Well, it’s finally here! Will Normie be lost to Carnage forever? Will our favorite hero be able to defeat a villain on his own? Which beloved character will not survive this arc? And most importantly, is it worth $10???? Read on, my friend, and find out!
The Goblin in the Details
Story Title: Go Down Swinging Conclusion
Writer: Dan Slott
Penciler: Nick Bradshaw, Humberto Ramos, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stuart Immonen, Marcos Martin
Inker: Victor Olazaba, Cam Smith, Wade von Grawbadger
Colorist: Edgar Delgato, Java Tartaglia, Marte Gracia, Muntsa Vincente
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artist: Alex Ross
Editor: Nick Lowe
Published: May 30, 2018
Remedial ASM 101
Norman Osborn has the Carnage symbiote. Together they are Red Goblin. Thanks to JJJ, he now knows Spidey’s secret. He’s taken down Spider-Man, Agent Anti-Venom, Silk, Miles, Torch, and Clash. He’s taken Normie hostage and coated him with the symbiote. Spidey’s back, but what can he do against these insurmountable odds?
The Story & Analysis – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
There are several running plots here. We’ll look at each of them.
Normie Osborn – The little tyke is all covered with Carnage ooze and is sent out to take out the old bat herself, Aunt May. He finds this is not as easy as it seems. However, his real story comes when he and Pop Pop go to take over the Alchemax company. He is all on Norman’s side until Norman hurts his dad and, more importantly, tosses his mother out the window to her death. Normie’s love for his mother overpowers the symbiote’s control over him and he takes the side against Pop Pop. He is even more stunned when it is Spider-Man who saved his mom. Normie can’t fully control the symbiote, but at least is in a bit of a stasis. I thought for sure Normie was going to bite the bullet in this issue, but I was wrong. Unfortunately, at the end, after he has made up with his dad, we see that the symbiote is not fully out of his system. But of course, when is a symbiote EVER fully out of someone’s system?
Doctor Octopus – When Normie tries to kill Aunt May (citing her putting raisins in cookies as a reason), it is Otto that comes to her rescue, with accompanying background music of Police “Every Breath You Take”. The odd part is that during the Superior Spider-Man run, Otto took on Peter’s memories and morals. During the Fall of Parker and Dead No More, we do not see ANY of those morals lingering in him. Now, we are to assume that he has the heart of a hero after all? I don’t buy it, but Peter Parker does and gives Otto a completely clean slate. Full forgiveness. Otto uses that clean slate to take on a job at Horizon University, which apparently has a very poor background check system (then again, they did hire the Jackal, so…). By the way, if Aunt May doesn’t figure out that Peter and Spider-Man are one and the same after the way Otto talks to him in front of her, well…
Flash Thompson – My biggest fear was that Agent Anti-Venom was being set up to be the true hero of this book. It turns out that he wasn’t…completely. Thanks to the Anti-Venom symbiote, Flash is able to save everyone that got Carnage shards in their body. He figures out Spidey’s secret identity. He stands up to the Red Goblin even when his symbiote is pretty much gone. He saves Spidey from giving into the Venom symbiote. And he pays the ultimate price for it. So Flash is the big Lee/Ditko character that Slott gets to notch on his belt. Fine. We knew Slott was going to do it and many feared it would be MJ. Flash was not much of a supporting character anymore anyway and I never really got into his Agent Venom thing. The death did not move me and I am glad it was handled in this one issue rather than having a death in one issue, a funeral in the next, and three more issues of guilt.
Harry Osborn Lyman Osborn – Harry gives Stanley to his “mother”. Really? This is who you think will keep your son safe? I’d bet money that we won’t see Stanley again, but unfortunately, I was wrong. She does bring the little milksop back to Harry and they talk a little about what her role is now. When he and Liz meet up with Norman and Normie in the attempt to trade the company for Normie, Harry attacks Norman while riding on his own glider and sending several “Humanitrons” that Liz evidently picked up when Humanitech went under – not sure what is powering them since Quicksand is free, but I don’t really need to know. However, Harry has never been a match for Norman and Norman easily dispatches him and plays the “You’re a disappointment” card hard on him. What Harry does well, though, is show love for his son (the one he goes days not thinking about) and manages to be a big part in the redemption of Normie.
Liz Allan – She really shows her stripes here. First she stalls in trading her company for Normie (hey, she’s got a spare kid, right?), then when she uses Alchemax to rid Normie of the Carnage symbiote, she keeps it. She’s the new Roxxon and I’m happy to have her be it.
JJJ Redemption – JJJ needs to make up for revealing the identity to Norman, although I don’t fault him for it. If Peter wants his identity secret, you don’t tell it to people like JJJ. JJJ gets Venom over to MJ at Stark Tower to protect her. He sends a Spider-Slayer to protect her (I liked that). He takes out a gun and goes to shoot Norman in the head, ready to throw away the rest of his life in order to redeem himself. Spider-Man forgives Otto. Spider-Man forgives Venom. He can’t bring himself to forgive JJJ. In the end, he does because Aunt May makes him and we do get a light-hearted “go get ‘em!” and “What would that boy do without me,” moment, a role that was filled at one point by MJ, but no need to get Chi-Town Spidey all worked up, so I’ll drop it. I’m not sure I like this character development for JJJ, but the toothpaste is out of the tube and to get it back, we’d have to do something drastic, which would probably cause more issues that it resolves.
Symbiote Spidey vs. Red Goblin
After Venom holds off the Red Goblin from killing MJ (upon which she showed a lot of grit), he gets hurt pretty badly. Spider-Man’s web shooter is damaged, so Brock sends the Venom symbiote onto Spidey. This is an odd development, but results in a very cool looking Venom/Spidey costume with web pits, so I’m game. Spidey really doesn’t use the Venom symbiote for much, other than for the extra web shooter, so it was a neat plot point and nothing more. Spidey sheds the symbiote later, so we got our web pits and had to pay no real price for it. Early on, Spidey went looking for Anti-Venom and I thought that Slott was going to rely on that to be the victory. I was really concerned we were going to get some Anti-Goblin hybrid of it. All in all, the Red Goblin was still too much of a match for even a symbiote-enhanced Spidey.
Spider-Man vs. Green Goblin
This is the match up we really wanted to see, and I was very happy with how Slott gave it to us. Spider-Man is about to die when he uses his brains against Norman (finally!). When he says that everyone will say it was Carnage that killed him, Norman is outraged and sheds the red menace. I would have loved a few pages of a Spider-Man and Goblin fight (like when Lee used to let the artist just go for a couple of pages), but we don’t get much of a fight and for the most part Spidey gets his butt handed to him. I don’t see this being handled on Friday Night Fights anytime soon. Spidey does get a few good ones in, enough for Norman to try and take back on the symbiote. It is a little confusing (at least upon my first reading), but I am assuming that the Carnage symbiote is no more after Spider-Man drops an exploding gas tanker on it. I like that Norman cannot remember who Spider-Man is and that he believes he is Cletus Kassidy because it harkens back to the old Norman-has-amnesia bit and we know that a future writer can bring him back easily. This is much better than killing off Norman (again).
What Passed:
The story flowed smoothly, Spidey handles it on his own, for the most part, and dialogue felt natural. I don’t like the Red Goblin look, but I love this view of the glider!
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), SPLUTCHH! rates a 9.5. Go ahead! Say it out loud! Plus Red Goblin killing a guy dressed up like Spidey in Times Square gives BD reason for bringing these stories up in Spider-News.
What Failed:
Harry’s mom. What the heck? Why did we need this? I don’t think this is the original story idea Slott had in mind for her. She took the kids’ blood, but why? That is never resolved unless I missed it, and if I did, please set me straight in the comments. Also, the name Goblin Childe was rather lackluster. Normie should now know who Spidey is because Spider-Man referred to himself as Normie’s godfather.
Final Grade:
Was it a good story? Yes. Were there missteps along the way? Some. Was it worth $10? Ehh. If they had spaced this out into three comics, I would have paid $12, so $10 is good. I was happy that it was 80 pages of one story and not a regular story then 60 pages of filler.
B+
Your Turn:
What grade do YOU give it?
And not only can you put your vote in here, but you can give your 90 second video review by going to www.flipgrid.com and entering code 50dd20. You know you want to do it and we want to see it!
What’s Next?
After ten years, Dan Slott’s final issue of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is here, and he isn’t pulling any punches. Joined by one of the best illustrators in the biz, Marcos Martin, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #801 is one of the most emotional, heartfelt tales not only in Dan’s run, but in all of Mighty Marveldom itself, and is one Marvel fans around the world won’t want to miss.
Whatever. I’m ready to get on with #802 and watch the Three’s Company version of Spider-Man and Boomerang.
‘Nuff Said!
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It’s Slott’s “last” issue so of course he has to shoehorn Otto into the plot. If I didn’t know better I’d swear that “Doctor Octopus: Lethal Protector #1” was coming out next month written by Slott. I am sick of Slott making Peter empathize with Otto and see the goodness in him. This is a mass-murderer who tried to kill 90% of the Earth’s population in Ends of the Earth (a story that Slott himself wrote so he should be aware of it), someone who killed Peter and then killed other people why he was posing as Spidey. There is no way should Peter give him a “blank slate” and wish him well. This was 10 times worse than Spidey and Venom’s truce in the 90s.
From the ending, it’s obvious Slott had just watched Batman Forever before writing this issue. Norman claiming that he is Kassady and Spidey is Norman Osborn was right out of the Riddler in Arkham proclaiming that he is Batman.
It’s hard to grade this issue. Reading it, it was always at the front of my mind that this is the last (or second-to-last) Slott issue I/we will have to suffer through, so that was probably effecting my opinion of whether or not it was enjoyable or not.
Otto… AGAIN?!?!?! BECAUSE OF COURSE HE’S GOTTA BE IN HERE!!! JEEZUSF*CKING CHRIST!!!!
Chase the Blues Away
June 1, 2018 at 9:06 am
I disagree that the dialogue flowed naturally. Slott usually has a tin ear for how people talk, but in this issue his lines were forced, on the nose, and landed with all the subtlety of Wile E. Coyote pushing an anvil off a cliff.
I would agree with this assessment. The dialogue was, at best, soap opera-y. Nobody sounded like a person, and few sounded in character.
As for my grade, that depends on whether or not you should have higher standards for an 80 page #800. By normal standards, I’d give it a C+. Better than an average comic. Much better than a normal Slott ending. Not all time classic material.
On second thought, I think I have to bump it to a C-. Peter taking the bullet for Norman has to be punished.
They should have just priced it at 12 dollars even, as homage to the 12 cent cover price of Amazing Fantasy #15.
I disagree that the dialogue flowed naturally. Slott usually has a tin ear for how people talk, but in this issue his lines were forced, on the nose, and landed with all the subtlety of Wile E. Coyote pushing an anvil off a cliff. It was so asinine, I had to stop reading and began loooking only at the artwork. Judging by the reviews, I didn’t miss much story.
Slott is a mediocre hack on his best day, and this was far from his best. This was a boss level video game fight and as much fun to read as it is to watch a neophyte play a first person shooter game. You just wanted someone to win, anyone, so you could finally move to the next cutscene. And Slott couldn’t write an authentic human emotion if a radioactive emoji bit him on his typing fingers. Thank the comic book gods we have only one more issue of his tripe.
F
I think I finally understand George’s grumpiness. Damn, I hated this book so much… Let’s start with the positives: as Mark listed, it was 80 pages of a single story, so that’s neat. The callback to Norman’s amnesia is also a nice touch. Ramos was okay and Immonen was solid as usual. Everything else, though… First of all, let me get this out of my chest: I cannot stand Camuncoli’s art. So to see that he had two chapters in this book was already a negative for me. Also, the art during the funeral sequence was subpar, given the importance of the character being mourned (and of this issue). Norman’s dialogue was so off putting and was too much of a “comic-book-villain-charichature”, that it was really painful to read, at points. I don’t want to prolong myself even more, so I’ll just close it with the thing that enraged me more: Immonen announced he’s retiring from monthly comics after this issue. Given that, it’s such a shame that an artist as brilliant as he is had his farewell story be this pedestrian. Man, I was just disappointed and mildly annoyed at this comic before, but after I read this news, I was legit triggered.
So he lied again. #800 wasn’t his final book.
Will they PLEASE get him the f*** off this book?!?!? When I hate on a comic because of who’s writing it, that is just plain unhealthy.
What Passed:
– J. Jonah Jameson character development. Please Spencer, keep it and don’t turn him back into his old “hurr durr spider man is a total menace” self.
– Thompson healing everyone.
– Spider-Man outsmarting Norman by seperating him from the Carnage symbiote.
What Failed:
– Powerless Thompson showing up in front of Norman and Spider-Man just so he can tell us all about how he ruined Norman’s plan. It literally got him killed! That wasn’t needed, Slott.
– Peter saving Norman from the gunshot. WHAT THE F***, PETER?! This is the psychopath killed Peter’s love Gwen Stacy and best friend Flash Thompson… and he still saves that man? Are you f**king kidding me?! I’m so sick of Peter’s “no one dies” bulls**t. It’s retarded as hell!
– “Norman Osborn No More”? Yeah, right. Peter’s stupid decision to save Norman will come back to haunt him like always.
– Yeah, Harry’s mom wasn’t needed.
Final grade: C. This issue was a letdown. I’m glad I read this issue on an online site before going to the bookstore. Now I can spend my $10 on something better.
I would give it a B, but only because I liked the part with Mary Jane and that fact that she survived.
To me it showed that Mary Jane for once, from Slott of all people, cared a lot for Peter and that she can definitely take care of herself.
I especially liked her reaction when Carnorm was on getting the upper on Peter and she blasted him with the repulser glove, yes, I would have preferred it if it was something other than stark tech, but it would make sense that Tony would give her something to protect herself with. And Peter reaction when the same happened to her.
What I’m hoping would come out of this and that it would be followed up in #801 and Spencer’s run is that it is the beginning of her realisation that she cares too much for Peter to let him go, despite him being Spider-Man and simply not being with him doesn’t guarantee her not getting involved in his Spider-Man life.
and Mark, what are your thoughts on the chapter with Mary Jane, given that Slott dedicated 8-10 pages to her of which 7-10 where double spread.