Marvel Explained: Who is Spider-Man 2099 Miguel O’Hara?
A Spider-Man with 50% pure spider DNA? Let’s hop across the Spider-verse to the dark, futuristic world of Miguel O’Hara, Spider-Man 2099.
Sony’s newest Spider-Verse film introduced us to Oscar Isaacs’ gritty, tortured Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man from a futuristic dimension. Before Spider-Man 2099 was slated to become an animated sensation, he was the sworn enemy of the corporations that ruled his world.
Created by: Peter David &Rick Leonardi
Spider-Man 2099’s first appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #365
Powers & Abilities
A botched genetic treatment leaves Miguel with superhuman strength speed, agility, reflexes, and stamina. The basic Spider-Man starter package. He’s also got a really good healing factor, and he’s a brilliant genetic engineer.
Miguel also has a hyper Spidey-sense, which allows him to communicate with people telepathically. He’s also got an accelerated vision that allows him to see great distances with clarity. He can even see people’s heat signatures.
Oh, he’s also got talons and fangs. That’s right, he’s got super-pointy canines that contain a paralyzing venom. The comic book Spider-Man 2099 also has organic webs. Y’know, however that makes you feel.
Unlike Peter Parker and Miles Morales, Miguel’s DNA was spliced with a spider’s–his genes are 50% spider.
Spider-Man 2099 #1 (2019), cover art by Viktor Bogdanovic, courtesy of Marvel Comics
The Story of Miguel O’Hara: Who is Spider-Man 2099 in the Comics?
Spider-Man 2099 was the first in a series of futuristic Marvel stories in a branch-off universe from Earth-616. In a time after the age of superheroes, major corporations own every aspect of city life. There’s also an über-powerful church that worships Thor, which is pretty wild.
Miguel lives in Nueva York. As a kid, he grew up with his brother, mother, and an abusive father. He exhibited signs of genius-level intelligence and was accepted at the Alchemax School for Gifted Youngsters.
Spider-Man 2099 #1, art by Rick Leonardi, courtesy of Marvel Comics
As an adult, Miguel becomes the head of the genetics program at Alchemax. The company is working on its own super-soldiers, but after a test subject dies, he tries to step down.
What follows is some pretty flimsy addiction-based pseudo-science (because comics!) Miguel’s boss doses him with a highly addictive drug called Rapture. In order to avoid being blackmailed and addicted to the drug that Alchemax produces, he uses his genetic skills to attempt a cure.
But the big experiment is foiled by a jealous employee, splicing Miguel’s DNA with spider DNA. When his boss finds out, he sends people to kill Miguel.
Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man one-shot, art by Rick Leonardi, courtesy of Marvel Comics
While trying to maintain his anonymity, Miguel wears a suit made of Unstable Molecule Fabric, which makes it virtually unbreakable. And the suit’s design? It’s an old body suit from a past Day of the Dead celebration.
Spider-Man 2099 Into the Spider-Verse Post-Credits
The end-credits scene to Miles’ breakout film gave us our first look at Spider-Man 2099. We’re introduced to Nueva York and Miguel’s holographic interface assistant Lyla.
She’s fitting him with an inter-dimensional travel watch. And he uses it to zap himself to “the beginning”. That’s right, the original Spider-Man meme-verse, Earth-67.
Miguel O’Hara in Across the Spider-Verse
Well, Miguel isn’t exactly a good-good guy in the follow-up to 2018 animated hit that introduced the wide world to Miles Morales. In fact, he’s the lovable but grumpy leader of a swarm of multi-dimensional Spider-people whose job it is to… ensure all Spider-people across the multiverse get properly traumatized?
Miguel and his team of Spider-friends, including Gwen Stacy, Spider-Punk, Spider-Woman, and a whole other swarm of other Spideys, will return in the second part of Across the Spider-Verse. Until then, the animated universe’s Miguel O’Hara still has a story to tell.
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