1994 Spider-Man episode #31: “Enter the Green Goblin” Review

He’s Greeny, he’s Gobby, but is he Norman or Harry? Enter the Green Goblin!

Credits
Story By: John Semper
Written By: Marty Isenberg and Robert Skir
Music Composed By: Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi
Animation Services By: Toyko Movie Shinsha (TMS)

THE PLOT: While attempting to conduct experiments for chemical weapons at Oscorp, Norma Osborn is thought to have died in an explosion. Harry is inducted into the group of New York stockholders, but swears vengeance on all the members. Coincedentally, all of the members including Wilson Fisk and J. Jonah Jameson are soon kidnapped by the new, powerful Green Goblin!

LONG STORY SHORT: Spider-Man tracks the Goblin down and unmasks him to learn that he is indeed Norman Osborn. Osborn loses his memory, and Spidey gets a happy ending courtesy of Felicia Hardy, in gratitude for rescuing her mother.

MY THOUGHTS: At last, the long awaited introduction of the Green Goblin! Being the definite highlight villain of the series, this was an episode that certainly cleansed the palette of the stink that was the last episode. It’s something I was certainly anticipating, as this was another one I would watch and re-watch and that would always stick in my mind to the point where I still remember and can recite most of the dialogue verbatim. There was some hesitance concerning the quality holding up after fifteen years, especially after reviewing the Doctor Strange episode. But in all honesty, I can say that this is probably the strongest written script the series has had by this point in its run. Really, this was extremely well told and executed. It’s very straightforward and fairly simple even though it’s a mystery, and yet there so many little nuances towards the characters that are built up and expand in episodes to come that really make this a gem.

First and foremost though, it has to be addressed that the characterization of the Goblin and of Norman Osborn respectively is fairly different to the one that has been established ever since the character returned to the comics. In fact, this episode first aired a full seven months before it was revealed that he was the big orchestrator of the Clone Saga and had been alive in all the time Spider-Man and the readers thought him to be dead. The last time Norman made a full appearance in the comic books (Amazing Spider-Man #122) he was going through much of the split personality conflicts that is seen here. There is a difference in characterization towards Norman here and the Norman Osborn written by Stan Lee in that Stan wrote Norman originally as someone who knew full well that he was the Goblin. The split personality only happened after the first unmasked battle between him and Spider-Man. So the Norman as he was in Steve Ditko and John Romita eras was more like the one he is now, a generally not-so-nice guy with a dark secret. The one presented here is a struggling scientist who wasn’t a very nice guy, but still not wholly evil until he was driven insane by the chemical gas he helped create. It’s a seemingly small switch, but interesting in that it now makes the character of Norman Osborn to be a somewhat tragic figure. They sort of played that up in Stan and Gerry Conway’s run in the seventies, but as previously stated, Norman wasn’t a nice guy to start out and that is the common perception of his personality today. By nature of the show’s changes from the comic, as well as probable censor notes, Norman is now made to be a tragic figure assigned with dissasociative identity disorder. Yet at the same time it works because that was an aspect of the character in the old comic books. Weird, huh…

But back to this episode. What’s noticeable right away about this episode is the awesome animation. It’s great; TMS at it’s finest. The second thing is that this episode makes very good use of the other supporting cast members. Felicia sort of had a role in the last season with Morbius, but it was more in the background until the last episode of that arc. She’s not very prominent here, but her relation to her mother adds for some interesting chemistry between her and Spider-Man that comes back at the end and in the next episode. The same can be said for Terri Lee, whose only in one scene but more continuity can’t be a bad thing.

Lt. Lee: “Why should I tell you? Just because you saved my life once?”

Spider-Man: “Twice, but whose counting?”

That kind of stuff makes it more like the ongoing comic book adventures, which has been said before is always a plus whenever it happens. In addition, the Mary Jane/Peter/Harry love triangle is probably at it’s height of heat in this episode because there’s definite tension with all parties. Harry is angry and driven almost to the point of obsession, pushing MJ away and inadvertantly revealing to her the dark side of his personality, which she tells to Peter who already suspects Harry to be Green Goblin and contemplates using that knowledge to get in MJ’s good graces. The scene with Peter and MJ in Peter’s house is one of the most well written and directed “quiet scenes” in the series because it’s done for the sake of exposition, but the use of it as a character beat for Peter is what has always stuck out for me. When Mary Jane tells Peter about how she thinks Harry has a shadow side to him, the camera closes up slowly on Peter’s concerned face. On one hand, this is a meta reference to Peter’s double life as Spider-Man, (Cut to Bertone running through the room yelling “IRONY!”) but the wheels start turning in Peter’s head that this is a chance for him to possibly get back together with MJ by shoving Harry under the bus, but his responsible nature won’t let him do it. It’s a great moment for the hero because A) the word “responsibility” isn’t used explicitly but it can be inferred and B) it shows the relatable, human side to Peter Parker which everyone loves to point at and claim is the reason why Spider-Man is such an enduring character. This is a moment that certainly warrants that, because Peter says earlier in the episode that he is tortured over the idea of even doing things for Mary Jane after he lost her to Harry. It’s quick and not dwelled upon, but it is there and has always been in the back of Peter’s mind. It’s brought to the fore again when he comes home to find Mary Jane in his house, in the place where Peter gets away from being Spider-Man and relaxes into natural identity. So now when forced to confront a possible “get” on his side of the table, he disregards it for Harry’s sake and not his own. It’s so subtle, and a lot more subtle than the episode even lets on, and it’s probably one of my all time favorite scenes of Peter Parker in this series.

This episode also works very well with the use of tension all around. It starts off with Norman and “Mordell” (As opposed to Mendell) Stromm working on a killer deadline to create and manufacture chemical based weaponry for the Kingpin, fueled by a flashback where Osborn gets berated by Kingpin as well as the board of trustees for doing just that. Kingpin basically says he’ll kill him and Harry if he doesn’t deliver on this, all of which adds to the tragic nature of this iteration of Norman Osborn’s character. Harry continues this by being completley pissed off, which in totaly anathema to anything we’ve seen from him in the series so far. This won’t be the end of angry Harry, but I do recall this being the best version of it. He has a lot more justification than he does later in this very season when he’s just mad after Peter takes his girlfriend back, SPOILER ALERT.

But when I was a kid, I honestly was shocked that Norman was the Goblin and not Harry, which says very little of my intelligence since I did know that in the comics that Norman was the first Green Goblin. Even so, this does sort of says things about Harry Osborn’s character that to this day is still not 100% clear. Is he meant to be a hero or a villain? A tragic figure or just another insane person destined to be written off as such? Again, his anger is truly justified, but one might think he would go to the papers to tell his story about how the likes of J. Jonah Jameson and Anastasia Hardy lead to the utter ruination of his father. It would certainly be an engaging story if he had done that while being the Green Goblin on the side. I’m not trying to imply that his relentless search for his father was insane, but it was as if the episode gave us this side of Harry and though it tried to explain it away at the end with the “Oh! No no, he was just trying to find out where Norman could have escaped to. That’s all!” it still had something to hide concerning him. Maybe it’s just me not getting over the fact that Harry Osborn can ever be truly good or truly evil.

And what does all this say about Norman Osborn? Alright, he’s clearly insane from the gas, but can one just become insane due to to a chemical effect? The fun way is to simply say no, the hard part of that is to explain the reasoning. What gets me about all this is that at the end when Goblin is unmasked he still speaks. That is to say, you see Osborn’s face but hear Neil Ross doing the Goblin voice. This is where the show becomes extremely psychological, probably the most it ever gets. I would recommend you to stop reading and go to youtube, search for “Enter the Green Goblin 3/3” and watch the scene where the Goblin of Liberty pins the Goblin to the ground. Listen to the dialogue. It’s here where the voice of the Goblin begins to fade in and out in the middle of sentences, but is that all there is to it? Watch the sequence of events. Statue hits him to the ground and Osborn, with the Goblin’s voice screams “Noooo!!!! Stop STARING at me!!!!” Then Osborn’s regular voice starts to say “I…can’t…” with the Goblin’s voice finishing “LIFT IT!”

Goblin: “The gas…!”

Osborn: “must be…wearing off…”

Goblin: “No! I need…”

Osborn: “my strength back…”

Goblin: “…need..!”

Osborn: “my strength…”

If we’re to take the dual identity aspect of the character as read, then this is where the Goblin truly dissasociates himself from Norman Osborn. Upon literally being faced with the image of “himself”, it’s Osborn’s persona that screams for the statue to stop staring at him, even though it’s in the Goblin’s voice. Immediately after is when the changes in voice starts to occur, and that’s where the persona of Norman Osborn fights through. It’s not the idea of the gas wearing off, but the shock of being faced with what he has become forcing Norman Osborn to regain his identity. The waning strength is all in his head, after all how would he just gain it all back later in the season with no explanation? The Goblin is aware of this and tries to urge Osborn to lift the statue and reassure him that he needs the Green Goblin. Again, that’s brought upon later when the Goblin is aware of Norman Osborn’s presence in the same body. Osborn is putting to words his returning strength in his persona, and the fragmented sentences are all used as double meanings. At the end this is all extremely creepy and deep, especially from a 90s comic book cartoon show NOT called Batman: the animated series.

As much as I love this episode, there were a few things that I questioned. Starting at the beginning, how did Harry get to Oscorp so quickly if he was stuck in traffic? How did Mary Jane get in Peter’s house when he wasn’t home? Aunt May has never mentioned in the episode. Finally, Jonah’s a navy man? Since when?

But at the end of the day, who cares. Those can probably be explained away fairly easily. I maintain that this is the best written episode of the series’ run so far, and a definite highlight of the series altogether. And it only gets better from here, if memory serves.

5/5 “MARY JAAANE!!!”s

Best Quote Contender: Spider-Man: *After Goblin reveals the Goblin of Liberty* “All you megalomaniacs have such a weird sense of humor!”

All images taken from marvel.toonzone.net and drg4.wariocompany.com respectively.