Spider-Man Ordeals: more Stern/Romita Hobgoblin suspense!

Ordeals!

Lefty Donovan cruelly leaves the once-heavily-armed crew with whom he stole chemicals to die in burning creosote-soaked timbers. I’m reminded the Hobgoblin mystery’s tension comes from his devious schemes and ability to murder people for his goals! Realistically, he’s still hurt from the first battle with Spider-Man, seems, so using other pawns would be a way to move forward anyway-but he’s also setting up Donovan to BE the Hobgoblin AND to be his test subject for the Goblin serum.

Enjoying that the Hobgoblin will be Out There for me these October, 2017 nights, so this can become a time ol’ Fright Face can make memorable, as when I was only ten! His hood and mask make him like a living totem of some horrid demon, beyond the grave and madness. The Goblin takes over the minds of men with this equipment’s power and ruthless destructive power. Something makes them fashion their lives and plans around a secret existence of villainy. The avatar, this time, moves freely about with knowledge of his split identity, which the Green Goblin also did up until the Romita debut issues. He had an interesting quandary that could be thread-bare after three or four times, but a threat seeded in a supporting character’s father.

But he didn’t get to move around freely as Norman, self-aware, knowing he is also Gobbie, anymore, for very long each time now, so no long range plans possible. One thing about the Hobgoblin, he can scheme and lurk patiently in his secret identity until he feels the call to danger of his own making, when time comes again for the power of the Hobgoblin. He’s a creepy reversal on many Spider-Man/ Peter Parker tropes. Tarantula and the Cobra and, always, Hyde, displayed secret identities outside their colorful evils. This time, someone’s carrying on his secret identity life in the background of this comic, since the Hobgoblin’s still on the loose. What I find interesting about the second Spidey/ Gobby encounter, for one, is how the arch enemies match wits but don’t meet, face to face! He has the presence of mind to plan ruthlessly with minimally-informed pawns, most of which in this case are saved by Spider-Man, and just in time to apparently lose the Hobgoblin.
The theft of some of the chemicals on the previously-stolen reports leaves no trace of the motive, and a van inside a truck provides the get-away after the crew nearly burns to death in the collapsing warehouse where they just tried to gang up on Spider-Man, now their savior.

Hobgoblin can resist the temptation to get drunk on his power, for as he denies himself that release, he gathers the means to make himself more invincible! I love it that he’s actively pursuing his evolution, coming into his own with the Norman Osborn legacy kit. Most of the time, a villain has to be vanquished before seeking improvements off-screen. Yes, he got hurt fairly badly and only got away after a brief mayhem-filled standstill with the speedy, flexible arach-nerd. But he didn’t get hauled in before all this gets further out of hand, and with his tastes in cut-throat machinations, Spidey must feel these criminal corpses are being laid at the feet of his responsibilities. But by some standards, mind you, killing these criminals was not like killing innocents: Hobgoblin’s killed no innocents nor even, I think, yet harmed an innocent. So, this keeps Spidey from looking too ineffectual: he’s still a building menace, but Hobgoblin’s only killing underworld figures, presumably further from the interest of any loves ones and many of them already living under aliases. Kill the uncaring.

All the times we’ve known of his moves, his agenda has been to acquire more basic Hobgoblin materials and accessories. That’s the unique nature of his crimes: they fall within the objective of acquiring a full complement of the Green Goblin vision, journals, equipment, the works. The Battle Van for street mobility is still only slipping around the edges of the scenes; it will host the final stand of the original Hobgoblin creator’s devising. For now, the Battle Van simply slips smoothly out the back of the truck left abandoned, complete with Spider-Tracer. (IF this was for a more general audience, I’d explain ‘Spider-Tracer’ properly, no? It’s his electronic devices, shaped like his insignia on his back or like a black spider itself depending on the artists, which he uses to home in on the sources of grave peril.)
Our full Q & A with Ron Frenz, the artist here, is our next Creating Marvels podcast!

He keeps his immediate threat isolated to these burglaries. He’s presently a student of Osborn secrets. You wonder a bit how criminally he already thought, to prepare such schemes. He will, in fact, pick up some useful journals divulging an Osborn scheme for black mail. But right now, his origin’s ongoing.
His equipment can be utilized effectively by pawns like Lefty Donovan, securing the false notion the chief schemer’s present driving the get-away truck.

The nice last touch is the returned Mary Jane, meeting up with the Osborns. Those sorts of friendly get-togethers quickly build support cast texture. We end with her hiding her fear related to these violent break-ins so she can enjoy a carefree date with some stranger to us (we never know much about her huge number of contacts outside Pete and friends). The whole thing reminds us how it’s going to eventually ensnare Harry and Liz. They have the nice normal life that can be properly up-ended again by his father Norman’s insane inventions. Just having MJ around raises questions and opinions, and I for one was glad to see one character return who could do so much to tie the contemporary strip to its dramatic twenty-year-history to that point.

Between her and Harry, with Lance, camera in hand, ready with the Flash, and Harry now with that same Liz we’ve seen since probably the Spider-Man origin, to say nothing of the Bugle staff old and new, so good other books guest appear them, it’s so much like old times on this title.
Compared to its 1960s counterpart, I think the crime’s gotten a bit darker and more violent, but that’s really the case with the Hobgoblin more than all the criminal guests from Stilt Man to the end of Stern/ Romita on ASM. His crimes are the most grisly: he’s the one murderer who stays on the loose. He comes and goes like nightmares.