Marvel Funko POP! Spider-Man 2099

Series: POP! Marvel
Year: 2015
RRP: $16.95AUD

As an adult, I’m much less enamoured of Peter Parker than I was as a kid, but I do enjoy some of his variants and spin-offs. And I’ve been on a real kick of buying Marvel merch for characters I know virtually nothing about, so this Spider-Man 2099 was a total must-have, wasn’t it? To be fair I think I did actually read a Spider-Man 2099 comic somewhere back in the 1990s as a little kid, which is more than I can say about some of the other characters I've bought stuff for *cough* Machine Man *cough*.

The 2099 series was a fun little take on the Marvel Universe that debuted in 1992 – what would the superheroes of the present day look a little more than 100 years hence? What started life as an experiment grew into a mini-universe of its own, though it takes more of a guest role in the comics these days. I’m not really sure of its canon status in the main Marvel Universe, but I get the impression it comes and goes as required for spin-offs/summer crossovers/if the writer feels like it.

Peter Parker was long dead by 2099, so after an accident involving spider genes, a Hispanic guy by the name of Miguel O’Hara took up the mantle, fighting to take down the megacorporations that made life hell for the common man. His new costume incorporated elements of a Day of the Dead costume, which explains the giant skull-spider on his chest.    

Spider-Man 2099 is impressively bare bones – he seems to use the basic Funko body, and doesn’t feature any sculpted detail on his head. I can’t remember the last time I saw one of Funko’s figures look this basic, but I really like it. He’s a fun throwback to the early days of the POP! style, but with greatly improved paint. Though as you might expect, there’s really not a lot of paint on him – he’s cast in blue and details are picked out in dark red, with a couple of “scowl lines” and a nose in black.

His back is totally blank -- it's a little bit of a shame that he doesn't have his traditional "wings" but I suppose this guy was supposed to be a relatively cheap repaint, with new tooling going to (wavemates) Punisher and Venom. 

This guy has been out in the US for a while, so far as I understand, but only seems to have made his way to Australia just now. The retailer I bought from had just received the wave in, with two each of the attendant figures in the wave (though it seems I got the last 2099). The whole wave is Spider-Man themed, featuring the Punisher (who debuted in Spider-Man comic, before you get on your high horse), Venom and Black Suit Spider-Man. It’s a welcome change from the last couple of years; save for the X-Men wave released earlier in 2015, Marvel POPs! have been very heavily dominated by the movie universe for a couple of years. Most of these are great, of course, but it’s good to have some comic-based stuff too. Highly recommended for Spider-fans.