** (two of five stars)
Summary
Approaching the entrance to a hospital, a man and woman discuss their son, who's been hospitalized because he suffers from diabetes, a condition he inherited from his mother. The man tells his wife not to worry, since, after "a simple liver regrowth," she turned out fine. They comment on the significant number of police officers in the lobby as they make their way to the elevator bay and, elsewhere in the lobby, a nurse calls for the Private Eye to send additional officers before "that maniac kills everyone in the ward!" Arriving on their floor, they witness a masked man killing their son. The man declares that he killed the couple's son because "medical charts don't lie" and killing the son is better for "the survival of humanity." He then flees through a window. Weeks later, Spidey stops a mugging; when the Private Eye arrives on the scene, the officers open fire at him. Lamenting the fact that he never gets praised for his heroism, Miguel makes his way to his office at Alchemax and changes into his civilian clothes just before "Anna" arrives for a lunch date. At the Alchemax Commissary, Miguel asks after Anna's sister Carrie, who suffers from a rare genetic deformity. She tells Miguel that she's worried about her, because of the guy who's killed four patients in the last two weeks. Miguel offers to go with her when she visits her sister at ESU Hospital that evening. "Elsewhere, that evening," the masked man from earlier is observing a series of images of animals with special adaptions (flying squirrel, Masai giraffe, gibbon) and exposits his life story, beginning with the fact that his only child died because she inherited a "bizarre flaw in [his] DNA." A geneticist, he dedicated himself to analyzing the flaw, driven to correct it. This drive brought him to the brink of insanity and he lost his wife in a divorce in the process. He finally developed a cure that has "unpredictable results," giving him the ability to sub-consciously adapt to circumstances (the reason why he was studying the animals). Calling himself Mutagen, he heads into the night because the "tainted" gene pool needs another cleansing. At ESU Hospital, Anna and Miguel arrive to visit Carrie, and Miguel gives her a "holo-book" of "A Tale of Two Cities." Down the hall, a security guard discovers Mutagen killing a woman and shouts for back-up when Mutagen attacks him. Miguel makes his way into the hallway, wondering why the Private "Eyeballs" have started a "shooting war" in the hospital. He ducks into a medical-supply closet to change into Spider-Man as Mutagen selects another victim, a woman with degenerative nerve disease. Spidey arrives just in time, punching Mutagen across the chin and buying the woman time to escape. He's stunned, however, when Mutagen faces him anew, this time with spikes on his chin, his adaptation to Spidey having punched him there. Mutagen laments fighting Spidey, since he's from "superior genetic stock," but says he'll kill him if he tries to impede Mutagen's mission. Mutagen then exposits said mission, noting that humanity has stopped evolving and, if it continues to nurture those with inherited defects, the gene pool will never improve. Realizing that Mutagen adapts as they fight, Miguel tries to knock him unconscious before he can change. But, Mutagen adapts, creating a bone plating that protects him from attacks and then, after Spidey webs him in a cocoon, sharp claws that allows him to free himself. The two fall into Carrie's room, knocking loose a water pipe. Mutagen realizes that Carrie has a genetic aberration, but, before he can kill her, Spidey pulls the electronic medical device off its stand with his webs and into the pool of water where Mutagen is standing. Spidey laments having to kill Mutagen, only to discover that he survived, his body having insulated him in time. Mutagen departs into the night, noting that he had been thinking too small and thanking Spidey for helping him realize that he wasn't "doing it right."The Hulk is making his way across the Mojave desert, having walked 300 miles on his "hunt." He arrives on the outskirts of Los Angeles, where he apparently picks up his prey's scent. He makes his way into the city, but gets spotted by a woman looking out the window of her bathroom. She activates her "Sweet Dreams Security Systems" alarm and several officers scramble to her house. The Hulk makes quick work of them, but, realizing that more and more offices will come after him, he decides to change into "that puny, pink human," his alter ego, John Eisenhart. Later, Eisenhart is walking into work with some colleagues, who give him a hard time for having been gone for six days. One named Ty jokes that John finished the script treatment for the "How I Did the Knights of the Banner Deal," calling him a "true warrior." John notes that they believe that Hollywood is a warrior society and Ty comments that you can only make it in the entertainment industry if you have the "courage and ferocity" of an ancient warrior. The discussion is interrupted by Audra, a holographic projection, who tells John to see "Kiyoshi" about getting a project to replace the Knights development. Eisenhart is shocked, because the Knights were his deal, and learns that Ty took over the account while John was gone. (Ty remarks, "Warrior society, John.") Later, John is approached by the studio's "mental adjustment" specialist, "Dr. Phil," who tells John he has to come see him about possible "post-traumatic stress" after his trouble in the desert. John doesn't want to go, but apparently, if Dr. Phil says that John is in "denial," it will go on his resumé, an entry that the entertainment industry doesn't like to see. In a flashback, we learn that John is a "concept hunter" for virtual-reality software that the public is addicted into using. He had gone to the "Fringie" (though I think the extra "i" is a typo), the un-policed California wastelands, to hunt down the "Knights of the Banner," which he believes sounds like a new Cult of Thor. He observes that Nirvana Multimedia was originally involved in marketing the Cult of Thor as a new religion to its followers and hopes he can do the same with the Knights. John arrives at Lone Mountain, an abandoned studio lot consisting of a castle, where the Knights live. There, John encounters a group of shirtless men throwing swords at the heads of other shirtless men. The swords land next to the heads of the "other shirtless men," revealing it to be a trust exercise between the Knights. John speaks with their leader, Aeneas, and learns that the Knights are descended from 20th century men's movements and have named themselves after legendary warriors. Calling himself a "modern warrior," John intends to get them to sign an exclusive contract with no royalty rights. However, Aeneas sees through him, telling him no money will distract them from their true mission, fighting the values of John's "civilization." John commits to breaking the group, planning to take the rights from them. He notices the young boy in the group, named Gawain, admiring his car and offers to take him on a ride, using the opportunity to learn more about the group. He learns it was named after Bruce Banner, the legendary Hulk, since it sees him as a symbol of "the man alone, the man of power, the persecuted wild man." John tells Gawain that the Hulk was just a "pathetic radiation freak," nothing that gamma rays were outlawed for the last century because they were deemed uncontrollable. Gawain tells him that Aeneas has been working on gamma-ray experiments and John sees his opportunity to find something to use to blackmail Aeneas. He drops off the kid and puts in a call to Audra to send our her security force, Sweet Dreams. In the present, Audra informs John that a friend of hers at Sweet Dreams observed a "huge savage man" who came from the hills and she sends him to try to get the story. She gives him access codes to Sweet Dreams' files, which he uses to try to track down Gawain. In the process, he sees that Sweet Dreams intends to kill someone and, expositing that he already saw Sweet Dreams commit murder, decides to help the target, a singer named Quirk. Quirk is complaining to her associate that the music industry is sterile because she's only allowed to sing about the business itself, not about "how America's going to the dogs" or "brutal cops," as she would've in the '90s. We learn that she sings something called "stuff" music and that she was outraged when she learned that the corporations have included subliminal messages for the consumers to stay docile into the songs. She spoke against it, clearly the reason why Sweet Dreams is after her. On cue, Sweet Dreams enters the room, killing her associate. Before they can kill her, the Hulk arrives and takes out the officers. Facing down Sweet Dreams, John has a flashback to the night they tried to take down the Knights, who resisted. Aeneas was killed and John tried to intervene by putting his car between the Knights and the officers. Gawain accused him of being a traitor and ran to the gamma-ray experiment, pledging to "kill you all!" He tried to cause the rays to explode and John intervened to get him to safety. In the ensuing explosion, John became the Hulk, but, when he awakened, Gawain was gone. John believes he's been taken by Sweet Dreams and he pledges to find Gawain, the "hunt" he mentioned at the start. In the present, the Hulk takes down the Sweet Dreams officers and, when Quirk asks what he is, he responds, "a man."
The Review
First, I think introducing an "Unlimited" title was a great idea. As Joey notes on the letter page, it allows for Marvel to test out some new characters before launching them into the market. To get people (like me) to read it, they also give us an extra Spider-Man 2099 story almost every issue. I'm excited to see what the crew has in store, pleased that I don't have to commit to buying an entire series just to read about new characters, like Hulk 2099.
Turning to the issue itself, the plots of both issues are interesting, but the writing itself and the accompanying art are disappointing. I mean, the Spidey story is OK. I can't say it was the most gripping story I've ever read, but it's interesting to be reading it now, almost 20 years after it was published, because it struck me as a very '90s kind of issue. Skolnick spends a lot of time on excessive exposition, as a lot of authors did back then, and Wozniack was obviously inspired by Liefeld, given his frequent use of extraneous lines. I wonder how I would've felt about it back then? The Hulk story is better. Jones does a good job of showing rather than telling and, although the narrative gets a little clunky at times, I thought he did a solid job of establishing the motivations of the new Hulk and giving us a piercing look into 2099 society. Overall, I gave the issue two stars. Although the Hulk issue raised some interesting questions, the overly exposited nature of both stories and the accompanying clumsy art still left me feeling a bit meh.
The Good
1) At first, I rolled my eyes a bit at Mutagen's origin in the Spidey story, given how many characters seem to be motivated by a similar drive for genetic purity. But, to be honest, Skolnick does manage to keep Mutagen from becoming a caricature of this sort of character. He does so by making Mutagen apologize to his victims, first to the parents of the guy with diabetes and then to the woman with the degenerative nerve disease. It shows that he's aware, on some level, of how crazy he is, something we usually see missing in these evolution-oriented villains. As is more typical of them, he deeply believes in his "mission" to eliminate genetically-derived weaknesses, but it's his expression of empathy that prevents him from becoming just another crazed villain with a compelling personal vendetta.
2) Skolnick keeps up the dark tone of the 2099 world, giving us a fairly wrenching opening sequence, with the married couple walking into Mutagen killing their son. Also, I found it interesting that Spidey laments killing Mutagen when he thought he was dead, given that, when we last left him, in "Spider-Man 2099" #8, he had just let the Vulture fall to his death. We haven't really seen Miguel's reaction to that event yet, so it's interesting that Skolnick seems to show that Miguel is willing to kill, but still feels remorse over it. It also possibly goes to Miguel's Catholic faith, a subject we saw briefly addressed during his fight with the Vulture in St. Pat's, also in "Spider-Man 2099" #8.
3) OMG, how unintentionally funny is the fact that the studio's "mental adjustment specialist" is named Dr. Phil?
4) I liked the way Jones somewhat casually calls into question the origins of the Thorite cult in the Hulk story. So far, in "Spider-Man 2099," the Thorites have been presented as more or less a legitimate religion with the typical range of believers, from the attention-seeking guy flying around the city with a light-weight glider in the first arc to the Downtown clinic doctor saving Miguel's life in the second arc. The idea that the believers are in all likelihood unaware that their religion was started by a marketing corporation ("Nirvana Multimedia") could get really interesting, particularly given the fact the Thorites seem to have an implicit anti-corporation credo. I'm intrigued to see how this revelation manifests itself in "Spider-Man 2099." I assume the upcoming "Fall of the Hammer" cross-over event will take up the subject.
5) Continuing on a similar theme, I thought it was interesting in the Hulk story the way Jones portrayed the Knights of the Banner as inspired by the '90s men's movements. (Again, so '90s!) It was here where I felt like Jones really excelled in not only laying down the origin of the Hulk but also providing some interesting insight into the 2099 world. Both the Thorite cult and the Knights group strive for a connection with a world that existed before corporations controlled every aspect of daily life. They both seemingly yearn for an era where people had a more spiritual interaction with the world, be it religious (like the Thorites) or physical (like the Knights). Both idealize an era where things were "real," if you will. But, as usual, the devotees believe in unrealistic versions of these idealized times. Thor wasn't actually all that touchy-feely when it came to responding to the everyday folk and, as we see here with John's transformation, the Knights seriously overestimated how "free" the Hulk really was. Moreover, it's interesting how Jones connects the dots to how this "free" thinking was something that corporate society decided was too dangerous, causing it to take steps to stop promoting the "lone hero" archetype. It's this sort of corporate control against which the Thorites and the Knights are rebelling. Interestingly, as a reader of the '90s, you probably thought this absolute level of corporate control was a prescient indictment of a possible future; as a reader in the '10s, you feel like you're reading a historical study of how your current society got where it is.
The Unknown
The ending to the Spidey story is interesting. I like how Skolnick has Mutagen learn (or evolve, if you will) from his fight with Spider-Man. He's clearly contemplating some large-scale attack now that he realizes that he's been thinking too small. Skolnick could've just had Spider-Man win the battle or Mutagen flee while swearing eternal vengeance on the Wall-Crawler, but instead he has the villain grow from the battle, something you don't see often. I'm actually sort of excited to see his return, as promised, in the next issue.
5) Continuing on a similar theme, I thought it was interesting in the Hulk story the way Jones portrayed the Knights of the Banner as inspired by the '90s men's movements. (Again, so '90s!) It was here where I felt like Jones really excelled in not only laying down the origin of the Hulk but also providing some interesting insight into the 2099 world. Both the Thorite cult and the Knights group strive for a connection with a world that existed before corporations controlled every aspect of daily life. They both seemingly yearn for an era where people had a more spiritual interaction with the world, be it religious (like the Thorites) or physical (like the Knights). Both idealize an era where things were "real," if you will. But, as usual, the devotees believe in unrealistic versions of these idealized times. Thor wasn't actually all that touchy-feely when it came to responding to the everyday folk and, as we see here with John's transformation, the Knights seriously overestimated how "free" the Hulk really was. Moreover, it's interesting how Jones connects the dots to how this "free" thinking was something that corporate society decided was too dangerous, causing it to take steps to stop promoting the "lone hero" archetype. It's this sort of corporate control against which the Thorites and the Knights are rebelling. Interestingly, as a reader of the '90s, you probably thought this absolute level of corporate control was a prescient indictment of a possible future; as a reader in the '10s, you feel like you're reading a historical study of how your current society got where it is.
The Unknown
The ending to the Spidey story is interesting. I like how Skolnick has Mutagen learn (or evolve, if you will) from his fight with Spider-Man. He's clearly contemplating some large-scale attack now that he realizes that he's been thinking too small. Skolnick could've just had Spider-Man win the battle or Mutagen flee while swearing eternal vengeance on the Wall-Crawler, but instead he has the villain grow from the battle, something you don't see often. I'm actually sort of excited to see his return, as promised, in the next issue.
The Bad
1) As I mentioned in "The Review" section, one of my problems with the Spidey story was that Skolnick spent a lot of time on exposition. I might not have noticed it if I weren't inevitably comparing this story to the previous eight issues of "Spider-Man 2099," where David took his time to show us Miguel's world and not simply tell us about it. To be fair, David actually used an expository device, Miguel speaking to his journal via Layla, in the first arc of "Spider-Man 2099." But, he made sure to blended it with the action, so that we got to see the events he was narrating first and then learn his thoughts about them later. Here, however, Skolnick uses the somewhat trite expository device of having Mutagen reflect on his origin at home. It's not exactly inspired story-telling.
3) I was a little unclear of Audra's connection to Sweet Dreams in the Hulk story. When we first see her, she seems to work with John and his associates at the studio, but we later learn that she (also?) runs Sweet Dreams. Creating virtual-reality games and running a private-security firm seem a little disparate, even for the 2099 inter-connected corporate world. It's not a moot point, since Audra's contacts at Sweet Dreams alert her to the appearance of the Hulk and she uses this knowledge to send John after the Hulk to sign a contract with him. Jones intends a clear synergy (again, so '90s!) between the production studio and the security company, with the final act of this issue turning on this synergy, with John discovering, via the access Audra provided him to the Sweet Dreams network to track down the Hulk, that Quirk is going to be assassinated. I understand Jones had a lot to do here and it's a fairly minor point. But, given that the ending of the issue relies on the connection, I feel like Jones could've done a little more to make it clear why Audra was involved in both companies. I assume we'll get more details in the next installment of this story, but it would've been nice to get them here.
4) Overall, the art in both issues is pretty terrible. As I mentioned above, Wozniak in the Spidey story is pretty clearly inspired by Rob Liefeld, given the superfluous lines and extreme positions he uses on the characters. (At one point, when Miguel is attacking Mutagen, it looks like his ass cheeks have somehow completely separated from one another. It's not pretty.) Meanwhile, Turner is inconsistent in the Hulk story. Some scenes appear gritty with lined faces, other scenes appear Coipelesque with soft images, other scenes are just bizarre. Given that the writing wasn't all that strong, it was disappointed that the art failed to compensate.
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