Hey, an actual monthly issue of Spider-Man, who’d have thought? With a dumb, shiny foil cover, even. Welcome to the countdown to the end of Howard Mackie’s tenure on the Spider-Books. Joining him as usual are John Romita, Jr., Scott Hanna & Gregory Wright. We open on Norman Osborn, standing in that unmistakable Romita, JR. rain, thinking sometimes, he can still hear the voice of his father in his head.
Young Norman having actual braids! Old Man Osborn portrayed with the family hair for the first and last time ever! Romita is committed to the hair!
I’ve been missing that regular hit of Romita excellence. Everyone’s doing good work on the mood here. Norman decides not to kill the spider, saying it has nothing to fear from him and even picking it up as flashback young Norman is locked in the old house. Soon, Randy & Glory are out on the town when they’re suddenly attacked by the Green Goblin, in his traditional outfit. They run as he chucks a bunch of bombs, Randy saying he knew that dream he had meant something, but then the Goblin just flies away, leaving them scared in an alley.
So clean! Man, Romita and Hanna make such a good team. Peter wakes up half out of bed with his head on the floor to the sound of Randy calling the police. Glory tells him the Goblin is back, and asks rhetorically if they have to go through all this again. Randy is hung up on by the cops, ranting about how he’ll get his dad to cover this, when they notice Peter is gone. He’s already Spider-Man, already trying to find Norman. He swings around recapping their history and seeing all this evidence of Goblin attacks, including a Bugle headline, wondering how he hasn’t noticed any of this, still unaware he’s being mind controlled. He decides to go to the Bugle to try to learn more, since JJJ hates Norman almost as much as he does.
So, obviously, it’s Peter doing these Goblin attacks in his sleep. Shades of the symbiote storyline. Kind of a wild move, tho. Our man has come to the Osborn residence to make sure it’s safe. He’s glad to see all the security, but less glad when little Normie, still sporting the family hair since Romita, Jr. decided he should back in the Spider-Hunt story, says he’s waiting for his daddy. That grandpa always comes back, so his daddy will, too. Surely they’re not trying yet again to convince us it’s Harry in the suit when we already know it’s Peter.
Hours later, Peter’s headed to May’s, thinking about how he can relate to Normie believing his daddy will come home. Aunt May is happy to see him, and they have dinner together.
For years, Romita, Jr. has been doing this sketchy thing for dreams and flashbacks, and guess what, I love it. Peter wakes up exhausted to the sound of fire trucks, and Spider-Man goes to find the Stacy home ablaze, only 2 issues after being blown up in ASM 23. Arthur and Jill are ok outside, but Arthur says Paul is still inside, so Spidey goes in… and finds his longtime foe tied up with a pumpkin bomb stuck to his throat. Which is pretty crazy, Peter-as-Goblin lashing out at someone he doesn’t like. This is certainly not the usual Spider-story.
Back in the 2000s, there was this documentary about Jack Kirby, featuring a real who’s who of comic pros from all eras. It was really great. There’s a bit in there where Barry Windsor-Smith is trying to describe how amazing a Kirby page he’s holding is before putting it down and saying, “Ugh, I can’t even look at it” in the most affectionate way possible. I understand that reaction looking at Romita, Jr. stuff all the time. And Kirby stuff, too, but that’s less relevant here. Well, anyway, leaving the scene, Spider-Man finds a trail of Goblin stuff leading back to May’s house. He begins shouting that he knows Norman can hear him, and to get out here and fight already. Norman, watching through binoculars, says Spider-Man is ready. Peter goes home, leaving a note for May, and finds Randy gone and the answering machine full of messages from JJJ, Betty, Jill and Randy all talking about how the Goblin has ruined their nights or scared them. He feels terrible that everyone he knows is a target. Peter decides he’s not sleeping tonight, that he’s gonna get back out there and find Norman. But, first, he brushes his teeth, and he suddenly, finally, figures it out.
This is probably the best story you can do with a returned Norman. His hatred of Spider-Man turning into this. It’s different, it’s unique, it’s working pretty well. Peter has another dream about his dad, chasing his silhouette through a tunnel of darkness, while elsewhere, the Green Goblin has shown up for Normie, as he expected. Then Spider-Man wakes up in the pitch dark house, stumbling through it as Norman waxes poetic about how the darkness is comforting and soothing, and how bad things happen in the light. Then Spidey hears Normie calling for his dad, to which Norman says the boy needs a father.
Spider-Man wakes up outside in the rain with Norman saying he tried to warn him, and that he only wants what’s best for him. As he goes on, he pulls off Peter’s mask and gives him another one.
Kind of a weird twist ending when we knew that already, but still. For a post-resurrection Norman story, this has an unusually good head of steam. Can Jenkins and Buckingham land it? How many more swipes will be in PPSM 25? We shall see.