Or, as I’ve had it in my notes, DR: GobLeg, which, I think we can all agree, is a much better title. This is kind of a throwback, part reprint, part good ol’ fashioned 90s filler comic. Gonna be a short post, since most of the book is not new information, but I thought I’d look at it. What’s new here comes to us courtesy of Karl Kesel, Mike Mayhew and Andy Troy. We begin with something a labored premise:
The whole mythology of “The Green Goblin is the father of Spider-Man’s best friend!” firmly in place, despite the fact that, as we have seen on this very blog, Peter and Harry didn’t know each other too well (Or like each other) and Peter knew Norman even less when their secrets were revealed to each other. And with that, we’re off to revisit that very moment, with hideously recolored reprints of ASM 39 ad 40. I mean, look at this…
Modern coloring just looks garish and wrong on old line art. John Romita was not planning on someone else adding modeling and lighting, he handled it all in the pencils, which Mike Esposito then did his usual just-kind-of-ok job inking. But even beyond that, these things wind up looking so oversaturated most of the time, for some reason. So heavy handed. I think I’ve said it before, but the only person I’ve ever seen find a good way into applying modern color to classic art is Dean White, and that’s partly because he’s one of the best to ever do it, and partly because he’s a fine artist outside of comics, and knows what to do. He uses a more subtle and painterly approach that doesn’t make it look like magic marker, like this does. At an rate, Peter remembers those events looking much worse than they did at the time, and then we rejoin Victoria Hand…
This page gives way to a text piece with various archival art giving a summary of the whole Goblin, well, legacy drawing from sources old and new, trying to make a cohesive whole out of them, as in this example page:
…which mixes material from 60s ASM, Untold Tales, and even… wasn’t it Paul Jenkins who made up the totally asinine detail of him considering the name “Mr. Coffee?” Ugh. The thing goes on to talk about all the other goblins along the way, Green, Hob and Demo, even Bart Hamilton and Phil Urich and those lady goblin robots from Legacy of Evil. This takes us right up through the formation of the Dark Avengers, and then…
Mayhew chickened out on the hair.
I don’t really know what Victoria is meant to be looking for here. It seems like something specific. Does she not trust Osborn? He seems to be bothered by not remembering Peter’s identity there, but what’s her deal, what’s that “one thing” she’s looking for? I don’t know. Next up, in case that text history wasn’t enough for you, there’s Handbook of the Marvel Universe pages on Norman and Harry (Which confusingly uses the in-world explanation that Harry didn’t die in TAC 200 and also references the bargain with Mephisto, essentially giving you 2 different reasons he’s alive), then a reading list for all your Goblin needs, and we’re out. Not exactly essential. But it helped them get the number of Spider-Man-related comics on the stands that month up to 9 (A rare month with only 2 ASMs, 599 & 600, New Avengers 55, Mr. Negative 2, Sinister Spider-Man 2, ASM Annual 36, and a guest appearance in Ms. Marvel 41, in addition to this), and that was its mission. Next post… A bit of a detour…