Issue(s): Web of Spider-Man #86
Cover Date: Mar 92
Title: The Name of the Rose: "The dark within"
Credits:
Howard Mackie - Writer
Alex Saviuk - Penciler
Sam DeLaRosa - Inker
Eric Fein - Assistant Editor
Danny Fingeroth - Editor

Review/plot:
The Kingpin is becoming increasingly rattled, and comes close to throwing one of his men out his window as punishment for failing to keep track of Typhoid Mary.

He's not exactly happy with his son Richard, either, but then again Richard is scheming against him.

Later, Hobgoblin is sprung from prison by mercenaries. But, as we saw in Moon Knight #32-33, the Hobgoblin hates mercenaries, so he kills them.

However, he does go seek out the Rose, who he thinks sent the mercenaries to free him. When he gets there, though, Richard pretends like he is also touched by a demon like Hobgoblin was, and convinces the Hobgoblin to go after Spider-Man.

The ruse works, but the Rose is not very happy about it.

Meanwhile, Peter Parker is becoming increasingly frazzled and violent due to the threats on his family due to the photo that Nick Katzenberg took but which the Daily Bugle mistakenly credited to Peter.

Later, Peter hears that the Hobgoblin is looking for him. When he goes to find him, the Hobgoblin changes back into human form and falls off his glider.

Spider-Man saves him, but then Macendale and his demon form split into two different entities.

Spider-Man christens (ok, maybe that's the wrong choice of word) the demon form "Demogoblin".

The Demogoblin is still faux-religious, but it says that it's too weak to fight Spider-Man at the moment, so it leaves, throwing an explosive pumpkin bomb to cover its escape.

Spidey leaves Macendale for the police.

I wonder about the behind-the-scenes decision behind the Hobgoblin/Demogoblin split. The idea behind the original Hobgoblin was to give us a Green Goblin-like character without resorting to resurrecting Norman Osborn or putting Harry back in that role. At this point, Harry was back in that role. On top of that, the mystery of the original Hobgoblin's identity took on a life of its own that kind of overshadowed the character for his own sake, and that seems to be partially why the original was killed off and replaced by Jason Macendale, who was formerly the Jack O'Lantern, who was similar enough in motif that the transition made sense. But i'll note that Marvel also recently introduced a new Jack O'Lantern in Captain America. Macendale as the Hobgoblin began deviating from the themes of the original when he was turned into a demon during Inferno, and that situation became aggravated when Todd McFarlane gave the character the pseudo-religious angle. It seems like the build up to the split, between his appearances in Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, and here (all written by Howard Mackie) was deliberate. But the end result is that we now have a Green Goblin, a Hobgoblin, a Demogoblin, and a Jack O'Lantern. That is a lot of pumpkin themed villains on gliders. They all have distinct personalities and looks, so it's not necessarily a bad thing, but i imagine it could be a bit confusing to readers that didn't follow all of this stuff closely. At least they never formed a Goblin Corps.

Statement of Ownership Total Paid Circulation: Average of Past 12 months = 211,042. Single issue closest to filing date = 203,800.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - Demogoblin splits from Jason Macendale

Chronological Placement Considerations: The loss of Typhoid Mary is mentioned, but obviously the Kingpin is still in power, placing this after Daredevil #297 but before the conclusion of Last Rites in Daredevil #300.

References:

• Daredevil got Typhoid Mary committed to a mental institution in Daredevil #297.
  
• The Hobgoblin was turned into a demon in Spectacular Spider-Man #147.
  
• He was hit with hellfire in Ghost Rider #17 and began switching back and forth between human and demon form some time after that, as we first saw in Moon Knight #32-33.
  
• It's said that Richard Fisk, Alfredo Morelli, and Ned Leeds all used to be friends, and they were all working together to take down the Kingpin until Jason Macendale killed Leeds to assume his identity as the Hobgoblin. That happened in Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1.
  
• Nick Katzenberg took the photo in Spectacular Spider-Man #173

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I don't think think "Richard" was claiming to be touched by a demon but by the Lord.

I thought the fact that a demon couldn't see through the ruse Richard was portraying with a prosthetic was ridiculous.

To be fair, Mackie did show that the struggle between Macendale and Demogoblin was weakening both of them, so Demogoblin being fooled was arguably justifiable.

As a kid I had a bunch of Spidey collections from the era when Puma was in control of the Bugle and Robbie Robertson was in jail, then a big gap in my collection up to just before the Clone Saga. In that gap I really only had a Maximum Carnage collection, since that was obviously a very important story!

So I'm absolutely loving the 1991 Spidey reviews you are doing. Finally I get to see the first appearances of Carnage, Demogoblin, Professor Kafka, Doppelganger etc. It doesn't feel like I missed many good comics, but it's awesome to finally know the whole story!

Maybe you should add the issue where Richard gets a big handprint on his chest in the references? Surely there is one?

...I'm having a hard time believing this comic's average circulation was really five digits. I suspect you dropped a digit there.

Thanks Morgan. Fixed the Statement of Ownership numbers.

Max_Spider, i assume you're kidding but just in case: it's just a prosthetic that "Fisk" used to fool Hobgoblin.

Embarrassing though it may be, I was being serious. I misinterpreted the scene and didn't think Richard knew the Demogoblin was coming in advance, so I thought he was just making use of some sort of infliction from a previous issue.

Hey, c'mon, this is the Marvel Universe, so thinking that sort of mark is real is not too ridiculous an assumption to make. This is the decade Kaine shows up, for Pete's sake.

Of course, I've got no excuse for somehow missing Vin's comment up there, so my bad.

I think Demogoblin ends up appearing way more than Macendale after the split.

I do like what Mackie did with basically honoring both takes on this Hobgoblin rather than just getting rid of one completely or doing a terrible reveal/retcon. The last thing the Hobgoblin - any of them - needs is more complications and I think this manages to free Hobgoblin of the extra baggage while also repurposing that baggage into it's own thing. And it seems quite a logical way of doing it, separating the demon from the man. It's just a shame that he couldn't think of a more natural way to have them be split apart in the story rather than it being a completely random instance.

But, then again, it IS Howard Mackie. At times he can do stuff very capably but he can never do stuff perfectly.