Who Is Across The Spider-Verse's New Spider-Man? Spider-Man 2099 Explained
It's a great month to be a Spider-fan. In addition to "Spider-Man: No Way Home" hitting theaters this month, the past weekend has seen the announcement of a two-part sequel to the widely beloved animated tale "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," complete with a stunning new first look teaser. The original 2018 film saw Miles Morales' turn at the web-slinging mantle (voiced by Shameik Moore), faced with battling the vicious criminal Kingpin as the latter's technology opens portals to a host of other worlds. And with these portals comes the discovery of numerous other Spider-People, who band together to thwart Kingpin's nefarious schemes. Sony unveiled its sequel's title at this weekend's Brazil Comic-Con, "Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (Part One)."
The trailer follows the conclusion of the first film precisely, with Miles Morales laying in bed only to be interrupted by Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld). He accompanies her for some Spider-adventures before falling uncontrollably through the multiverse. Just when he gets back into the swing of things, another portal opens up to reveal a blue-and-red costumed challenger who seemingly attacks Miles out of the blue. The pair struggle, with the mysterious figure triggering another multiversal portal and throwing Miles Morales into a different time. The mysterious combatant? Miguel O'Hara, better known as Spider-Man 2099 (who made his on-screen introduction in the "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse" post credits scene). Here's everything you need to know about Spider-Man 2099.
Spider-Man 2099 in the Comics
First premiering in a preview backup in 1992's "Amazing Spider-Man" #365 (to be shortly followed by "Spider-Man 2099" #1), Miguel lives in Nueva York in the alternate universe of Earth-928. In a world where the superheroes of yore have long since gone away, Miguel became the head geneticist at a company called Alchemax where he performed experiments inspired by his world's original and long-gone Spider-Man. Miguel's experiments to replicate the accident that gave Peter Parker powers failed, while his extremely corrupt boss told him he'd been poisoned with an extremely addictive drug. When Miguel attempted to purge the drug from his body using a genetic back-up of himself, the new experiment combined his DNA with spider DNA, and Spider-Man 2099 was born.
As Spider-Man 2099, Miguel has the same enhanced strength, speed, agility, and stamina as other Spider-people. He does not have the spider-sense shared by some other arachnid heroes, but he does boast a genius-level intellect, limited telepathy, enhanced vision, organic spinnerets, alongside paralysis-inducing fangs and strong, sharp talons that allow wall crawling and have great offensive capability. In the comics, Miguel became influential in opening up a new age of heroes (in titles like "Hulk 2099," "Ghost Rider 2099," "X-Men 2099" and so on). His own comic ended after 46 issues, with Miguel's arc concluding with his lifting of Mjolnir (yep, he's worthy). The hammer's mystical power slowed Miguel's aging, allowing him to spend a millennium creating a utopia across the galaxy. He'd pop in and out of future comic continuity from time to time, leading to a massive Spider-Verse comic event in which he's a key player. The character returned later in a set of notable games including 2010's "Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions" and 2011's "Spider-Man: Edge of Time."
The 2018 post-credits scene sees Miguel (voiced by Oscar Isaac) don a device that will allow him to slide through different realities in the multiverse. He opts to go back to "the beginning" of the world of Earth-67 (the Earth of the original animated series), where he gets in a humorous pointing battle with that Spider-Man variant. While the teaser trailer poses Spider-Man 2099 as a possible threat, Miguel is very much a hero and a lot of the conflict teased in the trailer could easily be seen as him trying to secure Miles to send him back through time. Either way, he's an exciting character to join Sony's gorgeous animated Spider-Verse in what promises to be an epic two-film arc.