Spider-Man: Son Of The Goblin

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #136-137, 312 and Spectacular Spider-Man #189, 200
Written by Gerry Conway, David Michelinie and J.M. DeMatteis.
Penciled by Ross Andru, Todd McFarlane and Sal Buscema.
Inked by Dave Hunt, Frank Giacoia, Todd McFarlane and Sal Buscema.

The Green Goblin, known to the world as Norman Osborn, was one of Spider-Man's deadliest foes. He knew that Peter Parker and Spider-Man were one and the same. This led to the Goblin's murder of Parker's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy. Shortly after Gwen's death, Osborn accidentally killed himself while trying to kill Spider-Man.

Months have passed and Peter has tried to move on with his life. He has begun a new relationship with Mary Jane Watson. But Peter and his roommate Harry Osborn (son of Norman) haven't spoken much lately.

Mary Jane and Peter have arrived at his apartment, but as he unlocks the door, a bomb goes off! Peter believes that, despite Norman's death, the Green Goblin is somehow responsible.

As Spider-Man, Parker visits one of Norman Osborn's old hideouts. Sure enough, the Green Goblin is alive, flying around on a bat-glider. Spidey immediately addresses the Goblin as Harry,correctly guessing the son of the Goblin has donned the costume.  He blames Spider-Man for Norman's death and says Spidey will pay with his life.

Spider-Man meets the new Green Goblin for the first time.  Nice 2-page spread.

Spider-Man is on the verge of defeating this new Green Goblin, but the Goblin hits back with some sort of knock-out gas.  He moves in for the kill, but his costume is out of power.  Harry flees, saying that Spider-Man is finished.  If he fails to kill the wall crawler, he will reveal his identity to the world, thus ending Spidey's crime-fighting days.

The Green Goblin disappears, Spidey spends the next 2 nights searching for him in vain.  Finally, he finds the Goblin in Norman's old townhouse and a brawl ensues.  Harry hasn't taken the strength serum that his father used, so Spider-Man defeats him with relative ease.  But Green Goblin has an ace in the hole.  He has captured Aunt May, Mary Jane and Peter's friend Flash Thompson and has placed bombs over their heads. Spidey has only 6 minutes to save them.

Green Goblin steals explosives in New Jersey, while Spider-Man searches for the Goblin in New York.

Will Spider-Man succeed in saving his friends?  And even if he does, will the Green Goblin reveal to the world that Peter Parker is Spider-Man? 

 Review:
I'll state up front that I'm only reviewing 2 of the 5 issues reprinted in Spider-Man:Son Of The Goblin because the rest were published after the Bronze Age.  As I've said before, I only review Bronze Age stories here.  But I thought the appearance of Harry Osborn in the recent Spider-Man movie made this tpb worthy of a review.

Story:
This is a good-but-not-great sequel to the original Green Goblin/Death Of Gwen Stacy story.  Gerry Conway wrote both.  When he scripted these stories, he had been writing Amazing Spider-Man for more than 2 years.  Conway has a great feel for Peter Parker and his supporting cast. 

It must have been quite a surprise for readers to see Green Goblin alive when this story was first published.  The problem here is that Harry never feels like much of a threat.  Spider-Man says more than once that he's more mentally ill than evil.  And when they battle one-on-one, Spidey has little trouble beating Harry, since this Goblin never took Norman's super-strength serum.  

Art: 
Ross Andru was the definitive penciler of Spider-Man during the Bronze Age and he does a great job here.  Dave Hunt and Frank Giacoia are the inkers here.  I'm not sure why they needed two inkers, but the art in this tpb is fine.  Here's a great drawing that features Spidey's supporting cast.

Peter goes to the hospital to check on Mary Jane's condition.  Check out Liz Allan's pants in the top-right panel!

How does it look?:
I don't notice any weird re-coloring in this reprint.  It looks great, here's another scan from the book:

 Extras:
The book contains the three stories I mentioned above, published in the late-80s and early-90s. They're okay as far as comics from that time goes, two feature art by Sal Buscema.

Spider-Man: Son Of The Goblin isn't great. But it's a fairly inexpensive way to read the story of Harry Osborn's turn to villainy. 

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5


2 and a half Sals.

The Amazing Spider-Man: A New Goblin

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #176-180
Written by Len Wein.
Penciled by Ross Andru.
Inked by Tony DeZuniga, Mike Esposito & Jim Mooney.

The Green Goblin is back in New York, and only Spider-Man can stop him!

Norman Osborn, the original Goblin was Spider-Man's deadliest enemy. He was the only villain who knew that Peter Parker was Spider-Man and he murdered Gwen Stacy, the love of Parker's life. When Norman died, his emotionally disturbed son Harry put on the Goblin suit and took up the mantle. Harry went through psychiatric counseling, which seemed to cure him of the madness that had created a second Goblin.

But Harry's been going through a rough patch. His fiance, Liz Allan, has broken up with him. His therapy sessions with his psychiatrist, Dr. Bart Hamilton, have not been going well. And now it looks like Harry has had a relapse of his Goblin-ness, since the Green Goblin has returned.

The Green Goblin starts by attacking Peter's friend Flash Thompson and nearly kills him. Flash doesn't know his former roommate Harry was the Green Goblin. Spider-Man shows up in time to save Flash, but the Goblin gets away. 

In addition to terrorizing Spider-Man, the Goblin is also attempting to take over organized crime operations in New York.  He crashes a meeting of crime bosses and attacks Silvermane, who leads the powerful Maggia crime syndicate. The bosses tell Green Goblin they'll give in to his demands on one condition: He must destroy Spider-Man once and for all. Spider-Man breaks up the meeting and finds himself in the middle of a war between the Green Goblin and Silvermane!

Adding to Spidey's stress, his Aunt May is in the hospital recovering from a heart attack. May needs surgery, but the doctors cannot proceed until Peter signs a consent form. On his way to the hospital, he's attacked by the Goblin.

Spider-Man Vs. Green Goblin Vs. Silvermane!

During one of their battles, Spider-Man is shocked at the evil in the Green Goblin's voice. His tone sounds more maniacal than ever before. Spidey wonders: is this Goblin really his friend Harry Osborn? Or has someone else put on the green & purple threads and become..a new Goblin?  

Review:

The title of this trade paperback sort of "spoils" a plot point, but I try to avoid spoilers here.

This was one of the first Spider-Man sagas I recall reading. I came in the middle and didn't read the story start-to-finish until later. 

Story:

Len Wein gives us a good, solid Green Goblin story here, even if it's not exactly a classic tale. The aforementioned spoiler will likely be obvious to readers, but it's still a fun ride. Wein also makes good use of the supporting cast. Flash Thompson, Glory Grant and Robbie Robertson all get some good face time. The book opens with a funny scene featuring J. Jonah Jameson. If I have any complaints, it's the (even then) tired use of Aunt May's illness as a source of drama. 

This story took up five issues, so you might say Wein was a pioneer of "writing for the trade".

Art:

The art is very good in this tpb. Ross Andru penciled Amazing Spider-Man for five years (1973-1978, with a few issues in-between drawn by others), plus five issues of Giant-Size Spider-Man, one issue of Spectacular Spider-Man and seven issues of Marvel Team-Up, which makes him the definitive Bronze Age Spidey artist. Andru's work here looks as good as ever, plenty of great fight scenes and some nice panels of Spider-Man swinging through New York. The inkers also do a fine job.  

How does it look?:

Here's a page scanned from a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #177:

And here's how the same page looks in The Amazing Spider-Man: A New Goblin:

Spider-Man: A New Goblin is a good, fun story, and a sentimental favorite of mine. It's probably not the best place start if you haven't read prior Green Goblin stories. But it's worth picking up for no other reason than Andru's great art (which is worth a "half-a-Sal" all by itself!).

My rating:

 .5

3 and half Sals.