Surrender to the Dark!

High above the George Washington Bridge, the Green Goblin holds up the lifeless body of Spider-Man. He is pleased that his foe is finally dead in the place where he should have died long ago.[1] Tossing the body into the river below, the Goblin returns to his hideout where he takes off his mask. At first, he is shocked to see the mask of Spider-Man underneath. However, he then accepts it, realizing that he and his foe are one in the same. As he comes to this realization the Spider-Man mask melts away to the face of Peter Parker which then melts away to the face of the Goblin.

Peter Parker wakes up so suddenly he literally leaps out of bed and realizes that this was yet another in a long line of disturbing dreams he has been having recently involving the Green Goblin. Now that the is awake, Peter decides to wash up before spending some time at the computer. As he prepares to brush his teeth he realizes that his roommate, Randy Robertson, has been using his toothpaste. That’s when Randy suddenly wakes up screaming. When Peter goes to check on his roommate, Randy tells him that he had a nightmare about the Green Goblin that was very similar to one Peter had a few nights ago.[2] As Peter tries to figure out what’s going on, he is unaware that he is being observed by the Green Goblin who has hacked into his computer’s webcam. Norman is pleased that the drugs he put in Peter’s toothpaste have dulled his spider-sense as well as causing him to have vivid nightmares. He thinks how his plans must remain a secret, recalling how Kolina Erickson, his live-in nurse, had almost stumbled upon them before it was time. He goes upstairs where Kolina is still sleeping after he accidentally tossed a gas bomb at her when she stumbled upon the secret room in his study. Seeing her like this reminds him of his late wife, Emily Osborn, and he hopes he didn’t find love again only to lose it so soon.[3] Luckily, Kolina wakes up and at first, she thinks she had a terrible nightmare until she realizes that things happened as she remembers them. Norman decides that there is no use hiding the truth any longer and admits to her that he is really the Green Goblin.

Back in the city, Peter Parker is woken back up by a call from Joe Robertson. Heading to the pier, he arrives just as a body is being pulled out of the water. Joe tells Peter that eyewitnesses saw the Green Goblin dump the body in the river in the middle of the night. Everyone is shocked to see that the body is wearing a Spider-Man costume. The man is unmasked and Joe recognizes him as Doctor Albert Bendix. However, he knows this man couldn’t be Spider-Man because he was involved in major malpractice trail a while back at the same time Spider-Man was reportedly fighting Thunderball.[4] This whole scene reminds him of the dream he had about the Green Goblin and wonders if its all some weird coincidence or if the Green Goblin is somehow behind all of this, although he has no idea how.

Back at the Osborn Mansion, Donald Menkin returned with another box of dermal patches for Norman. Donald becomes concerned when he sees members of the Order of the Goblin openly walking the halls, and after hearing that Kolina has discovered that Norman is the Green Goblin. When Norman tells Don to mind his own business leaving him to believe that his master must be due for a new patch. He decides to humor Osborn for now, hoping to become his new heir and take control of the Order of the Goblin. When Norman brings a meal to Kolina, she refuses it again. Donald decides to take this opportunity to work things to his advantage. He tells Kolina that she’s a foreigner to this country and is clearly upset by this situation, but he assures her that Norman has good reason to do what he does and asks her to give him a chance. Surprisingly, this works and Norman is pleased. Given the opportunity, Norman decides to tell her everything.

He reminds her how when he last talked about his family, he said that there were enemies everywhere. He tells her that one of the first enemies he had was his own partner, Mendel Stromm, who was caught embezzling from the company. With Stromm arrested, Norman took full control of the business and began working on a formula that Stromm had been working on. It exploded in his face, and when he woke up in the hospital Norman discovered that he gained superhuman abilities. He saw these new abilities as an allowance to do whatever he wanted even those against the law because he was more powerful than anybody.[5] Kalina realizes that the accident that gave him his powers is the reason for Norman’s insanity, however when she voices this he dismisses it to continue talking about his rise to power. He tells her how originally, he used his resources to create operatives to carry out his illegal operations but they were always foiled by Spider-Man.[6] He decided to take matters into his own hands, becoming the Green Goblin and clashing with Spider-Man on a number of occasions and eventually learning the wall-crawler’s secret identity.[7] He then used this knowledge to kill one of Spider-Man’s lover, the web-slinger in turn seemingly killed him also, but Norman came back.[8]

Kolina interrupts Norman’s ranting and ravings, having dismissed this as the result of his dermal patch running low. He becomes angry that she is doubting him and rips off his shirt to show her his scarred chest. Donald tells Norman that she can never understand, and he agrees at first but seeing Kolina cower in front of him one again reminds him of his late wife, Emily and he relents. Donald tries to impress his boss by shooting the nurse for him, but Norman won’t allow anyone to hurt her. Snapping Menkin’s arm he begins strangling him. Kolina tries to pull him off, applying a new patch in the process, telling him that if he truly loves her he’ll stop trying to kill Donald. As the drugs begin taking effect, Norman relents and when his minions enter the room he orders them to get Donald and Kolina to his estate in the Adirondack estate. Once they leave, he dismisses Donald as a heir, thinking him too weak, and also vows to make Kolina see things his way.[9] For now, Norman is going to focus on his revenge scheme as the next phase of his plan. Returning to his monitoring room, Norman watches as Peter Parker — in a hypnotic trance — goes to an abandoned theater where Norman has stashed some Goblin gear. He is pleased when Peter puts on the Goblin mask and deems Peter Parker the true heir to the Goblin Legacy.

This story continues in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #25 and Peter Parker: Spider-Man #25…

Recurring Characters

Green Goblin, Spider-Man, Kolina Frederickson, Randy Robertson, Joe Robertson, Donald Menkin, Order of the Goblin, Emily Osborn (flashback), Albert Bendix (corpse)

Continuity Notes

1. The scene of the George Washington Bridge is important to the Green Goblin because this was where he murdered Gwen Stacy as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #121. Per the Sliding Timescale, that battle happened about seven years prior to this story.

2. Peter had a similar dream to Randy in Spider-Man: Revenge of the Green Goblin #2.

3. Norman has been led to believe that Emily died not long after their son Harry was born. However, we’ll soon learn in Amazing Spider-Man #800 that Emily faked her own death in order to get away from her abusive husband.

4. The battle with Thunderball happened in Amazing Spider-Man #248. Per the Sliding Timescale, this happened about four years prior to this story.

5. Norman Osborn’s dealings with Mendel Stromm, the Goblin Formula, and his later discovering Spider-Man’s identity were all detailed in Amazing Spider-Man #39-40. However, the fact that Stromm created the Goblin Formula wasn’t detailed until Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1.

6. These operatives included Scorcher and the Headman in Untold Tales of Spider-Man #1 and 8 respectively.

7. Norman first became the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #14

8. Norman killed Gwen Stacy and then ended up on the business end of his own Goblin Glider in Amazing Spider-Man #121-122. His survival is detailed in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1.

Topical References

• Obsolete technology: Uncle Ben’s album being on CD, Peter having a computer with a CTR monitor.