Spider-Man 2099 #4: "The Specialist"

**** (four of five stars)

Favorite Quote:  "Oh, Mike.  How can you nurse a grudge?"  "I have tough nipples."  -- Tyler and Miguel, with a line that made me LOL

Summary

Gabe is enjoying some quality time with his girlfriend, Kasey, in the back of his car when a samurai-looking guy cuts off the top and extracts Kasey, informing her she's wanted by Alchemax.  Gabe tries to help her, but the samurai pins him to the wall with two throwing stars.  Meanwhile, at his place, Miguel is accosted by Tyler Stone's bodyguard.  Stone informs him that the Board appointed a bodyguard for him because it's worried the "'Spider-Man' fellow" will go after him next.  He instructs the bodyguard to shake Miguel's hand, but Miguel demurs, since he still can't control his talons.  Stone says he came to see if Miguel was suffering the effects of rapture, but notes that he looks fine, surmising that Miguel is getting it on the black market.  He tells Miguel that the company wants him to return to spearhead the corporate-raider program and recover from the setback caused by Spider-Man, offering him some rapture.  Miguel then engages in a fantasy sequence where he attacks Stone, taking out his bodyguard and telling him he's Spider-Man.  In reality, Stone tells Miguel he wants to see him at work the next day, saying that Alchemax will play according to his rules (no human testing), rather than listening to Aaron Delgato.  When asked by a surprised Miguel what he means by that remark, Stone asserts that Delgato was trying to sabotage the program and claims that Delgato is Spider-Man.  Meanwhile, in Latveria, the newly returned Dr. Doom watches video of Spider-Man and promises to investigate him further when he has more resources.  (Dun-dun-dun.)

In the morning, Miguel learns how to control his talons, exclaiming that the neural responses to make his powers function are already in place and he just needs to develop them.  He puts on his costume under his work clothes, telling Lyla that he intends to use Spider-Man to keep Alchemax distracted so that he can do his own research into finding a way to cure himself.  He also wants to discover if he has any other powers so he can anticipate them.  On his way out the door, he's met by Gabe, who explains what happened to Kasey.  (Miguel also gives us a tour of Gabe's love life, explaining that he adopts the traits of whatever girlfriend he has at the moment.  Kasey is a political activist, explaining Gabe's sudden disapproval of Miguel's work at Alchemax.)  Gabe beseeches Miguel to use his connections at Alchemax to help Kasey, telling him that Kasey says that "with great power must come great responsibility."  Miguel runs into Stone at Alchemax, keeping up the rapture ruse by telling him that it's made him a little light sensitive (explaining why he's wearing sunglasses indoors).  Elsewhere, Kasey discovers that Alchemax has "purchased [her] criminal record and disposition thereof" and plans to use her as a test subject.  She grabs one of the Public Eye officer's guns and escapes, running into Miguel and Tyler and taking Miguel hostage.  (She accidentally makes Miguel spray some webbing, which he hopes no one notices; though, a guard does trip on it.)  They soon realize their connection to Gabe and Kasey makes a break for it.  She's followed by the samurai and Miguel, haunted by Gabe's comments about responsibility, decides to help her as Spider-Man.  He changes clothes in a futuristic shipping unit (which will conveniently send his clothes home for him within three hours) and chases the samurai, who has disarmed Kasey.  Miguel manages to use his webbing as a Web-Line (rather than the webbing globs he had been generating) and take the samurai off his flybike.  The samurai reveals his name to be the Specialist and Miguel holds his own for a while.  However, he gets overconfident and the Specialist grabs him, declaring that he's going to unmask him to make him an honorable man, so he can kill him.

The Review

This issue was a good time.  David has wrapped up the origin arc, so he's able to start really exploring Miguel's world.  We're now able to see Miguel start figuring out his powers and doing more than just trying to escape Alchemax.  He figures out his talons and webs, discovers a way to change his clothes inconspicuously, and learns, to quote him, that "with great power comes great guilt."

The Good

1) The dream sequence was awesome.  They're usually sort of cheesy, but both David and Leonardi totally sold it.  Something about the dialogue made me feel like Miguel had actually lost his mind.  David has done such a great job portraying Miguel as a man on the verge given all the various changes in his life, it seemed totally believable that he would snap and reveal his powers to Stone.  As such, for the whole sequence, I was on the edge of my seat, wondering, "Is this real?"  When I realized it wasn't, that it was actually a dream sequence, I felt relieved, but I still appreciated the believable suspense we had there for a few panels.

2) I loved the fact that Doom refers to his appearance in "Amazing Spider-Man" #5 here, noting that he encountered the original Spider-Man early in his career, particularly given that I just read it a few days ago!

3) It's interesting that Miguel wants to "cure" himself.  I've talked about the parallels with Peter Parker's origin story and it's interesting that Peter never really focused on curing himself, something a kid of his abilities presumably could've at least tried to do.  It's another aspect of the different reaction the two of them had to their new powers, similar to when Miguel initially contemplated suicide in the second issue.  As I mentioned previously, Miguel's mutation is a bit more severe than Peter's (given, you know, the fangs and talons), but now that he's exhibiting control, I wonder how long it will be before he sees it as a blessing and not a curse.  At this point, though, Miguel decides to stay as Spider-Man to keep Alchemax distracted so he can find a cure for his "condition."  He essentially becomes Spider-Man to stop being him, which is a clever twist on David's part.  I thought, in the first issue, that Miguel would be driven to stay as Spider-Man from a sense of fighting the Man and I think we're eventually going to see his stand on Spider-Man change to that.  (Otherwise, it ruins my whole "got powers from guilt, uses powers from innocence" hypothesis!)  But, it's interesting that he originally intends to stay Spider-Man just to simply distract Alchemax, not directly confront it.  He's not a hero from the start and it's another great example of David breaking the traditional superhero-origin rules with Miguel.

4) I loved the "great power comes great responsibility" line and Miguel's response:  "Kasey reads too many fortune cookies."  Hilarious.

5) I also thought that the introduction of the Metro-Express shipping booths as the 2099 version of the phone booth was seriously clever.  It even sends his clothes home!  David is just really using the 2099 world for all its potential.

The Unknown

Does Stone really think Aaron Delgato is Spider-Man?  Last issue, when he noted he wanted to see O'Hara to "confirm suspicions," it seemed like he believed O'Hara to be Spider-Man.  Also, in this issue, he seems to be testing Miguel by telling him to shake the bodyguard's hand.  After all, Stone knows Spider-Man has talons after his fight with Venture, so I thought that Stone was trying to get a glimpse of them here.  But, if he really thought Delgato was Spider-Man, why would he need to see Miguel to "confirm suspicions?"  What "suspicions" was he trying to confirm?  I trust David to play out this story carefully,  particularly since Miguel himself wonders if Stone is bluffing.  But, I'm anxious to see where it's going.