In the past few months, Miguel has been jumping through time, space and reality, battling Inheritors and evil Hulks.  Through all the highs and lows of those adventures, fans of the series couldn’t help but wonder when Peter David and Will Sliney would return to the stories that they starting building in the first couple issues.  With only pages left before the series morphs into “Secret Wars,” Spider-Man 2099 #11 finally returns to the characters and plots that helped put this series in motion nearly a year ago.

Miguel’s story with Tempest has been on the slow-cooker for a while.  Way back in issue #2, we learned about Miguel’s super, Tempest, and her incurable cancer.  Back then, I was worried that Tempest would be a distraction for his serious time-travel mission, but we didn’t see her again.  Then, for a moment in issue #7, Miguel nearly lost “Spider-Verse” for the spiders when he took time away from the mission to secure a cure for Tempest’s cancer in 2099.  Now, David’s Miguel has never been a gentleman, but this issue may show us Miggy at his creepiest.  His best idea for delivering Tempest’s cancer cure is to hide out in her bedroom and wait for her to fall asleep!  Miggy is on this peeping-tom stakeout for more than an hour, all while he’s having his own existential moment.  At one point he actually thinks,  “I wish I could just tell her I’ve got a cure for her cancer.” That seems like a better plan than creeping up to her in bed.

My biggest question about this issue is one of efficiency.  It seems to me that some of the pages are unnecessary.  We get a three page battle between Spidey and the Spot to fill our supervillain quota that seemingly does nothing to advance Miguel’s story.  Unless this twisted vision of the Spot is setting up something down the line we definitely could have skipped the fight; it’d certainly not be the first time David went light on action if it was in the story’s best interest.  Exposition, everyone’s favorite punching-bag, is a key part of this issue in a way that’s never been seen in the series before. There’s an entire page dedicated to explaining why Miguel went to all this trouble for Tempest.  Then, there’s another page to recap the situation with Alchemax and Maestro.  Finally, Miguel explains it all to Peter to incorporate the developments with Parker Industries over in Amazing Spider-Man.

There seems to be a little foreshadowing into next Miguel’s adventures.  Miggy and Peter have this discussion about whether or not Miguel could actually be the catalyst in 2015 that causes his 2099 dystopia.  That could be an interesting path to investigate in future stories and gives me hope that this character may still be around in some form following “Secret Wars.”

Artist Will Sliney delivers another beautiful issue. The series has been away from present day New York City for so long, it’s refreshing to see his cityscapes again. His Chrysler Building and the scale of Peter and Miguel against it look great not to mention his grotesquely fascinating version of the Spot. Sure, it’s hard to look at, but impossible to look away. Colorist Antonio Fabela continues to make this book pop off the page. The purple in Tempest’s hair is bright while the gold and orange in the sunset make the city glow.

David and Sliney finish the book by giving the audience something that’s been brewing since the first issue, then something that no one would ever expect. And there’s only one issue left! Will it be possible to tie up all the loose ends before “Secret Wars” launches? Will this be the end of Miguel O’Hara?  If history is any indication, I believe this creative team will end this series in a way that will leave fans satisfied.