THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN 2
“The Goblin Lives!”
Credits (as they appear in the comic):
Script Stan (The Man) Lee
Illustration Johnny (Ring-a-Ding) Romita – Jimmy (Mad Man) Mooney
Lettering ‘Swingin’ Sammy Rosen
Plot Synopsis:
The Green Goblin lives again!
Comments:
The Spectacular Spider-man comic-magazine’s second issue is one of my favourite stories!
Like the first issue, it is a magazine size comic, with a feature-length story, but now it's in full glorious colour. The story features the rebirth of the Green Goblin. The Goblin’s return had been teased for months in the regular Amazing Spider-man series, and culminates right here starting with that awesome cover!
“The Spider-man Saga” is a black-and-white recap of Spidey’s origin, printed on the inside front cover to bring readers up-to-date before the real exciting stuff kicks off!
The story begins at a seminar being held in New York City’s exclusive Executive club.
Captain Stacy is showing film footage of an old battle between Spider-man and the Green Goblin. His fellow club members Norman Osborn and J. Jonah Jameson are among the attendees, along with Harry Osborn and Peter Parker. The film begins to stir deeply buried memories in Norman; memories which have lain dormant for many months. Only Peter is aware that Norman Osborn himself had once been the Green Goblin.
Flashbacks to an earlier battle between Spider-man and the Goblin do not represent events related in any previous issues, but an editorial note informs readers that these scenes are intended to bring new readers up-to-date. Norman is on the verge of a breakdown, and Peter begins to fear the worst.
While Harry tends to his father, Peter takes a ride on his motorcycle. The first part of this story appears to take place some weeks early occurring simultaneously with the events of recent issues before Peter sold his bike, It’s an interesting approach, and I like these scenes, but I’m not sure it was necessary to have so much of the build-up for this story occur in the monthly Amazing Spider-man series, with no actual pay off for the regular readers who may not have had the opportunity to get this magazine. I think this issue works pretty good as a stand-alone story, without the need to fit it in between panels of the regular title.
Some more flashbacks, recapping the events of Amazing Spider-man 39-40, bring new readers up-to-date on the Green Goblin’s history, just as Peter arrives to check in with his Aunt May.
Meanwhile, Norman Osborn has been admitted to the hospital. As the secrets he has repressed all these long months finally resurface, Osborn flees to one of his secret hideouts, and becomes the Green Goblin once more!
The story picks up some time later, with Peter and Gwen at school. Peter Parker has difficulty focusing on his schoolwork, unable to get his mind off the possibility that the Green Goblin could return. A visit to see Harry at his father’s home only serves to aggravate Peter’s fears as he and Gwen learn about Norman’s escape from the hospital. Gwen is unable to understand Peter’s concern, and presumes it has something to do with his own experience growing up without a father. Peter’s paranoia over the threat of the Goblin’s return has him jumping at even the slightest provocation. Peter’s dreams are filled with nightmarish images of the Green Goblin threatening to expose his identity to his frail Aunt May. Changing to Spider-man, he prowls the city, unaware that he himself is being observed by the foe he seeks.
The Green Goblin’s scheme begins when Norman Osborn returns to his home, much to the relief of his son. The next evening Peter receives a call from Harry, who has been staying at his father’s home. In celebration of his recovery Norman is throwing a dinner party. Even with the threat still some hours away, Peter’s spider-sense is going crazy. Peter knows that a dinner party with Harry and his friends is unusual behavior for a man like Norman Osborn, but it’s exactly the type of crafty subterfuge the Goblin would resort to!
Although he knows it’s a trap, Peter has to play along. As Spider-man, he swings across town, changing back to Peter Parker to pick up Gwen. Harry has already informed the others about the party, and Gwen is ready to go, dressed-up in her latest stylish outfit. Peter’s fears are briefly forgotten as he lays eyes on Gwen. The panel where Gwen makes her striking entrance, looks very similar to a scene in an earlier story where Mary Jane was first introduced to Peter’s friends at the Silver Spoon. Peter and Gwen make their way over to the Osborn home which appears to be within close walking distance from where the Stacys live. Considering Harry and Gwen apparently knew each other prior to attending ESU, the revelation that they are close neighbours doesn’t come as too much of a surprise.
When Peter and Gwen arrive at the Osborn home, Harry greets them. Mary Jane is already there, in her own stunning dress, still sporting the hairdo she debuted a few issues back. There appear to be some other guests too, but only the four core cast members are shown clearly. It’s possible though that the other background characters may have been household staff.
From the moment Norman makes his appearance, Peter is filled with a sense of overwhelming dread. There’s no doubt that his deadliest enemy has returned. Norman shakes Peter’s hand with a grip that crush any normal man. Even the others can tell something’s not right as Norman fixates on Peter with terrifying intensity. These scenes showing the tension between Peter and Norman are really chilling. The expression on Norman’s face, as well as the dramatic shading and lighting really convey the danger.
With a bit of quick thinking Peter causes a diversion which provides a way to get the others out of the way so that he can deal with Osborn alone. It hasn’t really been established that the Goblin formula gives Norman super-human strength. That’s something that later writers will introduce. In these stories, his strength is described as that of a madman, with the formula only causing brain damage which makes him criminally insane. In this scene Norman is shown tossing furniture around in a fit of rage, but he still hasn’t been shown doing anything too super-human.
Spider-man knows that the Green Goblin will strike at him by going after his Aunt May. Spidey’s web-line takes him across town, to Forest Hills in time to catch the Goblin before he has had a chance to strike. The fight between Spider-man and the Green Goblin is awesome, and fills up most of the remaining pages. There are lots of large panels, and full page images with great action-packed scenes.
In addition to his usual tricks and weapons, the Green Goblin’s glider now includes a drill. Though Spider-man can fend off the Goblin’s attacks as quick as they come, he still has to deal with the threat to his secret identity. A new type of pumpkin bomb filled with psychedelic gas subjects Spider-man to fearsome hallucinations. Spider-man faces images of horrifying creatures, the friends he has failed, and some of his deadliest foes. It is only through sheer determination that Spider-man is able to overcome the Goblin’s madness inducing weapon. It is from this ordeal that Spider-man arrives at a possible solution to stop his foe, and preserve the secret of his true identity.
After defeating the Green Goblin In a fierce hand to hand battle, Spider-man turns his foe’s own psychedelic weapon against him. The gas causes the persona of the Green Goblin to regress, back in to Norman Osborn’s mind.
Peter brings Norman back to the hospital where he makes a phone call to check in with Aunt May and also reunites with Harry, MJ and Gwen. While Harry remains with his father, Peter takes both Mary Jane and Gwen to the Coffee Bean for java and sundaes. Though Peter is relieved to have come through this challenge unscathed, he now knows that the threat of the Green Goblin could reappear at any time.
This was a great story which made good use of its unique format. The extra pages allow for a lot of impressive images, including a few double-page spreads. The Green Goblin’s return was probably something fans were anticipating ever since his seeming defeat a couple years earlier. The Green Goblin knowing Spider-man’s identity makes it difficult for him to be used as a recurring villain the same way as someone like the Vulture or Dr. Octopus. There’s only so many times Spider-man can find some convenient way to trick the Goblin into forgetting everything. It’s already happened twice, and will happen once more before the Goblin’s story reaches its inevitable conclusion.
Osborn’s recurring bouts of amnesia do tend to strain credulity, but not to the point that I can’t still enjoy these stories. Just as the Green Goblin mystery was one of my favourite parts of the Ditko era stories, his later return appearances, after his identity was revealed, were one of the best parts of that run of issues!
Notes about the Reprints:
Amazing Spider-man Annual 9
An abridged version of this story appeared in Amazing Spider-man Annual 9. This issue features a cover image, similar to the one that appeared on The Spectacular Spider-man 2, although it’s rendered in a traditional comic book style rather than as a painting. A regular pen and ink version of the original cover exists, which appears to be the basis for the painted cover, however doesn’t look exactly like the one that is used on Amazing Spider-man Annual 9. This new cover adds some dialogue, as well as text. Also, Spider-man is now running across a web-line when previously he was just shown to be jumping or falling.
In order to accommodate the lower page count, a lot of pages were either altered or omitted all together.
“The Spider-man Saga” which recaps Spidey’s origin, on the inside front cover of The Spectacular Spider-man 2, has been completely removed, as has the contents page.
The introductory double-page spread has been condensed into a single splash page through some creative adjustments to the art. Some dialogue has been removed and changed to help things fit and read smoothly. A new caption informs readers that this is a reprint, and makes reference to the Goblin’s appearance from ASM 121 which had recently come out. The release of this annual would put it a little ahead (but not too far) chronologically of where it should be in relation to the issues that were being reprinted in Marvel Tales at the time.
Some panels from the flashback sequences showing Spider-man’s battle with the Green Goblin are trimmed down to free up some space. Similarly the pages recapping ASM 39-40 have been cut entirely.
Though the reprint retains the scenes of Norman putting on his Goblin costume, the page where he is shown masked for the first time have been removed, also omitting the panels with Gwen and Peter at school. A new caption is added to the next page to help the transition. The revised captions and word balloons are in a different style from the original text and are very conspicuous.
The full page image showing Peter’s nightmare is removed. The last part of the nightmare remains, but the whole sequence with Spidey going out to look for the Goblin is gone. The story jumps straight from Peter’s dream, to Norman returning home.
The scenes of Spider-man web-swinging to Gwen’s house and picking her up have been removed. A new caption has been added, with some altered dialogue to the panel where Harry greets Gwen and Peter as they arrive at Norman’s home.
When Peter throws his web-ball into the fireplace to cause the smoke diversion, the story has been altered, omitting the part where he rejoins the rest of the party. A thought balloon has been altered to provide exposition for what happens next.
Norman’s return to his hideout to change into his costume and collect his gear has been removed.
Most of the action sequences have been retained, however the double-page spread with the Goblin leading the hallucinatory demons has been adjusted to fit to a single page with slight changes to the position of Spider-man’s head.
The remaining pages remain the same, with a caption added to the last panel to provide some final words on Gwen and Norman’s fates.
Despite so many changes to the content, this reprint manages to retain the core elements of the plot. The issue works well enough on its own, and without prior knowledge of what had been cut, a reader would have no trouble following the story. The omission of certain scenes don’t necessarily create any continuity problems or gaps in the plot. The decision to eliminate certain flashbacks is a logical one considering they just recap previous stories, and allows for more of the climatic action sequences to remain untouched. I think it still makes for an enjoyable read.
Spider-man Comics Magazine 12
Although Spider-man Comics Magazine didn’t reprint Spectacular Spider-man 1, it did reprint the second issue in its entirety. Spider-man Comics Magazine 5 reprinted Amazing Spider-man 65-67, so the perfect place to reprint Spectacular Spider-man 2 would have been right after that. Unfortunately they didn’t get around to it until a year later, but you’ve got to give them credit for doing it at all. This series ended up being cancelled with issue 13, so maybe this was an attempt to help boost sales.
Other than the fact that this series was printed in a smaller digest-sized format, it’s a decent reprint of the entire story exactly as it was presented in Spectacular Spider-man. This reprint uses the same cover image as Amazing Spider-man Annual 9 but with new flatter colouring which fails to recapture the shading and lighting effects of its predecessor.
The back cover features a stock image of Spider-man and identifies this as a “Special Collector’s Item Issue!” noting that this is the first time the story has been reprinted uncut.
The single page story “The Spider-man Saga” which was printed on the inside front cover of Spectacular Spider-man 2 is included here as the opening page. Where the original version was black-and-white, it has now been coloured. The rest of the story retains the original colouring, though there is the occasional touch-up to correct minor colour errors.
The back pages contain the Green Goblin’s profile from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and a preview of the next issue. No ads at all this time!
Adaptations in other media:
Spider-man The Animated Series (1994) finished off its third season with an episode titled “Turning Point”. This episode featured the Green Goblin and incorporated elements from several different comic book stories where the villain appeared, including Amazing Spider-man 39, 121 and 122, as well as Spectacular Spider-man 2.
The dinner party scene from Spectacular Spider-man 2 was adapted for this episode and is just as tense in animated form as it was in the comic.
“Enter the Green Goblin” which was an episode from earlier in the season featured a scene with Spider-man attempting to suppress Norman Osborn’s evil-persona similar to how he pulled it off at the end of Spectacular Spider-man 2.
Personal anecdotes:
I first encountered this story in Spider-man Comics Magazine 12. By this time I was collecting the digest series regularly, but had no idea that this story even existed. When Marvel Tales ended its run of consecutive reprints in the late 1980s with the story from Amazing Spider-man 50, they followed it up with two bonus sized issues reprinting ASM 96-98 and 121-122. I had both of those, and assumed that was all there was as far as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin stories went, so I was pleasantly surprised when this came out. ASM 96 actually does have a flashback to a scene from Spectacular Spider-man 2, and, since I didn’t recognize it from any other Goblin story, I just assumed it was just something the artist put in for the heck of it.
Since the first time I read this, it quickly became one of my favourite stories, and I still think it holds up. I bought the original magazine sometime in the early 2000s, and picked-up the abridged version from Amazing Spider-man Annual 9 sometime later. Unfortunately my copy of The Essential Spider-man didn’t reprint this one, but I see that it was included for later editions