The final issue in the Sins of Norman Osborn arc. I gave the first two an A+. Does it stick the landing or did we have a spectacular fail? Join me and we will look at it together and find out!
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: Oh Bring Back My Goblin to Me!*
Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Patrick Gleason
Colorist: Marco Menyz and Erick Arciniega
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artists: John Romita, Jr, Scott Hanna, and Marco Menyz
Asst. Editor: Kaeden McGahey
Editor: Nick Lowe
Remedial ASM 101
The sins of Norman Osborn are in Peter Parker! He buried Kraven alive and did some other nasty little things. Now he is after Paul to wish fulfill for many Spider-Man fans around the world.
Disclaimer
Because I am knee deep in AP Lit work and tests, I am going to combine the Story section with the Analysis section so that I can get this out in a timely manner. (Plus, it’s opening week of hockey season – Go CANES!)
The Story & Analysis – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
No teaser this time! Open the cover and immediately we see the titleless title page. Interesting. That tells me that we aren’t going to waste time here, so let’s go!
Norman and Kraven are beefing up that sin spear by adding in parts of the demon sin rifle (and if that doesn’t make sense, then you haven’t been keeping up with the whole Sin Eater arc that started this whole business to begin with. That’s all fine and good, but what jumps out is this panel:
This is an interesting twist on the Hunter. However, since this is merely foreshadowing, we’ll save the commentary for later.
Gang war! A quick look at how after a gang massacre, it will be spun to make each gang think another gang did this. Whoever is behind this wants an all out gang war or at least needs and all out gang war to make it happen. Hmmm… I figured we’d jump right on into the story at hand. Peter’s got MJ and Paul in his clutches! What will happen? Though I do appreciate the nod to the next story.
Ah! We’re back in the Holland Tunnel where Spider-Man, MJ, Paul, and Queen Goblin are! Now we’re talking. It’s at this point that I have been waiting for since last issue with expectations of it failing miserably, but hoping against hope and standing up to the negatively of my best buddy Chi-Town to stay optimistic. The first thing we notice here is that we are privy to Spider-Man’s thoughts. Throughout this arc, we’ve gotten very little of what is going on through his head. Normally that would be a major downgrade for me, but it fits! The Goblin is in his head; ergo, we are shut out. But now we get to see this from his perspective, and it doesn’t disappoint! Here are the first and last panels of this page:
This is ready made for a What If? Peter had kept the sins of the Goblin!
Wow! What makes this more interesting is that these are not just the thoughts of the Goblin. All of us have moments when we wish we could just do something to express the anger inside, but we don’t. Maybe it is because we are good people and those thoughts are abhorrent to us. Maybe Lord of the Flies was right and we are all just evil people only kept in line by societal rules and expectations. Whatever the case, we suppress those thoughts and move on with life. Well, Peter Parker holds back a lot. He has a history of being the angry young man. He holds back physically when fighting. He holds back in his relationships. Well, now there is nothing to filter those thoughts out and they are springing up. Does he hate MJ? No. Wells isn’t trying to suggest that. Does he have some deep resentment for how things turned out with MJ and Paul? You better believe it. That could cause some major issues here. Side note, that is Queen Goblin’s hand on his face, so he could be saying that he hates the Queen Goblin, but my reading is that he is talking about MJ here since the context of his thoughts in the previous panel are on MJ.
It’s important to note that there is still some, unspoken restraint going on. He doesn’t kill Kraven. He doesn’t kill Tombstone. Sure, he put them in situations where they could die, but he doesn’t. That lets us know a bit more about what is going on that he can’t express into words or even coherent thoughts.
Back to the issue at hand! Spidey knocks Queen Goblin away and gives us this absolute winner of a panel:
Of course MJ won’t stand for this and gets Paul to run away, believing that if there is still a Peter inside, he would never hurt her. I’m not going to butcher Wells’s poetry here and just give you the response:
The big question is – can Spidey act against MJ here? His anger is overwhelming. His hurt is agonizingly evident. Would the small sensible side of Peter be able to stop before he does something to MJ? There are big stakes here, because we don’t know what Marvel is going to do to keep them apart. If he does something here, it will be hard to write a compelling way out of it.
Thankfully Queen Goblin resolves the issue for us by attacking Spider-Man from behind. OK, before you whine about his spider-sense, we’ve talked about this before. When he is preoccupied, he ignores his sense. It is like the sense of hearing. Sometimes you are focused elsewhere and just don’t hear something that you should have. If you are a husband, you are well aware of this. A supporting character must have a reason to be in the story. Kafka seems to have served her purpose earlier once the sins were removed, but here she is mucking around in this scene. Why? Well, it seems that there are two likely scenarios.
- She will reclaim the sins (I hope not)
- She is here to keep the situation between Peter and MJ from going beyond repair. This seems likely at this point in the story since if it were not her, then it would have to be Paul, which adds other complications to the story at hand.
Her stepping in here temporarily tables the MJ/Peter issue and Queen Goblin knows that she must act quickly. Her ferocity is such that she is able to get the upper hand and is about to rip his throat out until MJ steps in as Jackpot and stops her.
I can’t say I particularly like how MJ is drawn in this issue. She looks more like Wendy than MJ.
Also, I haven’t seen these Jackpot powers look like this yet, but I’m not up on any satellite books, so this may be a standard look. I neither like it nor hate it. I just am not particularly happy with MJ having powers. MJ calls out Peter by his full name here. I don’t know if this will be dropped or not. To my knowledge, neither Kraven nor Queen Goblin know Spider-Man’s identity, but I guess they do now. It could easily be understood that Kraven is not in ear-shot yet and Queen Goblin is too busy getting hit by magical cards to hear what MJ is actually saying.
Alas, All this does is remove Queen Goblin from the mix and allows Peter to go after his original goal – Paul. At this point, I’m not sure it if is the sins of Norman Osborn or the sins of Chi-Town that is driving Peter here, but we are about to get some bridge tossing action here.
That’s just awesome. After reading so many people’s hatred of Paul, then I can say with these panels Spider-Man is truly fulfilling the tagline of The Hero That Could Be You!
But as much as we want Paul out of this book, this isn’t going to be the way to get it done. For one, Peter as murderer puts complications into the book that we don’t want to deal with and MJ won’t just forgive him of this. This is as close to that action as we can get. MJ saves Paul, just in case you were worried. Once she does, Norman presents himself and heavily hints that he will be taking on the sins once again.
We’ll have to deal with the fall out of that later. For now, Kraven and Norman are done with their spear/gun sin thingee and Kraven flat out tells Spider-Man that behavior is not worthy of him.
Peter’s got the Sith eyes going and he beats the ever-living snot out of Kraven87. Peter makes some great points about how he’s been holding back and how Kraven could never beat him in a fair fight. Then we get this great moment:
Folks, we all know why Kraven is in this book. He has a movie and editorial dictates what editorial dictates. But props go to Wells here. He could have easily used Kraven as a throw away character here that could have been filled in by anyone – but he doesn’t. He could have easily shoe-horned him into the story like Venom in Spider-Man 3 – but he doesn’t. Wells uses this arc to not only explore Sinful Peter, but to also do some character developing with the clone of Kraven. He faces who he is and who his father is and when he comes out on the other side, he is not just a copy of Kraven. He is his own man. If only we could get an arc like this for Ben Reilly! I don’t know what, if anything we’ll see from Kraven after this, but there is new territory to explore here for a writer looking to blaze a new trail with an old character.
It is at this moment that Kraven suddenly bear hugs him right when Norman comes up from behind to go stabby-stab with the sin-spear. Many things happen here:
-
-
- Kraven takes the spear and tells us that he will take it far away and bury it so that it will never bother anyone again. I was looking for the twist in who was going to get the sins, and they were leaning heavily on the fact that Norman had no choice but to take the sins, but they got me. I’m ok with this resolution, though we know that it will not last forever.
- To echo that, Norman knows it will not last forever and he is focused on Queen Goblin smirking in the background. Why didn’t she change back when the sins left her? Peter apparently does. Is it how the sins were delivered to her? Is it that she is a clone? Is it that she truly does lean into her sinful side, so is not redeemed? I don’t know. I don’t need to know. It works just fine for me with out trying to figure out the theology behind this who Sin Eater gun.
- Peter’s redemption – maybe?
-
MJ says it wasn’t him, but I firmly believe she is wrong to some extent. No, Peter would never do those things. He has restraint. But it is not like he was mind controlled or brain swapped. These were Peter’s unrestrained actions. I think MJ has to feel that way. I think Peter feels that way. Later Norman says pretty much the same thing and Peter seems doubtful. He knows there was a part of him that liked it. This is truly a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde scenario and the problem is Jekyll loves the the Hyde self. How much of Peter stills feels that freedom was cathartic?
Let’s also talk about how Norman says Peter doesn’t have to worry about what people will think of him since he was wearing the black costume so people will probably just think it was Brock or something. That gets us out of the consequences of these actions so that we can focus on the upcoming gang war, but can Peter truly accept this? Will there be fall out from that or are we just going to go forward regardless?
Whatever the case, we leave off with a clever little bit to assure us that this is not over. They also cleverly threw in Randy on TV talking to the news about the need to control super crime in New York, so it doesn’t look like he will be reconciling things with Janice any time soon.
This little laugh is HUGE! I’ve always felt that the removal of Norman’s sins are just a fresh slate. He is still who he is! Norman committed those sins. He was forgiven not by the grace of God, but by a demon’s gun. Take those sins away without repenting doesn’t change the fact that Norman IS the Green Goblin. I hope that stupid spear stays buried and Norman eventually goes back to his old ways on his own. It’s won’t. The page before he is saying that he knows the spear is not the sins’ home, but rather he is, so he will not go back to the Goblin before then, but man wouldn’t it be great to see him become the Goblin without needing the old sins back?
The end with a question mark – not a fan of those.
Extra Credit
I will let you guys discuss the letters page all you want for extra credit. The letter writer (an anonymous Spidey Fan) takes a round about way trying to be super careful in not offending the Spider Office and says that he knows that there are many fans (the “vast majority”) who are still upset and write in about the negative impact One More Day has had on the character and book, so have they given any consideration to actually addressing that issue. Here is the response:
Final Grade
I’m giving this issue an:
A
I enjoyed reading it. I love the “Paul, a word?” and “Works for me!” bits. I feel that Wells stuck the landing. All in all, I’m very pleased and I am happy to see a gang war coming up in the near future.
I’m giving the entire arc an:
A-
I know what you are thinking. How can three issues graded A+, A+, and A come out to an A-? Simple. The parts of this arc are greater than the whole. This is still a very good arc, but it is doubtful that I would want to re-read it over and over like I would the original Sin-Eater saga. There are certain elements that exist in current Spider-Man canon that just would prevent me from repeat enjoyment – MJ as Jackpot, MJ and Paul, Queen Goblin, to name a few. That said, the arc is well written and a testament to what Wells is capable of and what Lowe is capable of when they put their mind to it.
What’s Next?
Spider-Man has never gone this dark. Now the consequences are unraveled. Will New York ever look at him the same way again?
Extended Learning Opportunities
I’m in a hurry and this still took longer than I meant to, so I’m foregoing any attempt to proof read. Roast me all you want on my grammar, spelling, and typos.
* OK, so that was obviously not the title of this issue, but it should have been. It was, however, the title of Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #27 where it is not just the title, but they loved their titles so much it is boldly emblazoned on the cover!
Deb Whitman not in this issue.
‘Nuff Said!
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@Dark Mark
Probably right, and she will use this opportunity to rebrand herself as “Miss Mask”.
Michael – I like the cut of your jib! Madame Masque it is!
@Mark- I think you might be right about Hammerhead having a partner. The Gang War solicits show Madame Masque playing a huge role, even though Hammerhead seemingly killed Madame Masque at the wedding. I think Hammerhead’s partner is Madame Masque! Madame Masque convinced an underling to impersonate her at the wedding, Masque hires Shotgun to kill Tombstone and then Hammerhead publicly kills the underling so nobody knows that Madame Masque is alive or suspects she had anything to do with the Gang War. Also, Hammerhead was with a woman at the wedding that everyone assumed was just a girlfriend or prostitute. But what if the woman Hammerhead was with was a disguised Madame Masque?
@Mark Alford
“A good writer can take him and run with it, maybe in a different title for a different hero.”
I used to think that there were characters that I could never be made to care about. Then Superior Foes happened.
@Evan Berry, @Hornacek, @Chi-Town, @Aqu@, and @Michael
Evan – I am surprised that I liked it as much as I did. I just really enjoyed reading them and seeing a darker Spider-Man. Like you, I am eager for a gang war arc and if Wells can keep this type of writing up, then I have more hope of enjoying it. As for Superior Spider-Man, all I can speak to about this is that I am NOT reviewing it. I’ll pick it up on Marvel Unlimited eventually. I thought it was supposed to be in modern continuity, btu I am not good about keeping up with the solicits. I guess everyone in the tunnel was just happy at being alive and nobody stopped to notice or record on their camera what was happening, so Peter’s secret is as good as safe. I loved the Kaine series when he was in Houston. The difference for me is that this is Peter Parker and it is not a clone or alternate version. The things he does here have (or at least should have) consequences. And I feel that much could be mined from a Peter that doesn’t hold back emotionally or physically, though I am glad they did not belabor the point. That Doc Brown’s a wise man. The fan letter… well, I am surprised that Lowe even printed it. My viewpoint is that if people weren’t bombarding the Spider Office with letters like that, then he would not have felt compelled to print this letter so he could say that people are not actually writing these types of letters. “Great review, as always!” Thank you, but the praise should go to your comments. Great comment as always!
Hornacek – Sounds like a cool teacher you had! I’m not going to double down on Spider-Man’s restraint. That’s not the hill I plan on dying on. I have no real idea about MJ’s power and what it should look like. Maybe she just likes floral print or something. I like how we didn’t get that scene either. These sins are demonic and powerful. They are above his ability to fight. I have no problem with that. Plus, when Norman does get them back, we’ll know there will be no return for him. I know why Queen Goblin is here for plot reasons, but you could easily tell this story without her there. By having her there, we are able to get this show down between Peter and MJ without either one of them having to actually do something to each other physically that they cannot return from. I will double down on nobody died in that tunnel. Call it a Festivus miracle or something. I don’t know if I will like this Kraven either, but he’s got a chance to be a character now rather than just a repeat of the old guy. A good writer can take him and run with it, maybe in a different title for a different hero. I think they have plans for lasting trauma for him, but I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to pay $4.99 to find out. I do have problems with Peter being fine with people just thinking it was Brock. I don’t want to waste comic pages dealing with it any more than I wanted to waste comic pages dealing with the death of Kamala. So I will be glad to look the other way and just drop it for the sake of my personal reading enjoyment. I will be crossing my fingers for Rek-Rap, though. 🙂
Chi-Town – “I’m not negative, you are,” then you follow it up with how I find the positives in everything. 🙂 My reviews put a smile on your face probably because of the witty comments and cutting analysis. Never once thought Spidey-Fan was you. The guy bent over backwards to say he is not saying things disrespectfully. A lot. I enjoyed your last letter under the “Ricardo” pseudonym. Norman and MJ have not become buddies. Plot-wise he was saying it because he felt that he was able to have a few encounters with her that were not full of hate and tension, which means a lot to this sinless Norman as far as his potential redemption goes, but more importantly, it was said to be a misdirect. They were really pushing that he was going to take the sins back. Maybe he thought Kraven87 would finish the job he started once they got the sins out of Peter. For the eyes, I have no clue. Why did Kafka completely change her look? Comic book science, I guess. As for Paul, well, maybe we are waiting for the fans to demand a mini series or something.
Aqu@ – Manufactured letter? Quite possible.
Michael – Ah, Hammerhead. I’ll believe you on that without going back to look, but who is pulling his strings, do you think? Hammerhead isn’t that bright. As much as I liked Spencer’s joking around with these villains, I’m ready to see these street guys as dangerous and deadly. Let’s hope this keeps up. Good point about the Ben and Beyond thing. I did completely misread that ending then. I thought he was saying that the sins would eventually return and there was a part of him that really wanted them to. I like your take on it better.
There were some bits of dialog that I really didn’t like in this issue, as it seemed like “meta-commentary” from Wells. These parts were Paul saying “I am not going anywhere” – which is clearly a response to what fans are wanting to happen to Paul. And there’s also Peter saying “you didn’t do anything wrong” to MJ, which I think a lot of people don’t agree with including myself, because wells never gave a proper justification for why she treated him so coldly. What peter “did” was essentially nothing.
@Mark- it’s supposed to be Hammerhead who’s setting the gangs against each other- if you look at the picture, you can see that his head is flat.
It’s nice that Wells is actually writing Hammerhead as dangerous again after his nerfing in Zdarksy’s Daredevil.
Queen Goblin’s characterization was weird- she went from trying to save Peter on one page to trying to kill him a few pages later.
Queen Goblin definitely knew Peter’s identity- she saw Ben unmasked in Beyond and was told he was a clone of Spider-Man. She’d have to be an idiot not to work it out.
I think you’re misunderstanding the scene at the end- in the end, Norman explains that he knew if he used the spear to save Peter, the sins would not go into the spear but come back into him. So the sins are back in Norman again and that’s why Queen Goblin was content and why Norman laughed at the end. And Peter doesn’t know.The twist is that Norman didn’t immediately turn evil upon getting his sins back but is slowly going to turn evil again. (I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting that.)
I’m of the opinion that letter was a fake made by Lowe to try putting at rest the OMD debate (which seems to bother him more than it should) once and for all, citing their “metrics” (whatever that means) as irrefutable proof.
If this “a Spidey fan” is a real person, I think they should have focused more on the “let him develop” part (which Lowe conveniently has evaded in the answer) and not cite OMD at all.
1) I’m not negative, you are. Your constant bloody battle to find the positives with this series is overwhelming annoying. “I can see WHY Peter did this or that…” However, your reviews always put a smile on my face. I’m not sure why, since you always paint me in a bad light. I tell ya…
2) Definitely Norman sins and not mine. I actually did read this book only out of curiosity because what was on the letter’s sections (more on that later), but if Peter DID have my “revengeful sins” infused in him, I wouldn’t kill Paul. I just want Mr Manbun GONE. I would develop some sort of device that would send Paul back to his universe. Done.
Now, before YOU draw any conclusions, cause I know YOU WILL. “Spidey-Fan” is NOT me. I read his letter, it was very polite, respectful, and to the point to where the majority of spidey fans would agree. I swear he or she is roaming around in our discord server. My letters concerning what Spidey-Fan said, no longer are polite, they are tainted with sarcastic humor. I was polite before, it was published, nothing came from it and here we are. I always sign my letters, you know this. Did I write a letter after this issue to address what Nick Lowe said…maybe…
Things to note:
– When did MJ and Norman become “buddies” that Norman had to thank her for?
– Peter has red eyes with Norman Sins. Norman had nothing with Norman sins. Explain please.
– WHY ISN’T PAUL GONE?!?!
I wanted Norman to take the sins and have a full page of Norman claiming “I’M BACK!!!” with the Green Goblin shadow behind him, but NOOOOOOO, we have to drag this out.
What is up with the floral print of the … arm-shield (?) MJ is creating in that first panel? They’re gone in the next panel.
I liked how we didn’t get a scene of Peter suddenly struggling to reclaim his humanity. We’re meant to believe that *this* Peter would not be able to stop himself. He had to be stopped by others.
I think Queen Goblin is here in this issue because without the sins affecting her, her previous self is starting to return, and she realizes that Spider-Man needs help, and she has to help him.
“For one, Peter as murderer puts complications into the book that we don’t want to deal with” As I (and others) discussed after the previous issue, Peter definitely killed some people when he threw multiple bombs onto the highway and caused many cars to explode and fly into the air. The news report at the end tries to downplay this as “there was lots of destruction” but not mentioning the deathcount, but come on, people died there.
I agree with what you said about “Kraven”. I half-jokingly said after last issue that getting buried alive was great therapy for him, and this confirmed it. I still don’t like this “Kraven”, but I dislike him less than I did before this story.
I feel like the end of this issue is letting Peter off the hook too easily. Not with the “no one died at the Holland tunnel” (which is ridiculous), or “Everyone will just think it was Brock” (like New Yorkers have forgotten that for awhile Spidey wore a black suit), but Peter saying that he’s ok now and that web-swinging in his red-and-blues will make things better. No – Peter should be doing months and months of therapy to get over this. This should be a traumatic event that will haunt him. Maybe the next arc will still have him traumatized over this, and it’ll be Rek-Rap (ugh) who gets him out of his funk.
That “Heh” shot of Norman was gold. The closeup on his mouth so we didn’t see the rest of his face, but we know what it looked like – chef’s kiss!
“It’s important to note that there is still some, unspoken restraint going on. He doesn’t kill Kraven. He doesn’t kill Tombstone. Sure, he put them in situations where they could die, but he doesn’t.”
I mean, come on. He buried “Kraven” alive and left him with a shotgun. He disconnected Tombstone’s life support. He didn’t outright kill each of them, but if Norman hadn’t dug up “Kraven” he would have suffocated (or shot himself). If the nurses hadn’t gotten to Tombstone’s room quickly enough, he would have died.
Spidey *was* trying to kill them here, just slowly and with style.
“Maybe Lord of the Flies was right and we are all just evil people only kept in line by societal rules and expectations.”
I can’t remember what grade it was, but I was in English class and the teacher told us that the next book we were going to start reading was Lord of the Flies. Then she said she had to step out of the class to go see the principal for a moment and she’d be right back.
We were all quiet for about 30 seconds, then (as kids will do) we started whispering with each other. After a few minutes most of us were out of our chairs, walking around and talking (at a normal volume) to each other.
Then the door opened. The teacher never went to the principal’s office – she stayed at the door the entire time. She told us that it only took a few minutes without supervision for us to forget about the classroom rules and act however we wanted to.
At this point we hadn’t read the book yet, but once we got into it (and finished it) she reminded us of this, and we all got the point.
@Mark – Congratulations on getting this review out amidst all of your grading. I’m glad that you enjoyed this arc as much as you did. Even so, I’m eager to get the gang war started and (hopefully) get some street-level Spider-man stories without recourse to sins and mystical guns and spears and such.
Speaking of recourse to mysticism, will anyone be reviewing the Superior Spider-man Returns series on this site? My assumption is that those are “untold tales,” but I’m curious if his return comes about in another way.
Back to the issue at hand, I guess it doesn’t matter if Mary Jane shouted Peter’s full name on the Tom Holland Bridge, because Peter unmasked to beat up Kraven87 anyway.
We’ve seen a “Spider-man unleashed”-type of character has been done before, with Kaine’s “all power, none of the responsibility!” (or was that Ben Reilly?) What do you think distinguishes the present arc from those in that regard? I guess it’s, as you wrote, that we know Peter has a great deal of pent up resentment and has always held back, so we finally get to see what he’ll do if given free rein.
In the words of Doc Brown (though we never hear him say it on camera), if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. I guess Wells and Lowe have demonstrated that here.
By the way, did you find the response to the fan letter a little…glib? I appreciate needing to have support for claims, but since when does editorial talk about metrics before making claims of their own? They always say “Because you demanded it!” after all.
Great review, as always!