Marvel 2099
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Marvel 2099 was an imprint of Marvel Comics in the 1990's which explored the future of the Marvel Universe. Many of their titles starred futuristic versions of existing characters, including Spider-Man 2099, The Punisher 2099, Doom 2099, X-Men 2099, Ghost Rider 2099, Hulk 2099, and Fantastic Four 2099, as well as a new superhero, Ravage 2099.
The world of 2099 was a cyberpunk dystopia, similar to the world of Blade Runner. North America was a corporate police state ruled by megacorps, most notably Alchemax, which owned the private police force Public Eye. Miguel O'Hara, the 2099 Spider-Man, was an Alchemax employee; Jake Gallows, the Punisher, was a Public Eye officer; and Ravage was the former CEO of an Alchemax subsidiary.
The comics had a strong degree of innerconnectivity, even when not explicitly crossing over, that reminded readers of early Marvel Comics. Much of this was due to Joey Cavalieri, the editor.
When Marvel, during a cost-cutting exercise, fired Cavalieri in 1996, many of the 2099 creators (including Peter David and Warren Ellis) left in protest. The 2099 line was reduced to a single comic entitled 2099: World of Tomorrow, which lasted eight issues. A coda to the series, 2099: Manifest Destiny, was published in 1998, in which Captain America was found in suspended animation and, with Miguel O'Hara, assembled the various 2099 heroes into a new team of Avengers.
The 2099 world has been seen occasionally since, most notably in Peter David's "Future Tense" storyline in Captain Marvel, which revisits both Spider-Man 2099 and the alternate future of the Maestro that David created in The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect.
In 2004 it was announced that Robert Kirkman was writing a series of one-shot comics for the fifth aniversary of the Marvel Knights imprint, under the heading Marvel Knights 2099. The future portrayed in this series is unconnected to the original 2099 Universe.
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Heroes
Solo protagonists
- Spider-Man (Miguel O'Hara)
- Doom 2099 (Victor Von Doom, or a robot double thereof)
- Punisher (Jake Gallows)
- Ravage (Paul-Phillip Ravage)
- Ghost Rider (Kenshiro "Zero" Cochrane)
- Hulk (John Eisenhart)
Marvel Knights 2099 heroes
- Black Panther
- Daredevil (Eric Nelson)
- Mutant
X-Men 2099
- Xi'an Chi Xan
- Cerebra (Shakti Hadad)
- Skullfire (Timothy Sean Fitzgerald)
- Bloodhawk (Lemuel Krugg)
- Driver (Edward Henry Harriman)
- Krystalin (Krystalin Porter Ogada)
- La Lunatica
- Metalhead (Edie Van Beethoven)
- Meanstreak (Henri Huang)
- Junkpile (very brief membership)
- Serepentina
X-Nation 2099
Fantastic Four 2099
- Mister Fantastic (double of Reed Richards)
- Invisible Woman (double of Sue Storm)
- Human Torch (double of Johnny Storm)
- Thing (double of Ben Grimm)
Other heroes
- Captain America (Steve Rogers)
- Freakshow (Mama Hurricane, Breakdown, Rosa, Metalhead, Psyclone, Contagion, Tantrum, and Dominic)
- Galahad
- Metalscream
- Net Prophet (John Roger Tensen, aka Justice)
- Shield 2099
- Thor (Reverend Cecil McAdams)
Villains
- The Architect (Ryu Kobolt)
- Avatarr
- Brimstone Love
- Fearmaster (Darryl Smith)
- Fever
- Goblin
- Glitterspike
- Gearbox
- Halloween Jack, aka Loki (later traveled to the present in the pages of X-Force)
- The Lawless (Xi'an Chi Xan, Victor Ten Eagles, Junkpile, Haiku, and Preacher)
- Master Zhao and the Chosen (Jack, Psycho-K, Frosbite, Wingspan, and Monster)
- Multi-Fractor
- The Norns (Felicity, Bliss, Euphoria)
- The Rat Pack (The Dealer, The Suicide Master, Mister Entertainment, The Dealer)
- The Shadow Dancer
- The Specialist
- The Synge Family(Noah, Lytton, and Desmonda)
- Thanatos (Aaron Delgato)
- Tyler Stone
- Venom (Kron Stone)
- Vulture
Mega-Corporations
- Alchemax (Avatarr is CEO and Tyler Stone is VP)
- Stark-Fujikawa (formerly Tony Stark's Stark Enterprises)
- Synthia
- D/MONIX (Data Manipulation and Organization Networks)
- ECO Corp. (Ravage is CEO)
- Nevada Syndicate
- Cyber-Nostra
- Ninja-Nostra
External links
- Marvel 2099 Dot Com (http://2099comics.com/)
- Ghostworks 2.0, home of the 2099 Underground Revised (http://www.fadinghorizon.com/ghostworks/)
- The GHOSTWORKS: Home of the 2099 Underground (http://www.geocities.com/ug2099/)
- The 2099 UnderGround and Doom 2099 (http://members.aol.com/doomscribe/2099UG.htm)
- Doom 2099 (http://www.geocities.com/latvaria2099/doom_index.html)
- Chicago Reserve (http://members.aol.com/Filter9309/TOTCR.html)