Where the hell was this cover BEFORE Halloween?

OK, I picked this up on sale the day after, but I still feel like my point stands. From 2017, Spider-Woman #13, "Good Old Fashioned Hob Kabobs" Written by Dennis Hopeless (Hallem), art by Veronica Fish.

We saw another issue from this series (with another sharp cover) some time back, but Jessica has to acknowledge she was in a good place then: she had her "manny" Roger--new Porcupine--Gocking and longtime Daredevil supporting character Ben Urich to help with her kid, which frees her up to do stuff like fight the Blizzard! Who she takes care of pretty quickly, but was cold, so she heads home for a dry costume and a hot shower, only to find Ben there, as Roger had "...some sort of appointment." It feels like Ben didn't want to lie, but also couldn't really explain why Roger was out, because he had a meeting, at what appears to be a Bar With No Name! (Which is somehow a franchise in the 616, despite a ton of murders at the first one we saw, back around Cap #319!)

Later, Jessica makes a visit, to Moon's Hollow, NY: she explains, it was originally an extortion racket by a bunch of villains' "fed up wives and girlfriends," but they turned it into a festival town and went legit. While most are thrilled to see her, she does get a chilly reception from Olivia, Roger's ex. Back in NYC, Ben has a rooftop chat with Roger: Roger seems to legitimately feel he could be useful as the Porcupine (Sandman had gotten jobbed by him in the previous issue!) while Ben knows Roger is just smitten with Jessica, and advises him to not act on it, as she needed their support right then. Roger seems to accept that, feeling out of Jessica's league, but then has to hide Ben, as someone was coming...and he didn't think Jessica could lose both of them. A batch of villains come in, on Hobgoblin-style gliders--even someone in an older Beetle suit; those should fly? The bad guys stomp on Roger, for turning on them, forgetting where he was from. I'm not positive who all these guys were, or at least what suits these guys were wearing: there was a Unicorn and a Ringer, although they may or may not have been the originals. I don't think that was the old Beetle, he was still M.A.C.H.1, right? One might be a seriously 'roided up Mad Dog; but their boss was the Hobgoblin! Who was upset over Roger breaching a contract with him, so Roger is left, tied up, with a pumpkin bomb on his lap, and Ben doesn't get to him in time! Shaken, Ben tries to find the words to tell Jessica...to be continued! 

Ben's usually a better reporter than this, 'cause check some facts: Roger was a big guy in a big spiky suit; no way one of those little pumpkin bombs could've atomized him. There would've been chunks everywhere...hmm, unless Hobby got that good pumpkin bomb from the first Spider-Man movie. Anyway, pretty sure Roger wasn't killed, but I'm also not sure he's been seen recently. (If Ben hasn't been back in Daredevil of late, I would be beyond surprised.) I had to look, since I thought Hopeless and/or Fish might have done that Axis: Hobgoblin series: they did not, but seem to be staying with that model for Hobby. Namely, really, really smarmy and smirky.

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It's a goddamn What If? and it's STILL a Doombot?! Mother--

I wasn't being productive, so why not take a moment to read a What If? I hadn't read before? (Five minutes later.) I had read it before, and I hate it. From 1991, What If #31, "What If Spider-Man had kept his cosmic powers?" Written by Glenn Herdling, pencils by Scott McDaniel (with some corrections by John Romita), inks by "Col." Jim Sanders III and Sam de la Rosa.

We all know where this one's going, right? Captain America even says it six pages in: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." And of course that means even corrupting our boy Peter, even though in this universe the Uni-Power stays with him, due to his heightened sense of responsibility. While he stops Nebula cold, he does mess up trying to help the Hobgoblin, and inadvertently changes his face to look like Peter Parker's! Already under a spell and mentally unstable, Hobby thinks Spidey made him a demon again, so is a bit peeved. Spidey does beat an outclassed Venom, challenging him to protect the city; but Venom notes his symbiote didn't think he was himself.

Much to Mary Jane's dismay, Spidey continues to escalate, stopping the Gulf War and bringing in a thinly-veiled Saddam-alike. He then tries to make Thor help him turn the Sahara desert into a garden, then Thor is dropped from behind by Doctor Doom, who wants the Uni-Power and has the first Captain Universe, Ray Coffin (from early Micronauts, which isn't mentioned here!) as a hostage. Spidey, now identifying solely as Captain Universe, refuses to negotiate, and Ray is killed. This triggers a metaphysical/astral-form fight between Spidey and the Uni-Power: Spidey's responsibility won't let him go with sacrificing any "trees" to save the "forest." The Uni-Power leaves him for Doom, but only for a moment, since it was only a Doombot--ah, that's the last straw! If you can't use the real, proper Doctor Doom in a bloody What If? where can you? Phooey on this one. Read more!

"Flare-up."

No commentary today? Ah, maybe later. Read more!

Some years back, we saw a Power Pack comic guest-starring Hobgoblin where he probably should've been captured and unmasked at the end of it, but there was no way the Spider-Man editorial would let that happen outside of a core title. Four years later, and he's getting burned off in today's book! From 1991, Marc Spector: Moon Knight #33, "Torn" Written by Howard Mackie, pencils by Ron Garney, inks by Tom Palmer. Predating the song by six years, anyway!

Where was I? Oh, right, Hobgoblin. That was Jason Macendale today, the mercenary formerly known as Jack O'Lantern, who had allegedly had the original Hobgoblin Ned Leeds murdered and took his identity. A lot of that would be retconned right and left, but again, today it's Macendale. Since he had been a mercenary prior to his costumed identities, it's not unreasonable that he knew Marc Spector in his merc days: Spector remembers him as a psycho, but one he could handle. Today, though...

Claiming to be "filled with the way of righteousness!" Hobgoblin is intent on killing all mercenaries, in order to purge himself of corruption, namely Macendale. Moon Knight, rather charitably, wants to help; although Hobby seems duplicitous at best. Spider-Man and Frenchie arrive to help; Spidey with his trademark snark, Frenchie out for vengeance. Even Spidey is surprised Moon Knight is trying to help Macendale, as opposed to clubbing him to an even, lumpy consistency; but it becomes obvious that Macendale is torn in two, possibly the early manifestation of what would later be Demogoblin. Macendale gains control, then tries to take Marlene as a hostage and gets slapped down, so he retaliates with a pumpkin bomb! Spidey saves her, but it's no more mister nice guy for Moon Knight: the sight of Marlene hurt reminds him too much of his brother Randall assaulting her, a blunt bit of foreshadowing for an upcoming four-parter with the Punisher.

Getting clear for a moment, Macendale summons his goblin glider by remote control: Spidey grabs onto it, and Moon Knight on to him. MK delivers a stout but mostly off-panel thrashing, but wonders what is next for him. At a guess, I'd say 'violence.' This feels like they were trying hard to trade Hobgoblin to Moon Knight's somewhat thin rogues' gallery, in part by making Spector much more emotionally invested in this than Spidey seemingly was. I'm not saying Spidey needs to make everything a grudge match, but he might as well be punching a clock here. In Spidey's defense, though; he had fought the old Hobby like eight dozen times and this one much, much less. I don't know if Hobgoblin is really thought of as a Moon Knight baddie these days, but he would be back, sort of.


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Forget "Must There Be a Superman," Must There Be a Kingpin?

This was from a somewhat famously muddled time in the book's history, but also features a plot point that would drive me insane every single time it came up; neither of which I'm going to lay on the creative team here! From 1987, Amazing Spider-Man #288, "Gang War Rages On!" Written by Jim (Priest) Owlsey, pencils by Alan Kupperberg, inks by Jim Fern.

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.
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"Reading."

Boy, you get a lot of villains together, and the color scheme does weird things. There are also like three Hobgoblins in there, partly because I have three Hobgoblins, but I've also lost track on who the current Hobgoblin is in regular Marvel continuity. Honestly, I think if you find the Hobgoblin suit, you're obligated to put it on, fly around a bit, probably give Spidey the hassle. Ditto Jack O'Lantern, I think there's two of him in there...
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Another unlucky break for Sunfire...

After I picked up the new Sunfire Marvel Legend, I did a bit of checking: first, Sunfire had not come up on the blog very often, although we did see his Age of Apocalypse figure at least once. Also, conveniently, the other day OAFE featured a review of the old, pre-Legends, Toy Biz Sunfire that came with the Giant-Sized X-Men box set. I have it, if not handy, but I noticed something from the Sunfire pictures: the old figures arms and legs were textured, indicating chainmail. Which the new figure maybe could've used; since Hasbro has those parts: Green Goblin and Hobgoblin just used them! Although, a quick image search popped up some pictures from Sunfire's recent stint with the Unity Squad in Uncanny Avengers, where he didn't seem to have the chainmail texturing sometimes seen before, possibly because he would be standing next to Captain America's chainmail shirt.

I noticed that while I was checking the old figure's left hand, which is open-palmed like a slap or a karate chop. Or a wave, as Sunfire left the X-Men immediately after the new team's first mission; which was like leaving a team on the verge of winning championships for several years. In 1998, Sunfire would appear with the new super-team Big Hero Six--but wouldn't go on to appear in their 2014 Disney movie! Man, the guy doesn't seem to catch a break, which might explain why he's such a jerk.

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