Big finish. Green Goblin starts chuckin bombs left and right, blasting a hole in the side of the building that sucks Jessica right out. But then Spider-Man has her.
Oh no.
I have to tell you, “RUMP” as a sound effect kind of derails the moment. Surely there was another option.
The Goblin gets hold of his glider, and Jessica loses control of her unreliable flying power, but Spider-Man has her. She tries to fly off, but the glide is way faster, and the Goblin is way in the distance.
The baby is alive. Whew! The doc confirms that Jess has superpowers, and then says it seems like she has insides to match. But he cautions that she will probably want to see a specialist with some knowledge of this sort of thing as she gets closer to having it. The doc tells Luke he’s a big fan as he leaves them alone. And Luke says he has to leave. That he can’t let this go. Under the Bugle headline “NORMAN OSBORN IS THE GREEN GOBLIN: Cop Killer Caught/To Face Trial,” we go to a press conference, where Norman’s lawyer is lying up a storm as Norman is led to a car (In a hilarious fake neckbrace) about the Bugle having a vendetta and Spider-Man and all that. Yes, this means Spider-Man caught the Goblin off-panel, which doesn’t feel great, but in the end… it’s not his book.
That’s not good for Norman. I mean, Cage (in)famously hunted down Dr. Doom when he owed Cage money. For something this serious?
So Spidey gets some licks in in the end, but again, it’s not his book. We cut to the bugle newsroom, everyone gathered around a TV to see it reported that Osborn has been fully outed as the Green Goblin and taken into custody. The reporters note that the Bugle was right all along, and “salute their reporter brothers and sisters” for sticking it out under pressure.
And that’s that. In probably the most unorthodox way possible, in a comic not even about Spider-Man, after 40 years, Norman Osborn is finally outed and jailed for the crimes of the Green Goblin. When he avoided being outed in SM 98, it was beyond absurd, but he did, and continued to get away with it for nearly 5 more years, our time, but it’s finally out. That’s a pretty massive thing. And it not happening in a Spider-Man comic is weird, but he was there, written and drawn by people who really get the character. A monumental event in this long, long story. This is far from the last we’ll see of Luke and Jessica on the blog, and the eventual fate of their child will even fall under our purview, what luck. Secret War, tho? What’s Secret War? That’s a question that will be answered in the next block. Which starts next post!