This is it! The mystery of the Red Goblin revealed! Will it be Osborn? JJJ? Harry Lyman? Crawlspace odds right now are favoring Aunt May bonding with Carnage, but let’s stop predicting and get right into the fray! Read on! And when you are done, post your own grade!
The Devil in the Details
Story Title: Go Down Swinging Part 2: The Rope a Dope
Writer: Dan Slott
Penciler: Stuart Immonen
Inker: Wade von Grawbadger
Colorist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artist: Alex Ross
Editor: Nick Lowe
Published: April 4, 2018
Remedial ASM 101
Norman Osborn has used the Carnage symbiote to purge himself of the Goblin antidote that Peter put into his system. Now he has Peter’s secret identity and is ready to launch an attack on our unsuspecting hero!
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
Osborn wastes no time in launching his attack. Spider-Man appears to have matters well at hand until the precious tritium explodes, taking out the top of the Daily Bugle. Then Norman reveals that he has bonded with the Carnage symbiote and kicks Spidey’s butt. In the end, Spider-Man makes a deal to never be Spider-Man again in order to save all those he loves (but he secretly plans to attack the Red Goblin as Peter Parker).
What Passed:
A WHOLE BUNCH!
The art! Stewart Immonen gets really creative with the angle of the camera. Just check out this example of when Osborn is goading Robbie to reveal Peter’s identity. Somebody read their copy of How to Draw the Marvel Way!
The dialogue! While not completely spot on, I do love the use of the word “Chuckles” when Spidey is fighting the Goblin.
The jokes! If there were any inane pop culture jokes, I missed them (so please don’t point them out to me – ignorance is bliss). But there were some good lines in here like this one:
Pop Pop! Normie getting excited that Pop Pop is coming to town while everyone else is freaking out makes me think that this is Spencer’s future when our very own JR is a grandfather coming to visit. Harry’s dialogue in that panel could easily be Spencer’s. Normie’s word balloon alone is worth most of the cost of this comic.
Red Goblin! I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this, but the combination was as good as peanut butter and chocolate in this issue. I have my doubts about any long term continuation of this, but for this one issue, it was fun to read. Plus, every pumpkin bomb had its own Carnage face! If we can’t have Grant’s vision of Carnage Swarm (every bee with its own Carnage face), then this is a distant second.
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), CHMP rates a 9.5! You can’t pronounce it and the image it goes with is awesome! Go ahead, try and say it out loud!
What Failed:
Only small and minor details. The spider-sense bothered me a bit. While I get he can’t detect the symbiote, why could he not detect the tritium bomb? Maybe one of you has a good explanation of this that you can post in the comments. Plus, the Goblin getting past his sense is very reminiscent of how anything with the goblin logo was ignored by Superior Spider-Man’s defensive spider-bots. But as the spider-sense is consistently written inconsistently by writers throughout the history of the character, I can set that aside in my mind. I did not enjoy any scene with Agent Anti-Venom, but thankfully it was contained.
A missed opportunity was the hesitation for Peter to reveal his secret identity. I thought his delay was going to cause someone to get killed, a la Peter David’s depiction of Matt Murdock hesitating which gave the Sin Eater enough time to kill a judge friend of his. This would be a great way to rid the Marvel Universe of Rubylyn.
Analysis:
This issue FEELS like a Spider-Man issue, at least to me. The dialogue was, for the most part, on task. The art was amazing. The side character interlude was kept to an appropriate minimum. We had a focus on Peter Parker. He acted like Peter Parker. He talked like Peter Parker. He looked like Peter Parker. This is the type of writing that everyone hoped for when Slott took on the book ten years ago. Granted, judging from the preview of next issue’s cover and from the last ten years of Spider-events, I’m not hopeful that the rest of the arc will hold up to this level of writing. But for this one issue, I can read it, enjoy it, and be a Spider-Man fan again.
Some people will be irritated that Spider-Man runs away like a whiny punk, but I believe that there is precedent for this. Spider-Man tends to get uneasy around the symbiotes unlike any other enemy. In this case, he had just survived a nuclear blast with only webbing as insulation (stretching our suspension of disbelief, but…) so he is a bit dazed. He probably has a concussion (and I know what I’m talking about here because I have to go through HOURS of stinking training on concussions because I am a high school coach (the training never ends…)). Then he is thrown off guard because he thought Osborn was dead. Then he gets hit with the Carnage symbiote. That’s a lot to take in. It makes sense that he would run to regroup and launch a better planned attack. I’m OK with it in this instance. Of course, this would be great if he managed to regroup and launch his attack by HIMSELF, but according to the preview art, it appears he will resort to needing others to save the day – but that is for a different issue to worry about.
I’m holding onto my belief that Emma is kidnapping the kids in order to save them from Osborn.
The title of this issue has double meaning. The term “rope a dope” means letting your opponent think you are trapped on the ropes of the ring and then let them tire themselves out throw punches that aren’t as effective as they think. The surface meaning here applies to the Goblin who let Spidey think it was over in the bomb blast before launching a Carnage offensive, but it is also turned on the Goblin when it appears Spidey has thrown in the towel, but is already planning a Parker offensive. This pleases the English teacher in me.
Prediction:
Flash will fail in his attempt to take out Red Goblin and Peter will temporarily bond with the Anti-Venom, but alter it to also have the ability to negate the goblin formula. He will call himself the Anti-Goblin. This is just a prediction, mind you, not a desire of mine. In part, this opinion is due to this leaked panel of Immonen art from Slott’s Twitter (I still have rights to view because he values my opinion).
No, really, this is a leaked panel and not at all a poorly altered panel from Venom Inc.
Another prediction is based on my assumption that Robbie knows Peter’s identity. If so, he will be pissed that it took Peter so long to go into action as Spider-Man which in his opinion gave the Goblin enough time to blow up the Daily Bugle. He will decide that it is for the best that Peter not work at the Bugle anymore, thus keeping the next writer from being able to use the Bugle as a supporting cast.
Extra Credit:
Extra Credit goes to anyone who can post up a good drawing of Aunt May as the Red Goblin. I’m thinking each wheatcake has its own Carnage face.
Final Grade:
Spider-Man being Spider-Man. The Green Goblin being the Green Goblin (until he wasn’t). Normie yelling hooray for pop pop! Nobody came in to save Spidey (yet). I thoroughly enjoyed this issue! This grade applies to this issue and this issue alone, without regard to where the story may take us.
A-
Your Turn:
What grade do YOU give it?
Feel free to elaborate upon your grade in the comments section, tell my why my grade is wrong, or (better yet) sing my praises for such an insightful and wonderful review. Or just write BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB! Any of those will do.
What’s Next?
GO DOWN SWINGING Part 3
- SPIDER-MAN will need to the help of friend and foe alike if he hopes to stop THE GREEN GOBLIN this time!
I am NOT looking forward to the needing of help from friend and foe. Oh well, we got one issue break from the Marvel Team-Up format at least
- The mystery of the RED GOBLIN is finally revealed, and it’s not going to be pretty for Peter Parker!
What’s left to be revealed? Does it mean that since we’ve already revealed the mystery it will not be pretty for Peter Parker or does it mean that more mystery will be revealed in #799? If so, what could it be? My assumption is that this is the wording needed when blurbs for issues must go out in advance and they are trying to avoid spoilers.
Also coming up! Get ready, dear reader! When issue #800 comes rolling around, YOU will be able to give your own 90 second video review! So start thinking about what you are going to wear, what awesome props you want to incorporate, and make sure you have a web cam at the ready! More on that to come.
‘Nuff Said!
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Thank you so much for the review, Mark. See, my thing, and the reason why I rate this as an “F,” is that I think that this is a story that shouldn’t happen. It completely mischaracterizes the two chief antagonists, i.e. Norman and the Carnage symbiote.
Frankly, as a Spider-Man Lifer pushing 20 years of straight reading now, having grown up on even older 70s and 80s and the occasional 60s Spidey books, I’m so jaded with Peter Parker due to his poor handling, honestly, since he when he joined the New Avengers, that even in the occasional instances where he’s written more or less “in character” don’t do much for me anymore. Marvel has forgotten who he is, and has forgotten me as a fan. So, while I agree with you all, and with you Mark, that he was handled fairly competently here (except in that last sequence, “I’m the MAN in Spider-MAN” ugh that was such poo), I can’t rate that much in this issue’s favor.
As I said, the villains were fundamentally wrong here.
First, and less egregious, was the symbiote. OhmygoshWHY can’t anyone at Marvel except Kevin Shinick remember that the Carnage symbiote IS Cletus Kasady’s blood?! You CAN’T separate them without KILLING Cletus Kasady! (which they haven’t because he appears symbiote-less in, *shiver*, “Venomized” #1, speaking of stories that shouldn’t happen.) Their symbiosis is, in a twisted way, perfect. All this is, if you’ll excuse the crudeness of my word choice, is masturbatory writing. It’s Slott being all like, “Oh! My time as ASM writer is almost up and I didn’t get to write Carnage! I’ve got to find a way to shoe-horn him in, not because it makes sense for the character but because I WANT TO.” In other words, (like the aforementioned “Edge Venomized-Verse” doodoo that Cullen Bunn’s smearing over what has otherwise been a solid time in Venom’s ongoing story, “Venom Inc.” notwithstanding) it’s everything that went wrong with the symbiotes in the 90s. Instead of being characters, they’re overexposed gimmicks. There should be no “Red Goblin,” or at least not one that’s part Norman Osborn, part Carnage symbiote. But, hey, in this Mighty Marvel Age of making alternate covers into actual stories in-universe, I guess “anything is possible.” Lucky us….
Secondly, and more egregiously, is Norman Osborn. In writing that Norman has ‘always ever only cared about the “spider” and not the “man,”‘ Slott shows that he fundamentally does not understand the core conflict between Norman and Peter. That conflict hasn’t been one between costumes, that’s more Otto’s thing (which is why I maintain that Norman is still #1). It’s, to reference PPSM#75, between two MEN and their intensely personal rivalry, and has been so since ASM#39!
Again, all this issue does is sully two of Spider-Man’s best villains. And when one is his greatest and the other is one of his most popular, I just can’t abide things and give it a passing grade.
Once more, though, thank you for the review Mark. This is just one man’s opinion. I dread to see what happens next but will probably keep coming back to Marvel like the whipped-dog of a fan that I am, hoping that, maybe, Spider-Man and his world will be what they should be once again one of these days. Viva Crawlspace!
@ Evan – CHONK is certainly a classic!
@Mark — I think of “CHMP” as “CHOMP,” but missing the vowel sound because the pumpkin bomb has his mouth full. I have to say, though, that to my mind, nothing can surpass the “CHONK” of a shark bite into a living vampire.
@ Javi – I praised the dialogue, but you’re right in that it wasn’t all perfect. I particularly didn’t like the dialogue between Betty and the Goblin. Not that it was out of place or anything, It just didn’t flow for me. I thought there were plenty of thought caption boxes, but I guess I’ll need to go back and look. It could be that my brain just auto-corrected word balloons into boxes. Then again, I did just get finished with our Shakespeare unit, so I might just have soliloquies on the brain. BRKNSTCK! back at ya!
@ PeterParkerFan – The art was so spot on. I’m not an artist, but I know what I like. This was great!. I hate to see him leave too, but maybe this new guy will make us just as happy. All I really need is to be able to recognize faces without having to have people point out who they are.
@ Evan – I can always count on you to notice the details! Thanks! I’d say the Crawlspace Odds are up to 88% there.
@ Know-It-All-Vic – I wondered about the effect of that pumpkin bomb too. Peter says his leg’s ripped open, but t he art didn’t show that. I would think a bomb at that close range would do a lot more damage, but maybe we are to believe that the pumpkin bombs just aren’t that powerful. I mean, they are always going off around people and I don’t know of a single person killed by pumpkin bomb, so maybe it is just a lot of flash and smoke. Maybe we can ask JR. He probably has the specs for those things.
@ Adam Schingle – Wow! Someone besides Evan pays attention to the OOTI! I thought he was the only one!
@ William – I like the Science position at the Bugle, maybe less as editor and more as reporter, but that’s nit picky. I am not hopeful that they will keep it going, though. I think Slott is building up to yanking that out as he has been systematically undoing everything he has done to and with the character before someone else does it.
@ Z-Man AND Joshua AND Enigma_2099 – I agree! To see stories like this and compare it to all the twaddle we’ve been getting, it just makes this whole last ten years even more irritating.
… so what’s your excuse for all the other crap you wrote, Slott?
@Mark — I just want to say I appreciate your attention to selection color scheme for this review. And there was a nice red A- for the Carnage component.
I wonder what could possibly account for the turnaround in story quality, especially now, so late in Slott’s run. What are the Crawlspace Odds of crack cocaine?
Holy s**t, this was actually… really, really good! It’s the single best issue Slott’s written since ASM #719 (2015). The dialogues were on point, too.
And then there’s the art. Man, Stuart Immonen’s art is stunning! I just love the way he draws Spider-Man. I wish he’s still the main artist in the upcoming Spenser ASM run. That’d have been perfect.
The art was gorgeous, but I felt that Norman’s dialogue didn’t sound right for him. Plus, characters speaking aloud and not in thought bubbles or boxes seems corny and dated. I was one of those who had trouble with Peter running, but the context you gave it makes it have more logic to me now. It was nice to see Peter solo as he should be against the Goblin! Great review!
BRKNSTCK!
I dunno, I think “CHMP” could be pronounced kinda like “chimp” but with a shorter “i” sound and more of an “mmm” sound.
Well, I’ll echo your thoughts, as well as the thoughts of the other guys commenting here, and praise this issue. Solid writing, Spidey was in character for this one, the supporting cast is being brought into the center of the narrative and there are high stakes involving them, the art was phenomenal (I commented on the preview, but seriously, those Jonah pages were astounding), with quite a few possibly iconic moments in that fight, and a Green Goblin that Immonen nailed to perfection. That being said: although I did like the “lickety-split” dialogue from the Goblin, the rest of his quips fell a little flat for me; Marte Gracia’s colors didn’t really shine as they did in previous issues; and now I’m scared for the next installment. To wrap this up, I’d just like to point out that what surprised me the most wasn’t the web coccoon holding the blast, but the fact that Spidey managed to stay awake after a Carnage-pumpkin-bomb explosion four inches away from his crotch!
A surprisingly solid issue–one of the few from Dan Slott’s overly-long tenure on the title. It would seem that Slott’s writing actually improves when he doesn’t spend all of his free time arguing with people on social media and message boards.
Slott scores a touchdown with this one, classic Peter vs Goblin action with considerable stakes and Peter resolving to fight Norman as the man and not the spider. Where has this kind of story been the last couple of years?
I have to admit, I enjoyed that more than I expected to. It wasn’t anything revolutionary, but it was some classic Spidey VS Green Goblin action with a bit of a twist, and it was drawn beautifully. I especially like the cover, I’d love to have it as a poster on my wall. I’m also enjoying Peter’s current career at the Bugle, I seriously hope it lasts past Slott’s era. It’s probably the most natural job progression for him since he became a teacher.