Superior Spider-Man #31
Amazing
The Goblin King has kidnapped Anna Maria Marconi to use as a hostage against Spider-Man. He has taken her up onto a rooftop so he can show her what his Goblin Nation has done to the city.
Meanwhile, at Parker Industires, Peter Parker has reclaimed his body and exiting his lab he meets with Sajani Jaffrey who asks him to leave and deal with the Goblins invading the city, since his presence will bring them here. However, Spider-Man learns that Carlie Cooper had just recently been cured thanks to a cure for the Goblin Formula that was created when Otto Octavius controlled his body.[1] He then tells Sajani to develop more antidotes while he talks to Cooper in private.[2]
Once they are in private, Peter pulls off his mask and proves that he is back in control of his body by reminding her of his encounter with her while trapped in Doc Ock’s body, shortly after Octavius stole his life.[3] He tells her how he needs to save Anna Maria Marconi and has Carlie give him the short version of what’s been going on. Cooper details how the Goblin Nation hacked the spider-bots that Otto Octavius put all over the city making them invisible to his detection.[4] Spider-Man soon goes out into the city and as he webs up members of the Goblin Nation he makes a call to his Aunt May. He is pleased to hear that Mary Jane got her out of New York when the chaos began. He assures her that he is safe and feels better than ever before ending the call. Overhearing this, Mary Jane’s new boyfriend Pedro remarks that Peter flipped from total jerk to the sweetest guy on the planet. Mary Jane shrugs this off as just the way her ex-boyfriend is.[5]
Meanwhile, J. Jonah Jameson is trashing his office, furious that his new Spider-Slayer robots were hacked and now destroying his city. Jameson blames himself for allowing this to happen but vows to take Alchemax — the company that made the robots — goes down with him. However, footage of the Spider-Slayers clashing with New York’s superheroes — including the Avengers — is being shared with government leaders all over the world by Alchemax’s Tiberius Stone, who begins taking bids on providing these robots to other countries.
Back at Empire State University, Spider-Man saves his counterpart from 2099, who was left by Otto Octavius to fight an army of Spider-Slayer’s alone.[6] Spider-Man 2099 is furious at Parker, but after a quick explanation of what happened, Miguel O’Hara agrees to help Parker stop the Goblins from trashing the city. The pair then arrive on the scene where the Avengers are battling the Spider-Slayer robots. They are having trouble because the Goblin Knight has arrived and begins attacking them with his sonic laugh. Luckily, the two Spider-Men arrive and force the Knight to retreat.[7] The encounter allows Spider-Man to triangulate where the Knight is getting his instructions and traces it back to an old Oscorp building. He then leaves the Avengers to finish cleaning up the Spider-Slayers while he and Spider-Man 2099 go after the Goblin Knight.[8]
As they head to the Oscorp building, Spider-Man is surprised to see that it has renamed. Spider-Man 2099 quickly explains how Alan Chemical merged with Oscorp to become this new company, which will be a part of his future.[9] As they arrive, Menace ambushes them and, unaware of the changes Spider-Man has undergone, begins strangling Spider-Man 2099 figuring that the wall-crawler is more concerned with the Goblin King to save his friend’s life. However, Spider-Man quickly ambushes her and, after webbing Menace up, injects her with the cure for the Goblin Formula. Hearing laughter from the head office, the two Spider-Men go check it out. There they find Normie Osborn, who tells them that this is all being done for him. That’s when Liz Osborn and Tiberius Stone re-enter the room and tell the Spider-Men that the Goblin is on the roof. Ever trecherous, Tiberius takes the opportunity to use one of his hand-held spider-sense jammers to attack Spider-Man.[10] Luckily, Spider-Man 2099 doens’t have a spider-sense and he quickly knocks Stone out. Liz quickly explains how the Goblin forced her to help. Spider-Man then has his future counterpart take Liz and the others to safety leaving him to face the Goblin alone, a battle that has been a long time coming.
When he arrives on the roof, the Goblin King is prepared for the final battle, still thinking that Otto Octavius is still in command of Spider-Man’s body. However, he quickly deduces that the real Spider-Man is back when the web-slinger makes a joke about his satchel. Since he hadn’t planned on this, the Goblin activates the timed pumpkin bombs he has strung all over the roof and tries to escape. When Spider-Man goes after him, the Goblin is surprised that the web-slinger is going after her instead of saving the Marconi woman. However, Spider-Man has anticipated that the Goblin would throw one of his razor bat and when it strikes the wall near Anna Maria who begins using the blade to cut through the ropes that bind her hands.
Up in the air, Spider-Man quickly disarms the Goblin and pulls his mask off. He is shocked when he sees the face of a complete stranger looking back at him. However, this man assures him that he is Norman Osborn, and that he had undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance because his face is too well known. He also tells Spider-Man how he forced Liz to do his bidding under the guise of Mason Banks, her supposed bodyguard. Although Norman swatted away Spider-Man’s syringe of Goblin cure, Spider-Man’s main purpose of pulling off Osborn’s mask was so that the mini-spider bots he unleashed could detect him. They the begin swarming Norman and injecting him with another dose of the cure for the Goblin Formula. Spider-Man then leaps off the Goblin Glider to save Anna Maria just as she jumps off the building to escape the exploding pumpkin bombs.
Stripped of his powers, Norman can’t control his goblin glider and soon begins to fall himself. Spider-Man then swings in and rescues him, telling his old foe that as long as Spider-Man is around, nobody dies, not even Osborn. When they get to the ground, Liz Osborn activates the spider-sense jammer allowing Osborn to break free and escape. Liz insists that it was an involuntary action caused by seeing that the Goblin was Mason Banks. Spider-Man assures his future self that Liz is telling the truth since they go way back, but privately he is concerned that there is something off about both Liz and her son, Normie.[11]
Osborn manages to flee into a subway tunnel and escape in one of the Goblin Nation’s subway trains. He is pleased that he accomplished what he set out to do: to ensure his grandson’s future with Alchemax. He also gloats because his enemies think that the lack of the Goblin Formula has naturalised him as a threat. However, he has also been cured of his insanity and woe to his enemies in the future because they will never see what he has in store for them now.
In the aftermath of the battle, Spider-Man thanks his future counterpart who then swings off to resume his new life in the modern age.[12] That’s when the Avengers arrive to take control of the scene, which is unsurprising to the web-slinger since it’s a typical case of the Parker luck. That’s when he checks on Anna Maria Marconi and assures her that Peter Parker is alive and well.[13] She then collapses in relief, and she tearfully tells Spider-Man that she cares deeply for him. As paramedics take Anna Maria off to get check out, Peter feels terrible when he sees how much she loved Otto Octavius. He realizes that his boast that nobody dies while he was around was wrong, because for him to be here, someone had to die.[14]
The story continues in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 3) #1….
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Goblin King, Goblin Knight, Menace, Anna Maria Marconi, Sajani Jaffrey, Carlie Cooper, Spider-Man 2099, Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Wolverine, Spider-Woman), Aunt May, Jay Jameson, Mary Jane Watson, Pedro Olivera, J. Jonah Jameson, Cardiac, Wraith
Continuity Notes
Carlie was exposed to the Goblin Formula in Superior Spider-Man #24. Otto developed a cure in Superior Spider-Man #29. Carlie was injected with it in Superior Spider-Man Annual #2.
Sajani suggests that Spider-Man shoot his enemies in the head or beat them on webcam. This is a reference to two of the more brutal things Otto did as Spider-Man. He killed Massacre in Superior Spider-Man #5. In the following issue he brutally beat Screwball and the Jester while they were live streaming their attack on Spider-Man.
Otto stole Peter Parker’s life in Amazing Spider-Man #698-700. In issue #700, Peter (trapped in Otto’s dying body) confronted Carlie and tried to tell her the truth and she tried to shoot him. However, this instance as well as Spider-Man’s bizarre change in behavior caused her to start investigating him in Superior Spider-Man #3 and she ultimately learned the truth in issue #19.
Otto started using his spider-bots to monitor the city in Superior Spider-Man #2. They were later hacked by the Goblin King in issue #10.
Peter and Mary Jane dated on-and-off for years starting in Amazing Spider-Man #42. Most recently they called it quits, seemingly for good circa Amazing Spider-Man #545. See Amazing Spider-Man #638-641 for details.
Spider-Man 2099 ended up trapped in the present day when he went back in time to prevent Spider-Man (then controlled by Octavius) from killing his grandfather. Stranded in this era, he decided to influence Alchemax and present it from becoming the evil mega-corporation it becomes in his time. See Superior Spider-Man #17-19.
Spider-Man recognizes the Goblin Knight as Hobgoblin. Spider-Man first fought this new iteration of the Hobgoblin back in Amazing Spider-Man #649. While Parker was gone Otto exposed the Hobgoblin’s true identity leading to his arrest. He was later saved by the Goblin Nation who made him their Goblin Knight. See Superior Spider-Man #15-16.
Spider-Man is surprised to learn that “he” quit the Avengers. Facing scrutiny from the team by his increasingly brutal actions, Otto decided to quit the team. See Superior Spider-Man #7-8 and 26.
Spider-Man 2099 witnessed the merger of Alan Chemical and Oscorp in Superior Spider-Man #19. Peter Parker has had past experience with Alchemax from the time he was accidentally sent to the year 2099, see Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man #1.
Spider-Man tries to warn Liz that Tiberius can’t be trusted. While Stone worked for Horizon Labs with Peter Parker he was acting as a mole for the Kingpin until he was exposed and fired. See Amazing Spider-Man #697. Stone is using a miniaturised version of the spider-signal jammer first created by Spider-Man to fight the Slayer-Swarm in Amazing Spider-Man #652-654.
Liz and Normie’s odd behavior here is never explored beyond here. In fact, when Liz turns up again she and Normie appear to be back to normal. It’s never really explained what is going on here. My guess is that Norman was, at least in the case of Liz, manipulating her. If I were to figure how, I’d suspect that he used some kind of hypnotic suggestion on Liz. But that’s speculation on my part.
An editors note reminds readers that a new Spider-Man 2099 series (volume 2) is coming in the near future.
Anna Maria was worried that Peter Parker was dead. Sajani Jaffrey did a live interview suggesting that Parker was dead in order to give Otto an ace in the hole against the Goblin Nation. See Superior Spider-Man #29.
Otto Octavius isn’t really dead. He will return again. As we’ll see in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 3) #15, Otto (who had been pulled forward in time) learns that Peter Parker will reclaim his body in the future and sets a contingency plan in motion to ensure his return. This involved copying his memory and personality and storing it within the Living Robot. This will become apparent in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 4) #1.
