This is gonna be a real swipe fest, I can feel it. We’re back to Paul Jenkins & Mark Buckingham on PPSM, Bucky here inked by Dan Green, Rodney Ramos and himself, with colors by Joe Rosas. We begin with Peter dreaming his own funeral, but he’s still alive in the coffin. He wakes up in the dark house with Norman saying this is necessary.
And on the next page, we’re off, with Buckingham now swiping Romita, Jr. from ASM 25. How’d he even have that to work from??? Norman recaps being tossed into the house a a kid, now talking about how every time lightning struck, he thought he saw a green goblin stalking him. Oh boy. He began to hate the light and hope for the darkness so he wouldn’t see the goblin, and had accepted the goblin as part of him by the time he got out. Sheesh. He says the lesson he learned is “we must accept the unknown or be devoured by it” as Buckingham swipes the same Norman figure on a 2nd page. Then Peter’s back in his buried alive dream, begging Aunt May not to leave him there, when someone says he can let go now.
Now he swipes Ron Frenz from page one of Revenge of the Green Goblin, itself a semi-swipe of Kane in ASM 121! Sheeeesh! Norman smacks him for that, swiped yet again from the same JR panel, and says he’ll have to keep at it. Then there’s a page of lightning strikes outside with screaming from inside. Then we see Peter tied up with 2 cups in front of him, and Norman trying to get him to choose the one in the dark.
This is getting tedious. Meanwhile, Randy’s on the phone to Aunt May, lying that Peter’s out of town on a photo assignment to cover for the fact that he’s disappeared. Peter, now chained up, is being electrocuted over and over and still hallucinating. Norman watches and listens and is that Romita panel 2 more times. The swipe appears yet again as this page starts. 5 copies of it in this issue so far.
Same first panel on the next page as Norman details his plans to make Peter his heir. This doesn’t really work. He was prrrretty clearly not trying to do this in his previous appearances since his return, especially when he tried and thought he succeeded in killing Spider-Man. We see Norman has finally gotten Peter to fear the light, and is now gently trying to get him to drink the goblin formula.
Norman suddenly does a 180, says he doesn’t know how he ever believed Pete could be his heir. He’s off to go kidnap Normie, but Peter is taking a stand.
They keep on fightin’ for a few more pages until…
Ok! Really whiffed the ending on this one. All that psycho babble and nothing really happened. Torture porn, and not even so much as a real ending. Blargh. I shoulda known. Bringing Norman back was such a stupid thing to do. Well, you might think this means we’re into the main books now, but no, it’s another miniseries next post.