Issue 179 – Miguel O’Hara (Spider-Man 2099) Transcript

Issue 179 – Miguel O’Hara (Spider-Man 2099) – Part 1

Anthony: Hello and welcome to Capes on the Couch where Come Get Counseling. I’m Anthony Sytko.

Doc Issues: And I’m Dr. Issues.

Anthony: This is Issue 179. And to tie in with Spider-Man across the Spider Verse. Coming out this Friday, we are covering Miguel O’Hara, spider-Man 2099, who is the antagonist of sorts of this movie, or at least that’s the way the trailers make it seem.

I know that the spot is a big part of this, but. It seems like Miguel is going to be driving a heavy portion of the plot, so very much looking forward to taking our first look into the 2099 universe. Very different. I do remember when I was a kid, I remember seeing a lot of the stuff that came out around the 2099.

Universe. It was Doom, 2099. Spider-Man, 2099.

Doc Issues: Hulk 2099. Hulk. Yes. Punisher nine. Yeah. So random fact, I own Punisher Spider-Man and Hulk, although, as with most collectors, unlike Anthony they are probably molded and locked away somewhere that I can’t recall.

Anthony: That’s okay. You had them. That’s, that’s pretty cool.

And. There have been omnibus reprints of a lot of these things, at least of the Spider-Man books because of the movie coming out, corporate synergy and everything. So definitely go check those out and we’ll get into recommended reading in a little bit. Again, a reminder, this is our season finale. We’re gonna be taking a break, so we’re kind of at the finish line for season nine.

And looking ahead to season 10, but before we get there, we have to wrap things up with where we are now. So let’s jump forward in time and look at the background.

Miguel O’Hara, spider-Man 2099, created by Peter David and Rick Leonardi in Spiderman 2099, number one. November, 1992. There was a small preview in an issue of Amazing Spider-Man a couple of months before, but that was mostly just the pages from Spider-Man 2099 being inserted at the end of the book. So if you’re a purist, it was.

From, I wanna say like June or July of 92. But the first full formal introduction is Spider-Man 2099, in November, 1992. So his origin takes place in Nueva York 2099, which depending on the writer and the storyline that needs to be told is either Marvel 616 in the future or its own separate timeline. I think at the time it was supposed to be, 616 in the future, but then it’s kind of been designated as its own separate reality, at least according to Marvel fandom.

I don’t know, I’m admittedly a big multiverse geek and this type of stuff even I don’t care that much, but I know that there are people that do, which is, which is why I wanna mention it. So Miguel O’Hara is head geneticist for Alchemax, and he is working on a program to create super soldiers. When a test subject dies, however he quits in protest. His boss, Tyler Stone, poisons him with an addictive substance that only Alchemax makes.

Miguel breaks him and tries to alter his genes to cure himself, but a jealous colleague Tamers with the procedure and Miguel ends up with spider powers enhanced speed, agility, and strength. Plus the ability to see in the dark. Unlike Peter Parker, he has organic spinnerettes in his wrists. He has retractable talons in his fingertips and toes that allow him to grip two surfaces and fangs that can release a toxin if he bites a foe.

So he wears a suit made of unstable molecules that has talons, can’t rip. He had worn previously for a day of the dead celebration, and this is the only thing he says that he can wear. Because otherwise his talons will rip through everything else. He decides to operate as a hero after realizing the effect that his heroics have on Citizens 2099 in this universe is a world of mega corporations that control everything and the populace is overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated.

This is in no way relevant whatsoever to anything that is happening in current reality and is pure speculative fiction. They’re just really making stuff up out of whole cloth, even back in 1992.

Doc Issues: Yeah, I know. Just the pure imagination.

Anthony: Yeah. No one could possibly have foreseen a hyper capitalist hellscape future.

It’s just, it’s unheard of sarcasm. Any who? Lot of stuff happens. We’re not gonna dive into too much of it, but he later learns that Tyler Stone is his real father because his mother had an affair with Tyler after Dr. Doom, or at least Doom 2099 takes over the United States as President Tyler ends up in a cabinet position and Miguel ends up in control of Alchemax.

He uses his position to change the company’s focus to be more positive and helpful for the community. Best forward a bit. Haha. He ends up stranded in the quote unquote present day timeline. Thanks to the age of Ultron and the effect on the time stream. He encounters Spider-Man who is at this time, Doc Ock in Peter Parker’s body, so superior Spider-Man, where they battle Miguel’s grandfather Tiberius Stone.

Miguel can’t kill him, however, because to do so would obliterate Miguel’s timeline and Miguel himself. So he ends up taking a job, working for Alchemax Undercover so he can keep tabs on the company before it becomes evil. He joins the other spiders to battle Morlin during Spider Verse, and then he attempts to return to his timeline.

He ends up in a post-apocalyptic 2099 instead. I believe this was the Hulk future imperfect storyline ruled by like the, the, the, the Maestro. Yes. I was gonna say the Professor Thero. Oh, it’s the maestro. Yeah. We’ll get around to the maestro one of these days. He’s a very interesting character, at least that particular version of the Hulk.

So with the help of strange 2099, a woman named Jenny Janine something, something along those lines he goes back to present day. So he temporarily retires because he realizes that he’s getting a little too violent with his crime fighting. So he opts to work for Peter Parker at Parker Industries until his girlfriend’s Tempest was seemingly killed by a group called the Fist.

She’s later revealed to be alive, just comatose. So he discovers that in the near future, the fist creates a bio weapon that obliterates New York. He travels forward a handful of years to stop it and he teams up with the future version of Tempest and an older version of their son, both of whom have powers.

He also learns he dies in 2016, which is the present day. He does end up dying. He’s killed by a psychically manipulated, tempest, but resurrected in 2099. By that present day’s, Dr. Strange, where he celebrates New Year’s with Tempest and their son #BecauseComics. So it is then, it’s no longer 2099. It is 2100.

So it’s kind of like a, whoa. We actually advanced a whole year. We’re now in the next year. So, He kind of earns his happy ending there in a, in a manner of speaking. So again, glossing over a lot of the stuff, mostly because we really want to focus on the issues. The theme is you can’t marry your future without divorcing your past, which is a quote that Doc found maybe 90 seconds before we started recording the episode.

He goes, wait, I’ve got it. I’ve got it. This is perfect. So, So much of what Miguel deals with is a lot of time travel shenanigans. As we all know, it’s just a big timey wimy ball. So the first issue before he even gets his powers is guilt over what he did as a scientist, and he opts to. Be a hero and use his powers to make up for it, because a lot of what he did for Alchemax was really shady because, oh, we’re cutting edge science, and that whole quote of you were so preoccupied, whether or not you could, you never stop to think whether or not you should.

Doc Issues: Yep. Not even getting into the bioethics of it, which I would love to do because I’m actually part of a bioethics committee. Anywho The most classic thing is undoing as a defense mechanism. Let’s make this clear. You own up to the fact that you did something wrong, whether it was intentional, unintentional, how much knowledge you had as to what the results were.

You realized you were reckless, you made a mistake, or you were angry and you did something that hurt someone. I’m lumping all this together because I want to be as inclusive as possible with whatever a person is going through, because often I’ll admit, mainly because we’re dealing with the classic hero in villain world, we tend to gloss over the idea that even us as human beings, when we do something wrong, it comes back to the intentions and stuff like that.

Forget that for now. Let’s just go ahead and say it was wrong. What next? What is your next plan of action? How do you feel about what you did? If you actually don’t like the fact that you did something or you had some minor level of reservation, you didn’t act on it because it wasn’t strong enough to overcome the impulse of what you decided to do anyway that had a negative outcome.

Well, that’s a good definition for guilt. There are other ways it can go. If you didn’t want to do something, were forced to do it anyway against your will and it had a negative outcome, then you could be thinking more the idea of shame because you felt defenseless and you know, didn’t have the agency to control what you could have, what you would have liked to control.

So clearly, Miguel in his position, does have that ability, which. I’m not gonna be pollyannaish. If you have a boss that tells you to do something and you don’t do it, yes, there’s gonna be consequences to it, but there’s always other options. And I’m not going in the comic book world, okay? The worst that happens usually is that you either don’t get further ahead in your career or you have to find another job.

But either way, if your ethics are that strong, and I don’t wanna make it sound like it’s that simple, but if you know there’s something that you can do otherwise and you choose not to do it, You’re going to set yourself up for a lot of emotional discord. All of this points to the idea that moving forward something has to change.

And if that’s the case, then what someone like Miguel needs to do is go ahead and do what we call a SWOT analysis. I think they change the wording because strengths and weaknesses sometimes is, is a little too pejorative. But the idea of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So in this case, the strengths.

Incredibly smart scientists definitely dedicated to his craft. The weaknesses, I would say initial naivete and putting some of the bottom line first out of curiosity. The opportunity of course being you. Got fricking superpower and the threat is you absolutely learn nothing and you continue to act the way you did before you got those powers.

And yes, I am glossing over a ton of stuff and I know that there are plenty of M B A people that are in business that are saying like, doc, you butchered that and I don’t care. I just wanted to point out that as long as you are looking to do something different than what caused the problem in the first place, You can grow.

If you don’t do that, then you’ll stagnate and you’re either going to have to emotionally come to terms with the fact that you actually are comfortable with what you are doing on a regular basis, so you don’t have emotional trauma from it, or you actually change your mindset to the point that you’re delusional and that you think that the things that are negative results are actually not negative results.

I don’t think those other options are very healthy. And I sure would love some pushback on that. Come at me.

Anthony: Well, you’re certainly not gonna get it from me. My comment was mostly going to be focused on the discussions around the binary that we often find ourselves in with respect to having to make a choice that you were saying that, that discussion of ethics often pushes us to a situation where, We have to either stand up for what we believe in or take, take the L so to speak, keep our mouth shut, and just keep plowing forward.

I, I don’t like operating in binaries, but I also acknowledge that sometimes that’s all you’ve got. And for someone, At least like me, who again, doesn’t like to operate in those binaries. When it does come to that choice, it really sucks. It’s very, very difficult and I think a lot of us struggle with that because the overwhelming majority of us, and at least I hope the overwhelming majority of the folks listening to this podcast realize that the world is not black and white.

It is so many shades of gray and various colors, so that when we are faced with those types of decisions, we really. Acknowledge the severity of the situation and, and act accordingly. And those are the moments that can sometimes define us and can change the course of our lives or our futures. But also I, I liked your discussion as well about the distinction between guilt and shame.

And being forced to do something versus something that you kind of, you did voluntarily and regret there. There’s a lot there. There’s a lot to unpack and I really hope folks take some of these discussions to heart and think about what they mean and, and how they’re applicable to your life. I’m not gonna beat the bush for too much longer on, and I just think there were some really interesting and, and hard-hitting points that, that were raised there.

And it’s funny, we’re, we’re talking about all these things and, and what you do and how you choose to react because a lot of that ties into the second and third issues here. So we’ll start with the second issue, which is learning of his biological parentage and the prerequisite affairs. Now, what I didn’t mention with respect to his learning about Tyler Stone being his dad, is he overheard his mother saying it, so he wasn’t supposed to know.

And then he held onto that for a while. He knew that Tyler was his father, but opted not to confront him with it until it became a situation where I think Tyler kind of made a comment or started to, and Miguel was like, oh, I already know. And that was a oh shit moment for Tyler because. He thought he had the leverage on him, and Miguel completely stripped that away.

But having to sit with that knowledge and live with it for a while and debating what to do with it is very much not a binary, but you can’t unring that bell.

Doc Issues: Yeah, and think of all the variations on how people find that information out. It can be as straightforward as. Yeah, this happened and one of the parents says it.

Imagine the emotion though, if it’s someone using it as you hinted at using it as leverage perhaps in a current relationship about what’s going on and, and trying to manipulate how the child feels about one of the other involved parties. Imagine and, and for everybody, if you haven’t heard me talk this way before, and this is your intro to us, whenever I say imagine, I mean this, this stuff happens on a daily basis with lots of people.

So imagine the idea that you find out by doing your own homework. Ancestry, d n a, 23andme has done a lot. To family dynamics. So there’s more opportunity than ever to learn information without people even really saying a word. So now you have to come up with your own narrative as to how you’re going to process this information before you talk to the people that may not know that you know that.

And we just had that example, all of these things to say that. There is no right or wrong answer as to how you have a relationship with all of the people involved, both biologically and household wise. So let’s go ahead with, with someone like Miguel, you have someone that’s in your life, but not in the way that you would have anticipated if they were a true father.

But they are still pretty darn important and close. You may have someone that wants to be involved in your life. You may have someone that doesn’t want to be involved in your life. You may have someone that once you find out, you want to distance yourself from the person that was keeping the secret.

All of these possibilities can lead to a long lasting. Attachment to a certain style of processing information. And once again, because I’m not above the fray, my common thing as Anthony knows and anybody close to me knows is you gotta gimme some time by myself. If I find out something or I’m dealing with something that’s intense, emotional and personal, I need to go ahead, take time away from people, because if I

interact in the moment, I’m going to be incredibly responsive, explosive, and do more harm than good. The flip side to that for me is I may pull away to the point that you don’t ever see me again, and that’s not what I should do either, at least not as an automatic response. I’m giving this as an example because the full spectrum is on display, so some people will have such an intense.

Visceral response to what’s going on that they just want to clear the air, get everything out of the way right now. And once they do that, they feel like everything can just be reset, like back to the way it was. Other people have the idea that not only can things not revert back to what they were, they’re going scorched earth and not just scorching it.

They’re gonna salt it. They’re gonna add, even more lime and make sure that nothing there ever grows again. Ed, you might be picking up on the theme I’m doing here. Either way, the extremes are less likely to lead to a more stable emotional baseline about the topic than if you acknowledge that you’re going through a mix of those things.

And having someone who may not be directly involved in the situation, but it could be one of the close people. It could be one of the people that is, is directly connected and using that as a sense of footing for how you move on from whatever it is that you just found out.

Anthony: Don’t be like Billy Joel. Don’t go to extremes. This advice is. Just as much for myself as it is for anybody who’s listening, because insofar as I just got done saying, I really don’t like to operate in binaries. Once I make the decision though, I go balls to the wall with it, which is not really that great of a response either.

Miguel absolutely sits with this. I think he throws. Tyler out the window. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That’s his response. And I think that, I think I, I don’t remember. Is that the only time he calls him dad? Or is it,

Doc Issues: you know what there’s been so much involved. I don’t wanna just automatically say yes to that.

Anthony: Because I know he only calls Tyler dad once, and it is, no pun intended, the most venomous use of that term that he could otherwise use, because the rest of the time he just calls him Tyler even after learning that he’s his father. So that might be it. That might be the only time he calls him dad is right before he involuntarily defenestrate him, which again is really extreme, not healthy for Miguel or Tyler.

So, Continuing on with this theme of dealing with extremes, but I think in a bit of a healthier fashion, is the third issue confronting the knowledge of his own death because of the time windy nature of the character. He does, as we indicate in the background, learn, you are going to die and you, you know, when you’re going to die.

Which is a very heady thing for any of us to comprehend. I just went on a website that, that punched in a whole bunch of information and it told me I’m going to die about a month shy of my 92nd birthday. So I’ll take that. I mean, I don’t know exactly how, it doesn’t say if I’m gonna die in my sleep or, you know, in a car wreck, but, oh, reach in 92 I’d say is pretty good. Miguel not quite.

Doc Issues: Yeah. And, and some people may think, doc, why are you getting so philosophical with this type of topic? We don’t know when we’re going to die. Au contrair. As a physician, let me just point out that there are many health health problems and, and diseases where, The process allows to a reasonable degree.

Maybe we’re not talking specific day, but we could be talking weeks, months, a year, things like that. We can start to estimate depending on what it is, and not to trigger anybody, but we’re gonna be talking about some, some very deep seated things here. And if you are going through something like this with, with.

Family members or with yourself or whatever, just keep in mind, I’m not specifically saying this is how you should handle your situation. Please talk with your own professionals about this. But for example, diagnoses related to cancer, neurological diseases, dementias, all sorts of different things that get the clock ticking and get it ticking in a timeframe that you can actually start to estimate.

When those things happen, especially if they’re early. And what do I mean by early? Well, the US average now is, is in the late seventies. It ticked back a little bit. A lot of that’s attributed to covid. But the point being, if you look around the world, let’s say somewhere in the seventies, eighties range, you can, you can reasonably expect if you have average health, whatever the heck that means.

So what happens if it’s 40? What happens if it’s 50 now? You have some serious things to talk about and consider because now you have a lot of planning to do. You are not just thinking about yourself. Do you have regrets? Do you have things you still wish to do in that time period? Do you have people that have depended on you and you need to make sure that they’re being taken care of?

Are you worried about the anguish that they’re going to feel or anything that they’re going to experience when you’re gone? Are you going to go through denial? Are you going to think that you’ll just beat this no matter what because that doctor’s a quack or this is all wrong? Or, I already read the secret one thing that they didn’t want you to know about that solves it all.

Are you gonna have a lot of anger? Are you gonna really get depressed. Are you gonna just let everything go? Are you gonna give everything away? Are you gonna try and hoard everything as like one last ditch effort? It’s kind of a homage to who you are as a human being. You notice I’m talking about the stages of loss.

It’s just interesting because we usually talk about it in terms of what people are going through for their loved ones. What if it is yourself? What if it is someone though that’s close to you and you didn’t see it coming, or heaven forbid, you saw it coming and you’re helping them deal with it, and they’re shutting you out, and you’re trying to dig through, or they’re leaning on you and you have to be honest with yourself and you’re tired.

You know that you, you want to continue to help, but you need to recharge yourself. Unlike what I said about the first issue where I said, Be careful with extremes. Unlike the second issue where I said, be careful with extremes. This one, as long as you’re not totally destructive of the things around you and yourself, I’m not sure there are that many real, real extremes.

This area of gray is incredibly wide, and I’m not gonna lie and say there’s the perfect playbook, but. There are many people that have been on this path, and so if you can find one of them that seems to resonate, gives you peace, gives you harmony with your soul, that would recommend if you can find it, that that would be the one that you take.

And I don’t know the order that it happens. I don’t know in terms of the pain, in terms of just. Everything else related to it because I haven’t experienced it that way, but I have had to deal with many patients who have, and I think we all have had some form of family or or friend who is either going through that or has gone through that.

So let’s just say that we all will end up. In a very similar state, the path you choose to take is truly your own.

Anthony: Yep. It’s like a choose your own adventure book where the ending is still the same, but every page of the book from the title all the way through to that final one. Is up for grabs and that’s, it’s really powerful if you think about it, and I’m not gonna even try to talk about it because I’m just gonna end up sounding like a freshman year philosophy 1 0 1 student who’s like, oh my God, I just discovered the meaning of life or whatever, and trying to sound.

Super heady and and failing. But to your point, doc, that path of grief and that path of acceptance, both of the mortality of others and of our own is incredibly personal. And instead of you, you spend a lot of time talking about how we should. Kind of internalizing and acknowledge everything. I’m gonna flip it around a little bit and just say that the path that everyone else takes is theirs, and it is very much not for us as individuals to really comment on how someone else follows that path.

Unless it is something that directly impacts you, unless it is something where their path is so destructive to themselves or other people, that it is creating chaos and problems in your life. Let them grieve and. As, as our my friend Kate from Ignorance with Bliss likes to say, I will sit in the dark with you.

That is her expression. So full credit to Kate on that. But it’s very true because we try so much to force the person who’s grieving out of grief into a happier state into. Acceptance to to get them through the stages by our timeline, by something that’s convenient for us. And that is so selfish because if roles were reversed, you would not want anyone telling you, oh, you should be over this by now.

You should have accepted this. You should be fine with it. That’s not for anyone to say to you, and it is certainly not fair for you to say to anybody else. And that’s all I’m gonna say about that because if I get any further into it, I’m just gonna end up getting really pissed off. So I’m just gonna leave it there.

We’re gonna take a break, plug a couple shows, we’re gonna treatment, stick around.

And we’re back. So treatment.

Miguel does have the power. He’s got lots of powers, but what kind of power is he gonna use to help get him through this therapy session in Universe?

Doc Issues: So I’m titling this the Ultimate Family Tree Times Therapy session. I think all of these components are important. The idea that it’s family, meaning multiple generations, the fact that it’s involving different timelines, different experiences of quote unquote the same person, and making sure that it doesn’t turn into family feud, although the idea of a Spider verse family feud.

Show would probably be pretty cool anyway. No. My, my point is Miguel has a very unique opportunity in universe. In universe, is to confront how he’s feeling. He can confront how he is feeling. He can do it with himself, he can do it with other people that he knows, and he can create the times and circumstances where it wouldn’t be as much of a threat because otherwise we’re just gonna get into the comic book fighting and that’s not the point of it.

So pick your spots with yourself and with others, with someone like me to guide where those might be so that it’s constructive rather than destructive. That’s the whole point.

Anthony: All right. I like it. I also would very much like to see all of the spider folks together because I think that would be really cool. Although from what I’m seeing of the movie coming out this week, that’s kinda what it is. There’s one shot where the, there’s spider people in the therapy office and, and, and I looked at my uncle and, and lemme guess he was dead.

Very, very funny. So out of universe then, obviously we’re taking the time travel out of it, but we’ve got choices leading to significant negative outcomes, family secrets, and a connection with loss. And these are all very much relatable.

Doc Issues: Oh yeah. So, A lot of this comes back to one word, which is literally regret be it of your doing or of other people’s doing.

And you now taking on that, that burden either way, the therapy evolving, this is trying to be careful with the amount of undoing that you try to do because it can be. I know I’ve used this so many times before, but yeah, it can be Sisyphisean. It’s basically, you’re, you keep pushing that rock up the hill, up the mountain and it keeps falling back down and you wonder why.

Well, in, in this case, it was never your burden to deal with in the first place. At least not in that way. Your job is not to somehow change and fix everything that happened before. That’s a fallacy. The idea is how are you constructing your life right now so that the future is better than the past?

That’s the whole point of this. So if you have genetic traits when it comes to how you have a predisposition for certain emotional states, if you have a predisposition for substance use that as a coping mechanism. If you have an environment where not just you, but multiple people, you know, end up doing similar things because that’s all they have ever been exposed to.

Well, that gives some opportunities. What can you do to change your environment? What can you do to change your associations? The people that you hang out with? Who are your friends and family that you have picked? What do you do to observe the things that are different amongst the people that are the same, because even in a dysfunctional group, you’ll notice that some people still function better than others in different circumstances, and you can get positives from that.

I don’t wanna make it sound like everything is negative about all people. That’s, very defeatist thinking. But in the moment when a lot of these things are happening, and heaven forbid it’s a trauma, or heaven forbid, it’s with something related to hospice.

The idea that, okay, we know what’s about to happen, but everybody else is processing it and in these different ways, and all of that. And what is your role in all of this? Well, there really isn’t a textbook for it, even though textbooks have been written on it. Which may not make sense to a lot of people, but my point is, it is that unique and that personal that the therapist’s job is to guide what they’re noticing along the path.

To not even necessarily say that everything is going a certain way because of, and giving explanations and all of that. If the person wants that, great. It doesn’t have to be that though. It can be as simple as acknowledging the emotional state. I realize that you feel exhausted. I realize that you feel defeated.

I realize that you are raging against everything going on, whatever it is. Just that acknowledgement from someone else that is not directly connected to the circumstance can be incredibly powerful. It could be as simple as that if it, if that’s what we’re talking about, but then past that. Let’s say you’re after the loss or whatever.

Just the fact that it happened, I’m not saying the emotional component to it. Then what is your path forward? That’s completely uncharted territory and the unknown can be so fearful for people. What’s the first thing they do? They revert to the past because it’s what they know, and the therapist’s job is basically to say, you know what?

This is a cafeteria. It’s a buffet. Pick the things that you need that will allow you to move forward on your journey and discard the rest, please.

Anthony: Wonderfully said. Unfortunately, though, even in a buffet, we tend to focus and engorge ourselves on the things that we know we like because they’re safe, they’re comforting. And especially in a situation like this where we’re grieving, we’re looking for those things that comfort us. I will say that, and I don’t think it’s, it’s certainly not a stretch to say that in times of grief and uncertainty, we’re really going to clinging to those things that comfort us, and we’re not necessarily going to be in a position where we’re looking to strike out and find something new.

Which is why perhaps, if it’s at all possible, if you can kind of prep yourself beforehand to be aware of these types of things, it could be helpful. But that’s a discussion for therapy. And let’s see what happens when we get Miguel on Dr. Issues’ couch .

Doc Issues: Hello, Miguel. I’m Dr. Isue.

Anthony: I know, uh, which one.

Doc Issues: Come again?

Anthony: Well, I did, but you said you had to check to see if I was a proper fit for you, and then you never called me back.

Doc Issues: I’ve never met you before.

Anthony: Yes, you did. Well, okay. So at least one of you, but, but maybe it wasn’t you, you u understand.

Doc Issues: Uh, no.

Anthony: Uh, okay. This, this can get really shocking, complicated, so, so just bear with me. Okay. I came to you for help a while ago and things didn’t go too well because I was too scared to tell you what was really going on, and then you gave me an ultimatum. Either I start telling you the truth or you wouldn’t see me again.

Doc Issues: That sounds like something I would say, but then why don’t I remember it?

Anthony: So something or someone. Must have messed with the timeline, and I’m not where I should be, so that’s why I need you to help me manage my emotions.

Doc Issues: Finally, something I can do. Uh, how are you feeling right now?

Anthony: Right now, man, I’m, I’m lost. I’m alone. I mean, you don’t know what it’s like when every person you meet is either like your closest ally or your worst enemy, and I can’t be too sure ahead of time.

Doc Issues: That might be a bit paranoid.

Anthony: Is it though, because I’ve had my life threatened by my loved one’s own family, like I had to deal with my own father being a real piece of work man, and knowing that I only exists because of him.

I keep fixing the past and I get the reward of having a worst future. Does that sound paranoid to you or just perceptive?

Doc Issues: Uh. Look, paranoia isn’t pejorative. I’m referencing the heightened state of arousal and distrust. You know, whether it’s justified or not. It’s a discomforting mix of anger, despair, anxiety. The thing is, it all feeds on isolation because it doesn’t have to confront change.

Anthony: That sounds like, like really heady and I’m an intelligent man, but I need you to like dial that down just a little bit for me.

Doc Issues: You have a genetic predisposition and enough experience to draw conclusions too quickly, straightforward enough for you. It, it’s kind of tough to split your emotional responses from your quick thinking, from what I could tell intellectualization.

Anthony: Okay, okay, so here’s the million dollar question. What do I do about it? Most situations don’t really allow for much time to process these things.

Doc Issues: That’s true. So you have to process things after the fact and then, you know, we could talk about some tools and you gotta practice whatever techniques you learn in your downtime.

Anthony: Yeah, downtime.

Doc Issues: No, easy way to say this. Make time. Your wellbeing depends on it.

Anthony: But I’m not being dramatic like I got pulled away before any of this could finish and. Look, I don’t know if this is a good idea at all.

Doc Issues: What y you started this whole session, but

don’t half-ass this. Okay? I can take whatever emotional stuff you can dish out.

Anthony: Look, I’m not worried about emotions here. I’m worried that if I say something the wrong way, I’m gonna create a paradox.

Doc Issues: Well, I’m not gonna ignore you when you clearly have your own. Many crisis here, and I’m involved. I get it. I get it.

Anthony: Um, but like, what do I say differently though? Like, I, I think I told you more than I did last time, but

Doc Issues: Okay. Okay. But are, are you still holding something back? I mean, look, either you

Anthony: hold it, hold it. That’s how you started last time or ended last time. So whatever you do, don’t say it again.

Doc Issues: Okay. Then, uh, please continue with this riveting test of my mental fortitude as you tie my brain and knot.

Anthony: You know, you don’t have to be so harsh about it.

Doc Issues: Sorry. How about this? I will have to end this session for now. And we’ll pick back up with whatever it is that you need time to organize for me. Is that a different way to get to the same point and not evaporate everything?

Anthony: You’re here. I’m here. So yeah, I guess that works.

Doc Issues: Oh, for real. That’s, that’s actually a relief, by the way. I don’t think you’re crazy. Okay. I’ve had to deal with all sorts of wacky loops before. And it maybe killed myself. Well, hold, hold it, hold it. Not me, someone else killed me. But I was trying to figure out if that was the right way to go about things, because I talked to myself about it and they were trying to protect everyone, including me, but then I had to die. Um, yeah.

Anthony: Um, I, I don’t know how to tell you this doc, but it sounds like you probably need some therapy yourself.

Doc Issues: Probably. But I wouldn’t hold back with whoever I talk to, and you shouldn’t either, you know, or else these sessions won’t be able to continue. Capish.

Anthony: No, no, no. That’s too close to what you said Last.

Doc Issues: Hello? Next patient, please.

Anthony: This is not funny.

Doc Issues: I wasn’t being funny.

Anthony: All right, that’s it. I’m outta here,

Doc Issues: but, but I, I didn’t even get to introduce myself.

Anthony: Yes, you did. And I’ll work out being more honest from the start.

Doc Issues: Then, uh, I guess I have some more free time this afternoon,

Anthony: so I hope that was clear or at least clearer than the king episode. That one, that whole episode, that whole skit was. It was a lot of fun to write and a lot of fun to record. Not so much fun to edit, but I do understand if that may have been a little timey windy for some people. Yeah.

Doc Issues: This one is just simply don’t create a time paradox, accidentally create a time paradox and only one person knows it.

Anthony: That’s it. Fair enough. But unfortunately, even if only one person knows, it’s a time paradox that still messes things up. Yep. See back to the future. So recommended reading is, uh, volume three, which is the latest run of the Spider-Man 2099, because this one does, I think it puts Miguel through a lot as far as emotions are concerned, but it also gives him a happy ending that.

He rarely gets to experience and it’s also consistent tonally. There’s a lot of stuff with the original run that was set up well and then due to editorial shenanigans and business decisions being made, Peter David left before he could finish the story, and so another writer had to step in and tie up the loose ends.

So there’s tonal inconsistencies about that first vi. The, the, the early stuff is absolutely fantastic. Definitely go check that out. Gives you a really good, solid understanding of who Miguel is. But in terms of a consistent story and one that has a complete arc, I would recommend volume three. So next episodes, dunno, because we’re gonna take our little summer break.

We’re gonna enjoy our hiatus and, uh, come back in late summer, the fall. Probably shoot for September at this point, just to be honest. We come back earlier, then we come back earlier. But I would say you probably won’t see or hear us again until September. See you in September.

Yeah, uh uh. That was, yeah. Hey, I’ll,

Doc Issues: I don’t have anything to say to that.

Anthony: So as always, you can find all of our back episodes in the rest of our catalog on our website, capesonthecouch.com. We are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at capes on the couch. You can go ahead and leave us a nice rating and review if you happen to listen to us on a platform that allows you to do so.

And in the meantime we’ll be staying active somewhat on social media. We’ll be doing some things. Again, I’ve got stuff in the hopper. Mentally, it’s just about finding the time to actually do it. And ironically, since I’m not going to be working on the podcast, I can work on social media for the podcast cause I only have enough time to do so many things.

Very much looking forward to this hiatus. And again, I just also wanna say, From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everybody who has supported us, listened to us, downloaded us, collaborated with us, shared our stuff. Patrons, y’all are absolutely fantastic and we love and appreciate each and every single one of you, um, that have continued to support us for five years through nine seasons of this show.

It has been, uh, a joy and very much looking forward to bringing you stuff for season 10. So Doc.

Doc Issues: I think it’s very fitting, uh, given the nature of what we’ve talked about with this character and the fact that it’s the season closed closing time. Every new beginning is some other beginning.

Anthony: You know, and one other thing I wanted to say about Miguel is when he. He gets to celebrate New Year’s with Tempest and, and his, their son is now he can love. Now he can lose. Now he can choose because that’s the measure of man, man. Nice. For doc issues, I’m Anthony Sytko. Thank you so much for listening. We’ll see you in a couple months.