Captain Marvel (1999) #27-#31: "Time Flies"

** (two of five stars)

Favorite Quote:  "Be proud of him, Gabriel.  He does these things...because he's heroic.  Because he strives to reach a greater ideal of behavior.  Because --"  "Because I'm an idiot."  -- Genis and Miguel, after Gabe expresses concern that Miguel would face Thanatos again after he almost killed him the first time

Summary

(I'm focusing the "Summary" only on the parts of the story that involve Spider-Man 2099, meaning that I'm skipping a lot of the sub-plots focused on Captain Marvel and his supporting cast.  For context, Rick Jones apparently lost an arm and aged prematurely at some point and only recently regained both the arm and his youth.)

On planet Vargas, Starfox has taken a woman to his room.  (Shocker, I know.)  She heads to the bathroom to change into something more comfortable, as they say, and Starfox answers a knock on the door. He's surprised when Thanatos impales him through the throat with a spear.  Later, Rick Jones finds him on the toilet of a comic-book shop that Rick's wife owns, where Starfox is apparently "leaking temporal energy."  He has a band around his throat to cut the flow, but it's losing its effectiveness and he's hoping that Rick or Captain Marvel can use the Nega-Bands to help.  Starfox warns that the effects on space/time could be catastrophic if they don't stop the leak and reveals that he's stashed the "temporal flux" into the toilet.  Marlo decides to flush the flux, causing some sort of time wave.  Rick changes places with Captain Marvel and he and Starfox find themselves face-to-face with Spider-Man 2099 as he's chased by the Public Eye.

At Alchemax, Jordan Boone has pulled a time platform from virtual unreality.  Tyler Stone is initially furious that Boone has kept the program running, given that the last time that they activated the program Thanatos took an "undue interest" in it.  Boone reminds him that they trapped Thanatos in there, but Stone reminds Boone that Spider-Man managed to escape after he was similarly trapped.  Boon hopes that the fact that they found the time platform will change Stone's mind.  Stone is intrigued, but disappointed when Boone notes that it's not fully operational.  However, it has recently begun to glow due to the presence of "chronoparticles" caused by the arrival of Captain Marvel and Starfox.  In the sky above New York, Captain Marvel takes out the Public Eye, but Starfox loses consciousness (forcing Genis to rescue him from free fall) before Marvel can interrogate Miguel.  As Starfox falls, Marvel and Rick see a trail of alternate realities in his wake.  He demands that Starfox tells him where they are, but Starfox evades the question.  He then tries to get Spider-Man to serve as their guide, but he's disappeared.  At Alchemax, Thanatos emerges from the portal (proving Stone correct), saying that his earlier attack was just to get his attention so that he could access virtual unreality and achieve his goals:  getting the time platform and destroying civilization.

Captain Marvel and Starfox follow the trail of ionized particles from Miguel's "anti-grav lift" to Miguel's apartment.  Miguel seemingly pretends that he and Gabe are lovers so that Marvel and Starfox don't guess/believe that he's Spider-Man, but Starfox threatens Gabe, forcing Miguel to reveal himself by webbing up Starfox's eyes and punching him.  Miguel notes that Marvel is the more sensible of the two, confirming for him that they're in 2099.  He then removes the webbing from Starfox's face and, in spite of Starfox's outrage, demands to know the truth.  Starfox says that he wants nothing from him, but Lyla confirms that his body rhythms indicate that he's lying.  Rick notes to Marvel that Starfox seems afraid and Marvel sides with Miguel.  Starfox removes his necklace, revealing that he's been effectively killed and that he'll die unless he delivers Genis to the virtual-unreality division at Alchemax, as Thanatos order him to do.  Thanatos apparently used the chronoparticles to suspend the wound, giving Starfox time to deliver Genis.  (Starfox notes that he would've gone to Titan to try to resolve the problem, but Thanatos warned him that they would dissipate if he went anywhere but Earth.  Starfox tends to think that he's bluffing, but didn't want to risk it.)  Miguel changes into his costume and they head to Alchemax.

En route, Rick explains to Genis that the "spear of destiny" that Thanatos apparently used on Starfox is an object of power, rumored to be the spear that a Roman Centurion used to stab Jesus on the cross. However, two S.I.E.G.E. agents arrive at that moment and declare Starfox their target and Spidey and Marvel as ancillary -- and therefore -- disposable targets.  They open fire and Miguel draws off the missiles from Starfox, giving Genis time to destroy them.  They then engage the agents while Starfox suddenly disappears.  Rick recognizes the energy signature of Dr. Doom's time machine and Miguel guesses that Thanatos got impatient and used the device to pick up Starfox.  Miguel tells Genis that they should head to Alchemax and one of the agents announces that their instructions were to capture them and take them there. At Alchemax, Thanatos notes that it served as a successful test of the time platform, though noted that the damage that it suffered in the "Eon War" limited its abilities.  He then exposits that the Eon War was a "massive temporal conflict" that brought about the end of the Heroic Age, erasing records of itself after it occurred.  Just then, Miguel and Genis crash through the window and interrupt his history lesson.  Thanatos somehow uses his spear to activate a portal, drawing in Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, and Starfox.  As they fall through interspace, Thanatos exposits that he wants to re-order reality itself and Dr. Doom's time platform is just one of the keys to that goal.  The other is found where the Maestro is, where Genis, Spidey, and Starfox arrive.

At the same time, Rick suddenly finds that he's no longer in the Microverse.  Thanatos appears, explaining that he can coexist in the same space as Marvel because they were never molecularly bonded.  He sends Rick into a room filled with mementos of the Age of Heroes where Rick encounters his older self.  Thanatos then reveals that he, too, is Rick.  He's sent Marvel, Spidey, and Starfox to the Maestro's future to retrieve Dr. Strange's amulet and cape, which he needs for his plans.  He tells Rick that their realities diverged when Rick re-merged with Captain Marvel after the Kree/Skrull War; in Thanatos' reality, he stayed with the Supreme Intelligence to learn how to better use the Destiny Force powers that Supremor had apparently unleashed.  (Yeah, I don't really follow either.)  Clearly driven insane by the Destiny-Force power, Thanatos' plan is to use mythology, science, and sorcery to become the ultimate Rick Jones, the template for all Rick Jones across the multiverse.

At the Maestro's HQ, Starfox manages to get his hands on the items while Marvel and Spidey engage the Maestro, a malevolent future version of the Hulk.  (Thanatos divided them so that Marvel and Spidey would appear in the Maestro's throne room and distract him while Starfox recovered the amulet and cape.)  Once Starfox gets the items, Thanatos uses the time platform to bring him to him and set in motion his plans.  Starfox attacks, but he's weakened by his wound, and Thanatos starts the process of shaping the multiverse in his image.  He recalls Marvel (leaving Miguel on his own to fight the Maestro) and then uses the spear of destiny to stab Marvel and Rick at the same time.  Images of the ultimate Rick begin to appear (Rick as Bucky, etc.), but his plans are ruined when old Rick summons Mjolnir (one of the artifacts in the room) to him.  Old Rick exposits that Thor had whispered the secret word to call Mjolnir to him before he died and that old Rick was deemed worthy to wield it for acts that young Rick hadn't yet performed and Thanatos wouldn't perform.  He orders Marvel and Rick to bang together their bands to give him a power boost, announcing that they'll make Thanatos hit the bricks.  Thanatos disappears and everyone is returned to where he was before Thanatos stabbed Starfox.  Marvel uses his cosmic awareness to explain to young Rick that the energies released by Thanatos' demise sent back everyone.  Marvel then sets about repairing the time platform to send them home.  First, though, he discovers a brick and they realize that it's the remains of Thanatos, since old Rick must've had a spark of the Destiny Force left in him and literally made him "hit the bricks."

The Review

This arc is fun, but it's still a disappointment.  I was excited about David taking up Miguel again, but this arc doesn't really focus on him all that much, spending more time on Rick and his various incarnations.  Moreover, the light-hearted nature of the series that makes it such a fun read is at times an odd match for the subject matter, particularly given the various questions left unanswered (or poorly answered) by the end of the 2099 line.  As a Spider-Man 2099 fan, I can't necessarily say that I'd recommend it.

The Good

Honestly, the only reason that I gave this issue two stars is that it does at least answer the mystery of Thanatos, even if I'm not sure that it's the answer that David originally planned.

The Interesting
Miguel is essentially returned home with no clarity on what happened.  He never learns that Thanatos was Rick Jones, that he was trying to remake the universe in his image, and that old Rick Jones killed him.  As far as Miguel knows, Thanatos is still out there somewhere.

The Bad

1) To be fair, the original Thanatos from "Spider-Man 2099" #12-#13 didn't exactly have the clearest of agendas.  He mostly just seemed to be happy that he wasn't incorporeal anymore; his main goal was to get revenge on Spider-Man and destroy the 2099 world to honor his host, likely now to be Aaron Delgado given that the other candidate, the Vulture, turned out surviving his encounter with Miguel.  He certainly didn't seem like someone trying to reshape reality in his image.  That leads me to wonder whether David might not be ret-conning his own story here.  For example, the original Thanatos sounded haughtier than this one, who sounds much more glib (like Rick Jones).  Moreover, the original implication seemed to be that Thanatos had been a villain, not a hero (of sorts).  So, although we get an answer on Thanatos' identity, I can't say that the questions that I had after reading issues #12-#13 were answered here. 

2) Did Rick Jones somehow become African-American?  I mean that seriously, because he's drawn and colored that way consistently throughout the series.

3) I'm pretty sure that Miguel didn't hide an "anti-grav lift" that would create ionized particles under his cape and David should know that.  If Miguel had something like that, Venture would've likely tracked these particles in "Spider-Man 2099" #2 and not Miguel's heat signature. 

4) I don't even know what to say about Miguel and Gabe pretending to be lovers. 

5) The S.I.E.G.E. agents are either idiots or David didn't really think through this part of the story.  First, they declare Starfox their target and dismiss Miguel and Genis as disposable, which makes no sense, since Genis was really Thanatos' target, not Starfox.  But, even if they didn't know that and think that Starfox was Thanatos' target, they still open fire on him, which doesn't make a lot of sense since they would seemingly want him alive.  Then, they later announce that they were actually just there to arrest Miguel and Genis, despite earlier trying to kill them.

6) Can I just say that Thanatos' plan is a little...underwhelming?  Like, you're stealing the power to control reality and the only thing you want is to make every Rick Jones in the multiverse like you?  Really?

The Really Bad

As expected, the uncoordinated nature of the stories that brought an end to the 2099 line leaves us with a questionable timeline here.  In "2099:  Manifest Destiny," Kaminsky put the blame for the end of the Age of Heroes on an uprising by humans against super-humans.  Here, however, David pins it on a "temporal conflict" that doesn't sound a lot like the aforementioned uprising.  Frankly, I like David's story better, in part because it makes more sense why Rick Jones would wind up disincorporated in the first place.  But, it still creates two completely different answers to why the Age of Heroes ended, reminding us of the ignominious ending of the 2099 line.