Spider-Man 2099 and Lady Spider Confront the Six Men of Sinistry (Spider-Man 2099 #8)

Spider-Man 2099 #8

Written by: Peter David 

Art by: Will Sliney 

Colored by: Antonio Fabela

Lettered by: VC's Joe Caramagna 

Cover by: Francesco Mattina

Published by: Marvel

Cover Price: $3.99

Note: This is a review of the digital version which can be found on Comixology.

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

Summary (contains spoilers): This issue starts with Spider-Man 2099 and Lady Spider heading into the safe zone.  But they quickly discover that the Inheritors had already been here and killed many of the Spiders that had been here.  Spider-Man 2099 and Lady Spider worry that they might be the only Spiders left.  They find a giant Mecha-Spider and decide to rebuild it as a weapon to use against the Inheritors.

They realize they are going to need a big lab space to work in, so Lady Spider returns to her home world. In her civilian identity, she asks Lord Harold Osborn about using his father’s lab, called The Stadium because of its size.  She claims she needs it for her “friend” Lady Spider.  Harold agrees, but only if she will go out for dinner with him.   Harold’s father has had encounters with Lady Spider (he is that reality’s Green Goblin) so he agrees to give Lady Spider the space.

Spider-Man 2099 and Lady Spider get to work on the Mech.  They want to use radiation to power it because that has been a powerful weapon against the Inheritors.  But they are not sure where to find radiation in this world. During this, they make contact with the other Spiders, who are heading to Loomworld for a final showdown.

Suddenly, Spider-Man 2099 and Lady Spider come under attack by the Six Men of Sinestry.  Spider-Man 2099 and Lady Spider are able to easily defeat them.  They discover that Doctor Octopus’s arms are powered by radiation.  This radiation is put in use to power the Mech.

Later, Harold walks in on his father, discovering that he is the Green Goblin.  Norman kills his own son to protect his secret. 

The issue ends with Lady Spider wondering where Harold plans on taking her for dinner.  Our heroes head to Loomworld with their giant robot to join the final battle.

Review: I’ve enjoyed Spider-Verse, but I will admit I was kind of getting tired of seeing the Inheritors.  So many of the crossovers were “inheritors arrive, kill off some spiders and the survivors just barely escape to fight again a later day.”  With all the Spider-Men variations teaming up, we didn’t get to see enough of them dealing with the individual worlds each character came from.   So because of that, I loved this issue.  We learn about Lady Spider’s world, see steampunk versions of the Sinister Six, and get Spider-Man 2099 and Lady Spider teaming up to stop them.  It worked really well in the context of the crossover, but still was a terrific stand alone story too.

Even though we didn’t get to see much of them, I loved the Six Men of Sinestry.  Peter David did a great job making these fully realized characters.  Mysterio cowards out and runs off before the fight even starts.  Kraven is his normal boasting arrogant self…though he happens to drive a big hunting robot now.  We even see how dark this world’s Goblin is and how willing he is to do anything to push forward his own agenda killing his own son just to cover his tracks.

In other reviews over the years, I have mentioned that Peter David has long been one of my favorite writers, but he is very cruel to his characters.  I actually cringed at Lady Spider’s last line asking Spider-Man 2099 where Harold was going to take her on her date…since the reader knew that Harold had been killed on the last page.  It takes a great writer to make you care this much for a character you barely just met.

Will Sliney did a great job with this issue.  I thought the Six Men of Sinestry looked terrific.  Again, there wasn’t a lot of time to get to know these characters, but just from their designs you can tell a lot about the characters. 

When I started this series, I will admit I was a little disappointed it was set in the modern day Marvel universe.  I was a huge fan of the 2099 universe back in the day, and the small glimpses we got to see of it in Exiles and Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man left me wanting more.  Despite that, Peter David has done a great job with this book, and this probably was the best issue yet.