A Hobgoblin unmasked !
“Raw Power: The Donovan Hobgoblin tears open Manhattan!”
Standing on the ceiling is part of who Spider-Man both is, and part of his problem approaching the police: he’s blatantly unorthodox! Receptionist Ms. Smithers- a nod to Jan Smithers, a.k.a. Bailey on WKRP?- doesn’t know quite how to dismiss or delay this unnerving presence. He gets attention, but without his full cooperation and accountability- especially, just what IS being stolen here- he’s going to find D.A. Tower unsure of trusting him. Part of that problem is, he’s sure Spidey’s not cluing him in fully, but yeah, Avengers Clearance would be different!
The meeting between the D.A. and Spidey is a perfect recap that suits the plot. Spidey’s trying to figure how to use police information, when he won’t share the crucial information that would tip Norman was the Green Goblin. Nothing of value’s been noticed missing, as District Attorney Tower reports. The Hobgoblin’s very existence is really a secret to the public at large!
He’s out there, testing and looking over his terroristic arsenal. His cold-blooded planning betrays no trace of conscience. He’s no sympathetic villain- he’s not the humanistically-tragic Norman Osborn of Lee/ Romita. He murders to keep and discover secrets. He leads a life, possibly of professional respectability, when he is not in costume. He displays more discernment and control over when he actually suits up to be the Hobgoblin; some covert training sessions with his purloined equipment are suggested. He tests the mayhem-inducing power of the Hobgoblin; he creates a showdown with Spider-Man as likely as anything yet to kill the wall-crawler.
Peter/ Spider-Man’s usually juggling many plot threads, and counting the villain, there’s about four different things per issue.
Peter’s set up for a lunch quartet opposite MJ. He was in the middle of conducting his investigation his usual solo way- the Bugle news morgue, in this case, a type of physical library of issues and notes for investigations at the Bugle.
So you have the investigation he’s launched to find a super-villain no one else knows exists. Then, you have his friends trying to rekindle a relationship with a mutual friend- understandable, nice idea, one that becomes a running joke as Harry and Liz, Aunt May and Anna, and here, Ned and Betty host another impromptu get-together for Pete and MJ! That’s two.
The investigation collides with that main plot, leading out from the bad guys’ secret doings in their hideout. I love how you could honestly wonder if the guy who’s taken up as Hobgoblin didn’t die in the explosion. There’s just enough misdirection to fool with your certainty of this shell game! It’s hard to go back to the very first time I read this and ask myself if I thought this was Lefty or the Hobgoblin, and you don’t have to stop and ask yourself anything!
So, the fourth thread’s the subplot, one that straddles events in Peter Parker, where Black Cat’s been appearing after her return and recuperation, and his appearance in the Avengers. He finds out in Avengers #235 how much Avengers make; I don’t doubt his decision just two issues ago to concentrate more on life as Spider-Man and try to make photography pay. We get three weeks’ passage in a panel that’s always stayed with me, one of the iconic ones of this run! I thought about it as I actually wrote much of this book’s material in July, and at several points in the summer.
That concern for his finances, and his occupation, and by extension, his relationship with the Cat, all represent a single thread tying his professional life concerns and this other facet: how does he really feel about working with other people? We’ll see him over the next two months in Avengers applying in earnest. After that, we’ll see the Black Cat become his partner!
That’s actually a fifth dimension of development, and these fourth and fifth items are folded together in one neat page of web-slinging. His method of travel’s so unique and visually engaging, we often get a strong sense of setting visually while his thoughts wander to pick up subplot threads while actively investigating Hobgoblin.
Like a cold underworld general, he sends another man- an unwitting victim of Norman Osborn’s notes and experiments, left for him by the real Hobgoblin- into a meaningless fray, to stand in his place as both weapon and experiment. First, upon reflection, it’s the real Hobgoblin, seemingly entrusting Lefty Donovan with a chemical experiment meant to turn green. Then it blows up like it did on Norman, so you know a psychosis-inducing event has now befallen either the Hobgoblin or his assistant. The injured party drug out in the yard, his partner goes to cover up remaining elements left in the house for when first responders arrive. Is the explosion the end of this person- or merely the planned cover for the experiment site? Beneath, we’ll find, lies a secreted stowaway bunker of gear awaiting the Hobgoblin. You can only wonder as long as you choose to linger, but the air of mystery’s wonderfully in place! Only the resurrection of patient John Doe will reveal this ploy, while Spider-Man searches for a Lefty Donovan Hobgoblin that’s nowhere found.
The plan goes into motion because, in addition to psychosis from brain damage in the explosion, the Hobgoblin’s hypnosis methods, comic book-levels of effective, possibly aided by some of Osborn’s hallucinogenic compounds, leave our John Doe the irresistible urge to heed the call of the raw power and evil of being The Hobgoblin. Once again, a face goes unseen, in true Hobgoblin fashion- that is, we the readers never come face-to-face with Lefty Donovan, symbolizing his status as a faceless pawn- a cypher in the fascistic clutches of the Hobgoblin. (He never got a really great tagline/ stand-in nick name for his nom de crime.)
After a pair of assaults yielding getaway cars, the obsessive figure is ready to return to the accident scene. Only in the monitor banks for his sensors do we sense the real sinister presence at work! And still, to our eyes, this Hobgoblin’s simply carrying out the rest of his physique-altering experiment, gathering data as he flies- where? To an utter disruption of Times Square!
It is good, by the way, that without spending time re-establishing their history, we get a police detective who knows Spider-Man previously, Lt. Snyder, a creation like Lt. Keating from Stern’s Spectacular Spider-Man run. Even better, Spider-Man was pointed here by Captain Jean De Wolff from midtown! These numerous, identifiable police leaders provide the setting with texture, creating minor supporting characters whose stories with Spider-Man can become unique. Anyway, all that care put into investigating, and in the end it takes no detective to uncover the next Hobgoblin step.
The mastermind unveils the Hobgoblin as his interpretation of Osborn’s creation- a Hobgoblin he fully expects to relay valuable information via sensors Donovan, post-hypnotized suggestion, puts in place while suiting up. He shows Spider-Man what a Hobgoblin can do, and plan A is obviously to defeat and or kill Spider-Man with this pawn- leaving his hands circumstance-free to be clean. It’s only that terrible moment he must guard his secret plans that buys Donovan a very Goblin sort of ending, destruction by glider.
Spider-Man’s chilled to the bone by the killing. He’s positive he encountered a set-up, intended to close the police’s active case about the burglaries, as they have to this point not even had proof positive anyone was using Green Goblin equipment, nor that said equipment could be in play, as the villain simply vanished by their reckoning. It’s pretty confusing, these villainous plans.
Fantastic battle, as always. Something about this match-up- the pyrotechnics, the sheer number of Halloween-inspired tricks?- with super-strength, the Hobgoblin’s mighty close to an even match physically with Spider-Man. Donovan was never taught to escape, I think. He definitely doesn’t foresee how effectively Spidey can turn an enemy’s surroundings into a weapon or trap! Appropriately, it’s the Hobgoblin’s own deadly arsenal that provides his humbling. Being the Hobgoblin, for him, was always going to end up with him powerful and then, dead.
Beside the television set, we see that mask again: itself, a sort of call-back to the days of Steve Ditko’s mystery men, and morally grotesque antagonists. He’s thinking to himself how it’s time to take advantage of the room he’s gained to operate with the cops convinced he’s most likely killed himself fighting Spider-Man (yes, which you, me, and Spider-Man all know DID happen to the Green Goblin, original flavor!). Let Spider-Man suspect: the paranoia will do more damage than any direct plan!
Let the mask sit, like a ghost, like a goblin. Let whoever is really the Hobgoblin carry on with his life as before, on the surface.
Meanwhile, he refines the serum that can give him super-strength and durability without losing his mind. He reads the journals. He sneaks away to practice and plan. Guesses about his life hidden on the other side of his secret passages begin rolling in at mail call. The Hobgoblin could be anywhere, perhaps as close to Peter’s life as was the Norman Osborn Green Goblin himself. Who knew?
Spider-Man realize the Hobgoblin ‘s continued acceleration towards his goals of consolidating the hidden Goblin legacy’s might. He’ll be looking everywhere, up the nostrils of Nose Norton himself if he must. He’s got to find him and force a showdown. But so many weapons did Osborn bring to bear over the years- any of them could fall into his successor’s hands!
Worse, so many plans...and more stolen secrets. One reaches into the history of the strip itself, and sets up, along with “Daydreamers,” the markers in the evolution of J. Jonah Jameson, here since issue #1. I’m thrilled to say, the team will not have us waiting so long after all for the Hobgoblin’s next move – his next device crafted to aid in a decisive personal victory over Spider-Man. And soon, Spider-Man will unexpectedly reveal his identity, in a startling way, to a character we’ve never before seen, too.
But! Not until after a cross-section filled with a train robbery for the Norn-blessed enchanted bar and a theory about using a power known to challenge the mighty Thor! And, an issue full of day dreams. Sound boring?
Standing on the ceiling is part of who Spider-Man both is, and part of his problem approaching the police: he’s blatantly unorthodox! Receptionist Ms. Smithers- a nod to Jan Smithers, a.k.a. Bailey on WKRP?- doesn’t know quite how to dismiss or delay this unnerving presence. He gets attention, but without his full cooperation and accountability- especially, just what IS being stolen here- he’s going to find D.A. Tower unsure of trusting him. Part of that problem is, he’s sure Spidey’s not cluing him in fully, but yeah, Avengers Clearance would be different!
The meeting between the D.A. and Spidey is a perfect recap that suits the plot. Spidey’s trying to figure how to use police information, when he won’t share the crucial information that would tip Norman was the Green Goblin. Nothing of value’s been noticed missing, as District Attorney Tower reports. The Hobgoblin’s very existence is really a secret to the public at large!
He’s out there, testing and looking over his terroristic arsenal. His cold-blooded planning betrays no trace of conscience. He’s no sympathetic villain- he’s not the humanistically-tragic Norman Osborn of Lee/ Romita. He murders to keep and discover secrets. He leads a life, possibly of professional respectability, when he is not in costume. He displays more discernment and control over when he actually suits up to be the Hobgoblin; some covert training sessions with his purloined equipment are suggested. He tests the mayhem-inducing power of the Hobgoblin; he creates a showdown with Spider-Man as likely as anything yet to kill the wall-crawler.
Peter/ Spider-Man’s usually juggling many plot threads, and counting the villain, there’s about four different things per issue.
Peter’s set up for a lunch quartet opposite MJ. He was in the middle of conducting his investigation his usual solo way- the Bugle news morgue, in this case, a type of physical library of issues and notes for investigations at the Bugle.
So you have the investigation he’s launched to find a super-villain no one else knows exists. Then, you have his friends trying to rekindle a relationship with a mutual friend- understandable, nice idea, one that becomes a running joke as Harry and Liz, Aunt May and Anna, and here, Ned and Betty host another impromptu get-together for Pete and MJ! That’s two.
The investigation collides with that main plot, leading out from the bad guys’ secret doings in their hideout. I love how you could honestly wonder if the guy who’s taken up as Hobgoblin didn’t die in the explosion. There’s just enough misdirection to fool with your certainty of this shell game! It’s hard to go back to the very first time I read this and ask myself if I thought this was Lefty or the Hobgoblin, and you don’t have to stop and ask yourself anything!
So, the fourth thread’s the subplot, one that straddles events in Peter Parker, where Black Cat’s been appearing after her return and recuperation, and his appearance in the Avengers. He finds out in Avengers #235 how much Avengers make; I don’t doubt his decision just two issues ago to concentrate more on life as Spider-Man and try to make photography pay. We get three weeks’ passage in a panel that’s always stayed with me, one of the iconic ones of this run! I thought about it as I actually wrote much of this book’s material in July, and at several points in the summer.
That concern for his finances, and his occupation, and by extension, his relationship with the Cat, all represent a single thread tying his professional life concerns and this other facet: how does he really feel about working with other people? We’ll see him over the next two months in Avengers applying in earnest. After that, we’ll see the Black Cat become his partner!
That’s actually a fifth dimension of development, and these fourth and fifth items are folded together in one neat page of web-slinging. His method of travel’s so unique and visually engaging, we often get a strong sense of setting visually while his thoughts wander to pick up subplot threads while actively investigating Hobgoblin.
Like a cold underworld general, he sends another man- an unwitting victim of Norman Osborn’s notes and experiments, left for him by the real Hobgoblin- into a meaningless fray, to stand in his place as both weapon and experiment. First, upon reflection, it’s the real Hobgoblin, seemingly entrusting Lefty Donovan with a chemical experiment meant to turn green. Then it blows up like it did on Norman, so you know a psychosis-inducing event has now befallen either the Hobgoblin or his assistant. The injured party drug out in the yard, his partner goes to cover up remaining elements left in the house for when first responders arrive. Is the explosion the end of this person- or merely the planned cover for the experiment site? Beneath, we’ll find, lies a secreted stowaway bunker of gear awaiting the Hobgoblin. You can only wonder as long as you choose to linger, but the air of mystery’s wonderfully in place! Only the resurrection of patient John Doe will reveal this ploy, while Spider-Man searches for a Lefty Donovan Hobgoblin that’s nowhere found.
The plan goes into motion because, in addition to psychosis from brain damage in the explosion, the Hobgoblin’s hypnosis methods, comic book-levels of effective, possibly aided by some of Osborn’s hallucinogenic compounds, leave our John Doe the irresistible urge to heed the call of the raw power and evil of being The Hobgoblin. Once again, a face goes unseen, in true Hobgoblin fashion- that is, we the readers never come face-to-face with Lefty Donovan, symbolizing his status as a faceless pawn- a cypher in the fascistic clutches of the Hobgoblin. (He never got a really great tagline/ stand-in nick name for his nom de crime.)
After a pair of assaults yielding getaway cars, the obsessive figure is ready to return to the accident scene. Only in the monitor banks for his sensors do we sense the real sinister presence at work! And still, to our eyes, this Hobgoblin’s simply carrying out the rest of his physique-altering experiment, gathering data as he flies- where? To an utter disruption of Times Square!
It is good, by the way, that without spending time re-establishing their history, we get a police detective who knows Spider-Man previously, Lt. Snyder, a creation like Lt. Keating from Stern’s Spectacular Spider-Man run. Even better, Spider-Man was pointed here by Captain Jean De Wolff from midtown! These numerous, identifiable police leaders provide the setting with texture, creating minor supporting characters whose stories with Spider-Man can become unique. Anyway, all that care put into investigating, and in the end it takes no detective to uncover the next Hobgoblin step.
The mastermind unveils the Hobgoblin as his interpretation of Osborn’s creation- a Hobgoblin he fully expects to relay valuable information via sensors Donovan, post-hypnotized suggestion, puts in place while suiting up. He shows Spider-Man what a Hobgoblin can do, and plan A is obviously to defeat and or kill Spider-Man with this pawn- leaving his hands circumstance-free to be clean. It’s only that terrible moment he must guard his secret plans that buys Donovan a very Goblin sort of ending, destruction by glider.
Spider-Man’s chilled to the bone by the killing. He’s positive he encountered a set-up, intended to close the police’s active case about the burglaries, as they have to this point not even had proof positive anyone was using Green Goblin equipment, nor that said equipment could be in play, as the villain simply vanished by their reckoning. It’s pretty confusing, these villainous plans.
Fantastic battle, as always. Something about this match-up- the pyrotechnics, the sheer number of Halloween-inspired tricks?- with super-strength, the Hobgoblin’s mighty close to an even match physically with Spider-Man. Donovan was never taught to escape, I think. He definitely doesn’t foresee how effectively Spidey can turn an enemy’s surroundings into a weapon or trap! Appropriately, it’s the Hobgoblin’s own deadly arsenal that provides his humbling. Being the Hobgoblin, for him, was always going to end up with him powerful and then, dead.
Beside the television set, we see that mask again: itself, a sort of call-back to the days of Steve Ditko’s mystery men, and morally grotesque antagonists. He’s thinking to himself how it’s time to take advantage of the room he’s gained to operate with the cops convinced he’s most likely killed himself fighting Spider-Man (yes, which you, me, and Spider-Man all know DID happen to the Green Goblin, original flavor!). Let Spider-Man suspect: the paranoia will do more damage than any direct plan!
Let the mask sit, like a ghost, like a goblin. Let whoever is really the Hobgoblin carry on with his life as before, on the surface.
Meanwhile, he refines the serum that can give him super-strength and durability without losing his mind. He reads the journals. He sneaks away to practice and plan. Guesses about his life hidden on the other side of his secret passages begin rolling in at mail call. The Hobgoblin could be anywhere, perhaps as close to Peter’s life as was the Norman Osborn Green Goblin himself. Who knew?
Spider-Man realize the Hobgoblin ‘s continued acceleration towards his goals of consolidating the hidden Goblin legacy’s might. He’ll be looking everywhere, up the nostrils of Nose Norton himself if he must. He’s got to find him and force a showdown. But so many weapons did Osborn bring to bear over the years- any of them could fall into his successor’s hands!
Worse, so many plans...and more stolen secrets. One reaches into the history of the strip itself, and sets up, along with “Daydreamers,” the markers in the evolution of J. Jonah Jameson, here since issue #1. I’m thrilled to say, the team will not have us waiting so long after all for the Hobgoblin’s next move – his next device crafted to aid in a decisive personal victory over Spider-Man. And soon, Spider-Man will unexpectedly reveal his identity, in a startling way, to a character we’ve never before seen, too.
But! Not until after a cross-section filled with a train robbery for the Norn-blessed enchanted bar and a theory about using a power known to challenge the mighty Thor! And, an issue full of day dreams. Sound boring?
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