A Hell of a Risk
Cover to “The End 2099 #4” (published March 11th, 2026) written by Steve Orlando with art by Gabriel Guzman and Ibraim Roberson and colors by Andrew Dalhouse and Fabi Marques
Cover by David Marquez and Andrew Dalhouse
The 2099 time line hangs in the balance as the heroes of the future Marvel Universe desperately stave off the looming threat of absolute destruction courtesy of Abyssus and his Abyssal Warriors. In the previous issue of The End 2099, things took an unexpected turn as Mephisto faked the deaths of Spider-Man 2099, Nova 2099, Hulk 2099 and others to reveal he had a secret mission for them, one that would be their “real” battle. What could the Lord of the Underworld have up his sleeves and is it enough to turn the tide for the 2099 universe? Let’s find out!
Warning: This review will contain spoilers for “The End 2099 #4”.
Enter: Antithesis
The ever crafty Mephisto teleports the heroes of 2099 to pitch his devious gambit.
Our issue starts off in Hell, which ironically for the heroes of 2099, is probably safer than the battlefield of Viadrome. Mephisto in all his dramatic fashion explains his reasoning for faking the assembled heroes' death and why he brought them to his domain. They need an edge in this fight for survival and what better edge is there than a device that can thoroughly and utterly destroy any target? That’s right, Mephisto charges his Secret Defenders with the task of obtaining the Ultimate Nullifer, the very same device that once gave Galactus pause back in the 616 timeline. Of course, the heroes balk at the prospect as the Nullifier can easily destroy everything if not used properly. But Mephisto tells them to stifle their doubts. He tells them that he can take them where they need to go, but where they need to go is the Negative Zone. Worse, he informs them that the Ultimate Nullifier is in the hands of Antithesis, an ancient being who subsumes all he touches. The heroes reluctantly agree to the high risk, high reward plan as Mephisto teleports them away in a flash of hellfire.
Spider-Man 3099 and Spider-Woman 2099 take on Miles Morales and Mayday Parker.
Back on Viadrome, we’re brought back to the battlefield as we focus on four Spider-People battling it out: Spider-Woman 2099 battling Spider-Girl of Earth 982 (aka May Parker) and Spider-Man 3099 battling Spider-Man of Earth 1048 (Miles Morales from the Insomniac video games universe). Abyssus is quite amused by the melee as Mephisto remains quietly confident. The Spiders trade barbed words with one another with each side firmly believing they’re in the right and the other to be completely unreasonable. We also see 616 time displaced Jean Grey battling against Strange 2099 with the two again arguing mid battle over who’s really in the right given the stakes here. We get some interesting dialogue from Spider-Man 3099 as he commits to keeping the younger Spider heroes safe despite the fact that they all have to fight. Spider-Woman 2099 is less convinced. Meanwhile, Strange 2099 repels Jean using her magic but is ambushed by House of M Wanda. The tide is about to turn away from the heroes of 2099 when the sky cracks open heralding the arrival of Bloodwielder, aka Dracula 2099 (who, speaking of heralding, is an actual Herald of Abyssus).
A massive cosmic explosion marks the arrival of Bloodwielder, Herald of Abyssus.
Abyssus gloats, declaring his inevitable victory as Mephisto casually blasts him point blank with hellfire in response, promoting a rare moment where it appears we can actually see Galactus and not the horrific fusion between the Devourer of Worlds and the God of Symbiotes. We cut back to the Spiders as Spider-Woman 2099 stands triumphantly over both Mayday and Miles and is ready to lethally dispatch them, only to be stopped by Spider-Man 3099 who effectively tells her if she wants to execute them, she better start with him. She relents, albeit reluctantly. Abyssus decides to lash out at Mephisto, happily willing to drop the facade of the two of them being “above” fighting among one another. But Mephisto simply replies that he had no choice but to check his rival’s gloating and to remind him that 2099 is far from defeated. Abyssus backs off despite the fact he looks incredibly pissed off.
The Secret Defenders of 2099 arrive in the Negative Zone.
The Secret Defenders of 2099 (Spider-Man, Nova, Hulk, Red Hulk, Dr. Octopus, Radioactive Man, Star-Lord, Blade and Hyperion) arrive on the planet Baluur within the Negative Zone, sensing great ominous power within, which could either be the Nullifier or Antithesis himself. Either way, they know they’re in for a fight. And a fight they find! It takes mere moments for Antithesis to confront the heroes by way of proxy in the form of his “prophets”, individuals who have been exposed to his blood and lost all sense of self and have basically become hive mind puppets for the tyrant of the Negative Zone. Dr. Octopus lashes out with his tentacles towards one of the prophets, who spews the lifeblood of Antithesis on him in response…literally turning him instantaneously. The heroes defend themselves as the possessed Doc Ock spews lifeblood on Hulk, who retaliates by triggering a gamma explosion, sacrificing himself to give the others time. The numbers game grows to become too much as the heroes are overwhelmed. Realizing what needs to be done, Radioactive Man self detonates as well, causing an even more massive explosion as Hyperion and the others escape, much to Spider-Man’s dismay.
Once described as the “Galactus of the Negative Zone”, Antithesis turns life itself into mere aspect of himself with his “prophets”.
The heroes land outside a fortress of sorts and take a moment to regroup as Hyperion defends both his actions and those of Radioactive Man’s as Spider-Man argues that they didn’t come all this way to just throw away their lives. The team starts to come to terms that perhaps they did just that, provided that they win in the end, only for them to finally be confronted by Antithesis himself. Nova, to no one’s surprise, is all too ready to blast and snikt this dude when Blade attempts to appeal to the entity’s reason. Antithesis acknowledges the logic behind their appeal and why they would seek out the Ultimate Nullifier…only to whip out said Nullifier and in a display of being offended by their audacity to seek out his aid and lend their aid in turn, turns it upon the heroes. Hyperion leaps to action, immediately striking back against the entity and trying to buy time for the others to wrest the Nullifier from Antithesis’ grip. In fact, Hyperion staggers him to the point where he acknowledges the Super-Eternal’s strength while being blasted by atomic vision that would give anyone, anything else pause. But sadly, it is not enough. With a single blow, Antithesis slams Hyperion’s face with a sickening crunch, rendering him a bruised and bloody pulp before he takes the mighty warrior and throws him within the reactor core of his chassis, effectively and presumably disintegrating him as Spider-Man and the others watch in horror as our issue concludes.
The Fate of 2099 will be revealed in the next and final issue!
The End Really is Near
One of the original Marvel McGuffins: The Ultimate Nullifier!
Issue #4 of The End 2099 does advance the plot beyond just having two teams of heroes from across the multiverse fighting it out for survival. Of course, more of that happens, too, but we get a nice secret side quest courtesy of Mephisto. That said, the story does seem to stumble here and there. The plan itself is solid and even logical within the confines of Marvel lore. But the execution here feels a bit too little, too late for my tastes. Sending Spider-Man 2099 and a handful of his fellow heroes on a suicide mission to obtain the Ultimate Nullifier should have happened sooner but at this juncture, I feel like we’ve missed the opportunity for the story to grow past a giant death match. I think Steve Orlando has more in the gas tank, but with only one issue left to go…I do have concerns.
We do get to see some character deaths but this is undercut by the fact that one of these deaths, Hulk 2099, is seemingly…forgotten about? He, alongside Radioactive Man, make heroic sacrifices for the others to get to Antithesis, but is bizarrely portrayed as being just fine towards the end of the issue in two separate panels, but conspicuously missing from the final shot. Perhaps he did survive as he did raise doubt that the infectious blood could overwhelm his gamma energy, but there’s no real greeting or anything of the sort or even a passing “he got better” comment. That combined with the inexplicable appearance of him just appearing randomly in the group leads me to believe this was an oversight, but I would gladly admit I’m wrong.
Spider-Man 3099 is low-key getting the best character development and arc in this whole thing.
The banter between the two teams also feels a bit…repetitive now. The heroes of 2099 are quick to say that if everyone works together, none of these universes have to die. Conversely, the Abyssal Warriors are equally quick to claim that it’s too big of a risk not to fight. Miles Morales from the Insomniac verse has basically said the same thing multiple times. As has House of M Wanda. As has 616 Jean Grey. I understand that their motivations likely won’t change until they get some sort of proof or revelation, but the mid fight accusations aren’t really going anywhere and with such a huge cast of characters to feature from just 2099 alone, to say nothing of fan favorites pulled from various timelines, it just feels like we’re beating a dead horse at this point.
That said, the dialogue we do get from Spider-Man 3099 does us a favor in further fleshing out the character and peeling back layers of mystery for the wall crawler from the even more distant future. I’m surprisingly more invested in the character than before and I admittedly was not a fan of the design from the get go (it’s grown on me, though). Another thing I liked here was Mephisto playing all the angles. Abyssus is just a voracious evil monster with no sense of self preservation beyond sating his hunger. Mephisto is all too willing to gamble and risk the souls of others to achieve his own ends, but you can rest assured those ends aren’t just destruction for the sake of it. The fact he felt ballsy enough to just blast Abyssus in the fact was fantastic as was his reaction to Abyssus essentially willing to just drop the whole pretense of a battle via proxies to square up then and there.
This was a pretty brutal scene, to be quite honest.
Antithesis’s introduction to the story this late feels like a double edged sword. He is in possession of the McGuffin the heroes need in the form of the Ultimate Nullifier, but again, with only one issue left to go, I don’t know how things go about to getting a satisfying conclusion before it all gets wrapped up. Still, he has a cool design as something that looks to be a cross between Annihilus and the Anti-Monitor from DC. And the way he casually destroyed Hyperion 2099 speaks volumes. Considering he’s effectively the Negative Zone version of Galactus, I shouldn’t be too surprised.
The art here is good for the most part, but there are some moments in the book where the quality does unfortunately take a dip and that’s towards the end of it. Gabriel Guzman and Ibraim Roberson are the artists here while Andrew Dalhouse and Fabi Marques work on colors. Together, most of the comic sustains the fairly high quality work the mini-series has put out to date, typically when it comes to sprawling battlefields with multiple combatants operating at the same time. I feel the Negative Zone sequence is where things feel rushed (especially the sudden appearance of Hulk 2099 with no explanation) but it’s still big on action and palpable cosmic high stakes thrills. Otherwise, the rest of the book is well put together regardless of the plot stumbling a bit.
Final Review and Thoughts
Antithesis brandishes the Ultimate Nullifier at the heroes, including Hulk 2099…who apparently blew himself up but inexplicably got better?
The End 2099 #4 manages to push the plot forward beyond the concept of the champions of 2099 defending their timeline against hand picked warriors from across the multiverse courtesy of Abyssus. But at the same time, it feels as if this development and the sudden revelation that the Ultimate Nullifier is the one thing that can stop Abyssus and in theory save all the timelines feels as if it waited too long to present itself in the series, especially with the knowledge that issue #5 is the final one.
Final Review: 6/10
Hyperion makes his valiant final stand to save not just the 2099 universe, but all universes.
As fun as it is seeing a bunch of characters who would otherwise never interact with one another fighting each other to the death, there’s only so much you can do with a story where the central plot revolves around a fight to the death. We finally move beyond that here in issue #4 of The End 2099 and start to zero in on how this event can likely be wrapped up, but with only one more issue to go, it’s hard to tell if The End 2099 can conclude on a high note.