Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #85 : SuperMegaMonkey : chronocomic

1983-12-01 00:05:10
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1983 / Box 20 / EiC: Jim Shooter
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Issue(s): Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #85
Cover Date: Dec 83
Title: "The hatred of the Hobgoblin!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Al Milgrom - Penciler
Jim Mooney - Inker
Bob DeNatale - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco & Danny Fingeroth - Editors

Review/plot:
Oddly, this important chapter in the development of the Hobgoblin was left to Bill Mantlo on the secondary Spectacular Spider-Man book (Roger Stern gets a "Plot assist" credit). My Origin of the Hobgoblin only has an annoying partial reprint. But in this issue the Hobgoblin subjects himself to the chemical bath that gives him the super strength that the original Green Goblin had.

There's hints that the Hobgoblin stayed in the bath too long, potentially resulting in the same psychological problems that the Green Goblin had.

Later, after a lunch where Harry and Liz announce that they're going to have a baby, Spidey takes to the rooftops with the Black Cat. She reveals that she never actually had any super powers; the 'bad luck' that Spidey encountered in the past was due to carefully prearranged traps. Spider-Man worries that her lack of powers makes her vulnerable as his potential crime fighting partner, and to emphasis that, the Hobgoblin shows up to attack.

The Black Cat keeps getting in the way and Spider-Man has to spend more time looking out for her than fighting the Hobgoblin, and he gets away.

Awful dialogue from Mantlo as usual ("Get your slimey hands off my lady, Hobgoblin!"), but the plotting isn't bad.

Here's a nice juxtaposition not in my reprint, the traditional "Spider-Man gets in the way of Peter's social life scene" (reminiscent of the scene from Amazing Spider-Man #30) and the flip side for the Spidey/Cat relationship.