Spider-Goblin vs. Chasm! “Kraven” takes a page from Kaine’s playbook and watches from the shadows! Norman Osborn diversifies his business portfolio! Kamala Khan spends an hour standing at the reception desk! A new super-group forms! Psycho-Reactive Goo to the rescue! All this, plus … the return of someone we all assumed(1) we would never see again!
(In the old days they’d probably get some intern to manually write each of those HAs on the background.)
CREDITS
Writer: Zeb Wells
Pencilers: Ed McGuinness & Todd Nauck
Inkers: Mark Farmer, Wade Von Grawbadger & Todd Nauck
Colorists: Marcio Menyz & Erick Arciniega
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
PREVIOUSLY IN AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …
Chasm had a dream about Spider-Man and The Winkler Device. The Sinister Six discussed their plans when Norman called them to tell them he’s sent someone to deal with them. The Spider-Goblin showed up and made quick work of Doc Ock, Vulture, Electro, Sandman and Mysterio. Norman Osborn was covering up the recent fight at Oscorp when Kamala Khan called him and realized something was wrong with him. “Kraven” tried to stab (or just touch) Spider-Goblin (or SpiGob, as no one is calling him) with the Spear of Destiny but it had no effect (because this is just mind control and not mystical sins). Chasm showed up to stop Spider-Goblin from killing “Kraven”.
Meanwhile The Walking Brain, Curt Connors, and Doug went to see J. Jonah Jameson, who was hanging out with Doc Ock’s old tentacles (which I guess is how Jonah spends his evenings now).
Vampires? What vampires?
SUMMARY
“Kraven” watches as Spider-Goblin and Chasm prepare to fight.
(Not as many two-page spreads as issue #50, but this is a good one.)
Back at Oscorp, Norman is signing over some of his business interests to Peter Parker. Then he notices that Kamala Khan is at the receptionist desk. The receptionist tells him that she has been here for over an hour, and he tells her not to send her up. Kamala leaves, saying that she just wanted to see how she would be received.
During their battle, Chasm tells Spider-Goblin that when he used TWD he saw what the Goblin put into Peter’s head, and he’s here to put an end to it. Spider-Goblin taunts Ben to try and save him.
(“Somebody save me, Let your warm hands break right through, Somebody save me …”)
Meanwhile in New Jersey, Miss Marvel visits the warehouse where Norman built the device to send Peter to another dimension(2). She is attacked by what she thinks is Doc Ock but is actually Doctor Curt Connors wearing Ock’s old tentacles – he is here with J. Jonah Jameson, Doug (the lab-tech), and TWB. Ms. Marvel says that the Green Goblin is back which means that according to Spider-Man’s plan she’s supposed to meet him here. TWB reveals that he was the one who helped Spider-Man create that plan.
(There’s nothing of significance happening here – I just wanted to include a panel of Doug – the MVP of this story and the one I’m sure will save us all.)
Back at the Sinister Six’s lair, Spider-Goblin has the upper hand against Chasm and has retrieved the Spear – his goal in coming here last issue.
Back in New Jersey, TWB is presenting a slideshow (likely Powerpoint) to the group showing that Norman has been buying new companies and putting them in Peter’s name. It reveals that it developed a contingency plan with Spider-Man for the Green Goblin’s return.
(Not sure what makes less sense – Spider-Man creating a contingency plan with TLB, or TWB no longer understanding cheese.)
Ms. Marvel says that the contingency plan requires Spider-Man, who is MIA, but TWB says that he has improvised and found “another Spider-Man”. Who could this possibly be?
- Is it Chasm, a literal clone of Spider-Man who is already in this issue?
- Is it Miles, who is literally called “Spider-Man”, and appears in another book where he and Peter work together?
- Is it Kaine, another literal clone of Spider-Man who is already returning in a few months for a new series with Chasm, so it would make sense to reintroduce him here?
- Is it Spider-Gwen, who no longer has a weird and creepy connection with Norman (thanks to that retcon of Sins Past) but I’d like to see them interact now that we know this never happened?
- Is it any of the many other “Spider-_____” heroes that Spidey has worked with many times before?
No, it’s not any of these, because they would all make logical sense. McGuinness is co-drawing this issue, so of course… sigh … it’s Rek-Rap.
(Who besides McGuinness wanted this to happen?)
Spider-Goblin has Chasm on the ropes and is about to crush his head, when Ben releases his secret power:
(People actually get paid to write sentences like this one. Just let that sink in.)
Chasm’s PRG(3) attacks Spider-Goblin, gets inside his body(4), and somehow, through the magic of PRG, it frees Peter from the mind-control that TWD did to him. It also completely changes his Spider-Goblin costume to his normal Spider-Man costume.
(“Psycho-Reactive Goo cures mind-control!” “No, it physically changes your costume!” “Stop, stop, you’re both right.”)
Spider-Man is himself again. He remembers that Norman sent him here to get the Spear and that it’s the only thing that can stop the Goblin.(5) Spidey thanks Chasm and leaves, with the Spear.
(I laughed at how “Kraven” is just hanging out in the background this whole time, like he was part of this victory when he literally did nothing.)
Realizing that the Spear is the only thing that can remove the sins from Norman, Spidey starts to formulate a plan when he has a brief relapse where Spider-Goblin tries to regain control, but manages to fight it off. He realizes the programming is still in his head so he doesn’t have much time. He decides that if Norman wants the spear, he’ll give it to him … right through the heart!
(In the bottom-right corner – witness the birth of … The Auspicious(6) Six!)
TO BE CONTINUED!
INITIAL RESPONSE
I said in my review of issue #50 that the idea of the Spider-Goblin seemed a lot like the Sinful Spider-Man. Well, at least the Sinful Spider-Man character lasted 3+ issues. This feels like we just got Spider-Goblin and he’s already gone. So what was the point of that? Yes, Peter is still fighting off Spider-Goblin from retaking control, but this feels like the battle has been won and he just needs to permanently exorcise him. Also, the addition of Rek-Rap really brought my enjoyment of this story to a screeching halt.
WHAT I LIKED
I liked Chasm in this issue, which I never would have said six months ago. If you picked this issue up and forgot about his previous appearances in this run you would almost think he and Peter were friends or allies, and that Ben wasn’t some psycho who had been trying to steal Peter’s memories and blamed him for all his problems. And even though we’re supposed to be rooting for him in this battle, I liked Spider-Goblin’s taunts and insults about Chasm.
Once again, Spider-Goblin is all business and quite competent. He is able to get the upper hand against Chasm. It’s not his fault the Chasm knew his one weakness: PRG.
Before Rek-Rap joins them, I kind of liked the rag-tag group of Ms. Marvel, Curt, Jonah, Doug and TWB. These were 5 characters I never would have seen getting together to come to Spider-Man’s rescue.
Hmm, this is a short list.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
Two words: Psycho-Reactive Goo.(7)
(“He slimed me.”)
What the hell is this stuff? Chasm is able to secrete this goo which not only breaks the mind-control on Peter, but it also physically transforms his costume back to his original Spider-Man costume? I can accept a lot in comics, but what the hell, guys?
According to a recap of the last issue of the Beyond storyline I found online, “Ben is swept up under strange chemicals called ‘quantum-shifting polymers in a psycho-reactive medium’ which are unleashed to rewrite and remake the actual physical matter of their headquarters to hide the evidence of their misdeeds.” So apparently this PRG that Ben can secrete can not only create solid light weapons (we’ve seen this in previous issues) but it can also physically transform matter, like costumes. Oh, and it can also reverse mind-control, because why not?
From ASM #93 (Legacy #894):
(Marcus explaining to Janine what Beyond’s PRG does.)
(Janine following a trail of PRG after Beyond is destroyed.)
Before this issue, when I thought of all the ways that Spider-Goblin would be reversed, “Ben excreting psycho-reactive goo which enters Peter’s body” was not on my list.
PSG or no PSG, the Spider-Goblin problem was resolved much too quickly. “Oh no, Peter has been mind-controlled into being evil and acting like the Green Goblin. This is a huge problem, how is he going to get out of … what’s that? The situation has already been resolved? Really? That quickly? Hmm, guess it wasn’t that big of a problem then.”
This guy:
(Rek-Rap only appears in 2 panels of this story, but it feels like more.)
To paraphrase JR, why did it have to be you, Rek-Rap?(8) Even with TWB silliness and Kamala poking her nose in, the last two issues have treated this “Spider-Man vs. Green Goblin” story seriously – more or less. So why bring Rek-Rap into this? To lighten the mood? Who asked for this? (besides McGuinness) And it makes no sense for TWB to contact Rek-Rap when he has to improvise and find “another Spider-Man”. There are multiple Spider-people that Spidey works with more frequently than Rek-Rap, and they’re all easier to find – didn’t Rek-Rap go back to Limbo? Was this easier than calling Miles in Brooklyn?
(A meeting of the Rek-Rap Fan Club. Ed McGuinness pictured.)
So we’re supposed to believe that Spider-Man has been working with TLB for the past few months (years?) on a contingency plan in case Norman ever became the Green Goblin again? Not only does this make no sense (given Peter’s actions in the previous issues), but when did this happen?(9) Why would Peter work with TLB on this? (the answer, of course, is to justify ASM #900). Even if you accept that they have been working on this plan, why would Ms. Marvel be involved in it? Of all the heroes Spidey knows, why her – and only her? And wouldn’t her “death” at the hands of Wayep cause Spider-Man to not want to put her in danger again? Even though she came back to life, doesn’t he still feel guilty over her “death”?
Norman putting so many of his businesses in Peter’s name makes me worried that he’s going to try and pull a Superior Spider-Man and transfer his consciousness over to Peter’s body – wasn’t a fan of that the first time. Or even worse – this is going to end with Norman incapacitated in some way and Peter is left owning all of Oscorp – we all know how well the “Parker Industries” storyline went and no one wants to see that again.
“Kraven” was the last member of the Sinister Six left standing at the end of the previous issue, which ended with the indication that we would have a “Chasm and ‘Kraven’ team up to fight Spider-Goblin” fight. But “Kraven” does NOTHING in this issue. The Sinful Spider-Man story actually got me interested in “Kraven”, and he was wasted in this issue. Oh wait, he does one thing at the start of this issue:
Just a nitpick, but in issue #50 Peter lost his powers from a special gas Norman used on him. Did this gas wear off? Does Peter have his powers back? Most of his fight with the Sinister Six last issue was tech-based, but he physically fought “Kraven” so it would appear his strength is back. And in this issue he’s physically fighting Chasm and at the end when he’s himself again he’s web-swinging through the city, so I assume he has all his powers back. But it would have been nice for this to be mentioned since losing his powers was such a big plot point in issue #50.
WHAT THIS ISSUE/EVENT MEANT OVERALL
Apparently this story(10) ends in issue #54, meaning this issue was the mid-point. I would have thought the Spider-Goblin would have lasted at least another issue or two. I assume at some point Spidey will meet up with TWB’s group to take on the Goblin. It would be a real disappointment if they remove the sins from him and he goes back to being good Norman again. Just permanently bond the sins to him and make him evil for all time, Zells!
GRADE
C-
This issue was a real disappointment, especially after the last two which I really liked, despite how this felt like we were doing the Sinful Spider-Man story again. The Spider-Goblin threat was dealt with almost immediately, and the introduction of someone as silly as Rek-Rap into a Spider-Man/Green Goblin story that should be treated seriously does not fill me with hope for the rest of this story. I was feeling really good after the last two issues and that feeling is gone now.
NEXT TIME, IN AN ALL-NEW ISSUE OF AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …
The Spider-Goblin has been defeated, and Peter is back to being Spider-Man. So why is Spider-Goblin on the cover? Lies, all lies! Plus, the Sinister Six are still unconscious in their lair, unless Chasm called the cops on them.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Replace “assumed” with “hoped”.
(2) Back in ASM #24 (Legacy #918)
(3) PRG = Psycho-Reactive Goo. I started writing “Chasm’s goo” a bunch of times but couldn’t stop giggling each time.
(4) I know, I know. Just try to not to think of what’s actually happening here, and that you paid $5 to read about someone’s goo going inside someone else’s body.
(5) Unlike all those other times Spider-Man has defeated the Green Goblin without a spear that can take away his sins.
(6) Thesaurus.com gave me a bunch of antonyms of “sinister”, and “auspicious” is the one I went with.
(7) “Psycho-Reactive” is hyphenated and counts as one word.
(8) https://www.spidermancrawlspace.com/category/spidey-kicks-butt/why-did-it-have-to-be-you-mary-jane
(10) Apparently this entire story is called “Easy Being Green” which was news to me.
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@Jeff walling:
Issue #50 had multiple full page panels (some 2-pages) which I assume they did deliberately because they knew it was an extra-sized issue. This issue I think only had 2 full-page panels, and one of them was the final page, which is often a full-page panel as it tries to setup a cliffhanger for the next issue. But I agree that too many of these in a normal-sized issue reduces the actual amount of story or reading time for an issue.
As for the language and plots being significantly dumbed down compared to other marvel books, I don’t read other Marvel books so I can’t confirm that. But one could say that for every juvenile bit of plotting, there is also something complicated, like the idea that Norman’s evil is actually sins that can be physically removed from him and given to another person (i.e. Peter).
Soooooo why is amazing Spider-Man filled with so many FULL PAGE PANELS?!? I swear each issue has at least 4-5 poster sized pages with almost no writing in them, making the issue take less than 5 minutes to read. And the language and plots used in the book is significantly dumbed down compared to other marvel books. Have they just decided that only 9 year olds read this book? That would be an insult to 9 year olds.
@Michael: Yeah, I saw that on the Discord. I loved his Deadpool run way back when, so we’ll see.
@Paul Penna:
Personally TLB was a “character” that never needed to be brought back. It appeared in a typical 1960s wacky story where a supercomputer ran amok. There’s a reason no other writer bothered to bring it back until Slott did.
Agree to disagree. I found Norman in ASM #50 very threatening. “Good” Norman was boring for me because we all know he was going to become evil again eventually, so there was never any feeling that this could be a permanent (as permanent as anything can be in comics) status quo for Norman.
I’ve made no secret that I hate the idea that Norman is evil because he’s been infected with these sins, and that when removed he becomes a good person. Yes, he was a good person in the Lee/Romita era when he forgot he was the Goblin, but that’s different. Here we’re meant to believe that Norman was a good person first and that these sins are what made him evil, and that they can be physically removed (and transferred to others). Norman should always be an evil person because that’s who he is.
“This feels like an unearned attempt at a reset.” While I kind of agree with this, for me it’s more of a “return to the way things should be”. Norman is much more interesting as “evil Norman” than “good Norman”. And it would be a waste of all of this build up if Norman was returned to his good guy status at the end of this arc. All this time and he’s evil for only 5 issues? Bah!
I’ve heard Zells is a good writer and people have mentioned other series he’s written. My problem is that I never read any of them, so all I have to go on is this run and Shed. And despite some good issues in this run, it’s been pretty bad overall. It’s not a good thing when the best issues of your run are when the hero is taken over by sins/mind control and acting evil.
Oh, I think the Living Brain ruining the Goblin’s plans is a great Living Brain moment. And I like the Living Brain. He’s a Spider-Man character who went untouched for years. Which is why he feels so interesting to read. They should absolutely explore the Living (Walking?) Brain more.
But I am so uninterested on this take on the Green Goblin. He doesn’t feel threatening, and Norman struggling with sins, trying to redeem himself was so much more interesting. If you feel different, that’s fine. But every other “recent” take on the Goblin was interesting to me. The Iron Patriot. Norman with his powers neutralized trying to regain them, while wearing other faces. Norman stripped of his sins. All new and different takes on the character I was interested in reading.
This feels like an unearned attempt at a reset. The only way I could be mildly interested is if Norman is able to overcome the Goblin with Peter’s help (and I do mean Peter’s help, I like Ms. Marvel, but I don’t want her to solve this problem for Peter, again, this is his book. I especially don’t want Rek-Rap to solve things). But so far we have no hint of that.
I did hear Joe Kelly is taking the reins, however, it’s worth saying Zeb Wells is a good writer too. Good writers can have bad ideas (I write, and sometimes I’ve gotten attached to an idea, only to come back to it months later, and wonder what I was thinking). And there have been good issues, even recently. I enjoyed the Aunt Anna issue. And I enjoyed Dark Web for the most part too (but I am an X-Men fan, and I especially enjoy Madelyn Pryor), still I know a lot of you guys will disagree with me. So, yeah, looking forward to the new run, but I’ll be reserving judgement until I’ve read it. I really hope Joe Kelly has a good direction he wants to take the series in.
BTW, just a heads up- Joe Kelly is apparently the new Amazing Spider-Man writer:
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/joe-kelly-to-take-over-amazing-spider-man-from-zeb-wells/
@Paul Penna:
“I actually did think for a moment that the Walking Brain was going to bring in Kaine as an interesting counterpoint to Chasm, but no, it’s Rek-Rap again.” It would have made sense for TWB to bring in Kaine since he’s going to be appearing in an upcoming book with Ben – this would have been the ideal way to reintroduce the character and get him working with Ben so that their new book wouldn’t seem to come out of the blue. Why would TWB contact Kaine as a backup? Doesn’t make much sense, but it makes a hell of a lot more sense than contacting Rek-Rap.
“I enjoyed Chasm this issue, one of his better written appearances.” Agreed. Almost makes you forget that evil Chasm created Dark Web and likely killed thousands of people by unleashing demons upon New York.
“Hate Spider-Goblin. I’m not even happy that he’s “gone”, since some mind control is still in place. The execution of him just feels like garbage. It’s just a repeat on the Sinful Spider-Man, but less interesting.” Yeah, at least the Sinful Spider-Man was doing his own evil things. But Spider-Goblin is just as evil but he’s literally following Norman’s orders. He has no agency of his own.
“And Peter is saved by an outside force, like Chasm, by accident. The least we could’ve gotten is a mental battle inside Peter’s head between him, and the Goblin programming. This is his book, he shouldn’t be some pawn without agency.” Yeah, there’s nothing in previous Chasm issues to indicate that exposure to PRG would cure mind control. It’s like Zells had to come up with a way for Chasm to free Peter and he randomly picked one of Chasm’s abilities and said “Yeah, this’ll do it.”
“And I hate that Ms. Marvel is back in this book. She feels out of place, and she’s been so badly treated in this book before. She was killed and written out, and now she’s back? No. Whatever is going on with Ms. Marvel elsewhere, she has exited this story. Bringing her back into the story now feels entirely wrong.” Agree 100%. This really feels like it’s Zells’/Marvel’s lame attempt to try to justify having her in the book before and “killing” her off. “Hey everyone, this was the plan all along! See! Now it all makes sense for her to have shown up before!” Not buying it.
“He had his plans prematurely revealed by the Living Brain” Actually that was one of the best parts of #50, IMO. Norman had all these plans for how he was going to reveal that he was evil again to Peter, and TLB gave Peter the codewords and he accidentally revealed the Goblin gear, ruining all of Norman’s plans. I hope he spent months coming up with the perfect way to reveal that he was evil to Peter.
“and the idea that he wants to frame Peter is laughable.” I’m not even sure if Norman’s plan is to frame Peter. Why transfer most/all of his companies over to Peter? If this is part of a plan to frame Peter, it’s a pretty poor one. Norman is literally losing most of his fortune by doing this. That’s why I was worrying that there might be a Superior 2.0 plan going on here, with Norman transferring his mind into Peter’s body. But if he thinks that the mind control is permanent then why do this? We’ll find out in the next few issues.
“knowing that eventually he’ll regain his senses and turn on him. The Green Goblin is planning for failure, and that’s all his plan is.” I don’t think so. He thinks he’s won, that’s he’s used TWD to mind-control Peter. He would have no reason to think that it would wear off – there’s no magic spear to take any sins away from Peter this time.
I feel like Norman has gotten beyond the idea of just wanting to kill Peter to defeat him.
I’m so bored of Rek-Rap. I actually enjoyed his character somewhat to start with, but he has been so over used in such a short amount of time.
I actually did think for a moment that the Walking Brain was going to bring in Kaine as an interesting counterpoint to Chasm, but no, it’s Rek-Rap again.
I enjoyed Chasm this issue, one of his better written appearances.
Hate Spider-Goblin. I’m not even happy that he’s “gone”, since some mind control is still in place. The execution of him just feels like garbage. It’s just a repeat on the Sinful Spider-Man, but less interesting. And Peter is saved by an outside force, like Chasm, by accident. The least we could’ve gotten is a mental battle inside Peter’s head between him, and the Goblin programming. This is his book, he shouldn’t be some pawn without agency.
And I hate that Ms. Marvel is back in this book. She feels out of place, and she’s been so badly treated in this book before. She was killed and written out, and now she’s back? No. Whatever is going on with Ms. Marvel elsewhere, she has exited this story. Bringing her back into the story now feels entirely wrong.
And this version of Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin feels so boring. He was much more interesting as Norman Osborn trying to find redemption. I’m not saying you can’t write and interesting Norman Osborn back as the Green Goblin story, but this isn’t it. He had his plans prematurely revealed by the Living Brain, his brainwashing of Peter was undone by accident by Chasm, and the idea that he wants to frame Peter is laughable.
I could almost get onboard with trying to turn Peter into the heir of the Goblin, but that isn’t what this is. He’s treating Peter as a henchmen, knowing that eventually he’ll regain his senses and turn on him. The Green Goblin is planning for failure, and that’s all his plan is. And when he fails, he’s not going to kill Peter, no he’s going to frame him. The classic Goblin wanted to impale Spider-Man with his glider, this just feels so much less dangerous than that.
Really, the creators behind the book should be capable of better than this.
Okay, I’ve vented, I feel better. Kinda. I’ll go read some classic Spider-Man, that’ll cheer me up.
@ryan3178:
Yeah, I didn’t think of that. I didn’t talk about the two pencillers in this issue (and *three* inkers) in my review but I feel that if you *have* to have more than one penciller than find a legitimate reason to split up the pages – i.e. McGuinness do all the Spidey pages, and Nauck do all the Ms. Marvel pages.
Usually this type of thing works best when the second penciller is doing stuff that is supposed to have a different art style, like a flashback, or taking place in an alternate dimension
“Really, the only person who cares about Rek is really McGuiness.” The letters page has made no secret of this, so I assume eventually the two stories will collide and McGuinness will get to draw Rek-Rap again, much to his (and no one else’s) delight.
It’s really funny, Rek-Rap shows up, but it’s Todd Nauck who draws him and this is pretty much most likely McGuiness’s last story arc of Spider-Man he will be doing for the near future. Even if after Wells and Romita leave and they do a “bridge” story between creative teams like Beyond. Really, the only person who cares about Rek is really McGuiness.
@Michael:
If that’s true then this book did a terrible job explaining it. They should assume that everyone reading ASM is reading *only* ASM and anything that happens in another book that is relevant should be referenced or mentioned.
But even with all of those events happening in other books, it still doesn’t rationally explain why Peter would choose Kamala og all possible heroes to work with him in this “Norman becomes the Goblin again” contingency plan. Just because she interned at Oscorp and has met Norman a few times gives her no extra experience in dealing with the Green Goblin. If he needs a superhero than why not choose someone that wasn’t “killed” the last time Peter involved her in one of his adventures? And if he needs someone with inside knowledge of Oscorp, why not choose Connors who was already working there and had more knowledge than an intern?
@Hornaceck- In fairness, Peter and Kamala both worked together in X-Men 30-31. In X-Men 30, they both worked with Norman. And in X-Men 31, they were in Oscorp during part of the plot. That’s probably what gave Peter the idea to include Kamala in his anti-Norman plan.
(I have a feeling the real explanation is that Wells’s original plans were for Kamala to help Peter against Norman when the time came. But then the X-Books wanted her. )
@Geiseric:
Yeah, it feels like we’re doing backflips just to explain how Peter can be evil again. It would have been much easier to just stab him with the Spear again and it still containing the sins, but Zells wanted a story where both Norman and Peter were evil so he to bring TWD into this to mind-control Peter.
While TWD seems to have reverted Peter back to the Sinful Spider-Man, he appears to be Norman’s lackey – letting Norman put the Spider-Goblin costume on him, following his orders to go retrieve the spear, etc. And when he takes out the Sinister Six here, he doesn’t try to kill any of them. His goal is to incapacitate all of them so he can get the spear for Norman.
Ms. Marvel appearing now *should* feel like it’s not coming out of nowhere, because she did appear in this run before her death. But it still does. Wasn’t the whole point of her “death” to recreate her as a mutant and her deal with mutant stuff from now on? Why is she back here dealing with Norman? Like I said in my review, it makes no sense for Peter to include her in his contingency plan when he knows Miles, Johnny Storm, Daredevil – so many other heroes. Even though she came back to life, he should still feel incredibly guilty about her death. I can’t see him including her in a plan of what to do if Norman became the Green Goblin again.
“The dude hates setting up his plots throughout the story” Yeah, this contingency plan feels like something he just came up with as he started writing this arc. Not something he already thought out months ago.
The funny thing is this feels like an extremely convoluted series of events to get Peter back to infected by the sins but he’s dealing with his own feelings
The original gobbles story set up thay Peter wants to kill his villians deep down so we are getting that payoff now. Though it would be better if Wrlls set that up when Peter isn’t infected so it comes less out of knowhere .
But that and Ms. Marvel shows the two biggest problems fii on r Wells. The dude hates setting up his plots throughout the story
@Michael:
Well, Jonah, Connors and Doug know her last name now. At the way TWB is freely calling her “Ms. Khan” around them, it won’t be long before he calls her Kamala in front of them.
@Hornacek- no, Ms. Marvel’s identity is not publicly known.
@Michael:
“I think that the reason why Norman is putting his businesses in Peter’s name is to frame Peter for whatever evil scheme he’s cooked up. Note that Norman says it’s a ‘liability issue’.” But this makes no sense from Norman’s point of view. He’s finally evil again, which he probably considers “normal” for him. He should want to enjoy his life now instead of signing away all of his sources of wealth to Peter. And as far as we know, Norman believes that Peter is permanently brain-washed, so there should be no need for him to make a plan to frame Peter, who he believes is his willing ally now.
“The Walking Brain calls Kamala Ms. Khan in front of Curt Connors but in fairness, there’s probably a lot of Khans in New Jersey.” I have no idea if Ms. Marvel’s secret identity is publicly known. Was it reported when she “died”?
“And Connors doesn’t realize that Peter is Spider-Man?” Of any supporting character, no one has been friends with both Peter and Spider-Man for such a long time that they should have figured out that they are the same person (well, maybe Robbie).
“If Peter had some way of communicating with the Living Brain, then why did the Brain have to take over those animatronics in the FCBD issue in order to try to warn Peter?” You’re right, when did Peter and TLB create this plan? Before ASM #700? After? Was TLB already in Connors’ lab at Oscorp? How and when did Peter meet with it to create this plan? If it was during the time it was in this lab then they would have a communication method so TLB would have been able to contact Peter instead of using other methods, right?
“Re:contacting Rek-Rap- Connors has met several of the X-Men. It’s possible he contacted them and asked them to get in contact with Alex or Maddie and have them send Rek-Rap.” But this still makes no sense. Even with all of the information at TWB’s disposal, why would he think that Rek-Rap is the Spider-person to contact? If he’s just going by public information then Miles would definitely show up in the Google search results before Rek-Rap, whom Spidey has only teamed up with outside of Limbo *one* time.
@Evan Berry:
So what you’re saying is that Chasm should be able to get the Statue of Liberty to walk around?
I think that the reason why Norman is putting his businesses in Peter’s name is to frame Peter for whatever evil scheme he’s cooked up. Note that Norman says it’s a “liability issue”.
The Walking Brain calls Kamala Ms. Khan in front of Curt Connors but in fairness, there’s probably a lot of Khans in New Jersey.
OTOH, Jameson finds out that Norman is putting his companies in Peter Parker’s name and says “This has to have something to do with Spider-Man’s disappearance”. And Connors doesn’t realize that Peter is Spider-Man? Doug, at least, doesn’t have as much experience with Peter and Spider-Man as Connors but Connors really should figure it out.
You’re right that Peter working with the Living Brain on the plan doesn’t make sense. If Peter had some way of communicating with the Living Brain, then why did the Brain have to take over those animatronics in the FCBD issue in order to try to warn Peter?
Re:contacting Rek-Rap- Connors has met several of the X-Men. It’s possible he contacted them and asked them to get in contact with Alex or Maddie and have them send Rek-Rap. Of course, that just raises the question of why they ONLY sent Rek-Rap and not, for example, Havok along with him.
Wells is cramming a lot into these issues- the Green Goblin, the Sinister Six, the Living Brain, Ben and Rex-Rap. Since we know his final story starts in September, it looks like he’s trying to cram in as much as he can before he leaves. What I don’t understand is why- Wells has been rumored to be leaving Amazing at least since January. If he knew he was leaving so far in advance, you’d think he could plan it out better. Of course, Spencer also supposedly knew he was leaving several months in advance and his exit also turned into a mess. I don’t know why Marvel seems to botch writers’ exits on Spider-Man when they have several months’ advance notice.
Speaking of which, what issues are Wells’ final story.? The announcement claims that Wells’ final story spans multiple issues, features Tombstone and starts in issue 58. But according to the solicits, issues 56-57 feature Tombstone. Do they not count as part of the final Tombstone story? And the letters page claims that “if wall-to-wall action is your thing, ASM is going to be the comic for you, ESPECIALLY through ASM 59”. So does the Tombstone arc end in issue 59? Or maybe issue 60 is a non-action denouement?
So who do you guys think is going to take over writing ASM after Wells leaves? My guess is Joe Kelly. He wrote the story in issue 50 and Marvel announced an omnibus of Joe Kelly’s Spider-Man stories.
By the way, the last time I thought of psycho-reactive goo was Ghostbusters II.
“Mood slime.”
@Evan Berry:
Yeah, I know that Spencer was the one who came up with the idea of Norman’s sins being a tangible thing that can be separated from him, but if I forgot it was him and you asked me which ASM writer came up with that, JMS would be a good guess.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the return of Peter’s powers is never explained or mentioned again. But this is par for the course with Green Goblin stories. In ASM #39 Peter has a cold which is mentioned multiple times, but in ASM #40 that cold is gone and never mentioned again. And in ASM #121 Peter has another cold which he mentions multiple times, but in ASM #122 it is gone and is never mentioned again. Both times it’s implied that his cold might be keeping him from being at his best when the Goblin attacks, but it’s quickly forgotten.
“Where is JR when you need him?” I hoped referencing his “Why Did It Have To Be You, Mary Jane” articles would summon him.
@Hornacek — “Could he have excreted it onto himself and had the same effect that it had on Peter?” Oh dear, what have I done? Clearly I didn’t follow my thinking through to the logical conclusion. Darn this comic.
Yes, I think you’re right — I was just thinking about how it was during Spencer’s run that the sins became tangible (or intangible?) objects. Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but that sort of mystical consideration of things sounds like something from J. Michael Straczynski, but not, you know, good. (Not counting Sins Past. Just sayin’.)
I thought maybe when Peter became Gobliny he regained his powers, either the same ones or Goblinish ones, but it still doesn’t make sense for him to regain his Spider powers after Chasm’s mind-wiping leakage. I’m at a loss.
Where is JR when you need him?
@Geiseric:
I do like Peter having a contingency plan in case Norman ever turned evil again, but the gas that took Norman’s powers away is sufficient. After that Spidey just has to defeat him. This isn’t the first time Spidey has gone up against the Green Goblin without a plan.
I am really hoping this story ends with the “sins” being done away with and they are permanently bonded to Norman and he’s always evil. The creation of his sins as a physical thing that can be removed from Norman, leaving a good person, was one of the few things I hated from Spencer’s run (this was done by Nick Spencer, right?). So if Zells could undo this, I would stand up and applaud.
The only reason I mentioned that this plan could be months or years old is because Norman has been a good guy since the Spencer run (back in 2020). No idea when Peter would have started his contingency plan but it wouldn’t surprise me if Zells said that Peter started it back during the Kindred storyline.
@Evan Berry:
I was wondering during TWB’s Powerpoint presentation who among that group didn’t know Spider-Man is Peter. Ms. Marvel and Jonah know, but I don’t think Connors does. Doug definitely doesn’t, and who knows what TWB remembers from #900. It feels very weird for them to be talking about Spider-Man and Peter Parker as two separate people – one of them (i.e. Doug) should speak up and say “Wait, how is Peter Parker involved in all of this?”
There must be a correlation between lack of “cheese” knowledge and willingness to contact Rek-Rap.
“Although, don’t forget that Dark Mark is his number-one fan!” I was going to identify Dark Mark as the one fan in that picture of the Rek-Rap fan club, but McGuinness is obviously the reason RR is here.
“Aren’t you glad you got to review this issue?” At least I got an issue with only 2 panels of RR. I assume next issue will be wall to wall RR, so that’s a gift for Mark.
“Very good point about Peter getting his powers back — I guess the Psycho-Reactive Goo did that, too, huh?” But it looks like he had his powers back *before* Chasm’s PRG got into him (ugh). He was physically fighting “Kraven” and then Chasm.
“You’d think that with that powerset, Ben wouldn’t have required the Winkler Device at all” Hmm, is Ben immune to his own PRG? Could he have excreted it onto himself and had the same effect that it had on Peter?
@Joshua Nelson:
Yeah, at least the the resolution to the Sinful Spider-Man made sense, given how the sins were put into him. It had already established the Spear, so even if you didn’t like that idea, it already existed, so using it to reverse it made sense in the story.
But here, all of a sudden Chasm’s PRG is able to reverse mind control?
And I agree about Rek-Rap. Even with the moments of levity in the previous two issues, this has felt like a serious Spider-Man/Green Goblin confrontation story. But with the addition of Rek-Rap it’s like Zells is trying to kiddify the story to add some zany and wacky comedic elements that don’t fit at all. He’s only in 2 panels but once he appeared a lot of my enjoyment of this issue/overall story dissipated – PRG or no PRG.
One of the more confusing things is why do they need a plan? Luke beating up Norman isn’t particularly hard. They can use the spear to free him of his sins again but the comic doesn’t seem interested in saying that and uses the sins and Norman interchangeably.
Also it wouldn’t make any sense for it to be a years old plan as the suns stuff is pretty new and I doubt Peter knew they were sentient until literally this arc
@Hornacek – The solicit for the issue read, “Nothing is okay. This issue is so shocking and troubling we can’t even show you the cover!”
Well, I guess they weren’t lying, technically.
Are Dr. Connors and Doug the only one in the Auspicious Six who don’t know Spider-man’s true identity? I’m not sure if the Walking Brain knows (anymore), but you’d think with a name like “Rek-Rap,” he’d be able to put it together.
Speaking of which, maybe it’s his lack of understand of “cheese” that made him contact Rek-Rap. Although, don’t forget that Dark Mark is his number-one fan! Aren’t you glad you got to review this issue?
Very good point about Peter getting his powers back — I guess the Psycho-Reactive Goo did that, too, huh? You’d think that with that powerset, Ben wouldn’t have required the Winkler Device at all, but then I guess the plot needed that to happen so that we could have this confrontation. At least some good dialogue between Peter and Ben came out of it, but still.
The magic goo that Chasm excretes is one of the worst examples of a deus ex machina that I’ve seen in a while. Seriously, Zeb Wells didn’t even try there.
Also, Rek-Rap is in this issue. His mere presence automatically lowers this comic an entire letter grade for me.