Shadows of the Hobgoblin!

Shadows: you notice how important they are while hardly giving them a second thought. There’s simply an undeniable elevation of the game after Stilt-Man-seriously- when we open Amazing Spider-Man #238, from 1982, to discover Roger Stern’s back on full writing chores along with John Romita Jr.- inked by John, Sr! The craft uses that one thoughtful notion, shadows, and classic, nay, archetypal renditions of Pete, May, Robbie, and their masterpiece, the metamorphosis to Goblin. It’s as breath-taking as the original story it echoes, the suspenseful heir to Steve Ditko plotting at his finest, Stan balancing the Being of Spider-Man/ Peter Parker. Interactions? Pitch-perfect. If Brand Saga brought to an end the radical re-purposed string of Avengers and X-Men-based foes (Brand is the greatest, beside the two “actual Spider-Man villains”), here, one stop, Stern makes an actual new Spider-Foe, tangled deeply and unwittingly with defining Spider-Man moments and secrets, a mystery man who we join using the modus operandi of the departed Green Goblin to fashion an identity of new, untold power, discerned by his cold-blooded, reasoning sense of purpose. He’s methodical and ruthless, self-conscious and aware enough to sense the hold the secret Osborn identity incites, but in no way morally scrupulous enough to care what horrid consequences be wrought.

The shadow: as in life, usually so unobtrusive, yet indicative of some concealment of light, an edge bending the visible. The distorted Spider-shadow of the splash page, reflecting, deliberately, a casual Peter Parker, has its usual haunted look merged somehow with a kind of jocularity. The image says it all: the Trickster is soon to visit upon this young man, enjoying a moment of life moving on for his Aunt May, signing for the new boarding house with new beau Nathan Lubensky at her side. Pete is the trickster, too. Pete has often seen a Spider-Man Curse pattern in the trickster ways his trickster persona- and make no mistake, Spider-Man wins by innovating a clever trick in the heat of the moment much more decisively than generally, with fists. They are only one tool, and certainly not one capable of delivering the coup de grace against virtually everyone who’s tried of late to kill or stop him. We enjoy these wins because they celebrate cleverness, with a nice touch of dumb luck that cuts both ways.
But it’s usually an emotionally-fraught moment that drives him to change- well, when he’s not using web-line for the practical alternative for Big Apple travel. But Being Spider-Man means he can do
something any of us would likely think of and long to do, and keep others out of more immediate danger to boot! The shadow’s fallen (that face, so heavily inker Dad Romita’s look, whoever chose to shape it most). Anger, violence, secrets, confrontations, super-human reactions: the shadows foretell them all, across Peter’s face, and soon across the Man Who Would Be Hobgoblin.

But that complacency, contentedness: in the space of half an issue, we uncover why he often seems uncomfortable relaxing and trying to live “normal life.” What if he’s not done all he can because he wanted to enjoy a moment in which the efforts of a loved one are elevated? To Egg Creme Before Lunch status, to be sure, no every day occurrence! Is it so wrong for Peter Parker to lose his temper about the near-murder of his peeps by the getaway bank robbers, hunt down 3 of 4 then turn from the sewers to check on and resume the day with those very people he saved? Why must he pay so?
It’s those actions of his that specifically drive Georgie to the sewers- what a metaphor for all his interactions with crooks he fights- that leave the non-relentless, non-unhealthily-obsessed Peter Parker open to that vulnerability he himself thinks of in passing: he gets fired up when people he cares for are in danger. Ironic, his efforts- Georgie’s just fleeing blindly from a near-impossible pursuer- now for all he knows, he and everyone he cares for could end up in Goblin target sites. Yes, just like Gwendy.

The shadow’s free then to continue, the story ongoing: the shadow of faces, a long time favorite of the genre, soon falls steadily upon the man Georgie contacts with the weird, dynamite hideout haul.
The more realistically you set up the story world around it, the more of its righteous bizarre elements provoke your imagination. In that blank-of-features face, you’re invited to find the Goblin lair, yourself. Once the temptation of keeping it to yourself has its hold, one easily empowers the obsessive, game-playing, experimenting, unkind character becoming Hobgoblin.

It’s not that I’m unaware of Hobby’s intended identity, but to get the story’s full effect, participating in the mystery of it cannot be missed. Making it Anyone At All: if it’s anyone from the cast, the secret loses some of its hold on that idea that the Hobgoblin is The Villain Who Could Be You.
Imagine being able to steal all that shit, crate it up and kill the only lowlife who knew a thing, successfully Red Van – It into New York City, and make it your own. Yeah! You didn’t have to work for it, whatsoever: you checked up on a tip from a creep, so your communications network paid off, but the brain power that made Green Goblin’s cool, lethal arsenal was not your own. Sort of like if Ditko was Norman, too. You didn’t make the Green Goblin. But if you’re Roger Stern, you get how who’s under the hood is where the approach is invented. The villainous plot is where the artist’s creativity comes out! The letter writer who declared Roger Stern is the Hobgoblin not only was funny to add to The Spider-s Web mail bag: he was right!

The hood- a terroristic if rustic touch, and nice Halloween orange, man, maybe a Romita idea? The red eyes in the darkness look’s just iconic, followed closely by the heavily rendered goblin face mask.
The shadow falls on YOU, gentle reader.. Your desire to see a top-notch classic Spider-man story has made you: The Hobgoblin!!!