THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #136

"The Green Goblin Lives Again!"

• Writer: Gerry Conway
• Artist: Ross Andru
• Inker: Frank Giacoia & Dave Hunt
• Print Date: Sept., 1974

Featuring:

Plot Summary:

This is the one you've been waiting for! As they return from a date around New York, Peter and MJ trigger a bomb in Peter's apartment when they open the door. MJ is knocked unconscious, but Peter is only stunned. Rushing through his demolished apartment, Peter finds a detonator in the debris. Peter also quickly wraps up his Spider-Man equipment and tosses it on the next roof over before the police arrive.

Later, plus forty minutes, Peter goes to see MJ at the hospital. While there, he has a flashback of Gwen Stacy dying and his last battle with the Green Goblin. Suspecting the truth, Peter leaves the hospital.

Soon, in an alley behind the hospital, Peter changes into his Spider-Man costume. He returns to the Goblin's lair where he and Norman Osborn has their last battle. He finds a dusty old lab without any sign of disturbance. However, before he leaves, he realizes that the dust is in fact fake, and a ruse to make it seem like no one has disturbed the lab. Setting up a web hammock, he begins a several hour stakeout.

His patience is rewarded when he hears someone moving around in the next room. Suddenly, the Green Goblin flies into the room on his goblin glider confirming Spidey's worst fears. The Goblin vows he will have his revenge on Spider-Man. "Cut the bunk, Harry," yells Spider-Man as the Goblin blasts his hammock with a sparkle-beam.

The two battle but Harry, despite not having the original Goblin's strength or speed, proves to be quite the match as he's been practicing with the sparkle-beams and glider. The two battle to a stand-still mostly because Spidey is trying to take it easy on his friend. Finally, just as Spider-Man takes the offensive and captures Harry, the drugs in the glider's exhaust overcome him, and Spider-Man collapses. Harry steps up to execute Spider-Man for the death of Norman Osborn...

Luckily, Harry's energy source is dry, and instead of finishing off Spidey, he flies off vowing the end of Spider-Man will come sooner or later either by physically killing him or spiritually by revealing his identity to the world!

Postscript: Peter stomps out of the Daily Bugle. He asked Jonah for a leave of absence and Jonah fired him instead. He declares to Betty on his way out, "From now on, Peter Parker goes it alone and.. I wouldn't want it any other way!"

Comments:

Music of the day is the Revolting Cocks. There are a few things I'd like to bring to your attention. First, you'll notice the issue reviews are less detailed. That's intentional, and I may even cut back on the comments more. Also, I re-did the Tarantula's page. Eventually, I'm going to convert most of the Villain's bios to the same format. I particularly like the timeline and being able to show the evolution of each adversary (artwise) through the years. FINALLY, I'd like to thank my brother Max for create a "SpiderVillain.com" logo. Go see the Green Goblin II page to see his work.

Plot Analysis:

Overall, a great issue. When I was growing up reading Spider-Man, the Green Goblin was always Harry Osborn. Norman Osborn, Gwen Stacy, and that gang were about as close to me as Uncle Ben. Someone that appeared and died eons ago. I never had any connection to the name. Now, Harry as Peter's best friend and worst enemy was always an interesting read.

The story develops Peter's and MJ's relationship a bit. It starts out with them returning from a date and obviously very comfortable around each other. Although, personally, I thought the idea of Harry bombing their apartment was a bit silly. I mean, Peter killed his father, and he's been training to be the new Green Goblin. Wouldn't you think he'd want to be a bit more hands on? The writer put enough thought in the scene to realize that the authorities would be going over the apartment with a fine-tooth comb and Peter would need to do something with his costume. Webbing it up in a quick ball and tossing on the roof next door works well.

At the hospital, Peter starts having visions of Gwen Stacy and the original Green Goblin. It's not really explained if this is some mystical revelation or how his subconscious manages to connect the bomb to Harry and the new Green Goblin. Regardless, he leaves the hospital on a mission and heads straight to the scene of Norman Osborn's hideout.

Ok, more silliness at the warehouse. This is the Green Goblin's SECRET warehouse. Why would Harry bother to go through the effort of faking a cover of dust around the hideout? Really, only he and Peter should know about this hideout, and he just tried to kill Peter a couple of hours prior. Anyways, Harry uses fake dust to make sure the place looks unoccupied, and Peter determines that the dust is fake and decides to stake the place out.

His patience is rewarded and Harry appears. Now, keep in mind that Harry doesn't have the enhanced strength or intellect that his father did. On paper, this should be fairly mismatched fight. However, Spidey, realizing this is his friend, pulls his punches, and also, Spider-Man underestimates how much Harry has practice with the glider and goblin equipment. Using this explanation, it's not hard to see how the battle manages to be as even as it is. Eventually, Peter loses his temper and in a burst of anger, easily overpowers the Goblin. Again though, he's still underestimated Harry, and the drugs in the glider's exhaust overcome and incapacitate him. Instead of having Harry finish Spider-Man off, the writer uses the old "out of ammo" saw and Harry decides that to chalk this up as a victory and withdraw leaving Peter to wonder when and where he'll strike next.

The postscript was really kind of lame. Apparently Peter asked for a leave of absence from the Bugle, and Jonah just fires him outright instead. Will this have ramifications in future issues? I guess we'll see.

Art Review:

I'm really digging the art in this issue. First, Ross Andru's backgrounds during Peter and MJ's date were nicely detailed. Except his attempt to show a local cathedral was scaled poorly, and that was a bit jarring. Otherwise, his portrayal of the Green Goblin was great (including a splash page for his first appearance!). The fight scenes in the abandoned warehouse looked really nice as well.

Action Factor:

Roughly half of this issue was dedicated to Harry and Peter's battle in the abandoned warehouse. Because Peter was taking it easy on his friend and underestimating Harry to boot, the battle wasn't as lopsided as it should've been and actually ended much differently than expected. Great fight overall.

Spider-Villain lessons 101:

Tip #1:
Attaching a booby-trap to Spider-Man's door is apparently a good way to take out his close friends, but of course, his spider-sense would never let a trap like that catch him off guard.