All caught up? Good. Let’s get back to it.

For those of you who still haven’t read it, here’s what’s been going on. For much of the past year, in the pages of ASM, Spider-Man has been locked in battle with a terminally ill Doctor Octopus, who had embarked on his most ambitious plan for world conquest yet. Thwarted once more by Spidey, following the battle we saw in recent issues Spider-Man visiting Doc Ock on his deathbed in SHIELD lockup, where it was revealed that somehow Ock had engineered a mindswap, with Octopus now residing in Spider-Man’s body, complete with access to Peter Parker’s memories, while Spider-Man was trapped in Octavius’ deteriorating, about-to-expire body.

Parker manages to rally and engages in one final battle with Doc Ock, each in the other’s body, before Parker in Ock’s body succumbs, and as Peter Parker’s life flashes before his eyes, Doc Ock also experiences those memories through Parker’s perspective, and comes to a familiar realization: that with great power comes great responsibility.

Ock resolves to replace Parker, and carry on his duties as Spider-Man, only even better, using his own scientific genius to enhance his spider-abilities, as “the Superior Spider-Man.”

So. That’s the new status quo. Peter Parker is dead, and Doc Ock lives on his stolen body as the new Spider-Man.

Lots of folks seemed to think I’d be outraged by this. I gotta say, I’m fine with it. It’s a good story, well told, and has lots of story possibilities moving forward.

Here’s the thing: there are certain givens in comics that are never going to change. Superman will always be Clark Kent. Batman will always be Bruce Wayne. And Spider-Man will always be Peter Parker. Sure, there’ll be relatively brief periods where the characters are switched up and identities change, but we all know that eventually the real McCoy will return, and in the meantime, we can explore what makes the character so great by seeing how others struggle to fill that iconic role. And more often than not, it results in some very good stories, such as DC’s “Death of Superman” or “Knightfall,” or Denny O’Neil’s excellent IRON MAN run in which James Rhodes first took over the armor from an alcoholic Tony Stark.
This story has even more potential for interest, as it’s the first time we see a villain have a change of heart and try to fill the shoes of his most hated enemy. Some readers seem to think that this is too much, that they can’t accept the idea of a murderer and criminal replacing Peter Parker as Spider-Man. And that to me is exactly what makes it intriguing; Otto Octavius of course isn’t worthy to replace Peter Parker. But watching his struggles to do so, and how he reacts to his failure to measure up is what will make for a compelling tale.

I remember talking to Mike Carlin at a convention not long after they had first turned Green Lantern Hal Jordan into an insane mass murderer, then killed him off in that year’s big “event” miniseries. After listening to me express my displeasure, Carlin responded very reasonably, in an answer that’s stuck with me all these years: “We reserve the right to tell a story with an unhappy ending.”

Fair enough. And if the story is true to its characters and doesn’t betray them or what they stood for, then I’m in.

Scott Tipton enjoyed SPIDEY #700, in case you couldn’t tell. If you’ve got questions about Spidey or comics in general, send them here.

New from DC last week was GREEN LANTERN: SECTOR 2814, Volume 1, by Len Wein and Dave Gibbons.

Collecting the first part of Wein and Gibbons GREEN LANTERN run from 1984, SECTOR 2814 is a retro breath of fresh air in today’s world of bloody, overwrought, straining, impalement-heavy superhero comics. Telling the story of Hal Jordan’s return to Earth after a yearlong forced exile from his home world at the dictate of his bosses the Guardians of the Universe, we see Hal resume his civilian life and reunite with his love Carol Ferris, and track his decision to resign from the GL Corps once and for all in pursuit of a normal life with the woman he loves.

The writing is crisp and fast-paced, and the art, well, what do you expect? The art is Dave Gibbons, it’s beautiful. Here’s hoping sales are strong enough that we see a Volume Two. Better yet, let’s give Wein and Gibbons a chance to tell some new Green Lantern stories, now that both are back in the DC fold.

Now, despite what I said, above, I have no problem with gritty, bloody superhero comics, as long as they can bring something new to the table. Which is exactly what Image’s DANGER CLUB, VOLUME ONE: DEATH does.

Written by Landry Q. Walker and drawn by Eric Jones (a duo best known for their all-ages work on books like SUPERGIRL: COSMIC ADVENTURES IN THE 8TH GRADE and LITTLE GLOOMY), DANGER CLUB has a can’t-miss premise, which they set up on the series’ first page:

Three months ago.

And they didn’t come back.

The notion of teen sidekicks left with the keys to the planet and at a loss for what to do with it is a great starting point, and the story takes many unexpected twists as you’re drawn into this new world, including the introduction of the sinister American Spirit, a doddering, ancient ex-superhero turned President:

It looks as though DANGER CLUB is just getting warmed up. One of my favorite new series.

Fans of Ed Brubaker’s crime work on books like CRIMINAL, GOTHAM CENTRAL and the current (and excellent) FATALE will want to pick up the new hardcover re-release of SCENE OF THE CRIME, one of Brubaker’s earlier works with artist Michael Lark, original published by DC’s Vertigo imprint back in 1999.

While it’s not as polished as their later work, Brubaker and Lark tell a very compelling little noir tale here, well worth your time, especially in a package as pretty as this, which includes production notes, development artwork, and an additional short story.

My top pick of the week by far, though, is Marvel’s new hardcover collection of SPIDER-MEN, by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli.

When I first heard about this project, I was a little skeptical, and frankly, with the creators involved, I should have known better. Rather than being a big universe-crossing event-type comic, this is almost entirely a character piece, at the heart of it being about Peter Parker’s reactions to seeing a world where not only has he died in the line of duty, but he’s already been replaced. And when it comes to emotional scenes of characterization, there’s no one out there better at conveying it than Pichelli. This scene of Peter saying goodbye to Gwen Stacy, getting that moment that none of us ever really get, of one more stolen moment with a lost loved one, is worth the entire price of admission, if you ask me:

Highly recommended.

Which is what I always think about when I think of Marvel’s line of horror books from the 1970s, which are all well told, spooky horror comics well worth the attention of any monster fan. However, just like Abbott and Costello at Universal…

…everybody met Spider-Man.

And I do mean everyone.

Spidey accepts these things rather easily, doesn’t he?

Okay, admittedly, this one is a bit of a cheat, since this isn’t the official Marvel version of the Mummy, but I still wanted to get a Spider-Man/Mummy cover in here…

Also probably the only time anyone’s ever called a mummy “Bunkie.”

And it happened for the first time in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #5!

And you can own it! Click here to buy!

Big things are happening with Doc Ock in the pages of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN these days, and we have his first appearance!

And it can be yours! Click here to buy!

I caught Sam Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN on TV the other night, and enjoyed once more the way Willem DaFoe and James Franco perfectly captured the fractured relationship between Norman Osborn (secretly Spider-Man’s arch-enemy the Green Goblin) and his son Harry, Peter Parker’s best friend and roommate. With SPIDER-MAN 3 currently in production and Harry no doubt set to play a large role in the next film, particularly after his discovery at the end of SPIDER-MAN 2:

I was recently inspired to go back and take a closer look at poor Harry, particularly his final appearances in the pages of SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN in 1991 through 1993, courtesy of writer J. Marc DeMatteis and artist Sal Buscema. But first, let’s go back to the beginning, shall we?

Harry Osborn made his first appearance in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #31 (December 1965), introduced along with Gwen Stacy as new classmates of Peter Parker’s on his first day at Empire State University.

Early on, Harry sided with Flash Thompson in picking on and looking down on Pete, with Peter’s continual state of distractedness due to his aunt’s ailing health and his career as Spider-Man being mistaken for snobbishness. Harry also had something of an inferiority complex early on, a precursor for much bigger emotional problems to come. Harry also had some problems with his father, which also led to the ice breaking between he and Pete.

Eventually, Pete and Harry got to be best friends, the two often double-dating with Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson. The two also became roommates, a relationship that had its ups and downs. Harry’s several bad experiences with drugs didn’t help his already fragile mental state.

Harry’s breakup with Mary Jane came at the same time, all of which led to a full-on nervous breakdown. The nervous breakdown came at just the same time that Peter’s battles with Harry’s father were reaching their height, with the murder of Gwen by the Goblin. In the aftermath, Pete faces a decision: stay to help his friend, or go after the man who killed the girl he loved:

After Harry recovered from the drug trip, he blamed Spider-Man for the death of his father (as Osborn’s career as the Goblin wasn’t publicly known, thanks to Harry removing the costume from Norman’s corpse before the police arrived), while harboring ill will toward Mary Jane for dumping him and spending more time with Peter.

Harry’s friendship with Peter seemed to be a thing of the past as well. Harry’s mania quickly sank into dementia, made worse when he discovered a certain secret his roommate had been keeping.

Finally, Harry’s slide into insanity came to a head in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #136 (September 1974), “The Green Goblin Lives Again!”, in which a now full-on raving bonkers Harry takes on his father’s mantle as the Goblin, a fact Spidey discovers when his apartment is firebombed, demolishing the place and nearly killing Mary Jane.

Staking out Norman Osborn’s abandoned warehouse lair, Spidey is soon attacked by the Goblin and finds his worst fears realized, as he’s forced to fight his best friend, who knows Spidey’s greatest secret and could destroy his life in an instant.

Harry, while a beginner at this supervillain business, takes to it fast, and soon approaches Spidey with a fiendish dilemma: Aunt May, Mary Jane and Flash Thompson have all been kidnapped, but only one has a real bomb precariously perched over their head. Unfortunately for Harry, while he has his father’s costume and weapons, he doesn’t have Norman’s chemically induced strength, and an enraged Spidey lets him know, the hard way:

Thanks to his spider-sense and a bit of luck, Spidey gets to Aunt May before the bomb above her head goes off, then heads back to Norman’s townhouse to figure out what to do with Harry. The two scuffle once more, and Harry is slammed into a circuit breaker, with the shock knocking him out. Not knowing what else to do, and determined that Harry receive the psychological help he needs, Spidey destroys the Goblin costume, changes back into Peter Parker and waits for the police, who take the now clearly disturbed Harry into custody. Pete waits for the worst, as Harry exposes his identity as Spider-Man to the police, who aren’t necessarily convinced:

Harry was eventually committed, and returned to sanity with the help of a good psychiatrist, Dr. Bart Hamilton, who in turn used the information he gleaned from Harry during their hypnosis sessions to find another hidden cache of Norman’s equipment and briefly become the third Green Goblin. Hamilton’s career was pretty brief, and the only reason he even lasted a second against Spider-Man was that Spidey was convinced it was Harry under the mask and was pulling his punches. Harry meanwhile, had developed a sort of selective amnesia (perhaps from the hypnosis sessions with Hamilton), and retained no knowledge either of his father’s career as the Green Goblin (or his own) or of Peter Parker’s secret. Seemingly fully recovered, Harry met and fell in love with, of all people, Liz Allan, Peter Parker’s high school friend and sometimes love interest. After graduating college, Harry took over Oscorp, his father’s company, and Harry and Liz got married and had a child, named after Harry’s father, and moved to Long Island, no longer a part of Peter’s day-to-day circle of friends.

Harry and Liz returned to the scene a few years later, after a new Goblin character, the Hobgoblin, appeared and began threatening the Osborns, a situation Spider-Man found himself drawn into. Moving back into the city, Harry was able to do his old friends Peter and Mary Jane (now married) a favor, renting them an apartment in the building he owned and where he and his family lived, after Peter and MJ were evicted from their place following an ugly incident with a millionaire who was stalking Mary Jane. So here we are, with Peter and Mary Jane living just a floor below what for all intents and purposes seems to be a healthy, stable Harry Osborn and his family. Which is where we pick things up in SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #178 (July 1991), by DeMatteis and Buscema.

We first see Harry beginning to lose his grip in the first chapter of the 6-part “The Child Within,” in which Harry’s resurfacing father issues are juxtaposed with revelations about the origin of the cannibal supervillain Vermin, captured by Spider-Man and handed over to psychoanalyst Ashley Kafka foe treatment. As we learn how Vermin’s later atrocities were framed by abuse, we see Harry beginning to succumb to his own ghosts, as he begins to hear the voice of his father in his head while he spends time with his own son, little Normie.

(It’s good to see, by the way, that Normie seems to have avoided the other Osborn family curse, that odd corduroy hairstyle that both Norman and Harry sport.)

As the tale progresses, Harry’s hallucinations about his father grow more and more vivid, and begin to involve Spider-Man as well. Along with the hallucinations return more of Harry’s suppressed memories, particularly that most dangerous piece of information: the fact that his best friend Peter is Spider-Man, the man he still blames for killing his father. Soon Harry’s visions involve both Norman and Peter, as an increasingly lost Harry is caught between them.

In the end, it’s too much for Harry to fight, and he solemnly says goodbye to his family, before the inevitable comes. Next thing, Harry is back in the Goblin gear and headed after Spidey, and he remembers everything.

Spidey and the Goblin fight, with Peter once more at a disadvantage, not wanting to hurt his friend.

Harry is able to get Spidey down for the count with a gas attack, and after the two friends share a moment and Harry struggles with his identity…

…Harry nails Spidey with one of his father’s hallucinogenic pumpkin bombs, setting Spidey off on an acid trip through his own childhood abandonment issues, resulting in a raving mad Spider-Man tearing up the joint, and knocking out Harry as well.

I’ll be honest. Usually, if someone tries to blend a lot of psychological child-abuse elements into a comic-book superhero story, I have very little patience with it. It almost always comes out shallow and preachy, and doesn’t really ring true. However, the themes do resonate well with these characters, since their pasts are so well established. Yes, naturally Peter Parker would have some abandonment issues, with his parents dying so young. And longtime AMAZING SPIDER-MAN readers saw first-hand the abusive relationship between the domineering, neglectful Norman Osborn and his son Harry. So here it works, especially under the light touch of writer J. Marc DeMatteis, who often injects a lot of psychological and touchy-feely themes in his work, with, for me anyway, mixed success. Here, though, DeMatteis hits the tone just right, cleverly contrasting the damaged childhoods of Peter, Harry and Vermin without dwelling overmuch on the details of the abuse or giving in to the overuse of psychobabble.

And while we’re talking creators, let’s hear it for Sal Buscema. Perennially overlooked among talk of the great Spidey artists, Sal put together an extremely reliable, satisfying, well-told run here on SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN in the ’90s, delivering handsomely rendered, communicative storytelling, (both pencils and inks, by the way — no small feat) with a creepy, moody style that meshed well with DeMatteis’ more emotional, psychological story arcs. Buscema particularly shined whenever the Goblin appeared, combining the elongated face and angles from the Ditko version with the wide, expressive eyes from John Romita’s Goblin, giving Harry’s Goblin a unique visage all his own.

As “The Child Within” ended, Peter and Harry are locked in battle once more, until Peter decides he’s just had enough, and refuses to fight his friend any longer:

Harry swoops in for the kill, but finds he can’t bring himself to do it:

Peter extends a hand of friendship, but Harry swats it away, still unable to make the leap back to the man he was. The Goblin leaves, but with a word of caution:

In the story’s heartbreaking epilogue, we see Harry return for a last moment with his family, before leaving once more to figure out his next move. This was the genius of DeMatteis and Buscema’s Green Goblin: as much as he was the bad guy, you were never able to really hate him.

As the months passed, Spidey never stopped searching for his missing friend, but with no luck. Unfortunately, Harry hadn’t been idle over the ensuing months, discovering his father’s Goblin formula, and subjecting himself to a new, experimental version of the treatment Norman Osborn underwent, granting him superhuman strength, and it seems, furthering his mental instability.

Harry made his big return in “The Osborn Legacy” in SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #189 (June 1992), not coincidentally the month of Spider-Man’s 30th anniversary. Harry makes his return known not only through playing some psychological mind games with Peter, dropping off a Goblin-in-the-Box with Aunt May and leaving an exploding Spider-man dummy in Peter and MJ’s bed, but also through kidnapping his family for a twisted Osborn family reunion, as his wife Liz, son Normie and brother-in-law Mark “the Molten Man” Raxton are forced to sit down to a formal dinner with the now clearly insane Harry, who’s taken to continually wearing his costume as a point of family pride.

Harry explains to his family that Norman’s mistake was neglecting his family, not his career as the Goblin, a mistake that Harry doesn’t intend to repeat.

Thanks to a spider-tracer planted on Raxton, Spidey tracks down Harry and family, but with Liz and Normie in the room, is hesitant to make any sudden moves toward Harry. In a powerful nod to the death of the original Goblin, Harry gets the drop on Spider-Man with his glider, but it doesn’t put Spider-Man out, and the two old friends clash once more, now evenly matched thanks to the Goblin formula.

Finally, Spidey has had enough, and kayos Harry, resigned to Harry telling the world his secret.

As Harry is led out by the cops, he screams to the collected onlookers, that he knows who Spider-Man is, and he’s going to tell the world–

Meanwhile, the aftereffects on the battle can be seen on little Normie’s face as he looks at Spider-Man:

Peter had a few quiet if uneasy months while Harry was locked up in the institution, while the police tried to pin his father’s crimes on him, with Peter just waiting for the day when Harry would reveal his secret. However, Peter suddenly had a lot more to worry about the day he came home to find a feverish Harry, freshly released for lack of evidence, sitting in Pete’s living room with his family.

It’s wonderfully subtle, both in the script and art, as the reader can’t tell if Harry is just toying with Peter and MJ or is genuinely happy to see them, at least at that moment. Later, while Peter freaks out and tries to find Harry, Harry kidnaps Mary Jane and takes her to that most overexposed piece of real estate in Spider-Man’s New York, the bridge where Gwen Stacy died. (Although, in their defense, this bit wasn’t quite so played out 12 years ago…) However, Harry’s not out to hurt MJ — he just wants to talk:

When Spidey returns home and sees Harry in his kitchen with MJ, he immediately attacks, but MJ intervenes, and Harry is soon on his way. In an attempt to drive Pete over the edge, Harry begins stalking Peter, just hovering behind him on the street while Pete’s in his civvies.

It’s really pretty creepy. When Pete confronts him, Harry lets him know what’s in store:

Next up, Harry heads to the Bugle (in full Goblin regalia), to let Jameson know about his newest project, the Norman Osborn Foundation, a charitable organization to do good works in his father’s name. However, later, an increasingly unhinged Harry, talking to his father’s portrait, lets slip the Foundation’s real purpose, to lure all of the city’s bigwigs and enemies of his father to the Osborn townhouse, which he’s got wired with explosives, to put Norman’s past to rest and “let the world know that there’s a new, even more ruthless Green Goblin in town.”

It all comes to a head in SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #200 (May 1993), by DeMatteis and Buscema.

While Harry is working late at the Osborn townhouse with little Normie, MJ stops by for a last attempt to talk some sense into their old friend. It’s to no avail, especially once Spidey arrives, looking for Harry.

Harry tells MJ to leave, then quickly dons his costume and rushes out to engage in battle with Pete. Spidey and the Goblin engage in their fiercest, most violent battle ever, and wind up in a stalemate, thanks to Harry’s Goblin formula.

Unluckily for Spidey, the Goblin cheats, poisoning him with a chemical designed to shatter his equilibrium, rendering Spider-Man unable to even stand. Harry decides to end their battle, triggering the timer on the explosives on the townhouse, so they’ll both die. As Harry talks to Peter, his dementia momentarily snaps, and he realized that it won’t just be them to perish, that MJ and little Normie are still in the townhouse as well. Spider-Man, who’s still paralyzed, begs Harry to at least save their loved ones, and Harry comes through.

Outside, MJ is shocked to learn that Peter is still trapped.

Harry saves his friend’s life after all, then collapses, his body at last succumbing to the ravages of the Goblin formula.

Peter and Harry share a moment…

…and then he’s gone.

Emotional, at times even sentimental, tense, exciting and disturbing: this is how to properly put to rest a long-running character.

J. Marc DeMatteis and Sal Buscema provide not only a proper sendoff for one of Spider-Man’s old friends, but also a fitting and worthy follow-up to the death of Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacy some twenty years earlier. Sure, the easy way out would have been to make Harry a cardboard cutout of a villain, much like his resurrected father is portrayed nowadays. Instead, DeMatteis and Buscema dared to tell a real story, grounded in human emotion, one which has far more resonance than all the cheap stunt events of recent months. Highly recommended.

As is often the way in comics, the impact of this story has been blunted by Harry’s resurrection in recent years, but it still holds up, in my humble opinion.

Unfortunately, these books aren’t collected, so you’ll need to do a little digging to put together the whole run, but I think you’ll find it’s worth the effort. If you have any questions about Harry Osborn, Norman Osborn or even little Normie, please send them here.

Click the button to your right to peruse The Karl Kesel Collection!

And you can own it! Click here for all the details!

And you can own it! Click here for all the details!

And it can be yours! Click here for all the details!