Spider-Man is one of the most popular fictional characters of all time, and so it’s only natural that there are more than your fair share of alternate versions and future successors. One of the premier versions is the Spider-Man of the year 2099, Miguel O’Hara. Miguel lives in a tech-driven, cyberpunk future ruled by the evil company Alchemax, and took on the mantle of Spider-Man to bring them down. On the surface, the two seem pretty similar, as far as powers go. They’re both super strong, climb walls, and shoot webs. However, there’s actually a ton that’s different about the two spiders.
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The Spider-Men of different eras received their powers in different ways, and as such, there are major differences in how their abilities manifest. They have a lot of the same basic suite of powers, but once you dig into each of them, there’s actually more that’s different than the same in the finer details. To clear the air and give each spider his due, we’re going to be looking at the five key differences between Spider-Man and his 2099 counterpart’s powers and breaking them down.
5) Wall-Crawling
Right off the bat, one key difference between the two Spider-Men is how they crawl up walls. Peter has the uncanny ability to stick to anything he touches through controlling electrostatic force. Miguel, meanwhile, has to make due with retractable claws on his fingers and toes. Instead of sticking to surfaces, Miguel has to dig into them.
This vastly limits his abilities compared to Peter, as the original Spidey can make any part of his body stick to anything, even using it in creative situations like having his mask stick to his face and ripping the skin right off people. Miguel’s claws are far more limited and combat-oriented, while Peter has to get creative with his much more open-ended power.
4) Organic Webbing
While there have been brief periods of exceptions, Peter generally doesn’t have organic webbing. He makes the web formula himself and fires it out of shooters on his wrists. On the other hand, Miguel has spinnerets on each of his forearms that naturally produce webbing. Miguel never has to worry about running out of webs or his web-shooters getting damaged, but webs cost him energy, and are identical to real spider silk.
Peter has to make his own web fluid and can easily run out or lose it, but he can also use entire cartridges for massive web bombs, and can adjust his own formula for much greater strength and versatility.
3) Spider-Sense
This one is a big one. One of Spidey’s most iconic powers is his precognitive danger sense, which alerts him to any threat coming his way. The Spider-Sense covers everything from assassination attempts to being bluffed at poker, and can even pick up on certain radio frequencies like his Spider-Tracers. Even though this is such a prototypical Spider-Man power, Miguel doesn’t have one at all. Where Peter can let his body instinctively leap out of the way from danger he couldn’t see coming, Miguel has to rely on his wits and five normal senses to keep himself safe.
As a note, Peter’s Spider-Sense can also be turned against him, such as the time he absorbed too much radiation, and his body tried to attack the danger. The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #76 showed that it constantly flared to warn Peter about the danger in himself, which created a negative feedback loop of agony. Basically, the Spider-Sense can be overloaded, and once it is, it can act like the world’s most painful allergic reaction.
2) Enhanced Vision
While Peter’s vision was brought up from needing glasses to perfect, if not slightly above perfect human vision, Miguel’s eyesight is much better. He has telescopic vision, night vision, and can even see energy waves invisible to normal people. Not only can Miguel see in complete darkness as well as day, but he can also literally see threats coming from a mile away.
His enhanced sight also detects things that move much faster than normal humans can see, letting him react much faster and see what would be blurs in perfect clarity. He might not have a Spider-Sense, but anything in his line of vision will be spotted and reacted to accordingly.
1) Radioactivity
Peter famously got his powers from being bitten by a radioactive spider, while Miguel got his when his DNA was grafted with that of a spider. It might seem like a small distinction, but it has massive implications, as Peter has a major boon in radioactive resistance. Due to getting his powers from radiation, Peter has a very high natural resistance to radiation poisoning, which has aided him in everything from surviving blasts of radioactive energy to amping himself with it to take down the multiversal spider-eater Morlun. Miguel is out in the cold here, whereas Peter has a whole slew of extra options at his disposal should things start to get radioactive.
So there we have the five key differences that separate the classic Spider-Man and his counterpart in 2099. Which Spider-Man’s powers would you rather have, and which one do you think has the coolest set? What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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Courtesy of Toei Animation
