Another new-to-me issue. Kinda crazy how many Spidey comics tied into Inferno considering he doesn’t ever get involved in the real story. Inferno ran for 3 months, with the main story rolling through X-Men, X-Factor, New Mutants and a miniseries called X-Terminators. Tie-ins included Excalibur, Avengers, Power Pack, Fantastic Four and Daredevil. But none of those properties starred in 3 books a month, so Spider-Man has way more business to do here than anybody outside the main titles. This one begins with a beaten Hobgoblin fleeing the scene of our last post, whining out loud about how it isn’t fair that Spidey & Harry beat him. He recaps all that as he blows up a billboard for Peter’s book, which gets the attention of a bunch of demons who say he dresses like them, but doesn’t fool them.
Uh-oh. He was beating himself up for getting chumped by Harry Osborn, but come on, guy, you just killed 4 actual demons without even stopping your tantrum, that’s kinda impressive. At this point, New York is totally bananas, demons on the streets, every gargoyle on every building come to life, appliances, cars, whole buildings come to life, total chaos. And Spider-Man is swinging through it, thinking he should have noticed how insane things were getting, but he was too busy with the goblins. He decides to go to The Bugle to get a lead on how to help, then call MJ, but…
Ouch! Then a gargoyle comes to life and bites him in the side for good measure, and he falls to the ground as people flee all around him before staggering toward The Bugle. He’s really messed up. Inside, the staff is barricading the doors and prepping for battle, having already fought off a wave of demons. JJJ is in general mode, barking orders and actually doing a good job of keeping everyone busy and safe. Then his old nemesis stumbles in and passes out. Speaking of Mary Jane, though, she’s still in the photo studio, and she’s the one in charge there, handing out orders and braining a demon with a pole when it attacks one of the staff.
The living water rises up to be part of a barrier sealing up Manhattan, telling Harry to stay and be eaten by its master, N’Astirh, the big bad of the actual Inferno story in X-Men. Harry tosses a pumpkin bomb and barely escapes before the barrier is sealed. He’s headed back to his family, but on the way…
Yikes! Joe decides to stand and fight to defend his home from crazies and looters. Meanwhile, Hobgoblin has followed hordes of demons to The Empire State Building, now transformed into a crazy demon building, where he tells some demons he wants to make a deal with their master.
Don’t you worry, we’ll see what’s become of Hobgoblin, but right now we return to The Daily Bugle, which is once again being bombarded by demons. Ben Urich yelling as a demon attacks him wakes up the unconscious Spider-Man.
Look at Jonah go! So, Spidey, JJJ and the rest of the Bugle staff battle demons as Conway waxes poetic about the resiliency of New Yorkers and what have you, and they once again drive out the demons. JJJ got so tense he bit through his cigar, which makes Spidey start laughing. JJJ is annoyed until he notices how bad Spidey’s bleeding, and then our hero passes out again. And then…
Yeah, man, The Hobgoblin has been turned into a literal hobgoblin! Whose twisted demon face just happens to look like his mask! Pretty wild stuff. We’ll see more of his new deal in the next post, as we enter the final month of Inferno tie-ins.