#Hobgoblin

Spider-Girl has not been able to get the Red Hulk out of her mind. This is because she still blames him for the death of her father, even though it was due to the machinations of an organization called the Raven Society. She is returning home after saving people caught in a car crash. This gets her thinking about how she could have saved her father’s life had she acted. Now she is worried about the blood and oil on her costume.

That’s when she hears her roommate, Rocky Flint, scream. Throwing on a housecoat, she checks on Rocky. Her roommate got upset watching the latest news footage about the Hobgoblin. It has caused her to have nightmares about her mother who, three years prior, was killed during a battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. In the dream, Rocky’s mother, a bike courier, is delivering a black envelope with her name on it as a giant Green Goblin looms over the city. Rocky tries to stop her mother from going but wakes up before she can catch her.

Life pretty much goes back to normal from here. Anya returns to classes at Milton Summers High School, which she finds boring. She manages to have fun during her free period by sharing some of the steamier translations she has had to do for her job. After class she spots an old man eyeing her from the down the street. She tells Rocky and Rikki that this is one of her father’s friends and goes to talk to him. However, she knows that this is actually the Red Hulk and his presence is not welcome, so she asks him what he wants. He tells her that with the information she provided from her father’s files he was able to attack a base belonging to the Raven Society. He was able to get some more files but nothing in them stood out to him and asks her to look them over to see if she notices anything he might have missed. As he leaves, Anya tells him not to hang around her school. The Hulk tells her that he would have visited her at her home but her neighbor across the hall is kept spying on him, something he found creepy.

Anya then pays a visit to the Future Foundation at the Baxter Building. It feels weird for her to be there without her father, and more so as Spider-Girl. However, she has to be here because an interview had been arranged by the Invisible Woman, who tells Anya that this is part of being a super-hero. Soon, Norah Winters of the Daily Bugle arrives with her cameraman, Phil Urich. While Anya thinks Winters is cool, she gets a creepy vibe from Urich. During the interview, Norah is interested in knowing how Spider-Girl fights crime without any powers. Anya says that she trains all the time, leaving Norah to think that it take someone really impressive to beat her.[1] Urich, who is secretly the Hobgoblin, decides it’s time to show Norah something impressive.

Later that day, Screwball uses her website to issue another challenge to Spider-Girl. Watching it, Anya isn’t overly concerned about the challenge. That evening she goes out as Spider-Girl and takes down a mugger. She then heads to Times Square when there are reports that the Hobgoblin has been sighted there. She manages to catch up with the Hobgoblin after stopping and asking people which way he went. The Goblin is surprised it took her so long to find him since he had been taunting her on social media all night. When Spider-Girl goes to attack him, the Hobgoblin unleashes his sonic laugh causing Anya a great deal of pain.[2]

As Spider-Girl tries her best to fight back against the Hobgoblin, Spider-Man happens by a television broadcasting the fight. Deciding that Spider-Girl is in over her head, the web-slinger heads to her location to lend a hand. By this time, Spider-Girl has managed to snatch away the Hobgoblin’s bag of weapons. As she slipped away she also managed to tie her bolo’s rope around him and attach it to a lamp post. Goating the Goblin into charging at her, she waits for her trap to be spring. That’s when Spider-Man arrives on the scene and, thinking Anya is in trouble, pushes her out of the Hobgoblin’s path. That’s when Spider-Girl’s trap is sprung, sending the Hobgoblin crashing to the ground. It’s only after the Hobgoblin has recovered and escaped that Spider-Man realizes that Anya had the situation under control and he screwed up her chance of bagging their foe.

Later, Spider-Man admits that he is impressed with how Anya handled herself but warns her against doing something like challenging the Hobgoblin without his help. She then tells him about the files she got from the Red Hulk and will call on him to help her shut down the Raven Society once she goes over the documents.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Girl, Hobgoblin, Rocky Flint, Rikki Barnes, Future Foundation (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing), Norah Winters, Spider-Man, Red Hulk, Screwball

Continuity Notes

1. It’s mentioned here that Spider-Girl does not have any super-powers. Anya lost her powers in Spider-Man/Araña: The Hunter Revealed #1.

2. Anya recalls hearing about the Hobgoblin’s sonic scream from Spider-Man. At the time of this story, the web-slinger had recently fought the Hobgoblin in Amazing Spider-Man #649.

Topical References

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