Synopsis:
Face to face with his present day counterpart, Miguel O'Hara attempts to re-introduce himself to who he believes is Peter Parker. Unfortunately for him, it's really Otto Octavius, who has no idea who this guy is (since he erased Peter's memories before he had the chance to study them all). So he just elects to punch Miguel in the face instead. While Miguel briefly confounded by "Spider-Man's" actions, SpOck turns his attention back to Tiberius Stone, who continues to wind him up. O'Hara gets between the two however, declaring that Stone is under his protection (since he's Miguel's grandfather) and the two Spider-Men face off, each unsheathing their talons.Inside Horizon Labs, lawyer Hector Baez leaves to go and help Max Modell, who is still in federal custody, despite Uatu "Not the Watcher" Jackson's protests. Grady Scraps is also about to enter his "Time Door invention (despite his girlfriend, Bella's protests and the fact that a future Spider-Man just came through the thing!) to expose Stone for the little swear word that he is.
Back outside, Otto manages to slash Miguel in the gut, only to find that it did jack squat! Miguel explains that his costume is made of UMF material, which is standard in the year 2099, though it looks cutting edge to a "low tech" like Otto, which infuriates SpOck to the point where he picks up a car with his retractable tentacles. Seeing his chance, Stone activates a portable Spider-Jammer in his hand, overloading "Spidey's" Spider-Sense and causing him to drop the car, which almost crushes Normie Osborn. Thankfully, Miguel saves him with a web line before taking off with Stone. A frustrated Octavius gives chase, remarking that this is all unacceptable (...you're unacceptable!)
He orders his minions to search for Spider-Man 2099 in conjunction with the Hobgoblin. The call is interrupted by another from Anna Maria Marconi, who is offering to come over and help "Peter" with his college thesis. Through his response, Ock realises that all his thesis work is stored over at Horizon and heads back there as fast as he can.Meanwhile, Miguel puts some distance between himself and Doc SpOck, landing on a rooftop with Tiberius Stone.Tyler Stone (the corrupt CEO of Alchemax, Tiberius' son and Miguel's dad) informs Spidey that his personal timeline is stabilising. Miguel briefly ponders whether or not he should allow his scheming grandpappy to live since that will lead to the creation of Alchemax, but is interrupted from his thoughts by Tiberius, whose figured out that Spider-Man won't harm him, putting his theory to the test by jumping off the rooftop. Miguel saves him and promptly webs him to the wall,
deciding to hotwire his wrist communicator to another channel. He "dl's" the thought bank of his holo-assistant Lyla to his location, instructing her to "info-dump" him on everything she knows about the connections between Tiberius, Horizon & Alchemax.
Travelling back into the past, Grady (who is invisible to everyone there ala the Pensieve from Harry Potter) uncovers Stone's sabotage of Peter Parker's demonstration of his "Parker Particles", taking photo evidence before contacting Bella and Sajani to input the next set of coordinates so he can jump back further. While this is going on, Otto is removing all of his equipment with the Living Brain. They are met outside by Hector & Max, who begs "Peter" to trust them as they can sort this out. Of course, Otto refuses to listen and ultimately infuriates Max by cutting him off mid-sentence to take a call from his Spider-Lings, who have located the Hobgoblin, but instead of Phil Urich, it's the Goblin King in disguise as the original Hobby. Out of patience, Modell informs "Parker" that if he leaves right now, he's fired! Guess what Otto does? As this is happening, Lyla informs Miguel that Stone's sabotage led to the actual destruction of Horizon Labs, which led to the rise of Alchemax. She also reveals the date of the event, which leaves Miguel "shocked" since (in the Marvel U anyway) it's today!
Heading back into Horizon Labs after firing "Parker", Modell discovers what his employees have been doing with the time door. Grady emerges from it just as Max calls for them to pull him out, saying when they hear what he's found it, the whole thing will be worth it. Outside, Otto frantically pulls on his costume as he fumes over all the different problems that are plaguing him. It's at this point that he receives a call from Mary Jane Watson, who simply wants to talk. Otto basically snaps at her before spotting Spider-Man 2099 heading to Horizon with Stone in hand.Back inside Horizon, the time door has been shut down, but there are still several chronotons in the air. Grady explains that they aren't from the door and that this was always going to happen, a claim that's backed up by Miguel as he arrives with Stone. He tells everyone that the place is about to blow, but if they listen to him, they can all make it out in one piece. It's at this point that SpOck chooses to wallop Miguel in the face, asking "What?" (I don't know Otto, what could you possibly have done wrong?) as Miguel's watch states that a temporal event will occur in sixteen minutes!
Thoughts:
Midway through this arc and things are heating up nicely. Despite all-out mayhem occurring in these pages, Dan Slott keeps things surprisingly coherent for the most part, with a cliffhanger ending that makes the wait for the concluding chapter all the more difficult.While I personally would have liked to have seen Otto's decisions throughout the series negatively affect him earlier than this, it's still good to see Slott taking him down this route now. It's rather satisfying to watch the "Superior Spider-Man's" mistakes, both past and present (which I guess is an apt phrase for this storyline), catch up to him. It definitely seems as though Doc SpOck won't be coming out of this unscathed.
Miguel O'Hara continues to function well as a duel protagonist. His detective work ensures that he remains his own character rather than being reduced to a pawn of Alchemax, and it also allows Slott to bring in more characters from 2099 briefly. And while he may not have much of a sense of humour, Miguel's actions provide some much needed comedy to the story, like when he calls Otto low-tech. The only moment that seemed a little out of place was the brief appearance of the Goblin King, though this could pay off in the next issue so it's not really a criticism.
Ryan Stegman provides some truly spectacular panels of artworks here. There's an abundance of detail in the characters and the surroundings, with an awesome action scene between the two Spider-Men. So far this has proved to be a pretty effective story. A lot is resting on the final part however and I'd be lying if I said I haven't been disappointed by Slott in the past, but hopefully he can deliver a satisfying conclusion to this story...
