{"id":23205,"date":"2024-10-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=23205"},"modified":"2024-02-21T16:41:55","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T20:41:55","slug":"rogg2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2024\/10\/20\/rogg2\/","title":{"rendered":"ROGG2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ya know, there\u2019s another big, dramatic \u201creturn of the Goblin\u201d event only a year or two from now. When I was putting my reading list together, I thought this was it. But now I think it\u2019s an arc in one of the books and not a miniseries. Kinda dreading that one, so this was a pleasant surprise. Well, maybe pleasant isn\u2019t the right word\u2026 We open on Norman in Green Goblin regalia, addressing the hordes of his stupid Order of the Scriers. He proceeds to give us a recap of how he got here\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This Scrier stuff is so funny to me. DeMatteis goes \u201cHe\u2019s an ancient mystical being.\u201d DeFalco says \u201cNo he\u2019s not.\u201d DeMatteis comes back in that annual \u201cOh yes he is!\u201d Stern here: \u201cNo he\u2019s not!\u201d Funnier because DeMatteis is wrong despite being his creator. An ancient mystical being has no place in Spider-Man comics, no matter how many he tried to jam in there. This is dumb, but it\u2019s not as dumb. This is playing the hand you\u2019re dealt. But I guess Norman rechristening them the Order of the Goblin lets DeMatteis go do whatever he wants elsewhere, like he did in Silver Surfer. Well, anyway, that\u2019s not the real Spider-Man, of course. It\u2019s Dr. Bendix, and Norman wants them to kill him since he has no further use for him. And they do, and he dismisses everyone before retiring to his very own Batcave under the estate, complete with his various Goblin gear everywhere and a giant computer screen. Menken meets him there as he rambles about how now no outsider is left among them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Goblin smashes through the mirror and attacks, until Peter pulls off his mask to discover Spider-Man\u2019s underneath. Goblin says it\u2019s the face of his true enemy before pulling Peter\u2019s own face off to reveal the Goblin mask underneath. And then, of course, our man wakes up from his nightmare. And we learn the free toothpaste he got is, in face, full of Goblin drugs. Back at his place, Norman broods about how Peter will have been dosing himself with it for days now, and he\u2019s almost ready for \u201cphase 2\u201d of his plan. But his supervillain internal monologuing is interrupted by Kolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Frenz\u2019 stuff is more angular and cartoony here. A few figures remind me more of Erik Larsen, even. Surprising. Meanwhile, our man is swinging along, headed to see Aunt May, when a crane almost falls on him. He\u2019s disturbed that his Spider Sense didn\u2019t warn him, but somehow doesn\u2019t think to wonder if Norman\u2019s behind it. You know he\u2019s alive, you start having Goblin dreams, and then your Spider Sense stops working? I mean\u2026 Come on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aunt May\u2019s new haircut looks so terrible drawn by anyone but Byrne or Romita, Jr. It might as well be a shower cap. But, anyway, Justice for Nathan! I\u2019m glad Stern\u2019s here to remind everyone he was cool, no matter what David Michelinie thought. That\u2019s a sweet moment for them, tho. Later, we find Peter listening to the CD, amazed by how good it sounds, and drifting off into a dream of seeing Ben and his group performing. But then Norman is the band leader, and he tells Peter he should stop by the club more often. And then Peter wakes up in a trance, puts on his Spider-Suit, and swings out to the old Century Club, long closed, and lets himself into a room full of pumpkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That Norman sure is a schemer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Well, no surprises there. Speaking of DeMatteis, I assume he would love this. Sadness, hallucinogens, flashbacks to unhappy childhoods, this one\u2019s got everything he loves. Let\u2019s see how it all wraps up next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ya know, there\u2019s another big, dramatic \u201creturn of the Goblin\u201d event only a year or two from now. When I was putting my reading list together, I thought this was it. But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1864,1],"tags":[35,659,1970,40,1789,39,540,117,321,2],"class_list":["post-23205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2000s","category-uncategorized","tag-aunt-may","tag-donald-menken","tag-george-roderick","tag-green-goblin","tag-matt-hicks","tag-norman-osborn","tag-pat-oliffe","tag-roger-stern","tag-ron-frenz","tag-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23206,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23205\/revisions\/23206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}