2099 Omega #1: A New Hope

This is it!!! The big finale to Marvel’s latest epic crossover!!! Or, maybe I should say this month’s epic crossover. Hey, at least this one was mostly self-contained. You only had to buy a couple of books besides the main series to get the full story.  Anyway, it’s the big finale and it totally delivers where it should. This is my favorite kind of comic book story. It’s the ending of one story and the beginning of another. Now, before you get concerned, let me assure you that the 2099 story does end, but things are put in motion to tell additional stories after this series. If these books land in the top 100 of Diamond’s sales charts, I’d say look for 2099 Part 2 sometime soon.

But, let’s get to talking about this issue. Again, this issue hits on what it needs to, and the hits are big. The problem is, this issue suffers from the “it’s good when it should’ve been great” stigma. Counting this issue, this mini-series was thirteen issues, in my opinion, this book should’ve been double-sized and featured every single character from the series. I hate giving spoilers, but let me just say that this book does not. In fact, there are really only two stories running through this issue. Writer Nick Spencer gives us a very interesting story here. It’s fun, clever, has a couple of really good mysteries in it, my biggest complaint would be that it’s really light on the action. Don’t get me wrong, it satisfies, but it doesn’t satisfy 100%.

The art for this book is by the team of Gerardo Sandoval and Ze Carlos, whose art is very enjoyable. They both bring a shot in the arm to this issue that it very much needs. They make the book look action-packed, when it’s really not, they’ve both got a great sense of storytelling and know how to convey emotions, both small and large, across the page. Their styles can be quite different at times, which is a little jarring, but it’s nothing that really bothers you too bad. Both Sandoval & Carlos are excellent storytellers, plain and simple.