Nick Peron

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Peter Parker: Spider-Man #½

Nick Peron

Glory Days

Spider-Man is swinging across the city looking for photos to take for the Daily Bugle when he spots the cornice of an old building beginning to crumble. With a little girl standing directly underneath the falling debris, Spider-Man swings in and tosses her to safety but is struck by the rubble in the process. Recovering, Spider-Man is taunted by the Green Goblin who tries to ambush him with a barrage of pumpkin bombs, but he manages to leap out of the way. Spider-Man can hardly believe that he is fighting the Green Goblin again so soon after their last battle.[1] Struggling with the Goblin, Spider-Man pulls off his mask and is shocked to discover that it is Harry Osborn under the mask and not his father. The wall-crawler is shocked because as far as he knew, Harry was dead.[2] That’s when Harry says everything is not as they seem and points out that nobody is paying attention to them. While the little girl is safe, it Spider-Man apparently did not survive as his body is still laying on the rubble that fell on top of him. Thinking he is dead, Spider-Man laments how he is supposed to meet up with Mary Jane in an hour.

While Spider-Man complains how this is not fair, he gets no sympathy from Harry who tells him not to start with him about what is fair and unfair. Putting back on his Goblin mask, he admits he doesn’t know what’s worse, being dead or watching life move on without him. He then takes Peter on a tour of his life. They first look back on his high school days when Peter Parker was teased by his peers for being a nerd. That all changed the day he was bitten by a radioactive spider and got his powers. Developing the identity of Spider-Man, Peter decided to go into show business. After a television appearance, he allowed a thief to escape without stopping him. This turned out to have dire consequences when that same burglar later shot his Uncle Ben in a botched home robbery. When Peter later caught the crook he realized his mistake and decided to use his powers to fight crime.[3]

As a superhero, Spider-Man had no shortage of foes to fight, the Goblin rhymes off many: the Vulture, Doctor Octopus, Kingpin, Kraven the Hunter, and the Scorpion. However, none of them was anything compared to the original Green Goblin, Harry’s father Norman. Of all their battles, Harry is particularly fond of a specific one and brings up the memory of the day that Norman Osborn murdered Gwen Stacy.[4] Seeing Gwen’s death play out again, Peter tries to stop it but to no avail since this is merely a memory replaying itself. Harry has heard that the other members of the Stacy family have appeared in his life again and muses about how co-dependency is an ugly affection.[5] Peter tells Harry to get to the point.

Harry begins to detail how the most prevalent foes in his life were Goblins. His father, the original Green Goblin fought Peter many times until his alleged death following Gwen Stacy’s murder.[6] Later, Harry was driven mad by the revelation that his father was the Green Goblin and took on the mantle himself for a time.[7] Then there was the Hobgoblin who Spider-Man fought many times, although Harry isn’t entirely clear who it is under the mask.[8] He last brings up their final battle, where Harry allegedly died. Peter demands to know what he’s going on about since they are both dead. However, Harry raises the question about his mortality, pointing out that there were many others in his past he thought were dead only to discover they had survived. He reminds Peter about the clone he thought was dead until much recently, as well as his Aunt May who he was also tricked into thinking was dead, and lastly, Harry’s own father, the Green Goblin who revealed that he had been alive all along after all these years.[9] The Goblin muses over how the whole clone fiasco had Peter doubting his true identity, but he is glad that his father sorted it out.[10]

By this point, Peter has had enough and the Goblin finally explains that Peter is dead and the legacy of Spider-Man will die with him. Peter refuses to accept this and attacks the Goblin.[11] He’s convinced that this is all an illusion and this seems to be supported when their battlefield begins to fill with mist. When it clears, Spider-Man spots the Spider-Man of the year 2099.[12] They watch as Spider-Man 2099 fights his own realities version of the Goblin.[13] They then tumble further in time where they see the Spider-Man of 2211 fighting the Goblin of his time as well.[14] Realizing that the battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin will go on for centuries, Harry becomes furious and demands to know when it will all end. Spider-Man says he’ll never quit fighting and suddenly wakes up in the pile of rubble. He tells the gathered crowd that he is fine and swings away dismissing his entire experience as nothing more than a dream.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man

Continuity Notes

  1. He is referring to the battle against the Green Goblin during the Final Chapter story arc which ended with Norman Osborn going mad and being committed.

  2. Harry seemingly died due to a side effect from the Goblin Formula in Spectacular Spider-Man #200. However, unknown to Peter at this time, Harry is still alive and has been whisked away to Europe as revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #581. This is obviously not the ghost of Harry Osborn. One can assume that this is all a dream that Peter is having as opposed to his being in the afterlife.

  3. Yes, this yet another reference of Amazing Fantasy #15. In this flashback, Spider-Man is depicted appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding TImescale of Earth-616, particularly since Letterman stopped hosting the show in 2015.

  4. Norman Osborn murdered Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man #121.

  5. Arthur Stacy, Gwen’s uncle, decided to move his family back to New York City in Spider-Man #70. Peter would later meet Gwen’s cousins Jill and Paul Stacy in Spider-Man #76 and Amazing Spider-Man #421 respectively.

  6. Norman Osborn seemingly died in Amazing Spider-Man #122, when he was impaled by his own Goblin Glider. As revealed to Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1 reveals, Norman survived due to the healing properties of his Goblin Formula. He would later resurface in Amazing Spider-Man #412.

  7. Harry first became the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #136-137. He would become the Green Goblin intermittently over the years acting as both hero and villain until his alleged death in Spectacular Spider-Man #200.

  8. Spider-Man first fought the Hobgoblin in Amazing Spider-Man #238. Everyone was led to believe that the Hobgoblin was actually Ned Leeds after Jason Macendale hired the Foreigner to murder him and take the Hobgoblin identity. That happened in Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1 and Amazing Spider-Man #289. As later revealed in Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives #1-3, the real Hobgoblin was actually Roderick Kingsley, who later brainwashed Ned Leeds into thinking he was the Hobgoblin and took Kingsley’s place prior to his murder.

  9. Harry is encapsulating all the bullshit storylines of the early 90s. Buckle up!

    • He first mentions Peter’s clone, Ben Reilly. Peter first fought his clone to the supposed death in Amazing Spider-Man #149. However, Ben survived and would resurface again in Web of Spider-Man #114 leading into the shitshow we all know as the Clone Saga. At this time, Peter believes that Reilly is dead after he was impaled with a Goblin Glider in Spider-Man #75. However, he will turn up alive again in 2016’s Free Comic Book Day: Captain America #1. His survival is detailed in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 4) #22.

    • Aunt May suffered a stroke in Amazing Spider-Man #391. As revealed in Spider-Man #96, Norman Osborn had May replaced by an actress who was altered to resemble Aunt May. It was this imposter who died in Amazing Spider-Man #400. Peter rescued May during the Final Chapter story arc.

    • We’ve already gone over how Norman Osborn cheated death. Peter wouldn’t find out that Norman was still alive until Spider-Man #75.

  10. The Jackal had convinced Peter Parker that he was the clone and that Ben Reilly was the real Peter Parker in Spectacular Spider-Man #226. While this was originally the Jackal’s scheme, it was screwed up by Norman Osborn. Originally, the Jackal wanted the clone to take Peter Parker’s place, but the equipment he used to tell the difference between the real Parker and clone was tampered with by Seward Trainer, someone indebted to Osborn’s allies the Brotherhood of the Scriers. Anyway, the Jackal was left thinking his scheme was going according to plan and Seward Trainer was around during the Clone Saga to make sure to keep up the deception on top of the deception after the big reveal. Peter finally learned the truth of course after the aforementioned Goblin Glider parked itself on Ben Reilly’s lower back in Spider-Man #75.

  11. The Goblin says that Peter couldn’t hack it as an Avenger. At the time of this story, Peter tried to become a member of the Avengers on three different occasions. The first time was in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3, he refused to capture the Hulk as an initiation into the group. The second time was in Avengers #236-237, however, after an adventure in space, he found the Avengers to be out of his league. He did accept reserve Avengers status in Avengers #329, but nothing much came of it. Peter wouldn’t become a regular member of the Avengers until New Avengers #1.

  12. Spider-Man met his 2099 counterpart in Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man #1.

  13. Spider-Man 2099 first faced his own version of the Goblin in Spider-Man 2099 #40.

  14. Spider-Man 2099 meets Spider-Man #1 again.