The original Goblin suit! Mostly! Romita gave it pirate boots. He’s also on a glider more like Hobgoblin’s. Inside, Anti-Venom is still draining Spider-Man of his powers, sort of-kind of by accident in an excellent 2-page spread.
This is so embarrassing for Norman. Imagine being attacked by a cheap knock off of yourself.
Now how could that work? Unless that’s literally one of Norman’s gliders. But that has implications. Back at the other fight, the Thunderbolts finally show and and start taking Mac Gargan away, and that gets Anti-Venom to leave Spider-Man alone to chase after them. Songbird and Radioactive Man have practiced in case Venom goes rogue (Good call) and hit Anti-Venom with sonics and fire, but they don’t seem to bother him like they do real symbiotes.
Seems weird that Norman brought his Goblin bag on this trip, but Romita has been drawing it the whole time, it didn’t just show up out of nowhere, at least. Look at that unmistakable Romita gun. Seems a bit odd to rightly and correctly call Menace a lame rip off, and to have the original recipe be the one doing it. Don’t you worry your audience will agree? I sure do.
Wow, Spidey just referenced Spider-Man Team-Up #7. Are me and Dan Slott the only people who’ve read that book? Maybe! I mean, probably not.
I only ran this page because I do really like the “how’s your mom?” bit. Back at the other fight, Norman is identifying several of his gimmicks being used by Menace, including razor bats, which is weird, since Menace never had this stuff before. Menace begins ranting about how the Tbolts catching the Spider-Tracer Killer in Crowne’s name would ruin everything. Norman says he doesn’t care about any of that, he just wants Spider-Man, and that sends Menace into a rage. They go smashing back outside, Menace shrieking about how Osborn had everything and all he wanted…
Dean White’s back to coloring Norman’s shaved head as hair. So, who is Menace? I guess your obvious choice would be Harry Osborn, but Menace doesn’t seem like Harry. I know who it is. I just looked it up once, years ago, out of curiosity. Doing so didn’t really make it make sense to me. Maybe reading the actual comics will. With Spidey leaving, Norman tells his goons to pack it up. Songbird brings Radioactive Man’s unconscious form back on the ship, and Norman says Spider-Man is wounded and on the run and “I’ve just found us a very valuable trophy.” Anti-Venom decides to go after the Thunderbolts. Peter, meanwhile, switches into some borrowed clothes from the FEAST center in an alley so he can go in and check on May, who is taking Eddie Brock turning into a monster and fighting another monster remarkably well. Brand New Day Aunt May seems to lack the nuance and depth JMS gave her, but she’s at least not having a heart attack about it, I guess. As Peter pitches in on the cleanup, some of the refugees from Crowne’s sweatshop are massing in an alley nearby, having heard miracles happen there. But we’ll have to wait to see what their angle is.
“Always” is a big word for characters who haven’t appeared in a comic book in years, Lily! For all I know, Bill & Lily Hollister are dead. apparently Harry doesn’t remember being the Green Goblin himself anymore. It’d be nice if that was in the text of the stories somewhere and not just in a profile in the back of the Vol. 1 trade, but I guess that was too much to ask. At Osborn Manor, Crowne has shown up furious that the DB! is reporting a new Spider-Tracer Killing, saying it will make him look like a moron for supporting Osborn. Norman says the time of death on that killing is before the Tbolts showed up, which should help him rather than hurt him. While they argue, one of Norman’s bodyguards is revealed to be Eddie Brock, whose Anti-Venom… whatever it is can apparently mimick clothes like Venom could.
In this day & age, that top panel would just be photoshopped from the previous page, but John Romita, Jr. is old school. I think Norman probably didn’t want Bullseye to ruin all his TVs there. Just a guess!