Fresh from the pages of Amazing Spider-Man and celebrating 80 years of Marvel, the era of 2099 has returned for a small event. With the future having somehow drastically changed from the "2099" of old, what is this new world like?

2099 Alpha is written by Nick Spencer, with art by Viktor Bogdankvić. Matte Gracia provides colors, while Joe Caramagna letters the pages.

Acting as an anthology book to introduce the reader to the changed status quo of 2099, Alpha is a fascinating glance into the Marvel future. As the words of the last age of heroes echo around Thor’s abandoned hammer in the wastelands, the so-called Age of Heroes is starting to be reborn once again. In Alchemax, Miguel O’Hara works on splicing DNA with animals to produce super-humans. Conan, or someone believing himself to be the barbarian of yore, fights using an energy blade against a street gang. H.E.R.B.I.E of the Fantastic Four searches for his mother’s friends, potentially seeking a way to bring them back. And above them all, Doctor Doom watches his new world and waits.

2099 is a different beast from the incarnation brought to us in 1993, but many of the players are the same. Interestingly, the book throws the reader in without a primer on who anyone is, and characters like Jake Gallows or Miguel O’Hara don’t even get a last name mentioned. The only real weakness to this angle is that few characters feel developed enough to establish a reader’s interest most of the time, and the book almost feels like it could have been a series of back-up stories to tease 2099’s event… or as a Free Comic Book Day release to build up hype. However, Doom still feels like Doom, which can be hard to nail down.

The art is rather excellent. Rather than the 1993 characters the cover teases the readers with, these seem to be a brand-new iteration of them. Doom’s armor is still silver with a blue cape but lacks the defined armor or spikes of his “extreme” incarnation. However, the little touches of horror really bring forth a dystopian future without needing to highlight it in the dialogue. A peek of a third eye under a child’s hair, a broken hellscape surrounding Thor’s hammer, an army of Thor worshippers using replica hammers to battle the high-tech police. All of these little touches really work to show how broken this world is.

A special note needs to go to whoever designed this future update to Conan. While he only gets a pair of pages, the barbarian makes a fantastic impact with futuristic armor echoing his Hyborean Age garb. It is big and goofy, but it still fits perfectly for this updated Conan.

While the book acts like more of a teaser for things to come, it’s still a fantastic place for fans of 2099 to wet their whistle while they wait for other 2099 content to arrive. The future is here, and it’s going to be weird.

Grade: C+