Amazing Spider-Man #238
Shadow of Evils Past!
Peter Parker is joining his Aunt May and Nathan Lubensky at the tax authority of New York in order to get Aunt May's license to operate as a special-status landlady for her boarding house for the elderly from her home. Peter's musings about it being the home where Spider-Man grew up causes him to think back to his youth growing up in that home with Aunt May and his Uncle Ben. From there he recalls how he got his spider-powers and the death of Uncle Ben, something Peter still blames himself over because he could have caught the crook responsible days earlier. Peter then thinks how great Nathan Lubinski has been for his Aunt, as he had invested his own savings to help May get her home off the ground. With all the paperwork filed away, the trio decides to go an celebrate. Out on the street, Peter's spider-sense begins to go off and he narrowly avoids a car speeding out of an alleyway. Soon a police car pulls up and asks if they are okay, and to explain that the speeding car is involved in a bank robbery. Furious that his Aunt May and her fiancee almost got hurt, Peter tells them that he needs to go and rushes off.
Peter quickly changes into Spider-Man and hitches a ride on the pursuing police car. Needing the money, he webs his camera onto the flashers on the police car to snap action photos for the Daily Bugle. Spider-Man then leaps across to the evading car and smashes his way inside. This forces the crooks to crash their car. However, one of them, George Hill, is thrown clear from the car and he tries to escape. Spider-Man follows after him but is briefly disorientated when George tosses a smoke bomb at him. This doesn't stop Spider-Man from spotting his escape down a manhole cover. Spider-Man follows after him into the sewers. Fearing capture, George wonders what to do next when he suddenly leans on a secret door. Finding the air inside fresher than the sewers, George goes inside, losing Spider-Man. The wall-crawler returns to the surface empty-handed and follows up with the police before heading off, grabbing his camera along the way. Unknown to Spider-Man, he was not far from an Osborn Manufacturing building. While below the surface, George explores the strange tunnel that he discovered and is shocked when it leads him to a secret room containing the equipment of the Green Goblin.
Meanwhile, Aunt May and Nathan return home and is disappointed that there are no messages for her upon her arrival. When she enters the house, the phone begins to ring. May answers it hoping that it is her nephew Peter, but it turns out to be her longtime friend Anna Watson who has been living in Florida. Anna congratulates May on starting her boarding house and tells her that Mary Jane has been staying with her for a while. At that very moment, Peter Parker has returned to his apartment and tries to call Aunt May but discovers that the line is busy. With his new photos developed he takes them to the Daily Bugle. There, Joe Robertson is impressed with Peter's photos, telling the young photographer that they are his best yet. Peter tries to call Aunt May again, but the line is still busy. When Joe tells the copyboy to take the pictures to be printed, the copyboy mentions the chase ended at the Osborn facility. This causes Peter to recollect his old nemesis, Norman Osborn the original Green Goblin and how he had learned Peter's secret identity. As he thinks about how Osborn was responsible for the death of Gwen Stacy, his thoughts are interrupted by the very generous check for the photos. Joe then offers to give Peter a ride back out to Forest Hills to see his Aunt.
At that moment, George Hill takes a mysterious man to the Green Goblin's underground hideout. The man is very interested to find the Goblin's old equipment and journals and tells George to load it all up into his van. Shortly thereafter, Joe Robertson and Peter are on their way to Forest Hills. As Joe tells Peter not to be a stranger as he focuses more and more on his studies, they hear a radio report about a fire that has broken out at the Osborn Manufacturing Plant. There, Peter discovers that Lance Bannon beat him to the fire to take photos. When Joe questions the firemen on the scene about the source of the fire, they say it started in a room that was not on any of the blueprints. With the fire put out, Peter asks to go inside and check it out. Granted access, Peter looks at the secret room and recognizes it as one of the places where the Green Goblin stashed his equipment. Peter worries that he knows who might have looted the room.
Joe then gets a call from Aunt May for Peter, and he tells her that he will meet her for dinner and tells Joe that he is going to walk the rest of the way. As he leaves, Peter worries that the crook he chased into the sewers was the one who found the Goblin's old lair. Later that evening in the South Bronx, George Hill has finished emptying out the equipment from the van for his employer. The mystery man tells George to dispose of the van, but as he drives away his employer sets it to explode, killing George. Inside his home, the man has dyed the Green Goblin costumes to suit his needs. Trying out the equipment, and is impressed by Norman Osborn's inventive genius. With a new mask molded, the man dresses himself up in his new costume and intends to use his newfound power to continue where Norman Osborn left off. However, this man proclaims that the Green Goblin is dead, and calls himself the Hobgoblin.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Hobgoblin, Auny May, Nathan Lubensky. Joe Robertson, Betty Brant, Lance Bannon, Arthur Chekov, Martha Lund, Sophie Lund, Anna Watson, Mary Jane Watson
Continuity Notes
There are many references to Aunt May starting up a boarding house for the elderly. That happened in Marvel Team-Up #124.
Hearing about the Osborn Manufacturing plant causes Peter Parker to recall how his old foe the Green Goblin learned his secret identity (Amazing Spider-Man #39), and how the Goblin responsible for the death of Gwen Stacy (Amazing Spider-Man #121).
Everyone believes that Norman Osborn is dead, after his apparent demise in Amazing Spider-Man #122. However, as revealed in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1, Norman survived. He will resurface in Amazing Spider-Man #412.
The true identity of the Hobgoblin is not revealed until Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives #3. It’s Roderick Kingsley.
