Spider-Island falls, while Mary Jane Calls in this titular issue of Superior Spider-Man.
“Goblin Nation, Part 2”
WRITER: Dan Slott
PENCILS: Giuseppe Camuncoli
INKS: John Dell
COLOR: Antonio Fabela
LETTERER: Chris Eliopoulos
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Devin Lewis
EDITOR: Ellie Pyle
MAIN PLOT: Our story begins 31…SECONDS after the last issue. New Yorkers watch from a pier as Spider Island lights up like a firework. Inside the crumbling fortress Otto wonders how he could possibly have been outflanked by the Green Goblin to which the Goblin responds that Oscorp is superior to Ottocorp technologies. As the Goblins slaughter a myriad of Spider minions Otto vows vengeance and flees with the Living Brain. The Goblin unleashes his army upon all that Otto cares for. The Goblin babies attack Mary Jane who promptly puts them in a corner with a pair of web shooters she had hidden in a safe. Declaring herself “The Wild Card” she barges out with a glare in her eyes ready to kick some Goblin but. Otto upon reaching dry land has a heated debate with Sajani about his absence from Parker industries…a debate quickly interrupted by the Wraith who is keen on discovering the true whereabouts of Carlie Cooper.
She isn’t hard to find however as Cooper bursts onto the scene as MONSTER and she takes out the Wraith 
revealing her true identity to a startled Otto. He realizes The Goblin now knows everything, across town a bunch of Hand Goblins break into the home of Jay and May Parker. Never fear however as Mary Jane has whisked them off to safety in her continuing reign of awesomeness this issue, Jane calls her Aunt Anna and orders her to get the heck out of dodge. Back at Parker industries The Living Brain sacrifices himself in order to allow Otto a chance to escape. Once inside his newly attained corporation he lures Monster into a room and begins to open a can of whoop on her. After a swift kick to the head a headphone falls out of Monsters ear and Carlie reveals that she wants Otto to cure her of her ailment. The issue ends with one Lily Hollister picking up a frightened Ana Maria in her ghoulish vehicle and leaving the scene.
SUBPLOTS: Peter attempts to traverse Otto’s memories whilst holding on to his identity. He manages to stay strong until he reaches the origin of Doctor Octopus and becomes his worst enemy. Along with this Jameson reveals his latest edition of his Spider-Slayer army. This looks like they combined the original Spider-Slayer design (with Jameson’s face in the middle) with a traditional looking Mech.
STORY: This issue wastes no time with setup and gets right into the action. The Goblins really bulldoze over any and all resistance in this issue making Otto look like a fool. This issue also has a lot of great character moments. I think this issue has the best writing of Mary Jane that I’ve seen in years she is no longer a damsel in distress she is becoming a force to be reckoned with. Although I fear that she might become some sort of costumed hero at the end of this series taking the name “Wild Card” as her new super hero identity. Right along with Mary Jane in another surprise turn of awesomeness is The Living Brain. This issue of Superior Spider-Man gives more respect to The Living Brain than any other story in this Ditko villain’s history. He saves Otto twice and is the means by which Otto escapes the Goblins onslaught. I hope that he at the very least makes a comeback somewhere else in this story and his brief unseen battle with Monster is not his end.
I feel as if this issue also helps to squash some of the previous ideas as to the identity of the Green Goblin. Both Mary Jane’s fireman boyfriend, and Liz Allen’s mustachioed man is standing right beside her at the reveal of the Spider-Slayers. Yet this issue gives even more evidence to the fact that this is in fact Normie Osborn. Normie is not seen in any of the establishing shots of the Spider-Slayer press conference and the Green Goblin had a one off comment about how he has lost his base in a similar incident. I feel like this could be Normie referencing the BND issue in which his house gets burnt down and we see him at the end of that issue destroying Spider-Man dolls. It also fits with him saying he was Norman Osborn in the Hobgoblin issue because guess what HE IS NORMAN OSBORN…just Norman Osborn junior.
My big complaint this issue is the Peter mindscape scenes. I feel as if those scenes will be played out in a very predictable way leading all the way to Amazing Spider-Man #700 in which he regains his mind during the pivotal moment at the end of that series. It will contrast Superior Spider-Man’s beginning, with his end which will be a nice story beat but it will take up space in an overcrowded issue.
ART: I have some problems with Camuncoli’s art this issue. While the majority of the art is good I have big issues with the way he has some of the females posing. Both Wraith and Monster have some downright ridiculous and preposterous poses that ensure that they are flaunting every part of their body. It over sexualizes the characters and takes you out of the story. Half of the time Monster looks like she is wearing tights not chainmail armor. Monster’s costume in general looks ridiculous this issue. How does she even see under that hood? She has like two minuscule slits in her otherwise covered face….it’s just not practical.
ODDITIES: Soooo where did Mary Jane get webshooters? Why on earth would she make a Dirty Dancing Joke? If you pay attention to the Goblin’s character designs Urich is the Knight, Hollister the Queen, and Carlie is clearly the Jester. Yet there are no Jesters in chess…which kind of removes the beloved chess metaphor. Could she perhaps be a bishop? I suppose I’ve never seen a Jester carry a scythe before so who knows. Also the Goblin declares that Oscorp tech outdoes Otto….yeah I gotta call fowl on this one. Otto defines the mad scientist trope, literally almost every single one of his appearances he has a new nifty mechanical device in which he can use to do one of his crazy schemes. Osborn may have always been a better strategist but there is no doubt in my mind that Otto is the superior scientist. Hell the greatest invention Norman ever made was his Iron Patriot armor…which was mainly just a re-skinned Iron Man costume that Tony Stark disables within minutes during the Siege crossover.
BEST BACKGROUND CHARACTER: Henchman #23 he was Otto’s favorite henchman how can we bear to lose him. For some reason his line about #23 really made me think about the show Venture Brothers in which the super villain The Monarch is constantly spouting orders to his henchmen who are known only by number. I feel as if you could almost redo all of Otto’s lines in Superior Spider-Man using the voice of The Monarch to turn the whole series into a wacky comedy.
ON THE NEXT SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN: The Spider-Slayers slay a Spider….bot. Spider-Man 2099 takes out one of the main Goblin warriors (most likely Urich, as I surmise that Hollister and Carlie will have a big Goblin stand-off and Otto will obviously fight the Goblin), and Ana Maria reveals herself to be a ninja. Oh and Peter relives some of Otto’s more intimate memories of Aunt May (YUCK).
B+
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@Ronald Johnson: Marvel has turned the entire Hulk supporting cast into monsters. Spider-Man, with the exception of Flash, is one of the only Marvel series with a hero who has a consistent supporting cast that aren’t Avengers, SHIELD agents or mutants. This is why the Marvel Universe has come to seem so alienating to me. I say leave Peter with some normal people to interact with.
@Jason: I agree that not every friend, lover, etc needs to be made into a hero or villain. Marvel has already allowed Bruce Banner’s ex-wife Betty Ross to become the anti-hero Red She-Hulk while they revealed that Marvel allowed Longshot’s long lost girlfriend Rita Wayword to be made into Spiral. The last thing I want to see is Mary Jane to become a super heroine. I would rather see her and Pedro get written out of the story than to see another Spider-Man character become a super heroine.
Still not convinced Normie is the new Goblin. I don’t buy the fact he can age at will, nor does a child have the brains to mastermind such an army. Some of you have questioned why nobody went searching for Peter when he didn’t report to work for a month, well, why doesn’t anyone question by Liz Allan isn’t wondering where her toddler is if he’s ALWAYS by her side? Not sure how old he’s supposed to be, but perhaps he’s in pre-school, or kindergarten, or maybe a sitter is taking care of him. In any case, if I were a parent and my child is always by my side, I’d be wondering where he is when he’s not.
If Normie happens to be the new Goblin, I offer my kudos now to those who predicted it.
MJ as a super-hero? I say enough is enough. Does everyone in Peter’s life have to be a hero or villain? Can’t he just have some normal people in his life? Not every friend, lover, etc needs to be made into a hero or villain.
I’d like to point out that Awesome Carlie is complicit in all these murders of these “spiderling” security employees. Even though they are minions, they really are just security workers pulling a pay-check. Nearly everything we’ve seen the minions do has been good (like clean out Shadowland).
If Carlie has enough mental self-control to scheme against the Goblin, wear an ear-piece, and whisper to SpOck who she really is, then why is she not legally accountable for her scythe-slashings, and all the murders being committed by the rest of the Goblin Army, of which she is one of the lead creatures? She was just bashing up a bunch of Hobgoblin’s guys before, but now she is killing regular people.
So when Slott brings Peter back, how long until Peter is killed again or Doc Ock regains control and they relaunch with an “All-New Superior Spider-man #1!”? I’d say after issue #12 of the new Amazing Spider-man. Marvel has been relaunching their series every year lately.
@7 Oh man I am certain that people all over have had this hypothesis I wouldn’t say that CS originated it. I myself have suspected it since the Spider-Man 2099 issue and I am certain others have as well. Thanks for the kind words though!
So is CS the only Spider-Man site that figured this out? (I’m really confident this is right).
Great catch, though. Normie’s name IS “Norman Osborn.”
@2&3 No, Normie would be Norman Jr. as his great-grandfather, Norman’s dad, was named Amberson Osborn. I think that was established during the reboot era with the “Revenge of the Green Goblin” mini.
#2- Ah I did not know that Normie was a third generation Norman good catch sthenurus!
#3- Both great points I will be honest I haven’t read that web of romance one shot but I will have to look it up! I did forget about the accomplice angle…still I will be surprised if it is the fireman rebound. I feel as if Slott is setting up a lot of red herrings for possible Goblinites…we shall see though!
@#1 AndrewRoebuck–Glad to see you back, Andrew. And great review as always. Couple of points:
1. The webshooters MJ had were a valentine’s day present Peter gave to her in a Web of Romance one-shot by Tom Beland (course that story also had them as a married couple, so yeah, bit awkward now post OMD). Also, at least “Wild Card” would probably be a better superhero name for MJ than, say, Jackpot (who wasn’t even the real MJ but the whole gimmick was she looked like her).
2. I agree with your assessment on the Green Goblin, but as I state in my review, let’s not forget that the Green Goblin, while out of costume, was accompanied by another guy whose face was also obscured in Superior Spider-Man #15. That indicates that this Green Goblin has an accomplice who is not part of the Green Goblin’s court yet who has seen the Green Goblin without his mask. That’s why I can’t exactly rule out MJ’s firefighter rebound guy being involved since he could be acting as the Green Goblin’s mole.
Great review. My only nitpick is that technically, little normy isnt norman osborn jr, but norman osborn III. His great-granpa was sr, and harry’s father was jr.
Sorry for the Lateness of this one fellow Web-heads I was off on vacation last week so I didn’t get a chance to dive into this issue until I got home today!