Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #136
Cover Date: Sep 74
Title: "The Green Goblin lives again!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Writer
Ross Andru - Penciler
Frank Giacoia & David Hunt - Inker

Review/plot:
After going on a date (during which MJ mocks Peter for liking Ella Fitzgerald)...

...MJ and Peter return to his apartment. But an explosion at the apartment puts Mary in the hospital.

Peter stakes out an old Osborn warehouse and finds Harry in the Green Goblin suit.

They fight for a while...

But it ends inconclusively, with Harry departing without fully defeating Spider-Man.

In a "postscript", Peter asks for a leave of absence at the Bugle and he is denied, and so he therefore quits. Peter gets really angry, even towards Betty Brant, which leads me to believe he is deliberately distancing himself from everyone to keep them out of danger since Harry knows his secret ID.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin

Chronological Placement Considerations: Peter temporarily quits the Daily Bugle this issue.

References:

• Once again Gwen and Norman's death in Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 is referenced, this time after the explosion nearly kills Mary Jane.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #113

My second ASM comic. Absolutely was fully in love!

Agreed. That first appearance of Harry as the Goblin was one of the few times the editorially mandated double page splashes of the period was deserved. Surprised fnord didn't include it.

The whole bit with Norman's lair being coated in fake dust and seemingly unused doesn't fit with Harry being a raving loon, especially since nothing is missing from the lab. How is that possible, if it's where Harry's been getting his Goblin gadgets?

Interestingly, the much later retcon that Mysterio helped Norman fake his death helps clean that up; since Spidey notes that the fake dust is like the sort of thing special effects artists use. So maybe Mysterio and Norman were trying to protect Harry by cleaning up after him.

There's another odd bit where Spidey spends hours in a web-hammock -- the captions tell us it's hours -- without it dissolving under him.

A later letters column explained that he just kept making new hammocks as each one dissolved.

That web hammock fact is pretty funny. ZZZZZ Bonk! Ouch! Webbing. ZZZZZZ Bonk! etc. I don't think I could fall asleep in anything that was going to disappear while I was sleeping.

Oops. I guess he wasn't sleeping. If only late night comments disappeared after an hour!