Before I jump into it, Reader, and I mean all of it, I feel as though I need to establish a little credibility here. Take it or leave it, this is my attempt to show you that I’m a True Believer. Whatever that means to you. I should preface this with the fact that one, it’s 2 a.m., and two, I do hope that I remember all of this correctly. If I goob up a fact, or if you have an opinion about something I’ve written here, I’d love to hear from you. In the mean time…

Let’s talk Spider-Man 2099.

Created by Peter David and Rick Leonard, this book ran for some time in the ’90’s, then picked up again every once in a while over the following decades so fans could check in with how the character was holding up.

The first arc, lasting about three issues, tells the story of a young scientist by the name of Miguel O’Hara. Fun thing about Miguel, he’s got our buddy Spider-Man’s DNA on file. Flash forward a few panels, the head of the company that Miguel works for, Alchemax, doses him with a drug that changes the DNA of anyone who uses the drug. It literally re-writes a craving for the drug into the person’s DNA. This was all part of a plan to keep Miguel as an employee of Alchemax as they are the only developer of the drug.

Miguel attempts to fix his situation by re-writing his new tainted DNA with a copy of his own DNA that was also on file. His plan would have worked, too, if a shadowy figure hadn’t swapped Spidey’s DNA file into the machine at the last second.

Over the next few days, Miguel starts to notice some things that aren’t quite right with himself. He’s got fangs for one thing, and his eyes are so sensitive now he has to wear sunglasses even in some well-lit rooms. Another thing about this new change he’s got going on, his forearms are itching like crazy.

Antics ensue, and soon Miguel finds out that that itching in his forearms is due to the spider-silk sacs that were developing under his skin.

Alright, now we’re all caught up. Also, now you know I’m not just a nut for the one Spider-Man. My love bridges gaps across universes, space and time. Regardless, I am a little picky. The thing about Spider-Man 2099’s webbing, besides the fact that it’s organic, is that he doesn’t do the whole pressing of the palm thing to shoot webs. All he needs to do is lower his hand slightly, and flex the new muscles around those forearm silk sacs to shoot a nice web. The webbing even comes out from the top of Miguel’s wrist.

So now we come to the nerd card. Let’s talk Ultimate Spider-Man. And no, I’m not talking the comics created by Bendis and Bagley. I’m talking about the cartoon. The one where Drake Bell lends his voice to the web-slinger and Nick Fury plays a prominent roll in Peter’s adventures. There’s a story arc in the show based around the spider-verse event that took place in the Spider-Man comics in 2014. This is great and all, bringing story lines from the comics to TV and movies, but they, the creators of the show, make one fatal flaw. When Spider-Man 2099 shoots a web in the show, he presses his fingers to his palm as if he’s shooting web from a web shooter.

This bugs me for two reasons. And no that’s not a pun. Spiders aren’t bugs. They’re arachnids.

Reason one: Aforementioned web sacs. The creators made a choice to screw with a small and interesting fact about a character that has a super interesting origin. There’s your pun.

Reason two: The reason they did it. There are only two possible reasons I can think of that might explain why the creators of this show might have made this creative choice. They either didn’t take the time to research the character or, even worse, they chose to change this aspect because they thought it wouldn’t make sense to the viewer if Spider-Man 2099 shot web from the top of his wrist.

I say this second one is worse because they are putting out a show that is meant to attract younger viewers, but if they think for one second amateur to seasoned fans won’t be watching, too, then they have lost sight of what Marvel is, and should be. To me, and loads of other fans out there, Marvel represents a world that holds no bar against age, race, gender et cetera. The creators of this show are cutting their losses and generating garbage just to make sure the character has a prime time slot.

If you need an example of a quality animated series that understands its fans, watch Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. There are so many fun nods to their grown fans that it keeps you wanting to come back episode after episode. And it’s such a fun and interesting show that it attracts new viewers young and old. It only went on for those two seasons, but because of all the Easter eggs and nods to the comics, the re-watch value is immense.

I plan to talk about all of Spider-Man’s other cartoons and so many more comics on this section of the blog, so if you enjoyed this definitely come back for more. If you’re looking for something a little more down to Earth, there is a lot more variety on the other sections of this blog. Regardless, and as always reader, I hope you enjoyed your time here at my attempt to hold the universe together. Until next time.