The current run of Spider-Man 2099 has come to an end.  The story of a man out of time trying to save the future turned into the story of a man traveling through space and time to save the only person he really cared about in 2015.  In Spider-Man 2099 #12 Peter David and Will Sliney abandoned some of the series’ bigger themes and focused on one of Miguel’s personal relationships.  It just happened to be played out as Miggy battled a human spider wasp across Manhattan.

Earlier in the series, one of my biggest wishes was for the art team to get more opportunities to showcase New York, and this issue packs in more city scenes than ever.  Artist Will Sliney and color artists Antonio Fabela and Andres Mossa give the city a great look and glow by paying attention to small details.  There are things like the cars’ headlights projecting onto the street that really bring the city to life.  Sliney gets in another one of his trademark shocked faces in a great panel that has the reflection of the battle visible in the windshield of a helicopter (a great running gag throughout the series).

There may have been one missed opportunity during the battle scene to show more of a bird’s eye view of the situation.  Sliney excels when he pulls back and shows the scale of the setting.  In this case, Tempest takes Miguel through a window and climbs to an altitude where it’s possible to slam him into a helicopter.  Then Miguel wing-glides across Manhattan into Central Park at speeds of about 100 mph.  I would’ve loved to have seen at least one wider panel, like we saw in previous battles with The Scorpion and Daemos.

It’s very interesting that this series ends without any mention of Alchemax or Tiberius Stone in the final issue and instead focuses on Miguel’s relationship with Tempest.  Throughout the entire series, his personal interactions were probably one of his weakest qualities!  He’s never seemed to care too much about another person before.  He’s considered killing Liz Allan a couple of times and he barked at the steam punk Lady Spider all throughout “Spider-Verse.”  But now he’s doing whatever it takes to save one woman from 2015 (although he sure was a little too confident that multiple gunshots would not kill her).  I think this is a conscious decision that says our individual relationships are more important than some of the other things in the big picture.

The role of the police in this issue is of some importance.  With all the recent headlines across the country involving police protests, any portrayal in the arts is going to attract extra scrutiny; David even has Miguel make reference to this in Central Park.  In this scene, the individual officer is able to understand the context of the situation, but when backup arrives, the group’s first instinct is to point guns at Miguel and demand surrender.  This could be interpreted as a sympathetic plea for the police.

Since this is the end of the end of the series, let’s look back at Miguel’s arc throughout the book.  His mission was to change a giant corporation, from the inside, and prevent it from becoming the evil Big Brother of 2099.  Despite an early victory in the series, he ultimately failed at this task.  Miguel was unable to change the fate of an entire city.  He was only able to change the future of one woman.  Maybe that’s the moral of the series: that we can’t change the entire world, but we can change the lives of the individuals around us.

On the other hand, maybe Miguel’s story isn’t done just yet.  We’ll see if he remains a man out of time when “Secret Wars” ends.  David leaves plenty of cliffhangers and loose ends to grab on to if the series jump starts again.  And I’ll be ready to join him for the ride.