We're up to the fifth part of this non-crossover storyline, and Spidey's yawning on the splash page...that may not be a good sign, or it could be a great dig! With the Kingpin gone, the various criminal factions of the city have been shooting each other up, and "in the midst of the violence and bloodshed, a lone man struggles to contain the fighting...the amazing Spider-Man!" That makes it sound like the rest of NYC was hiding under their beds, and even ignores the guest-stars helping out here, Daredevil, Falcon, and the Black Cat. The Punisher also appeared, but as more of an antagonist, as Spidey was trying to keep him from murdering the hell out of assorted gangsters. Spidey was also surprisingly pissed at Daredevil, who was trying to big picture this gang war, while Spidey just wanted to finally bring Kingpin down. Falcon points out here that DD may have been more than a bit condescending to Spidey, and he's not done yet, either.
The Kingpin returns here, several steps ahead of everyone else: he makes like he's going to have his various lieutenants killed, but that's both a deal with the feds to take back his throne, and a distraction to give him time to get his ailing wife Vanessa out of the country. Spidey is pissed at getting played again, but a sad Daredevil feels like it was a necessary evil to end the gang war. Also this issue: Mary Jane shows up at Peter's, and isn't thrilled that the Black Cat is there making breakfast. It's perfectly innocent, but Cat still refers to her as "Molly Jo." I don't think that was catty or mean, she legit may not have cared enough to remember...
There's also a veritable fish market of red herrings: Ned Leeds visits Lance Bannon, who seems to have a ton of Hobgoblin photos; then Lance sees Flash Thompson hiding out at Betty Brant's place. (It's not really "hiding out" when you wave out the window!) The Hobgoblin then finds and roughs up Flash, yet still leaves him when Betty arrives. Hobby then crashes Jack O'Lantern's hideout, but their fight is interrupted by Alfredo! Maybe I didn't say it in a dramatic enough voice: Alfredo! The Rose's sidekick or something. Despite his lack of name recognition, Alfredo very nearly takes out the Hobgoblin with an electronic jammer that knocks out his glider and weapons; but Jack saves Hobby because he wants to be the one to kill him. Hobby bails, planning to kill those two later, but the next issue box promised the "No Tricks! No Gimmicks!" reveal of his identity. At least five letter-writers guess Ned Leeds here, and partial credit, I guess? Ned would be killed in Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1, but in Amazing #289 would be revealed to be the Hobgoblin posthumously. The link there explains some of the boondoggle: Priest was going to go with the Foreigner, but Peter David didn't think that made sense, so they went with Ned Leeds instead: years later, original Hobgoblin writer/co-creator Roger Stern would return for the Hobgoblin Lives mini-series, which revealed-slash-retconned Roderick Kingsley as the original Hobgoblin. (I didn't buy it regularly, but I did have Hobby's first appearance and read most of those, and there was a real menace in his appearances up to maybe #261 or so; before he was 'unmasked' as Flash Thompson. That was a trick; Hobby had dressed Flash up and left him to be captured; but it felt like some wheel-spinning after that. Not unlike the Clone Saga, the Spidey writers may have hit a good thing but not known when or how to wrap it up.)
And it's not even the Hobgoblin stuff that kills me, it's the Kingpin. I hate hate hate the way Marvel kept pushing that Kingpin was "too big to fail," that taking him out (either by arrest or murder) would lead to a crime-apocalypse. Yes, I get that he's too good a villain to just have the Punisher shoot him in the face, but he, DD, and Spidey all had that story where they couldn't bring him down, and it made them all look like powerless tools.
I thought there was a Batman story with that title, but might've been thinking of Superman #247, "Must There Be a Superman?" Oh, look, the Guardians of the Universe being dicks, what a surprise. Well, a surprise they're in Superman, not the dick part.
4 comments:
Ha, Molly Jo.
Yeah the real identity of Hobgoblin is the stuff of comic legends and debate for awhile now.
I get the impression Ned Leeds really got fucked over here, especially with the way Owlsley killed him off in such way that buried him and made him look weak AF despite being the Hobgoblin. Arm broke, and throat slit....what a way to go.
At least Stern fixed things...even if it took almost 20 years to do it.
I remember reading somewhere that the whole thing was because they kept shifting writers and editorial before the current team could get their secret identity in.
As to that whole Kingpin issue, I'd buy that he made himself indispensable once he reached the top of the organization. He's smart and selfish like that.
This story is such a mess. The Punisher just sort of appears and disappears randomly. All of the sudden, here's the Black Cat! Falcon's hanging out with Daredevil! Why? No idea! Like, if it's DD and Black Widow, there's enough history there you maybe don't need to explain why they're teaming up at this moment, but had Daredevil and Falcon ever even met before this?
I feel like Daredevil kind of jerks Spider-Man around or talks down to him a lot when they team up. he also seems to win a lot of their fights, which really shouldn't happen.
^Agreed. Strength and powers-wise, DD should barely be able to survive let alone ever notch out a win.
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