he informs her that their battle was disrupted by a group of Thorites, who arrive to defend the "harbinger of Thor."  Venture easily fends off the Thorites, committing not to hurt them so long as Miguel surrenders.  Miguel attacks him, but Venture parries, using his staff to numb Miguel's right arm.  Miguel decides to surrender to Venture, hoping he can work out something with Alchemax, when a Baldur attacks Venture.  Losing his patience, Venture kills him, inspiring Spider-Man to attack him.  Miguel manages to slide under Venture's staff and land a punch.  Venture shoots at him with his canon and Miguel flees, intending to retrace his steps to his apartment so that it matches the heat signature Venture had been following before Miguel interrupted him.  Miguel flies through his lobby, passing by Gabe (who was leaving after Miguel threw him into the hallway at the end of last issue), who wonders, "It...it can't be...was that...?"  Venture then tears by him, following Miguel's heat signature.  He fires a shot at Miguel as he's departing the elevator shaft on his floor and Miguel makes his way into his own apartment.  Before leaping through the window he broke last issue, he tells Lyla to play dumb to Venture, instructing her to tell him that a "man in black" went through the window.  Venture follows Spider-Man out the window and they engage in a mid-air fight.  Venture manages to wrap him in "molecularly dense body wrap," congratulating him for giving him "the longest workout" he's had in a while.  Gabe enters Miguel's apartment and asks Lyla where Miguel was; Lyla responds he left "five point three minutes ago" and Gabe (ominously) asks what he was wearing.

Venture informs Tyler Stone that he captured Miguel and Stone says that he looks forward to questioning Spider-Man, or, at least, confirming his suspicions.  Spidey uses his talons to escape his bonds and the two begin to fight mid-air again, with Spider-Man slashing one of Venture's jet boots.  Venture grabs Spidey by the arm, causing Miguel to shoot a web in his face, making Miguel realize for the first time that he has that power.  The two drop to the ground and Spidey takes advantage of the fact that his webbing is still blinding Venture by picking up a maglev car and trying to use the like polarity to repel Venture "into the next county."  He only manages to repel Venture's gun and they resume their fight.  Spidey sees his opportunity when he realizes that Venture doesn't notice that his gun, which is magnetized to his back, is coming straight at him (returning from being expelled by the like polarity).  Venture is momentarily stunned when it slams into him and Miguel grabs his staff and jams it into the exposed wiring in his jet boot, causing him to short circuit.  In the present, Miguel tells Lyla that he's been canvasing the city for the last few days to throw off any other heat tracers like Venture.  He logs his powers to Lyla:  talons, fangs, accelerated vision, and web spinners (plus super-strength, which he doesn't mention, but displayed when he picked up the maglev car).  He notes to Lyla that his fiancée is terrified of him, his brother thinks he's sold his soul to Alchemax (which Miguel concedes he might have done), and Venture might be on-line again and after him by now.  As he asks Lyla how things could possibly get worse, Stone arrives at his door, telling him he wants to talk about Spider-Man.

The Review

Looking at this origin arc, I really have to take off my hat to David for writing a real Spider-Man story.  I've mentioned several ways in which David has drawn inspiration from Peter Parker, from the first issue's inverted parallel to Peter's origin to last issue's welcome introduction of Miguel's wit.  This issue sees Miguel using his brains to defeat the villain, another hallmark of a classic Spider-Man story.  Moreover, David has also really gone to town in giving us an introductory tour of this futuristic world, from millennial religious cults to scheming evil corporations.

The Good

1) Aha!  Double tracking over the heat signature wipes out the path!  I trusted David to have some sort of answer to my question from last issue of how Miguel was going to throw Venture off his path.  I figured Venture would have to be destroyed, but it seemed far-fetched to think Miguel would've managed to accomplish that feat on his first mission.  The doubling-back gambit, though, makes total sense.  As I've noted several times in my "X-Factor" reviews, David rarely lets loose ends hang and the fact that he took the time to wrap up this one just shows the attention he pays to his stories.

2) I liked how David had Miguel use his brains to defeat Venture.  Almost all the best Spider-Man stories involve Peter using his genius to find a way to defeat the villain.  (If I wanted to see him win just by slugging on someone more than he got slugged, I'd read "The Incredible Hulk.")  Here, Miguel creates a like polarity between Venture and a maglev car in attempt to repel Venture "into the next county."  It doesn't work exactly according to plan, since he only managed to expel Venture's gun.  However, it works when the gun eventually returns because it was magnetized to Venture's back, knocking him off his feet and giving Miguel his opening.  Smarts over brawn is always more interesting and I'm glad to see David is taking cues from Spider-Man 2099's inspiration, Peter Parker.

3) I haven't talked about the art yet, but Leonardi has a great sense of movement.  This issue is basically one long, protracted battle and Leonardi does an amazing job depicting it, making you feel the tension, particularly of the mid-air battles.  It really made for an exciting issue that didn't feel at all expository, since you were so caught by the action that you barely noticed that you were also learning more and more about the characters.

4) David manage to cram a lot of character dynamics into this opening arc.  We've got the unresolved situation with Dana, the burgeoning conflict with Stone, and the insightful questioning of Gabe.  You can tell nothing is going to get resolved shortly, which'll make the next few issues pretty interesting.  I also liked how David has both Gabe and Stone suspicious.  It's often so difficult to believe the extreme measures authors will employ to make people unaware that, you know, the guy wearing the glasses in front of them is actually as superhero "in disguise."  I love that David starts, right off the bat, with two people having a pretty damn good idea who Spider-Man is.  I'm sure David will bide his time and just use it to add to tension, but it's such a great example of the fact that he respects the reader, something we see all the time in "X-Factor."