Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #25
Darkness Calling
Norman Osborn stands before his family estate and thinks about the first time he was brought here by his father, Amberson Osborn when Norman was only a boy. At the time, Norman was afraid of staying in the home alone overnight, but Amberson ordered the boy to start acting like a man. Reflecting back on this moment, Norman thinks about how right his father was and wishes he could go back and thank him for the experience. That’s when he sees a spider moving across the walkway he is about to stomp on it but stops himself. He picks up the spider and walks into his house, telling it that there is nothing to fear about in the darkness, least of all him.
Meanwhile, in Greenwich Village, Randy Robertson and Glory Grant are on a date when they are suddenly attacked by the Green Goblin. Evading a barrage of pumpkin bombs and finger blasts, the pair seek shelter in a nearby alley.[1] They are surprised when the Green Goblin abruptly leaves as soon as he arrived, making them wonder what it was all about. At that same moment, Peter Parker dreams about a day when he was very young. Peter asks his Uncle Ben if his parents are coming home. Ben tells Peter that his parents won’t be coming but he and Peter’s Aunt May will are proud of him.[2] Peter suddenly shoots up in age, and the teenager sees silhouettes coming into the door and thinks they are his parents. However, Ben and May tells him that it’s just the Watsons from next door. When Mary Jane Watson and her Aunt Anna enter the room, May remarks how Mary Jane is going to be a beauty. Now an adult, Peter tells his Uncle Ben that it’s not fair that his parents were never there for him. He admits that sometimes he imagines seeing them before he falls asleep at night as though they’ve finally come back but knows it’s only a trick of the light. He knows they’re never coming back as his aunt and uncle dress him in his Spider-Man costume. Peter wishes he could have known his father. That’s when Ben says that he’s always thought of Peter as the son he never had. Peter feels the same. He knows that Uncle Ben will be gone soon and asks how who will teach him things.[3] Ben assures Peter that he’ll be fine. Peter then walks into the light as his aunt and uncle tell him to go out and make them proud.
That’s when Peter wakes up and realizes he was dreaming the whole time. He feels even more exhausted than ever and wonders why he can’t seem to get a good night’s sleep. That’s when he hears Randy on the phone yelling at the police for not taking his report about the Green Goblin’s attack seriously. When the police hang up on him, Randy can’t believe the police don’t believe him. That’s when they notice that Peter left the apartment while they weren’t looking. Up on the roof, Peter changes into Spider-Man. No matter how exhausted he feels, if Norman Osborn is back, Spider-Man has to be there to stop him. As he swings through the city, Spider-Man can’t believe that Norman could be back so soon after the Gathering of Five ceremonies drove him mad,[4] and fears that he was too pre-occupied with Mary Jane’s death to see this coming.[5] He can’t believe he missed all the recent Goblin sightings recently.[6] Peter thinks about all the different people who have died as a result of the machinations of the Green Goblin.[7] Things are even more serious now after Norman Osborn led him to believe has was dead until recently.[8] Recalling how Norman Osborn hates J. Jonah Jameson as much as he hates Spider-Man, the wall-crawler decides to go to the Daily Bugle.[9] When he arrives at the Daily Bugle, Spider-Man realizes that he was too late as the Green Goblin has already come and gone.
He quickly goes to see J. Jonah Jameson and asks Jonah what the Green Goblin wanted. It’s Joe Robertson who answers, saying that the Goblin came looking for Spider-Man and his attack was fast and brutal. That only think Joe can say for certain is that there was something off about the Goblin this time. His voice sounded different and he didn’t seem quite so balanced on his Glider, as though it is someone else under the mask. That’s when Jameson becomes aware that Spider-Man is in the room and calls for the police, prompting the wall-crawler to flee. Spider-Man decides to follow another lead by going to the penthouse apartment of Liz Osborn and her son Normie. There he only finds young Normie Osborn, who is sitting at a window. He tells Spider-Man that he is waiting for the return of his father, pointing out that his grandfather always comes back, so it is only a matter of time before his father does as well. When Spider-Man asks if Normie’s grandfather has been by recently the boy says he comes by regularly and knows he’ll be back with his father. Spider-Man decides to stake things out and his request to stay and wait with Normie is accepted. From the building across the street, Norman Osborn observes this through binoculars and is pleased to see that things are going according to plan.
Eventually, Normie falls asleep and with no sign of Norman Osborn, Spider-Man decides to head to Queens to check in on Aunt May. As he changes back into Peter Parker, he starts feeling better as soon as he arrives at Aunt May’s home. He’s welcomed in with open arms and after a hefty meal, Peter starts to get tired and is invited to stay the night in his old room. As he gets ready for bed, Peter apologizes for not copying an album of Uncle Ben’s old barbershop quartet for Aunt May as he is constantly listening to it. She tells him not to worry about it, saying that she always remembers how Ben sang to her in real life. Peter ends up falling asleep listening to the album shortly thereafter.[10]
Peter begins dreaming he is in his Spider-Man costume standing in nothing but white void. Suddenly there is the sound of maniacal laughter as everything suddenly turns black. Peter wakes up to the sound of sirens and looks out the window. There’s a fire a few blocks away and Spider-Man goes to see what the cause is. He’s horrified to see that the fire was at the home owned by Arthur Stacy. Arthur and Jill are safe and trying to tell authorities they were attacked by the Green Goblin when Arthur realizes that his son Paul is still stuck in the house.[11] Spider-Man races in and finds Paul tied up with a pumpkin bomb strapped onto him. Spider-Man pulls off the bomb and manages to get Paul to safety before the bomb goes off. When the police attempt to arrest Spider-Man he is forced to flee the scene again. Knowing that Norman Osborn is up to something, Spider-Man calls out to him to show himself but gets nothing in response. As the wall-crawler swings away, Norman continues to observe him through binoculars and decides that his foe is ready for what will come next.
Meanwhile, Peter Parker leaves a note for his Aunt May making an excuse for leaving in the middle of the night and returns to his apartment. The place is deserted and when he checks the voice mail he finds messages from J. Jonah Jameson, Jill Stacy, and Betty Brant. [12] The last message is from Randy who says that he can’t stay home alone this evening after everything that happened. Peter realizes that Norman Osborn has finally succeeded on invading every aspect of his life. Peter decides that enough is enough and he will find Norman Osborn before he rests. Stopping in the bathroom to brush his teeth, Peter suddenly feels light-headed and realizes that someone has drugged his toothpaste. As the dizziness increases the reflection in the mirror changes from Peter Parker to Norman Osborn. Osborn reveals that he was responsible for drugging him and wondered how long it would take his foe to figure it out. His face then changes to that of the Green Goblin and Norman tells him that he has many more things planned for him. That’s when Peter Parker blacks out. The last words he hears is Norman Osborn telling him that Peter will make him proud.
When Peter wakes up next Norman Osborn has him out front of the old Osborn estate and tells Peter that he will spend the night inside, much like Norman did twice before. He tells Peter the first time he faced the darkness of the house was when he was young and the second time was —in a metaphorical sense — after he was impaled by his Goblin Glider years ago when he first faked his death. As Peter passes out again, he finds himself traveling through a swirling abyss of the past few dreams until he finally enters the darkness. As this is happening, the Green Goblin arrives outside the penthouse of Liz Osborn. After incapacitating the guards to get to young Normie. Face to face with the young Osborn boy, the Goblin tells him to come him, calling the boy son. Spider-Man soon wakes up inside the Osborn mansion and is goaded to search by Norman. When he hears Normie crying for help, Spider-Man searches the house frantically for the youth, fighting past to various traps that have been set. The whole time he is taunted on by Norman who tries to convince Peter that he is an Osborn.[13] He is lured to a massive doorway that has a bright light shining through on the other side. When Spider-Man grabs the door handle he is knocked unconscious with a massive jolt of electricity. When Peter wakes up in the rain again, he weakly asks Norman if there is a point to all of this. As Norman removes his Spider-Man mask, he tells Peter that he has finally come to the conclusion that Peter is the son that he always wanted and that he wanted to make him an Osborn. Then, putting a Goblin mask on Peter’s face, he tells Parker that he wasn’t the one in the Goblin costume recently, it was Peter the whole time. He then drags Spider-Man back into the Osborn mansion, telling him to join him in the darkness and to be a man, to be an Osborn.
This story is continued in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #25…
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Norman Osborn, Randy Robertson, Glory Grant, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, Normie Osborn, Aunt May, Arthur Stacy, Jill Stacy, Paul Stacy, Betty Brant (voice only)
Continuity Notes
Randy says here that he knew a previous nightmare he had about the Green Goblin meant something. This is a reference to Spider-Man: Revenge of the Green Goblin #1-3. In that series, the Green Goblin had been manipulating Peter Parker into becoming the Green Goblin with drug-laced toothpaste. One of the side effects was vivid nightmares about the Green Goblin. In the 3rd issue of that series, Randy borrowed some of Peter’s toothpaste and had similar dreams.
Peter’s parents, Richard and Mary Parker, died when Peter was still very young as we learned in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5.
What issue of Spider-Man is complete without a mention of dead Uncle Ben? Amazing Fantasy #15.
During the Gathering of Five story arc (Sensational Spider-Man #32, Amazing Spider-Man #440, Spider-Man #96, Spectacular Spider-Man #262, Sensational Spider-Man #33), Norman Osborn attempted to gain ultimate power. Instead, as we saw in the Final Chapter story arc, he got madness instead and was locked away (Amazing Spider-Man #441, Spider-Man #97, Spectacular Spider-Man #63, Spider-Man #98). How Norman returned to some semblance of sanity is detailed in Spider-Man: Revenge of the Green Goblin #1-3. Mention is also made how Norman Osborn knows Peter’s secret identity here. Norman has known Peter Parker is secretly Spider-Man since Amazing Spider-Man #39-40.
Mary Jane is believed to have died in a plane crash in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13. However, unknown to everyone she has survived as we’ll see in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #29.
Unknown to Peter he was the one going out as the Green Goblin as we’ve seen in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #23-24.
Peter specifically mentions Norman’s son Harry Osborn and his late girlfriend Gwen Stacy. Gwen was murdered by the Green Goblin years earlier in Amazing Spider-Man #121. Harry, on the other hand, eventually went insane and became the Green Goblin during a period when everyone thought Norman Osborn was dead. Harry seemingly died due to a side-effect from the goblin formula he ingested in Spectacular Spider-Man #200. Unknown to everyone at this time, Harry survived and was secreted away to Europe by his father as we’ll learn in Amazing Spider-Man #581.
Norman Osborn was believed to have died in Amazing Spider-Man #122. However, thanks to the healing properties of his goblin formula he survived as explained in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1. Norman later resurfaced in Amazing Spider-Man #412 and ultimately revealed his survival to Peter in Spider-Man #75, a story that ended in the death of Ben Reilly, Peter’s clone.
Upon his return from the dead, Norman Osborn forced J. Jonah Jameson to sell him part ownership of the Daily Bugle in Spectacular Spider-Man #249, threatening his family in order to do so. Apparently, after he went bat-shit crazy in Spider-Man #98 he gave up his ownership of the Bugle.
Peter says that this album recording is on CD and he is going to transfer it to tape for Aunt May. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 since cassette tapes are considered obsolete and CD’s are not quite the ubiquitous audio format they were when this story was first published.
Spider-Man recalls how the Stacy home was recently rebuilt after it was blown up previously. This happened in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #23.
Peter is depicted checking an old answering machine that uses a cassette tape to record messages. This should be considered a topical reference as these machines have become obsolete with the advent of voice mail.
Norman is depicted as taunting Spider-Man with recordings on miniature tape recorders. Their use here should also be considered topical. There’s a lot of out dated technology in this issue.
