THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #177

"Goblin In The Middle"

• Writer: Len Wein
• Artist: Ross Andru
• Inker: Mike Esposito
• Print Date: Feb, 1978

Featuring:

Plot Summary:

Spider-Man watches with a sense of deja vu as the Green Goblin hurls someone that the wall-crawler cares about to an almost-certain doom. Spider-Man dashes out the window after a plummeting Flash Thompson. He snags Thompson with a webline and flings him up safely to the roof of the building. However, move leaves Spider-Man defenseless and the Green Goblin knocks him off the side of the building. Spider-Man rescues himself with a webline, but his momentum swings him out into the street and literally through the back doors and rear seat of a passing sedan. With Spider-Man distracted, the Green Goblin takes off on his goblin glider leaving Spider-Man to deal with an understandable upset couple and their wrecked car. While Spider-Man comically picks up pieces of their car, the husband tries to engage him in a fistfight.

We've seen this play out before. We can't have an appearance by any Green Goblin without having them throw some close friend of Peter Parker off a bridge, out a window, off a bridge again, off the same bridge, ad naseum. It's a cheap ploy that harkens back to the death of Gwen Stacy, and the writer compounds the cliche by hammering home the similarity with the dialogue - "No, I won't let you do it again!!" Needless to say, Flash Thompson survives being web and flung to the roof.

I can't figure out if this Green Goblin has taken the goblin formula or not. Last issue, he was getting pummeled by Spider-Man pretty badly, but this issue he manages to knock Spider-Man off the building with a single kick. I would've thought Spidey's wall-crawling ability was stronger than that.

The scene with Spider-Man crashing into the sedan was played out well. I had a chuckle reading the dialogue with the driver trying to pick a fist-fight with Spider-Man while Spider-Man resignedly picks up the sedan's doors and carefully tucks them in the back seat. "You'll be hearing from my lawyers!" - I'd love to see how that subpoena gets served.

Spider-Man goes to talk to Flash Thompson on the roof. Flash drops the first clues that this Green Goblin might not be Harry. He says "His voice, his powers, that was the real Green Goblin and heaven only knows what he's done with my roommate!" Spider-Man's internal monologue does clear up the fact that most people think Harry just had fantasies about being the Green Goblin but never acted them out as the Green Goblin.

Several hours later in a darkened warehouse on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the Green Goblin discusses his plans with a hooded captive. The Green Goblin ultimate ambition is to become the crimelord of New York. He does make allusions to his and his hostage's psychiatric sessions together, and the assumption is obviously that Harry is holding Dr. Hamilton hostage. Obviously, the hood is another clue that everything is not as it appears. At least the Goblin gives a reason for the hood - "I couldn't bear to see your sniveling face any longer..." and they didn't obscure the hostage's face with a convenient shadow or something. The Goblin has learned there is a meeting of the city's top criminal, and he takes off intending to claim what is rightfully his!

I don't get the whole "I want to be crimeboss of New York" motive. I think that was one of Norman Osborn's original goals too. I can't think of incarnation of the Green Goblin that was really depicted as a true criminal mastermind. Compared to, say, the Kingpin. The Kingpin has his shiny office and lets his minions do much of the dirty work. The Green Goblin is much more of the hands on type, but doesn't really seem to be much of a manipulator.

We join Peter back at Aunt May's hotel room. Aunt May insists she's as "sound as a dollar" and Peter shouldn't worry so much about her. Peter has enough to worry about with the Green Goblin on the loose, and he leaves Aunt May in the capable company of Mary Jane and Anna Watson.

Hey, speaking of cliched storylines, the 'Aunt May hospitalized / on the verge of death' has to be pretty well played out by this point. Yes, Aunt May is 'frail', and that is the original reason that Peter couldn't tell her about his alter-ego. Much like the Green Goblin, I feel like we've read this scene before.

There's no stopping the Green Goblin tonight. We're treated to a single-page montage of Green Goblin terrorizing the city's criminals until one of the finally tells him where the crimelord meeting is being held.

I'm not a HUGE fan of Ross Andru's art (on the flip side, I'm not huge critic of his art either), but I did like the one-page montage of the Green Goblin shaking down the criminal underworld.

Peter Parker, meanwhile, strolls through the warehouse district. In Peter's thoughts, we're treated a one-page summary of the history of the Green Goblin - starting from the explosion that unhinged Norman Osborn's mind, to the death of Gwen Stacy, the death of Norman Osborn, and finally Harry's adoption of the Green Goblin persona and subsequent defeat.

And, the writer throws out an entire page summary of the Green Goblin. At the rate he is going this issue, Len Wein might not have to come up with one single solitary unique plot.

Peter's thoughts are interrupted by his tingling spider-sense. He hurries to the source of the disturbance, but doesn't have time to change into costume. He leaps over a fence just in time to witness a gangland execution - several men with automatic weapons gun down three helpless men blindfolded and handcuffed. Too late to save the victims, Peter avenges their death by taking down the gunmen (while managing to avoid any of the gunmen getting a clear look at his face). He finds no identification on the men but only an invitation to "THE TOP OF THE WORLD to play KING OF THE MOUNTAIN". Peter tosses aside the invite, but then reconsiders.

Speaking of which, when was the last time that Peter went for a walk through the almost abandoned warehouse district? Why isn't he swinging through the streets as Spider-Man? That seems to be his traditional method of blowing off steam or brooding. No instead he is in the warehouse district just in time to interrupt a gangland killing. Well, interrupt the aftermath of a gangland killing perhaps because he doesn't actually prevent three mobsters from being gunned down. Plus, we have the 'drama' of Peter having to fight half-dressed as Spider-Man and half in his street clothes. This is something that probably could've been plotted out better. As it is, it reads as Peter fighting as Peter but convenient shadows obscuring his face in every scene.

And this whole scene was just a set up so that Peter gets the invitation to go to The Top of The World and crash the meeting of the city's crimelords.

What does Peter do about the killers he just knocked unconscious? I mean, presumably he calls in an anonymous tip or something, but even still, wouldn't it be hard to convict people that were found unconscious near some guns and dead bodies? With Spider-Man's popularity in the toilet, it probably wouldn't be hard for a defense lawyer to argue reasonable doubt that his clients were framed in the killings when there are no witnesses to the attack.

While at the hospital, Mary Jane and Aunt Anna are about to leave when suddenly May has another bad attack. While the doctors roll in with the heart unit to try to save May's life, Mary Jane fruitlessly tries to reach Peter on his phone at home.

OMG! Aunt May is seriously ill and Peter is the only one that can save her!! We haven't seen this before! <- Sarcasm

But at the moment, our hero is occupied elsewhere heading towards the restaurant called Top of the World at the World Trade Center. The readers skip ahead of Spider-Man to restaurant in time to witness Silvermane introducing himself to the assembled crimebosses. Silvermane has assembled the crimeboss to propose a truce and a consolidation of the city's criminal elements into a single overpowering conglomerate (under Silvermane's direction of course), but Silvermane's proposal is interrupted by the arrival of the Green Goblin. The Green Goblin announces his intention to control the city's criminal rackets while Spider-Man spies on the meeting hidden in an air vent. After the Green Goblin takes out Silvermane's gunmen, he tells Silvermane what he has to offer the assembled group. The Green Goblin can remove the city's hero that causes the most trouble because the Green Goblin knows who Spider-Man really is!

When did Silvermane actually become a full-fledge cyborg? It's not often we've seen him 'human'.

Getting back to the Green Goblin attempts to become a crimelord. Let's examine this seen and his plan. He crashes the crimelord meetings, said "Hey, I can fix this big problem, but you have to put me in charge!" Ok, first, that's like me going into a company saying "Hey, I can fix this major annoyance you've been seeing, but you have to make me CEO." I don't think that's going to fly. Plus, this is CRIME! Generally crimelords aren't handed the reins by other people. They take them for themselves and keep hold of them with a mixture of brains and ruthlessness. Again, to make a comparison, when was the last time you say the Kingpin ASK other people if he can be in charge?

I don't believe for a second that the Green Goblin is dumb enough to just give out Spider-Man's secret identity for free, so the cliffhanger this issue is really anything but.