@kenobiian sent: next time, take me with you.
ㅤThe argument was there, one she’s given a hundred times by now. She was not a fragile little princess incapable of defending herself. No one, most certainly her parents would have allowed her to go off on herself if she did not have the skills to be able to see herself to safety. Not to mention she had taken the trails dozens if not hundreds of times over the years without event. It was not a path she picked often, the fact she ran into danger was an outlier event. Sure there was a greater risk now that she was queen, and she was indeed lucky to have come away more shaken and startled rather than hurt beyond minor bumps and bruises. She did not think she had to fear for her life.
ㅤYet the moment her gaze rose and found his, the argument died before it was ever spoken. Amelia couldn’t say it was easy, to untangle their positions from themselves. She was a queen, he her knight, her protector. Though they were far more than simply that now. While there was all of that, duty, devotion, concern, it all went beyond the call of his position into something deeper. Love perhaps, not that they yet had spoken of it, she knew it to be there. Love held for her and all she was, there was no need to prove or defend herself to him, he already knew her for everything she was, yet she had been so ready for the words and the debate against them she had missed everything else. How close he stood, the lack of rigid formality, the gentleness of his words. At least she had caught them all in time, before she made a bigger fool of herself.
ㅤHer gaze pulled away from his as Amelia took one of his sword worn hands between both of her own, turning it over so she could trace the calluses on his hands for a moment. “Next time,” she said with a gentle nod, and once more her gaze rose to meet his. Turning his hand again so she could bring it to her lips and kiss the back of his knuckles. “Next time I’ll take you with me, I promise.”
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so, then, what IS up with miguel o’hara’s moral backbone?
lol sorry if y’all’re sick of my 2099 soapboxing. anyways.
while i understand where the reading of “miguel is a morally bankrupt evil scientist and his spider-man is just a violent shitheel” comes from, i just... really can’t ever get behind it, based on what we see in the text of SM2099 v1 (1992-1996) itself.
like, don’t get me wrong-- from our first introduction to the guy, we very quickly learn that he has been a cog in the machine for one of the 2099 imprint’s Big Bads, the ruthless megacorporation in charge of the United States’ East coast: Alchemax.
..but. like.
the whole point of his origin story is changing that. the initial catalyst for his Spidering--getting roofied by Tyler when he tries to quit his job--would not have happened if he had no moral compass to speak of.
narratively, it’s less that miguel himself is changed, after he gets his powers, but that his perception of the world has changed.
just-- just bear with me, yeah?
see, for a lot of his life, miguel was a perfect cog in a shitty machine, and he did everything he was expected to without even thinking to stray from the path set down for him by his biological father and by alchemax overall.
and, then, suddenly, that’s all ripped from him in an instant. and miguel’s left floundering in the water.
he’s no longer on the winning team-- more than that, he realizes that he probably never even was on the right side of things, to begin with.
miguel o’hara’s most-quoted line is his response to the infamous “great power,” bit: Great responsibility? No. With great power comes great guilt.
he’s repressed, and he’s a hypocrite, but a guy can only turn a blind eye so far when something he knows is wrong is happening right in front of his face.
as soon as it’s even suggested to him, he immediately steps out of line and tries to put his foot down on absolutely not using a human test subject for his personal spider-man project. when stone brushes him off and makes them go through with human testing anyways, and then the subject dies, miguel doesn’t hesitate to turn up his nose and walk out right then and there on the spot.
his reward for it, of course, is an ice-cold dose of Reality.
from there, his blinders get pulled harshly off his face, and mig realizes that he really doesn’t want to keep being the person that he has been. his life has been wasted sitting idly by and letting bad things happen because all he knows is helpless compliance, right up until he goes and gets himself The Fly’ed into spider-man.
and once that happens, and he Realizes it, he starts to fight back.
that’s how the run is kick-started, in the very first three issues!
the first ten issues of spider-man 2099 (1992) follow miguel stumbling from a very sheltered life, having been thrust head-first into navigating a world that is not only deeply, deeply unjust, but also wants him very, very dead.
he don’t got a dead uncle to motivate him! all he’s got it his own fear and an inner desire to use his new abilities to try and make the world a better place.
hell, the first time he put on the costume, ol’ miggy boy wasn’t even doing so for the purpose of becoming a superhero in his off-time-- it was just an old spare in his closet that he threw on in a desperate attempt to Not Fucking Die as a bounty hunter tracked him to his home.
it’s only later on, after he’s had time for it all to sink in, that miguel realizes that he can actually meaningfully help the people who had been cast aside by the same society that had previously lifted him up above them.
as much as he whines and bitches and moans about it, he never seriously considers throwing in the towel and hanging up the costume for good. he may hate what has happened to him, but he never once seems to hate what he can now do with his powers, vis-à-vis challenging injustice.
mig’s often stuck between a rock and a hard place, what with the kind of world he lives in. it’s why he don’t work well when he’s stranded away from his dimension. peter can get his villains locked up just fine and dandy, but miguel’s world isn’t like ours like that. it’s brutal and it’s very very much established across the imprint that earth-928 (marvel 2099) is a kill-or-be-killed place to live.
despite how people harp on him not having a no-kill rule, miguel honestly hasn’t even killed enough people to count on one hand; the first was completely by accident, even, and the second told him to his face that if spider-man let him live he’d just keep being a cannibal gang-boss because no one else ever has or would try to oppose him.
is killing people the answer? not if you have any other option. but. mig ain’t a friendly neighborhood superhero. he’s just doing what he thinks is right in the moment while scared absolutely shitless for his life most of the time.
now, i don’t mean to defend his every action--miguel o’hara isn’t a saint, and, good god, but he’s made some questionable choices--but. at the end of the day, he’s still shown throughout the run to be trying to be better.
and, i dunno. maybe i’m just a sentimental little sap, but a story about somebody who finally “wakes up” and struggles to build a life worth being proud of after years of having shut down from heavy early-life trauma? that hits, man.
hits real close to home, to be honest. learning to Live after so long simply Surviving is fuckin’ hard, man.
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1999 recording of noel playing the acoustic track for it's a crime, the unofficial name given to the demo that would eventually become let there be love.
the lyrics are completely different from the album version and they're pretty interesting, so i included them under the cut
Well you can say what you want
But you won't get a thing from me
And if you don't understand
That's it's not in your hands you need
Let there be love
Let there be love
Let there be love
Let there be love
But you can say what you feel
And it might never steal from me
And then you must understand
That it's all in your hands what you need
Let there be love
Let there be love
Let there be love
Let there be love
And I never knew
But all the thing's that you've done
Are coming right back to you
But everybody know's that it's no crime
But does it make you feel ashamed?
You never said what you done
And there's no need to blame
But everybody knows
Yeah everybody knows
Everybody knows that it's no crime
It's no crime
So you can say what you want
But you'll not get a thought from me
But if you say what you mean
Then you might get a thing from me
Let there be love
Let there be love
Let there be love
Let there be love
If I ever knew
That all the thing's I've thought
Are coming right back to you
But everybody thinks that it's a crime
It never makes you feel ashamed
You sit around and you sold
And then you're passing the blame
But everybody knows
Yeah everybody knows
Everybody knows that it's a crime
It's a crime
It's a crime
It's a crime
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