Lives in the Balance!

The Green Goblin addresses his loyal followers who have reinvented themselves as the Order of the Goblin. Osborn tells his followers of all of the moments that have led to this moment of near victory. He tells them how years ago he was believed to have died when he was impaled with his own Goblin Glider while fighting Spider-Man.[1] He survived, however, thanks to the Goblin Formula in his blood that allowed him to recover from these otherwise fatal injuries. He relocated to Europe and let the world think he was dead. It was there that he stumbled upon the Brotherhood of the Scrier, moving up in their ranks until he killed their leader and usurped the organization for his own ends.[2] However, he was recently set back with his recent bout of insanity,[3] allowing someone calling himself the “True Scrier” lead a group of usurpers contrary to his goals.[4] However, he tells his loyal followers that they no longer need these traitors who can keep their organization’s old name as they are now the Order of the Goblin, devoted to the destruction of Spider-Man. As his followers cheer, Norman tosses someone in a Spider-Man costume into the crowd where he is savagely beaten to death. However, this is not Peter Parker but Albert Bendix the doctor who successfully cured Noman of his insanity.

After the meeting, Norman confides in his assistant, Donald Menkin, and admits that he has been thinking a lot about his mortality and how he does not have a suitable heir now that Harry is dead, and considers his grandson Normie too young to suit his purposes.[5] Donald assures his master that he’ll make sure Norman stays good and health and is confident that he’ll destroy Spider-Man before his mortality is a concern. Norman thanks Donald for his loyalty and dismisses him.

Meanwhile, Peter Parker is in his apartment brushing his teeth at the end of the night when he suddenly sees the Green Goblin looking back at him in the mirror. Shaking his head the image disappears and Peter dismisses this as the product of too much stress. However, the Goblin leaps out of the mirror and tackles him to the ground. Unable to believe this, Peter struggles with the Goblin. When he yanks off the mask, he is shocked to see his own Spider-Man mask underneath. Norman tells Peter that this shouldn’t be a surprise because he’s his own worst enemy and that they all wear masks. To demonstrate this, Norman pulls off Peter’s face — yet another mask — revealing the face of the Green Goblin underneath. Peter suddenly wakes up and realizes that it was all some strange nightmare. As he gets ahold of himself, Peter wonders what could have trigged such a horrible dream. In his bathroom, unseen by Peter the left-over toothpaste on his toothbrush glows in the dark as it drips onto the floor.

Back at his mansion, Norman Osborn gloats over how easy it was to plant the drugged toothpaste that will not only give him nightmares but deaden his spider-sense. With the death of his wife, Mary Jane, Norman figures that the time to attack Spider-Man is fast approaching as his enemy is currently at his weakest.[6] He figures it will still be another few days before beginning the next phase of his plan. Sitting alone in his darkened study, Norman is joined by his live-in nurse Kolina Frederickson who has come to check on him. When she asks if they can go into the city so she can see some of the sights, he tells her that it’s not time, warning her that he has enemies and he doesn’t want them to learn about his romance with her until he’s certain that he can protect her. He apologizes, saying that his family has always had enemies dating back to his great-grandfather, Alton Osborn who built the very mansion they are living in. The Osborn name brought wealth and power for generations until his father, an abusive alcoholic, caused the family to lose their fortune, even the family home. Norman explains that he has spent his entire life rebuilding his family fortune and taking back everything that was taken away from him. As his anger begins to grow, Norman tells her that there have always been enemies around every corner trying to stop him from achieving his goals. Seeing that he is getting upset, Kolina tells Norman to calm himself, making him realize that she does care. This makes Osborn think about the last woman who cared about him this deeply, his late wife, Emily Osborn. He remembers how Emily always used to tell him to remain calm, telling him that she didn’t marry him for his family name or it’s legacy, but because she loved him.[7] Snapping out of his memories of the past, Norman suggests that he and Kolina go on a vacation. Norman thinks to himself that now he also has the love of a woman again, thinking about how he will also soon destroy his greatest enemy he begins to grin.

In the city, Spider-Man is swinging across the city, thinking about how great he’d feel if he wasn’t so tired. When he almost swings into a construction crane without so much of a warning from his spider-sense, Peter begins to worry that his early warning sense is starting to fail him. Deciding to play it safe, Peter ducks into the roof access of a building to change into his street clothes. He then decides to pay a visit to Aunt May. There he adds a photo of Nathan Lubensky to the group of family photos May has, saying it’s about time he gets a place among photos of Uncle Ben and Mary Jane.[8] Peter can’t help but remark how beautiful Mary Jane looked in their wedding photo. May can understand Peter’s feelings, telling him that the death of a loved one, especially one so suddenly leaves a pain that never really goes away. May suggests they go sit out on the porch and she starts telling him stories from a happier time. She tells Peter how his Uncle Ben used to sing and was in a trio with one of the neighbors down the street. She then gives him a copy of some of Ben’s music that she can’t listen to on her setup. Peter takes the recording and promises he’ll convert it into a format her set up can play.

Returning to his apartment, Peter falls asleep listening to Uncle Ben’s singing and dreams about being in a 50s era night club. After Ben and his trio are finished singing, Ben introduces Peter to the band leader, who appears to be Norman Osborn. Norman tells Peter that he is glad to see him and that he should stop by the club more often. Peter wakes up in a hypnotic trance and puts on his Spider-Man costume, and still dreaming, is instructed to come to the “club”. Spider-Man instead web-slings to an abandoned warehouse where a number of pumpkin bombs are releasing gas into the room.

Back at Osborn’s mansion, Kolina comes to Norman’s study looking for him again and discovers that one of the bookshelves has been pushed aside revealing a secret passage. Curious, she decides to go down and see what’s on the other side. Down below, Norman is dressed as the Green Goblin and monitoring Spider-Man. He is happy that everything is going according to plan. When Kolina arrives and sees Norman’s costume she screams. Reacting instinctively, Norman tosses a pumpkin bomb at her. Realizing what he’s done, Norman rushes to her side and tries to shield her from the gas since he is immune to it. Telling her that he loves her, Norman begins to cry as he screams out her name.

Recurring Characters

Green Goblin, Spider-Man, Brotherhood of the Scrier/Order of the Goblin, Donald Menkin, Kolina Frederickson, Aunt May, Albert Bendix, (in flashback) Alton Osborn, Ambrose Osborn, Emily Osborn

Continuity Notes

1. Norman was seemingly killed on the business end of his Goblin Glider in Amazing Spider-Man #122. Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, that event happened roughly seven years prior to this story.

2. Norman’s survival, relocation to Europe, and his subsequent membership and hostile takeover of the Brotherhood of Scriers was all detailed in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1.

3. Norman’s insanity was his gift during the Gathering of Five story arc, he then attempted to battle Spider-Man during the Final Chapter arc but his insanity proved to be his undoing. See Sensational Spider-Man #32-33, Amazing Spider-Man #440-441, Spider-Man #96-98, and Spectacular Spider-Man #262-263.

4. The so-called True Scrier attempted to regain control of the Brotherhood in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 1999.

5. At the time of this story, everyone thinks Harry died due to complications from his own exposure to the Goblin Formula in Spectacular Spider-Man #200. In reality, Harry survived and his father sent him off to Europe to undergo rehabilitation. With the help of Mysterio he faked Harry’s death and is going so far as to pretend that Harry is dead to maintain this illusion as explained in Amazing Spider-Man #581-582. Harry will turn up alive again in Amazing Spider-Man #545.

6. Some facts about Mary Jane in this story:

   • She is referred to as Peter’s wife here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. In the new timeline, Peter and Mary Jane are engaged, but not married. As such, Norman would refer to her as Peter’s fianceé instead of wife.

   • At the time of this story everyone believes Mary Jane died in a plane crash in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13. However, she is actually the prisoner of a deranged stalker as we’ll learn when Peter saves her in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #29/Peter Parker: Spider-Man #29.

7. Noman thinks about Emily Osborn here as though she is dead as that was what he was led to believe. In reality, Emily faked her death to escape her abusive husband as we’ll find out in Amazing Spider-Man #800.

8. Some facts about the people in the dead people in photos seen here:

• Uncle Ben was May Parker’s husband before he was shot in a home invasion in Amazing Fantasy #15. You remember that, right?

• Nathan Lubensky was a man that May dated from Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #47 until he died of heart failure in Amazing Spider-Man #336.

• There is a photo of Peter and Mary Jane’s wedding here. In the original timeline, they got married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. In the new timeline one could assume that the wedding photo was replaced with a different phot of the couple.

Topical References

• Uncle Ben’s album is depicted as being recorded on a CD and Peter promises to convert it to cassette tape so May can listen to it. This should be considered topical since cassette tapes are considered obsolete while CD’s are not as ubiquitous as they were when this comic was published in the year 2000, as digital and streaming music have since become more commonplace. Modern readers could interpret this to mean that the music was recorded on whatever the most current music format while May has whatever the last generation of medium that was being used at any given time.

• Ben’s music is depicted as a musical trio that has a back-up band playing instruments. In Peter’s dream he envisions a 50s era night club. I think it’s safe to assume that this style and genre of music was used because at the time of publication it wasn’t impossible to consider Ben Parker being a musician in the 50s when that style was popular. However, due to the Sliding Timescale that becomes impossible. One could assume that while Ben still snag the same genre of music, he didn’t do so in the 1950s or some undisclosed era prior to the beginning of the Modern Age. The 50s night club scene Peter dream about the nightclub could be less associated with Ben living in that particular era and more the era in which the genre of music is generally associated with.