Back to UTSM for the rest of this block. And The Enforcers are back already? This is the first time I’ve read this material integrated with the original comics, and both Electro and The Enforcers coming back IMMEDIATELY is really weird. Pat Olliffe is created with breakdowns and Pam Eklund & Al Milgrom with finishes this issue, which begins with a young man reading that The Big Man & The Enforcers have been caught. A very familiar young man…
Not doing a great job of playing “the doting father,” there, Norman. Norman proceeds to recap his Green Goblin origin, which I’d just as soon save for when those things are revealed in the real comics, but with the added detail that he’s recently been having The Scorcher steal things for him. Norman thinks he’s ready, and all he needs is the right moment. A radio bulletin letting him know The Enforcers have broken out of police custody and are fighting Spider-Man makes him actually process what Harry said about The Big Man, and he decides his time has come. He signals his an unseen agent, and then we go find Spider-Man in that aforementioned battle.
Wow, you can really tell Milgrom took over inks with this page. Much heavier lines than this title is used to.
Busiek & Co. are very clever, and one wonders if The Headsman’s hood is exactly like Hobgoblin’s to imply Hobby found it among Norman’s things and dyed it orange along with the rest. At any rate, he swats Spider-Man across the room and passes a note to The Enforcers, saying the owe him and telling them to meet him at that address at 10 o’clock. Then he moves in for the kill, but instead does one of the most comic book-y of things, somehow slicing open Spider-Man’s mask without injuring him at all. With half his face exposed (But somehow not split open), Spidey panics and flees, jeered by the crowd as he does.
Why does Gwen have a mullet??????
Well, there you go. Not unlike the kinda awkward semi-first meeting with Flash in TAC -1, Harry & Gwen have met Peter early. Sort of. He’s rushing off to get photos of the Enforcers fight to JJJ, getting notified Betty is still on a leave of absence by fill-in secretary Dorothy on the way. Later that night, Harry is brooding on the roof of Osborn Chemical when guess who shows up, but The Enforcers. Harry sees them, and then sees Spider-Man swinging by, and decides to help, grabbing and firing a flare gun the company makes to get his attention. He thinks he dad can’t say he screwed up this time, which is quite funny. Inside the warehouse, Headsman doesn’t even have time to tell The Enforcers why he called them there before Spider-Man drops in on them. Peter must’ve had a spare mask ready to go.
Spidey dodges around, doing some real Bugs Bunny material and infuriating his axe-happy foe, until he tris him into causing his own defeat…
Was this absolutely necessary? No. But it does lay some track, in more ways than one, as we’ll see when Norman finally makes his move…