#Spider-Man Vol. 1 Torment

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

THE GOOD DOCTOR HAS CHECKED HIS HUMANITY AT THE DOOR -- SPIDEY IS IN THE LIZARD'S WORLD NOW.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on a handful of Lizard-themed trading cards from "Spider Man The Todd McFarlane Era" series of collector cards, c. 1992, from the "Spider-Man" Vol. 1 "Torment" story arc. Cards published by Comic Images/Marvel Entertainment Group.

"She cackles into the night. At her side is the transformed figure of Dr. Curt Connors -- now known as the Lizard! Since its reappearance twenty-four hours ago, the usually talkative creature has not uttered one syllable. Someone is controlling it. With an unspoken command, the Lizard turns. Instincts, wanting to leap forward and tear apart the hero, are held in check. Somehow, this creature lives only to serve its new master. But it can smell the blood of its enemy -- the Spider -- NOW!"

-- "SPIDER-MAN" Vol. 1 #4 (November 1990), story/script by Todd McFarlane

Sources: Beckett Marketplace, eBay, Pinterest, various, Hockey Card World Inc., etc...

[kudosmyhero]

The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 1) #418: Revelations, part 3: Torment

Read Date: January 29, 2023 Cover Date: December 1995 ● Writer: Tom DeFalco ● Penciler: Steve Skroce ● Inker: Bud LaRosa ● Colorist: Bob Sharen ● Letterer: Richard Starkings ● Editor: Ralph Macchio ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● damn this artist did Aunt Anna dirty ● everyone's faces are distractingly gremlin-like ● Peter staying to help Ben fight Stromm ● ugh the art

● Arthur Stacy, brother of George Stacy ● says Spidey is responsible for George's death ● uh oh, the pumpkin on the back of the invite… the Goblin ● who dat ● Stromm and Ben both dead? ● baby either dead or kidnapped ● 👏👏👏👏 (the art brought it down a clap)

Synopsis: Mary Jane is being wheeled into the emergency room after she started undergoing painful labor while at the Daily Grind. With her is her Aunt Anna, who tries to comfort the pregnant woman who is afraid that something is happening to her unborn child. They are joined by Doctor Folsome, who tells Mary Jane that his regular doctor cannot be reached and he will be looking after her from this moment on. Also at the hospital is Daily Bugle photographer Angela Yin, who recognizes the Parker woman. As she snaps a photo of the scene Angela wonders why her husband Peter isn't here with her. She isn't the only one who is wondering where Peter Parker is. As Mary Jane is being wheeled into an operating room, Anna Watson wonders why Peter won't call her back on her cell phone.

At that very moment, Peter Parker and Spider-Man are fighting for their lives at the ruins of Midtown High as they are attacked by Gaunt and an army of robots fashioned to look like children. Peter is all too aware that Anna has been trying to get ahold of him, but can't pull himself away from the battle. As he gets another message, Spider-Man hears it and tells Peter to leave and go be with his wife and baby. However, Gaunt is intent on killing the wall-crawler and Peter doesn't think Ben will survive if he leaves and insists on staying. By this time, Angela Yin has called Joe Robertson at the Daily Bugle to tell him about Mary Jane's condition at the hospital. After hearing this, he relays the news to Glory Grant, and feels awful for Peter after everything that has happened to him recently.

Back at Midtown, Spider-Man and Peter Parker continue to fight against Gaunt and his robot army. While Ben destroys two of Gaunt's plastoid robots, Peter takes down the childlike robots. Meanwhile, at the hospital, Doctor Folsome and his team of doctors help Mary Jane through a very complicated and painful delivery. As she strains to give birth to her daughter, Mary Jane is unaware that a mysterious figure is watching from the operating theater above. Satisfied that everything is going exactly as planned, the mystery man then leaves to carry out the next phase of his plan. At Midtown, Peter manages to come across a telephone that still works and calls Anna to check in on Mary Jane. As he fights off the rest of the robots, he tells Anna that he has been stuck in a subway car. Learning that Mary Jane is having a difficult delivery and the doctors are concerned, Peter assures her that he will get there as soon as possible, saying that nothing will keep him from getting to his wife. Meanwhile, at the 28th Precinct, Detective Connor Trevan interrupts his colleagues, Francis Tork and Lou Snider, to introduce them to Arthur Stacy, the brother of the late George Stacy. Arthur tells the officers that he has called a meeting with them because the man who murdered his brother has not been brought to justice and wishes to speak to them all because of their occasional association with Spider-Man.

At that same moment, Spider-Man continues to dodge Gaunt's attack. Having just learned that he is Mendel Stromm, the wall-crawler asks how he managed to survive his brush with death and who his mysterious employer is. Gaunt ignores these questions, stating that he is only following orders from someone who wants him dead. His barrage manages to wound the web-slinger in his left shoulder. With Spider-Man at his mercy, Gaunt decides to tell him something about the wall-crawler's old friend Seward Trainer. Before he can finish off the web-head, Peter Parker leaps in and kicks Gaunt in the head, saving his life. Gaunt then tries to blast the two Spider-Men with knockout gas, but is surprised when it doesn't work. However, it soon becomes apparent that the gas neutralizes spider-sense. While back at the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson asks Joe Robertson what he knows about a surprise board meeting that has been called as well as an impromptu Halloween party organized for the staff. Joe doesn't know what the meeting is about but reminds Jonah that the staff could use a morale boost after the recent round of layoffs. He also suggests to Jonah that there won't be a disaster if the paper shuts down for a few hours so the staff can have some fun. As he says this, he is unaware that the man setting up decorations in the bullpen is also putting out jack-o'-lanterns that are rigged with explosives.

Back at the scene of the battle, Spider-Man continues launching attacks at Gaunt, demanding to know what he knows about Seward Trainer. Gaunt explains that Trainer was just another pawn, only a tool that was used to manipulate Reilly. Trainer had been on both sides, healing Stromm as well, and once his usefulness was over he was killed. Hearing how his best friend was murdered, Spider-Man loses his temper and begins ripping apart Gaunt's cybernetic armor. However, he stops short of killing Gaunt, reminding himself that he isn't a heartless killer like the Punisher. With the battle over, Spider-Man tells Peter to get going so he can be there when his daughter is born. Having destroyed the last of Gaunt's robots, Parker doesn't argue and bounds away. With Stromm disarmed, Spider-Man then begins demanding answers when he is suddenly blasted by someone standing behind him. Spider-Man instantly recognizes who this man is and can't believe it as he believed him to be dead. When the web-slinger tries to attack him he is blasted in the chest, crumpling to the ground. With Spider-Man down, the mystery employer reminds Gaunt what happens when his minions fail him and blasts him as well.

At the hospital, Mary Jane gives the final push to deliver her baby. When she doesn't hear the baby crying, Mary Jane asks what is wrong with her baby. That's when Doctor Folsome apologizes, making Mary Jane realize that he baby didn't survive. As she cries, one of the nurses, who turns out to be a woman by the name of Alison Mongrain, removes her surgical mask and wheels a cart out of the operating room to her car. She drives out to the waterfront where she meets with her mystery employer, confirming that she has brought the package she was hired to bring. As he prepares to put her on a private boat that is to take her to Europe, the man says that she has been compensated accordingly, with a sizable bonus and travel expenses. Mongrain thanks him for his generosity. Lastly, as she departs, he says that she may call him Norman… Norman Osborn.

… Revelations concludes in Spider-Man #75 and Spider-Man: Revelations #1.

(https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1_418)

Fan Art: Ben Reilly as Spiderman by anubis2kx

Accompanying Podcast: ● Amazing Spider-Talk - "Revelations"

[night-gay]

Into the Anthill pt 25 - Project B.I.G.

As well as being the lead researcher on the mysterious vault in the Avengers Mansion basement (which we’ll get to in The Crossing), Hank was working with Bill Foster on Project B.I.G., an initiative that he hoped could end world hunger by making crops larger. In their spare time Hank and Jan both finally got themselves some therapy, which they both absolutely needed. That said, Jan hired accredited help while Hank just rigged up a brain scanner to trap himself in an insect-themed nightmare to work his issues out.

Classic Hank.

🐜🐜🐜

Secret Defenders vol 1 #18-19

Bureau 18 contacted Giant-Man and Dr. Druid to solve a string of unusual insect-related deaths. Hank, Iron Fist, Iceman, and Archangel worked together to stop the insects and protect civilians while Dr. Druid fought Swarm.

Avengers West Coast vol 1 #102

Captain America called for the dissolution of the West Coast Avengers due to what he personally saw as failings on their part. After War Machine quit, the remaining 11 members in attendance put it to a vote. Cap, Black Widow, Black Knight, Hercules, and Vision voted to end it. Scarlet Witch, U.S.Agent, Sersi, Spider-Woman, and Giant-Man voted no. Crystal abstained. With the votes tied, Iron Man exercised his right to vote as an inactive member. With the resentment and lack of support they faced from the East team, he knew it would be pointless to drag this out any further and voted to disband them. Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, U.S.Agent, and Spider-Woman quit the Avengers immediately as a show of protest.

Avengers vol 1 #370-375, 378

The Avengers responded to a distress call from Lemuria. They were attacked by deviants immediately and placed under mind control by their brain-mines. Sersi was used as a pawn to lure in Kro and other rogue deviants in. While most of the Avengers were needed for Lord Ghaur’s plan to create a multi-species uni-mind, Giant-Man and Black Knight were extras and were instead forced into gladiatorial combat. Sersi was able to break Dane free of his brain-mine and shut down the uni-mind from the inside.

Hank ran tests on Dane’s brain to determine the extent of Sersi’s influence over him; the results showed that she had almost fully overtaken his will. Then Proctor and the Eternals arrived on the scene and Sersi left with Dane through a portal to another dimension to cure her madness. With that out of the way, Hank turned his scanner on himself for some much-needed psychoanalysis. In his mind, he was placed on trial by ants and charged with conspiracy to disrupt the insect community and treason against the state of his own mind. He was tormented by insectoid versions of his alter-egos, each one preying on his insecurities. He was able to overcome this by finally admitting to himself that he could never give up the life of a superhero.

Avengers Annual vol 1 #23

Loki and Hades devised a plan to kill Thor and Hercules by using Typhon as a pawn, but failed like they always do. Back home, Giant-Man and Vision engaged in some 1-on-1 training and fought a sentient glitch in Vision’s software.

Avengers vol 1 #382-383

Giant-Man, Black Widow, and Vision investigated the sub-basement of their new Avengers Mansion - an abandoned copy from an alternate timeline installed where theirs used to be - for any irregularities. Most of the mansion’s systems had lost power, and Hank’s instruments revealed what seemed to be a dense chunk of displaced time sealed into a vault that they could not open.

Marvel Double Feature… The Avengers/Giant-Man vol 1 #379-382

Janet spoke with her therapist, Dr. Rossin, about her recent exit from the West Coast Avengers. After a successful return to the fashion industry, she threw a Hollywood-character themed masquerade ball to celebrate. Her guests were horrified when A giant gorilla appeared outside the window (Hank dressed as King Kong with various congratulatory balloons). After the party Hank brought Janet to a secret garden where he and Bill Foster had begun Project B.I.G. (Biotechnically Induced Growth), an agricultural application of his Pym Particle research that aimed to end world hunger.

Hank received a call about giant insects in the Southwest and went off on his own to deal with them, running into trouble as Col. Manning of the Air Force tried to interfere. Hank was knocked out during the fight and Manning took him prisoner on the assumption that this was his fault. Captain America broke him out and brought him to Janet, who had begun to grow uncontrollably. Bill Foster, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Tigra, and anyone else who’d ever been exposed to Pym Particles was also changing size, and anywhere he’d used the particles saw attacks from giant insects. All of this on the seven year anniversary of the day Janet became the Wasp to fight the Kosmosian that killed her father.

As Kosmosians began to invade Earth seeking revenge on Hank, he pushed his body’s limits and managed to grow to 60 ft while increasing his strength to match (exceeding the 25 ft limit he’d known as Goliath). On the ropes, the Kosmosian opened a portal and Hank went through, discovering Erik Josten (formerly the villain called Goliath). The Kosmosians were using his body’s Pym Particles to attack their targets on Earth, so Hank overwhelmed their systems with his own to keep them from invading again.

Minor/Cameo appearances from this period:

Spider-Man Unlimited vol 1 #3

Starblast vol 1 #1

Marvels vol 1 #2

Marvel Comics Presents vol 1 #152

Warlock and the Infinity Watch vol 1 #26-28

Quasar vol 1 #60

Daredevil vol 1 #327

Thunderstrike vol 1 #9-10

Captain America vol 1 #434

[scarletspider2the2ndpower]

“The Pain of Kaine,” Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1/1963), #609.

Writer: Marc Guggenheim; Pencilers: Marco Checchetto and Luke Ross; Inkers: Marco Checchetto and Rick Magyar; Colorist: Fabio D’Auria; Letterer: Joe Caramagna

[sineala]

Tony Stark and Arthuriana

Coming to you by special request, a very long post about 616 Tony's interest in Arthuriana, with a focus on all of Tony's run-ins with Morgan le Fay!

I feel like I should disclaim the extent of my knowledge here, which is that I still haven't managed to read anywhere near every issue of Iron Man -- at least, not yet, anyway -- so I'm just going by the things I know I've read, and Morgan le Fay's Marvel wiki entry is frustratingly under-cited, so it's very possible I've missed something relevant, but I'm pretty sure I've got the big stuff down. My other disclaimer here is that I'm not as big an Arthurian nerd as Tony is, which is to say that most of my familiarity comes from modern retellings -- T. H. White's The Once and Future King, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave, Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset -- and not so much the usual classic sources on the Matter of Britain, though I've read bits and pieces of them.

(This is because I wanted to read versions of them that were as close to the original as possible but so far have not ended up finishing any of them because, well, that's hard. So I've never read the Mabinogion because I do not know Welsh. I've got the Norton Critical Edition of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, which is probably the best student edition if you're looking for something without modernized spellings, as I was. I've also got -- well, okay, it's my wife's but I'm borrowing it -- a relatively recent Boydell & Brewer edition (ed. Reeve, tr. Wright) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), which is, you guessed it, in Latin with a facing English translation. I haven't gotten very far in it because, in case you didn't know this about Latin texts, the beginning is pretty much always the hardest, so I gave up and read some Plautus adaptations instead. Anyway, if for some reason you too want to read Geoffrey of Monmouth in the original Latin I'd recommend that one, but I can't recommend any particular English translations because I've never read one by itself. I bet you didn't think you'd be getting Latin prose recommendations in this post. I mean, maybe you did; it is me, after all.)

Okay. Right. King Arthur. Here we go.

We've got:

Flashbacks to Tony's childhood in late Iron Man volume 1

A brief discussion of Morgan's origin story and Avengers #187

Iron Man vol 1 #149-150: Doomquest

What If vol 1 #33: What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?

Iron Man vol 1 #249-250: Recurring Knightmare

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #1-4

Avengers vol 3 #1-4: The Morgan Conquest

Civil War: The Confession

Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11: Time Is On No One's Side

In terms of universe-internal chronology, we know from Iron Man #287, from 1992, that Tony has been a fan of King Arthur since childhood. This is an issue of a fandom-favorite arc which features Tony having a lot of childhood flashbacks, including the famous "Stark men are made of iron" line (in #286) that for some reason MCU fandom decided it loved; I mean, seriously, I've seen that quoted in way more MCU fic than 616 fic. But slightly later, in #287, we get an entire page devoted to Tony's love of King Arthur.

The narration reads: "Over the next few years, I learned as my father intended. Discipline of body. Strength of character. But in what free time I was allowed, I worked my way through the school's library. At thirteen, I discovered Mallory [sic], who showed me a whole new world. A world of dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Of chivalry and honor. And the fantastic deeds -- of armored heroes."

The art shows Tony as a child sitting under a tree, reading a book labeled Mort D'Arthur by Mallory [sic] -- no, don't ask me why nobody at Marvel checked how to spell either the name of the book or its author -- and daydreaming of King Arthur, the Sword in the Stone, knights, et cetera. Just in case you somehow missed the extremely blatant hint that we are meant to understand that Tony's knight obsession heavily influenced him becoming Iron Man as an adult, we see one of his armors mixed in with all the drawings of knights. So, yes, canonically Tony is Iron Man at least partly because he's a giant King Arthur nerd, which I think is so very sweet. I love him. He's such a dork!

(This issue is currently in print in the Iron Man Epic Collection War Machine, should you need your own copy.)

This isn't actually the only reference to Tony as a King Arthur fanboy in this era of canon, either; a little later, in IM #298, we see that one of Tony's passwords is actually "Mallory." (Yeah, no, they still couldn't spell. But it's cute.)

But in terms of actual publication order, this is definitely not the first time we have seen in canon that Tony is into Arthuriana, as I'm sure you all know. I would assume, in fact, that giving Tony a childhood interest in Arthuriana is because Doomquest is one of the most beloved Iron Man story arcs of all time, and that all started at least a decade before IM #287 here was published.

The villain of Doomquest -- the one who isn't Doctor Doom, at least -- is Morgan le Fay. Yes, that Morgan le Fay. Yes, Arthur's evil half-sister Morgan le Fay. Yes, all of this King Arthur stuff is canonically real history on Earth-616. Morgan's first appearance in Marvel, per the wiki, was in Black Knight #1 (1955), which I have not read, and judging by the summary I feel like this is probably just supposed to be a straight-up comic retelling of Arthurian legends for kids; I don't think Marvel really had the whole Marvel Universe in mind as a concept in 1955, so I'm not sure this was meant to connect to anything else. I feel like this is another one of those instances of Marvel discovering that they can write comics about characters in the public domain for free -- like, I'm pretty sure that's how we also ended up with, like, Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology wedged into 616.

As far as I can tell from the wiki, the first time Morgan tangled with the Avengers (or indeed the larger 616 universe) in any way actually predated Doomquest -- it was in an early arc in Spider-Woman (#2-6) and then Avengers #187, which came out in 1979, actually right when Demon in a Bottle was happening over in Iron Man comics. If you read #187, Iron Man is not in it because he's off the team due to his drinking problem and also his accidentally murdering the Carnelian ambassador problem. So Wonder Man's filling in instead. This issue is part of Michelinie's rather sporadic Avengers run, which makes sense, I guess, considering where we see Morgan next.

Anyway, Avengers #187 is the classic issue where Wanda is possessed by Chthon, but what you may not remember from Chthon's backstory (I sure didn't!) is that he was summoned by Morgan le Fay because she was the first person who tried to wield the Darkhold to summon him. As you can imagine, this did not work out especially well for her and her followers and they had to seal Chthon away in Wundagore Mountain, which was where Wanda found him. (The Spider-Woman stuff is only slightly earlier and also appears to be about Morgan and the Darkhold; the Darkhold is not one of the areas of 616 canon I am especially conversant with, alas. It's on my to-read list.)

Doomquest, as you probably know, was a classic Iron Man two-parter in Layton & Michelinie's first Iron Man run that set up Tony and Doom as rivals; Doomquest itself was IM #149-150, in 1981, and then in their second IM run they came back and did a sequel in 1989, Recurring Knightmare (IM #249-250), and then the much later four-part sequel to that was the 2008 miniseries Iron Man: Legacy of Doom, which was also by Layton & Michelinie but generally does not seem to be as popular as the first two parts. They've all been reprinted, if you're looking for copies; I have a Doomquest hardcover that collects the first four issues and then a separate Legacy of Doom hardcover. Currently in the Iron Man Epic Collection line there's a volume called Doom, which confusingly only collects the 249-250 part of the storyline (as well as surrounding issues), because for some reason the first Layton & Michelinie run isn't in Epics yet but the second one is. So the beginning of Doomquest isn't currently in print, as far as I can tell. I'm sure you can find it anyway.

So what's Doomquest about? Okay, so you remember how Doctor Doom's mother's soul is stuck in hell for all eternity? Well, Doom's obviously interested in getting her back, and the strategy he has embarked on is to try to team up with other powerful magicians who can help him out, and he thinks Morgan le Fay would be a good choice, for, uh, his quest. Doom's quest. A Doomquest, if you will. (If you've ever read Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment, you're familiar with the part where he later ends up waylaying Strange for this and they go to hell together. And if you haven't read Triumph & Torment, you really should, because it's amazing.)

So Doom is off to his time machine to go team up with Morgan le Fay and Tony thinks Doom is up to something -- Doom has been stealing components for his time machine from a lot of people, including Tony -- and he follows him and it turns out one of Doom's lackeys has a grudge and wants to trap Doom in the past forever, and Tony gets caught up in it. Now they're both in Camelot. Surprise! #149 is actually all setup; they don't get to Camelot until #150.

IM #150 begins with Doom and Tony thrown back into the past; there's a fandom-famous splash page of them locked in combat, only to realize that they have found themselves in Camelot.

They are then discovered by knights; Doom would very much like to attack them, but Tony, who naturally would be happy to LARP Camelot forever, persuades him to play nice. Also Doom thinks Iron Man is only Tony's bodyguard so he keeps referring to him as "lackey," much to Tony's annoyance. Somehow everyone thinks they're sorcerers. Can't imagine why. The knights take them to meet King Arthur himself, and Tony has clearly had his introduction all ready to go, as he introduces himself in a timeline-appropriate manner, says he's here to apprehend Doom, and demonstrates his "magic" by levitating Arthur's throne. Doom's response is essentially "I'm the king of Latveria," which is, y'know, also valid. So they're guests at Camelot for the night while Arthur figures out what to do with them.

We then have a page devoted to Tony alone in his room, musing sadly about how alien he feels, how he doesn't know if he'll ever get home, how he could never fit in here without his beloved technology. Then a Sexy Lady shows up to keep him company for the night, and he decides maybe it's not all bad. Thanks, Marvel. I guess they can't all be winners.

Doom is using his evening much more productively; he compels one of the servants to tell him where Morgan's castle is, because he's still interested in having that team-up. Then he jets off. Literally. He has a jetpack.

The next morning Arthur's like "one of you is still here and one of you has punched a hole through the castle wall and flown off to join Morgan so I guess I know which of you is more trustworthy." He then explains to Tony who Morgan is, because Tony professes ignorance, because clearly we had not yet retconned in Tony's love of Arthuriana. Tony offers to go fight Doom and Morgan with Arthur; meanwhile, Morgan and Doom have teamed up and Morgan has offered to help get Doom's mother out of hell if he commands her undead armies against Arthur because for Reasons she can't command them herself anymore. So that's a thing that happens.

So, yes, it's Tony and Arthur versus Doom and Morgan. Fight fight fight!

Tony tries Doom first but then decides to hunt Morgan down, and in the ensuing fight we get what I think is Tony's first ever "I hate magic," a complaint that we all know he still makes even to this day.

Anyway, Tony freezes a dragon with Freon (mmm, technology) and Morgan gets upset and disappears, so the battle comes to an end, and of course Doom is extremely mad at Tony because he blames Tony for Morgan not sticking around to save Doom's mom, because I guess Doom trusted her to keep her word? Weird. (Like I said, for the next chapter of Doom saving his mother, go read Triumph & Torment.)

Doom says if he and Tony work together, the components in both of their armors can send them both home. So Tony has to trust Doom. Which he does, because he really has no other choice. They build a time machine and Tony makes Doom agree to a 24-hour truce when they get back, so they can both get home. So it all works out okay, and they end up in the present, and Doom tells him, ominously, that they will meet again. Okay, then. That concludes the original Doomquest. It's fun! You can see why fandom likes it.

So that's all well and good, but you might have noticed that Tony's ability to get home hinged on Doom actually being trustworthy. And Doom was. But what if Doom hadn't been? What if he'd just stranded Tony in Camelot forever As you may have surmised from the form of that question, that is in fact a question Marvel asked themselves, because, yes, there's a What If about this! What If v1 #33 is "What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?"

The divergence point from canon, as you can probably guess, is the very end of Doomquest. Instead of Doom bringing Tony home, he deceives him and leaves him in Camelot. And since Tony cannibalized a lot of the tech from his armor to make the time machine, he doesn't have a way to go home.

This is not a story where Tony comes up with a way to go home after all. He really doesn't get to go home. But instead of drowning his sorrows in mead -- because, remember, Demon in a Bottle has already happened and Tony is sober now -- he decides he might as well just play the hand he's dealt. So with what's left of his armor, he defeats some enemies that Morgan rounds up to send against Camelot. And for his services, he's knighted. He is now Sir Anthony.

Tony acknowledges that he is both living the dream and would also like very, very much to go home.

He does end up having some fun in Camelot; it's not all miserable. But he obviously doesn't want to be there.

So if you're at all familiar with King Arthur, you know how this goes, right? Arthur fights Mordred and Mordred kills him. And that does happen in this version. Except Tony is right there, and with his dying words, Arthur asks Tony to rule Camelot... and Tony agrees.

So, yes, Tony Stark becomes king of the Britons after Arthur's death and he never goes home again. The end. Man, I love What Ifs.

Heading back to main 616 continuity, there is still more of this arc to go. The original Doomquest was only two issues, yes, but it was popular enough that Layton & Michelinie did a sequel a hundred issues later, in their second run of Iron Man, and that's Iron Man #249-250, Recurring Knightmare. (In the intervening issues were Denny O'Neil's IM run, specifically the second drinking arc (#160-200), and then Layton & Michelinie came back and most famously gave us Armor Wars (#225-232). I would have to say that Armor Wars is definitely the standout fandom-favorite arc of their second IM run; for their first one, I think a lot of people would have a hard time choosing between Doomquest and Demon.) But anyway, yes. Recurring Knightmare.

Recurring Knightmare is... well, the best way I can describe it is "a trip." It is definitely a sequel to Doomquest, and it is also definitely not a sequel you  would ever have expected to see for Doomquest.

Much like #149, #249 is pretty much just setup. Fun setup, but the big action is in the next issue. We open with Doom in Latveria, on his throne, pondering which of his servants he should have disintegrated. Anyway, he's just hanging out there when a mysterious object appears. In California, Tony is suited up and entertaining the crowd at a mall opening when the same object also appears! He takes it to his lab. Please note that this is after the Kathy Dare incident, so Tony is still recovering and is walking with a cane. Doom sees on the news that Iron Man has found the same object, which cannot be carbon-dated, and he shows up at Tony's house. He criticizes Tony's taste in art.

Anyway, Doom basically orders Tony to work with him. Tony refuses, and then Doom sends some robots to attempt to steal Tony's version of the object because he thinks if he has them both he will be powerful. Doom manages to steal it, and when he puts the pieces together, both he and Tony disappear.

So where do they go, you might ask? Camelot?

Not exactly. The future! There is a great callback to the Doomquest splash page.

It turns out they are in London in 2093. Merlin brought them there. Tony still hates magic. And in the future, King Arthur is still there, except he is now a child, because he has been reborn. But he does remember Tony from Doomquest, at which point Tony kneels. Doom, of course, is not impressed. He asks why they have been brought to the future.

The answer is that things are going wrong in the future. If you do not personally remember United States politics in the 1980s, I need you to google the words "Strategic Defense Initiative" right now. I'll wait.

Back with me? Okay, so this is a future where Reagan's Star Wars program actually happened the way he wanted it to, and the satellites are still hanging around the Earth in the future and messing everything up, and Arthur and Merlin need Tony and Doom's help to stop them. Doom once again flies away with his jetpack, of course.

Tony is game to help, but he's not in an armor that can stay in space for long. This is when Merlin takes him and Arthur to the mall and Tony manages to get everything to upgrade his armor at Radio Shack. You see what I meant about this issue being weird.

Tony is out in space trying to disarm the SDI platform, which is where he runs into his future descendant, Andros Stark, who is in armor you will probably recognize from Iron Man 2020. He is referred to as "the resurrected spawn of Iron Man 2020" so I assume he's actually directly related to Arno rather than a direct descendant of Tony; Wiki confirms that Arno is his grandfather. This is all from way before Arno was contemporaneous with Tony in canon. Anyway, he's fighting Tony.

Oh, by the way, Future Doom exists. Future Doom would like to rule this future Earth and for some reason Andros would like to help him. Meanwhile, Present Doom finds out from Merlin that he can't leave except by magic and he can't leave without Tony, so he is reluctantly on Tony's side.

They need help from the Lady of the Lake, except the lake has been paved over and is now a parking lot. Merlin makes the lake come back and then of course they get Excalibur. Arthur is a kid, so he can't wield a longsword; Doom assumes he's going to take it because he is basically a king, and he's pretty grumpy when the sword picks Tony. Tony then uses Excalibur to destroy the space lasers, and I bet that is a sentence you never thought you would read. It's pretty cool. Tony concludes that magic has its good points. Tony stops Andros and Doom stops, uh, himself, and the world is saved and they get to go home. Also, Doom finds out Tony is Iron Man, but when Merlin sends them back he conveniently erases their memories, so neither of them remember anything about this and Tony's secret is still safe. And that's the sequel to Doomquest.

And if you think that's weird, wait until you see Legacy of Doom.

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom is a four-issue miniseries from 2008, also by Layton and Michelinie. Even though it's from 2008, it's set during a much more classic time in Iron Man, continuing on from where we left off in this Doomquest saga. We start with a framing story in 2008. Tony, who has Extremis now, is busy scrapping some of his older armors and reviewing his logs when he suddenly remembers that there was a whole thing with Doom that happened that he seems to have forgotten about until right now. So the whole thing is narrated by Tony in flashback.

Tony's in space fixing a satellite when a hologram of Doom shows up and summons him to Latveria. It's not really clear why Doom needs Tony's help in particular here, but Doom tells Tony that he's discovered that Mephisto would like to bring about the end of the world, which Doom finds, and I quote, "presumptive." So Doom has his Time Cube, and with it he takes Tony to hell.

(Yes, I promise this is relevant to Doomquest. There will be some Arthuriana shortly.)

Doom brings Tony to Mephisto, and it turns out it's a setup! Doom trades Tony for an item he wants from Mephisto, leaves, and Tony's going to be trapped in hell forever! Oh no! (I mean, he's not. But it's quite a cliffhanger.)

At the beginning of issue #2, we find out what the Arthurian connection is, which is that we learned that after the events of Doomquest, Morgan had been granted sanctuary by Mephisto in exchange for a shard of Excalibur that she had somehow stolen. Doom still wants Morgan's help with some magic -- he doesn't mention what it is here, but he says he needs someone of Pendragon blood, and that'd be her -- so he traded Tony to Mephisto in exchange for, I'm guessing, Morgan and the Excalibur shard.

I have probably mentioned this elsewhere, but Legacy of Doom #2 is one of my favorite issues of Iron Man ever, solely because of the next scene. We return to Tony in hell. Howard Stark is also in hell, and he is now a demon, and Tony has to fight him. Mephisto brings popcorn and watches. This is the one time in canon when Tony actually confronts his father, and okay, yes, it's a fistfight in hell and Howard is a demon, but that's comics for you. Howard spends several pages insulting Tony -- specifically insulting his masculinity, but that's a whole other essay -- until he finally insults Maria too, and that's when Tony fights back, because his mother taught him to be good. Honestly if you're a Tony fan I'd recommend this issue just for that scene.

Anyway, we go back to the Doom and Morgan plot, and Morgan casts the spell Doom wanted, which was fusing the Excalibur shard with Doom's armor. Then Doom sends her back to Camelot rather than hell, because he's still mad that she never helped him get his mom out of hell like she said she would.

Tony freezes Howard with Freon -- yes, the same trick he pulled on the dragon back in Doomquest -- and tells him, "You're no father of mine." It is immensely satisfying.

(I had been going to mention that I thought it was a shame that neither canon nor fandom seems to have really engaged with this confrontation, and I know canon never believes in narrative closure but fandom sure does -- and then, anyway, it occurred to me that since the framing story of Tony remembering this is set when Tony has Extremis, there's a very good chance that he no longer remembers remembering it. Goddammit, Marvel.)

(If I got to retcon one canon thing about Tony, I think "the entirety of World's Most Wanted" is up there. I mean, okay, a lot of things are up there, but WMW is definitely on the shortlist.)

Okay. Tony has now engineered his way out of hell, and he's back with Doom in Latveria. Doom has Excalibur. Doom would very much like to fight him. While wielding Excalibur. You get the sense that this is going to be bad. Another cliffhanger!

Legacy of Doom #3 opens with Tony destroying Doom's lab to buy time and running away from Doom and Excalibur. I should probably mention that Doom still doesn't know Tony is Iron Man (anymore), so he thinks he is dealing only with Iron Man, Tony Stark's lackey. Meanwhile, some scientists at SI think there's something weird going on with space. Meanwhile meanwhile, Tony is in a forest taking a breather when a mysterious old man walks up to him.

It's Merlin! Surprise! Merlin wants Tony's help to stop Doom from doing whatever he's doing with Excalibur. The sword makes you invincible and the scabbard makes you invulnerable, so Merlin sends Tony to Scotland on a fetch quest for the scabbard. Doom has now magically sent the sword in search of the scabbard, so the sword flies away to meet it and Doom follows. Turns out the thing that's wrong with space is a thing that's going to hit Earth at the exact place Tony and Doom are. What a coincidence! So Tony and Doom get trapped in a stone circle and fight some stone warriors and then Tony ends up with the scabbard. And by "ends up with," I mean it fuses to his armor. Next issue!

Legacy of Doom #4 is when things really, really get weird. A giant demon made of eyes (???) appears, and this demon is apparently what Doom had been preparing to fight (because it's mad that Doom stole one of its spellbooks), and now he can't, because the sword and the scabbard aren't together. Thanks, Shellhead.

That's when Merlin shows up and says all is not lost. They can defeat the demon... if they put the sword into the scabbard.

"But I'm the scabbard now!" Tony says, uncomprehending.

"Yes," Merlin says. "You are."

Then Tony gets it.

So, yes, Doom has to, um, penetrate Tony. With Excalibur. I love comics. I love comics so much.

So that's a thing that happens.

And then Tony flies off and, I guess, resolves to never, ever think about any of this again.

We head back to the framing story, in which Tony, now having remembered all of this, flies to Britain, buys the land the lake is on, and paves it over, presumably so it will be there for Merlin to bring back in Iron Man #250. The end.

Whew.

Okay, yeah, I know I didn't have to summarize the whole thing, but Legacy of Doom here really is one of my favorite Iron Man miniseries. And I just want to share the love. Please read it. It's great.

But the Arthuriana fun doesn't end there! In fact, now we get an Arthurian-themed arc that actually isn't in Iron Man comics. It's in Avengers! Iron Man is involved, though.

(There is also apparently a Morgan arc in Avengers #240. I actually haven't read it. It seems to be yet another Spider-Woman arc. I get the impression that this isn't really Arthuriana other than having Morgan in it fighting Jess, though, so it doesn't seem quite as relevant. Morgan also apparently has some appearances in FF, Journey into Mystery, and Marvel Team-Up, but those seem like more of just basic villainy. Also, probably not involving Tony.)

Kurt Busiek's 1998 Avengers run, volume 3, is in large part the kind of Avengers run that is a nostalgic love letter to older comics. Heroes are heroes and villains are villains and good triumphs over evil. The Avengers all live in the mansion and are BFFs. I love it. It does assume that you are already a fan of the Avengers, because it starts out by summoning pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger and is available to the mansion, and that is... a lot of people. Thirty-nine, by my count. Also, when the entire team is magically whisked away, we are treated to the following narration, as Steve disappears: "And Captain America's last thought, as the world goes white around him, and he with it -- is that Iron Man would hate this."

The narration doesn't tell you why Iron Man would hate this, or how Captain America would know that Iron Man hates this. This is not explained later on. But if you have read comics -- or if you have read the above summary of Doomquest -- you know that Tony is absolutely, one hundred percent, thinking, "I hate magic." And Steve knows it.

The reference is not relevant to the plot; if you don't get it, you'll be fine. But that's what I mean when I say this is a nostalgia run. There are definitely Easter eggs for people who have read a bunch of comics. Busiek does this a whole lot in his work -- there's a reason you can buy an annotated edition of Marvels -- and, yeah, it happens here too. Just know that there will be references you're not getting, if you're new to comics.

Anyway. So Busiek's run actually starts out with an Arthurian arc, #1-4, "The Morgan Conquest." The name is a dead giveaway. Yes, Morgan le Fay is back. Again. For once, Doom is not involved.

The Avengers are all back from their sojourn on Counter-Earth after fighting Onslaught -- don't worry about it -- and mysterious things are happening. There are a lot of monster attacks. So pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger is summoned to the mansion, at which point we learn from Thor about some mystical artifacts that are being stolen. (They are the Norn Stones and also the Twilight Sword. That sounds like something from a Zelda game, doesn't it?) The Avengers go to try to stop this, end up in Tintagel, and then they run into Mordred. He wants to capture Wanda, presumably for Magic Reasons. Morgan le Fay casts a spell on all of them, reshaping reality. Yes, all of them. Surprise!

So now all the Avengers are living in a medieval castle and/or town; Morgan is their queen, and thanks to the power of mind-control they are all basically living in Ye Olden Times. The Avengers are all some variety of knight, except for Wanda, who is chained up in the dungeon so Morgan can steal her magic and use it to fuel all this reality-warping.

Wanda calls for help, and that snaps Steve (Yeoman America!) out of the mind control (or altered reality or whatever you want to call it) pretty fast, because Steve's always been very good at resisting mind control, and then Steve promptly goes and snaps Clint out of it, because I guess Steve is also good at inspiring people to snap out of mind control. "Oh, man!" Clint says. "Not another alternate reality! Not again!" (I assume he's referring to Counter-Earth? Maybe?)

So Steve and Clint go around reassembling the Avengers and orienting them as to reality. They get Jan and Monica easily, but then Steve insists on trying to get Tony because, I guess, he likes Tony and would really like to hang around Tony, who is half-naked and asleep in his bedroom, and certainly I am reading nothing whatsoever into this. Clint tells Steve it's not going to work. Tony has historically been fairly susceptible to mind control; it was only pretty recently at this point that he'd been doing Kang's bidding in The Crossing. But the more serious impediment is that this is Tony Stark and he would obviously like to LARP being a knight forever and ever. Tony, therefore, does not believe Steve, and throws him and Clint out of his bedroom and into the barracks.

"Iron Man's a good guy, normally," Clint says. "But he's waaay too into his whole nobleman/lord of the manor trip. That spell musta hit him right where he lives!"

Clint speaks the truth, clearly.

Anyway, they go around and manage to make pretty much every Avenger in the room other than Tony snap out, and attempt to rebel against Morgan while Tony is stil fighting them because he is Still A Knight. There's a lot of punching, because some of the Avengers still aren't free; they weren't ones Steve found.

The day is saved when Wanda manages to channel Wonder Man and break free. This gives the Avengers a fighting chance against Morgan and the Avengers are all lending Wanda their power when Tony finally snaps out of it and is on the side of good. 

Then they take Morgan down, go home, and attempt to figure out which of these thirty-nine people should be on the active Avengers team. Hooray.

But that's not the end of Morgan le Fay showing up to screw around with Tony's life! There's more to come! Not much, but there is one that I know of, and at least one more memorable reference. 

(I haven't read all her appearances or anything, but one of them definitely involves Tony; I can't swear that he doesn't appear in any of the other books Morgan shows up in, but it'd be a cameo for him, because I only know of one more arc that she's in in a book that Tony stars in.)

In a few more years, we have now entered the part of Marvel Comics history where Brian Michael Bendis writes all the Avengers books at the same time for, like, seven years running. It was sure A Time. There were a lot of word bubbles.

And the thing about Bendis is, Bendis looooooves Doomquest. If you're familiar with the very end of his tenure at Marvel where he made Doom be Iron Man after Tony got knocked into a coma in Civil War II, you have probably figured out already that he likes Doom. But he also likes Doomquest, specifically.

I mean, if nothing else, the giant splash page in The Confession where Maleev redrew the climactic Doomquest fight while Bendis had Tony talk about how deeply meaningful to his understanding of the world this all was -- and how it allowed him to predict Civil War -- was probably a big clue, right?

As far as I am aware, Morgan le Fay makes exactly one more appearance in Tony's life. And that's in Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11. Only one of those issues is named, so I'm going to assume the arc is named after it: Time Is On No One's Side.

You remember Mighty Avengers, right? The deal with the Avengers books at the time was that after Bendis exploded the mansion and made the team disband in Avengers Disassembled, the main Avengers book was no longer called just Avengers. Instead, the main Avengers book was New Avengers, and that was the only Avengers book. Then Civil War happened, Steve got killed, and New Avengers became the book about what was left of the SHRA resistance (i.e., Steve's side) after the war. So about halfway through New Avengers, Mighty Avengers starts up, and Mighty Avengers is about an extremely fucked-up and grief-stricken Tony Stark trying to run the official government-sanctioned Avengers team, with Carol's help. This is the comic with the arc where Tony turned into naked girl Ultron. You remember.

So, anyway, there's this Mighty Avengers arc where Doom is Up To Something (there are symbiotes and a satellite involved) and somehow Tony and the Avengers end up in Latveria, punching Doom. Also, by the way, Doom is visiting Morgan in the past because he likes her. The Avengers attacking his castle made him have to come back to the present, so he's kind of cranky. And he fights Tony, and in the course of the fight, his time platform explodes and sends Doom and Tony and also the Sentry to... the past.

This is one of those times where you should definitely look up the comics if possible because the way the past is visually indicated here is that it's colored with halftone dots the way you would expect old comics to be colored, although they have modern shading and color palettes. It's very charmingly retro.

So the three of them are stuck in New York in the past, and naturally they would like to leave. There's one person in this time who has a time machine and it is, of course, Reed Richards. Doom and Tony have a lot of banter in this arc; I think it's entertaining.

Sentry has to be the one to break them all into the Baxter Building because of that power he has where no one will remember him. So they do that, travel forward in time, and end up in Latveria in the present again except Doom is gone and also things are currently exploding where they are.

Doom, of course, has made a side trip to visit Morgan again and he asks her to help him build an army, because I guess this is what their relationship is like. So the rest of the Avengers are captured by what look to me like Mindless Ones and are in a cave in magic bondage, because comics. Jess comments that at least they aren't naked, because she too is remembering that memorable New Avengers trip to the Savage Land. Doom threatens Carol in some creepy sexist ways and eventually it turns out that Tony and the Sentry are fine and everyone kicks Doom's ass. Business as usual.

And the last page of the arc is Morgan alone, wondering where Doom is. So technically Morgan and Tony don't come face to face here, but I think she counts as being at least partially responsible for ruining Tony's day here. And then Secret Invasion happens and Tony has a very, very bad day.

There are a few more Morgan appearances after this, but, as I said, I don't think any of them involve Tony. She shows up in Dark Avengers, apparently, which was one of the post-Civil War Avengers titles I didn't read, and I know that recently, on the X-Men side of things, she's been in Tini Howard's Excalibur one, which I have only read a little of. No Tony there. Just a lot of Morgan and Betsy Braddock and Brian Braddock and the Otherworld.

If you are interested in Morgan's other appearances, you might like this Marvel listicle that is Morgan le Fay's six most malicious acts. I pulled some of the Darkhold backstory from their discussion, but it's not really focused on Morgan and Tony.

So there you have it! That's everything I know about Tony's love for King Arthur and every run-in I know about that he's had with Morgan le Fay! One of two terrible people in Tony's life named Morgan! Actually, I don't think we've seen Morgan Stark in a while. I wonder if he's alive. There should be a Morgan & Morgan team-up. I should probably stop typing and post this.

The tl;dr point is that you should all read Doomquest and its sequels, especially Legacy of Doom. They're great!

[biggoonie]

VENOMNIBUS VOL. 3 HC KIETH COVER

Written by HOWARD MACKIE, ERIK LARSEN, JOHN BYRNE, PAUL JENKINS, DANIEL WAY, PETER MILLIGAN, MARK MILLAR, ROBERTO AGUIRRE-SACASA, CHRISTOS GAGE & SEAN McKEEVER Penciled by JOHN ROMITA JR., JOE BENNETT, JOHN BYRNE, ERIK LARSEN, HUMBERTO RAMOS, FRANCISCO HERRERA, PACO MEDINA, SKOTTIE YOUNG, CLAYTON CRAIN, TERRY DODSON, FRANK CHO, LEE WEEKS, MARIO ALBERTI, TERRELL BOBBETT, KANO & MORE COVERS BY SAM KIETH & MIKE DEODATO, JR. Venom is back! Eddie Brock and his alien symbiote return to torment Spider-Man — but Venom makes dangerous new enemies when he crosses the Sinister Six! As Eddie suffers a tragic loss and takes a turn for the worse, the symbiote begins to hunger — and target the innocents Venom used to protect! Horror emerges in the Arctic as a conspiracy is revealed, and Venom clashes with Carnage in a psychotic family reunion! But when Eddie and the symbiote go their separate ways, who is more dangerous: the insidious new Venom, or the deranged Eddie Brock? Collecting PETER PARKER: SPIDER-MAN (1999) #9-10, #12 (A STORY) and #16-17; NOVA (1999) #7; AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #12 (A STORY) and #19; SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN (2003) #1-5; VENOM (2003) #1-18; VENOM VS. CARNAGE #1-4; MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN (2004) #7-8 and #11; SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN (2006) #38-39; SPIDER-MAN/FANTASTIC FOUR (2010) #2; and material from SPIDER-MAN FAMILY (2007) #1-2. 1088 PGS./Rated T …$125.00 ISBN: 978-1-302-92632-8 Trim size: oversized

VENOMNIBUS VOL. 3 HC DEODATO JR. COVER (DM ONLY)

1088 PGS./Rated T …$125.00 ISBN: 978-1-302-92633-5 Trim size: oversized

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

ASM vol 5 #10/811 Thoughts

I suspect I’m gonna be a bit more down on the issue than everyone else!

 Fundamentally the things that put my feelings into conflict with this story are how the past of the characters should be reconciled against the needs of the present.

 What do I mean by this?

 Well in this issue we have Peter being chill with Black Cat and also MJ claiming that for the longest time she couldn’t handle worrying about Peter and this would lead to a cycle of them breaking up and getting back together, and she also felt she was not on his level that she was dispensable and that maybe he should be with someone else. These pieces of dialogue are accompanied by images clearly evoking marriage era MJ which allegedly post-OMD still happened but they were not married.

 If you go by recent history Peter should just not be this chill with Felicia. She is literally a burglar and he was willing to let her walk away which wasn’t his origin entirely about how doing that once killed his uncle? This isn’t even getting into her body count during her Queenpin tenure. I now they provide a sort of fix for that but my point was before that fix happened in the story he was clearly still chill with her and that is BS.

 If you go by the wider history of Peter and MJ her statements do not really add up. Even in the 1990s MJ didn’t literally spend all her time worrying about Peter (she went out partying in Torment for example) and both back then and even before they married she clearly could handle his life, just not handle it in a wholly stressfree manner (because nobody could do that). The idea that this inability to handle his life, specifically the fact that she worried constantly about him, was the reason they’d break up before getting back together is also not true.

 If you even include their break up under Marv Wolfman’s run MJ broke up with Peter the first time mostly due to her commitment issues. The second time they sort of broke up was in Spider-Man vs. Wolverine where there was a miscommunication problem but that was also due to her commitment issues a little bit. However it is obvious Spencer wasn’t referring to that stuff but the stuff during their marriage and during their marriage (I know they weren’t married now but you know what I mean, I’m just using ‘marriage’ as shorthand) they broke up just twice.

 The first time was during Mackie/Byrne’s run and it wasn’t because MJ worried too much about Peter it was because she felt dispensible to him, that she didn’t really matter in his life, that he did not in truth need her and that he didn’t in effect love her much more than he would have loved a mistress or a trophy wife. The second time was in OMIT where they broke up over MJ feeling like being with Peter endangered her family too much. Granted that last one was indeed about not being able to handle his life but it wasn’t about concern for him or even herself as the issue implied. Moreover multiple times during the marriage, in fact very specifically during the issue they reunited under JMS it was made clear to MJ that she WAS indispensible and that Peter truly needed her. He said as much even in Spencer’s debut issue (if you discount the FCBD issue of course).

 All of which means MJ’s statements don’t really ring true to her character or her shared history with Peter. She knows she doesn’t need to be a part of his world to matter. Now I say all that with the caveat that you can of course explain away the discrepancy to a degree. Perhaps in this one moment out of nervousness, or the chance to FINALLY unload her feelings, the sake of brevity and/or some combination of those things MJ is misremembering things.

 There were periods where she found coping with Peter’s life very hard, and they did break up. And perhaps in seeing him with Black Cat and Mockingbird feelings of inadequacy crossed her mind and in this moment all those things are mingling together coalescing into her not truly accurate account of their relationship.* Equally her presenting their relationship as a constant merry go round of breaking up and making up could be her conflating the entirety of their relationship before and after their marriage, including all of Slott’s dumbass teases of them getting back together (and the Superior stuff too). Remember in-universe all the stuff she is talking about played out across several years and their break up depicted in OMIT was several years ago circa this issue (Superior alone played out across 1 year in-universe).

 So there are totally ways of explaining this in-universe, even if there aren’t any for why Peter was so chill with Felicia.

 However this is where we get into the ‘needs of the present’ as I discussed above.

 Because it is plainly obvious to me that Spencer with this story was doing yet more clean up of BND and Slott’s mess more than trying to religiously fit everything into continuity.

 Spencer has done much already to fix things but there is still much that is broken, so much like JMS I think we need to say its okay for him to bend certain bits of characterization in service of over all setting the ship back on course and cleaning up the mess he inherited.

 As I said JMS did this too. To be incredibly harsh right now the fact that Peter and MJ were stayed broken up as long as they did under the JMS run really wasn’t in character for either of them.**

 However his genius game plan was to course correct the series over all and do that by illuminating just WHY their relationship was so important and he did that by examining their feelings about NOT being together and making a story about them working to get back together.

 It was a neccesarry direction to go in as it conveyed to readers on a meta level WHY them being together was a good thing and why it was in fact vitally important to the lead character and over all series.

 Spencer in this story I think was doing something similar.

 On a meta level he essentially connected Felicia losing her memory of who Spider-Man was, of what their relationship was like WITH her mischaracterization since OMD. Which works in-universe perfectly fine but along with Peter’s chill attitude to her it was set up for his big fix of her re-learning his secret and essentially going back to (starting to go back to) what she used to be like and what she always should have been like.

 After all it NEVER made sense for Peter to have kept her in the dark at all so bending his characterization by ignoring her recent activities is equivalent to how he ignored the baggage from post-OMD to just immediately get Peter and MJ reunited.*** Although he again here provides a short yet solid explanation even for that just to address everyone who really was annoyed by Slott’s BS characterization being ignored.

 With the MJ thing I think that storyline existed more for Spencer through MJ to essentially address readers’ (especially recent readers’) beliefs surrounding the character and her relationship with Spider-Man. It was essentially post-OMD MJ bringing up common arguments raised against her being with Spider-Man by editorial and characters within the comics (including her from Slott and other author’s stories) and then through the story debunking them. In this way using Black Cat, Spider-Man’s most famous super hero girlfriend (and sometimes romantic rival to MJ) as a representative of every potential argument in favour of Spider-Man not being with a civilian like her was simply genius.

 It was Spencer writing on a level Slott never did, weaving these disparate plots together organically to deliver a statement on the characters, who are the reason we are reading this after all.

 So that is where I am at with the story.

 Trying to reconcile the technical mischaracetrization with that mischaracterization being in over all service of fixing the decades long mischaracterization and misconceptions of the characters.

 I suspect with time I will be more okay with it and lean more towards the latter. I do hope though we don’t see more stuff like it though because I’d rather the marriage era be celebrated positively than negatively the way post-OMD portrayed it.

 Other points I want to hit up.

 -          Ramos seemed better this issue than in the other ones

-          There were some honestly hilarious scenes like the phone app and the reference to Spider-Man’s hyphen

-          The lack of jealousy from MJ was a nice piece of maturity and subversion of expectations from her, especially given who she was dealing with. I also adored Peter just being up front with her and clear about what went down. You know...doing the resposnsible adult thing. That’s not even great to see in Spider-Man, it’s subverting an annoying as Hell trope in countless pieces of fiction to generate cheap drama.

-          I almost feel Centipede guy is like Scarlet Spider because his costume colours were very reminiscent of Spidey’s but he also adorned a hoody

-          There was a misplaced word balloon which is...c’mon guys try to catch those obvious mistakes...

-          The cover hilarious and a great meta joke.

-          Bandini’s art was still gorgeous

-          I don’t know if all of MJ’s jobs and life prior to working for Stark (which still makes no sense) honestly could be regarded as the opposite of Spider-Man’s career strictly speaking. After all...they both earned money from posing for photos so...Maybe from her pov tha’ts just how she feels about her jobs, a little like how she felt in Unlimited vol 3 #2.

 I’d give this an A- at worst, A at best.

 Which is like...I know I brought up a lot of draw backs but look how far we’ve come in such a short space of time!

 I was honestly jealous of everyone who read this before me! That’s where I am at with modern Spider-Man and it feels good!

  *Also whilst Peter might’ve made his need for MJ explicit in issue #1 that might not have fully convinced her thereafter that maybe he’d be better off with another super person. After all he said what he said after almost dying so he might not have been thinking with a totally clear head.

However given how MJ, in two brilliant little scenes, takes Jarvis’ words of wisdom and also seems to absorb and grow past her insecurity rather quickly you could argue that said insecurity was less truly something weighing on her mind and more a wobble she was having at that moment. We all have little wobbles and moments of insecurity that do not necessarily speak to anything deepset within us.

 **It made a little more sense when JMS retconned in the reason for why MJ left Peter but he didn’t reveal that for the first ¼ of his overall run so MJ appeared to be OOC for that time.

 ***Also once Spider-Man learns Felicia’s misdemeanours are partially his fault because they are connected to her loss of memory which he caused and perpetuated then it makes his willingness to forgive her and (presumably) trust she is on a path to redemption more believable.

p.s. Flash’s death being used as the explanation for MJ and Peter’s reconciliation is a microcosm of the issues I discussed with the story.

On the one hand Flash’s death is at last acknowledged. On the other it’s lack of acknowledgement before this and presumably after this story will continue to be eye brow raising because why be so unaffected by the death of your close old friend?

But at the same time diving into the realistic ark and depressing emotions of grief that should accompany Flash’s death would compromise the necessity of fixing the broken Spider-Man series so once again, we got to ‘bend the rules’ as it were.

[nonsololibristore]

Bentornati amici di carta e d'inchiostro, ecco le novità del giorno: ( le novità Star Comics saranno in vendita da mercoledì ) BONELLI EDITORE: - FAVOLE DEGLI DEI EDIZIONI STAR COMICS: - ARIADNE IN THE BLUE SKY 13 - BAKEMONOGATARI MONSTER TALE 13 - DARLING IN THE FRANXX 5 - FAIRY TAIL NEW EDITION 58 - IL DURO LAVORO DI MUSUBU 4 - MAO 10 - RABBIDS - SPECIALE ESTATE - RUN AWAY WITH ME,GIRL 1 + OMAGGIO - THE DECAGON HOUSE MURDERS 1 MAGIC PRESS: - REDO OF HEALER 7 - SKIP BEAT 14 PANINI COMICS: - AMAZING FANTASY - L'ISOLA DEL MISTERO - COWBOY BEBOP 3 - RISTAMPA - DEVIL E I CAVALIERI MARVEL 129 - DAREDEVIL LA DONNA SENZA PAURA 2 - SECRET WARS - MARVEL GIAN-SIZE EDITION - DARKHAWK - IN VOLO - DOMESTIC GIRLFRIEND 27 - DARK AGES - MARVEL COLLECTION 1 - DEVIL'S REIGN - IL PUGNO DI FISK - FANTASTICI QUATTRO 4: LA COSA VS. L’IMMORTALE HULK - MARVEL COLLECTION - FUCKING SAKURA - COFANETTO - IL MARITO DI MIO FRATELLO 1 - RISTAMPA - JUJUTSU KAISEN SORCERY FIGHT 14 - KITCHEN OF WITCH HAT 1 - MARVEL MUST-HAVE: SPIDER-MAN TORMENT - MARVEL MUST-HAVE: WOLVERINE di CLAREMONT E MILLER - MAGIC THE GATHERING 1 - MUSHOKU TENSEI 9 - MARVEL-VERSE: THOR - NAMAIKIZAKARI CHE SFACCIATO 1 - CUT PRICE - LE POTENTI VALCHIRIE - MARVEL COLLECTION 1 - STAR WARS ROMANZI - PRIMA DEL DISASTRO - SPAWN 2 - SW: GUERRA DEI CACCIATORI DI TAGLIE 4 - STAR WARS 83 - THE RESISTANCE 2 - LA RIVOLTA - X-MEN LEGENDS 3 - MOSTRI PANINI COMICS - DC: - AQUAMAN BECOMING - NASCITA DI UN EROE - BOOK OF MAGIC - BATMAN DI SNYDER & CAPULLO 25 - DC OMNIBUS: FLASH DI MARK WAID VOL 2 - FLASH 25 - INFERIOR FIVE: BENVENUTI A DANGERFIE - LANTERNA VERDE 25 - LA LEGA DELLA GIUSTIZIA D'AMERICA 3 - SHAZAM L'INFERNO DI BILLY BATSON - SWEETH TOOTH 5 - SUICIDE SQUAD 2 - IMBOSCATA - TASK FORCE Z: LA MORTE È SOLO L'INIZIO SALDA PRESS: - FIRE POWER 4 ( NORMAL E VARIANT ) VI ASPETTIAMO!!! (at Non Solo Libri - Store) https://www.instagram.com/p/CegS-dTNbmg/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[multiverseforger]

Norman was born in New Haven, Connecticut as the son of wealthy industrialist Amberson Osborn. Amberson, a brilliant student in the fields of science, became an alcoholic after losing control of a manufacturing company and fortune, and became physically abusive toward the family. Norman quickly came to despise his father, resolving to be a better breadwinner while developing early homicidal tendencies as a means of relieving the stress of his father's abuse.[41]

In college, where he studied chemistry, business administration, and electrical engineering, Norman meets his college sweetheart, eventually getting married and have their son Harold "Harry" Osborn. In his adulthood, with the help of his college professor Mendel Stromm, he co-founds the chemical company Oscorp Industries and establishes himself as CEO and President. The company was hugely successful, and Norman re-gained the wealth that he had lost during his childhood. However, his wife becomes ill and dies when Harry is barely a year old,[42] the stress of which pushes Norman to work harder, leading him to emotionally neglect Harry.

Hoping to gain more control of Oscorp Industries, Osborn accused Stromm of embezzlement and has his partner arrested and shares in his company sold to him. Searching his former mentor's possessions, Norman discovers an experimental strength/intelligence enhancement formula, but in attempting to create the serum, it turns green and explodes in his face. The accident greatly increases his intelligence and physical abilities as intended, but also has the side-effect of driving him into self-destructive insanity, just like his father from years ago.[43]

The original Green GoblinEdit



Norman Osborn as Green Goblin on the cover of Secret Invasion: Dark Reign vol. 1 #1 (December 2008). Art by Bryan Hitch.

Norman adopts the Green Goblin identity with the goal of being the leader of organized crime in New York City, and intends to cement his position by defeating Spider-Man. Acting on his own as the Goblin, or through his employment of other super-criminals such as the Headsman,[44] he would harass Spider-Man many times, but fail to achieve his goal.[45] Soon, Stromm returns from prison, and attempts to exact revenge on Osborn using an army of robots, but Norman is saved by Spider-Man, and Stromm apparently dies of a heart attack.[46]

In order to discover his nemesis's secret identity, Osborn exposes Spider-Man to a gas that nullifies the hero's spider-senses. This allows Osborn to stalk Spider-Man until he learns that his nemesis is Peter Parker, a college student and his son's classmate and friend. While Parker is going about civilian life, Osborn surprises and knocks Parker out with an asphyxiation grenade, taking the youth to his waterfront base. After unmasking himself to Parker, the latter goads him into recounting how he became the Goblin, and uses the time to break free. In the ensuing battle, Spider-Man accidentally knocks Osborn into a mass of electrical wires, wiping out his memory. Feeling sorry for his nemesis, and wishing to avoid the shame that would befall the Osborn family (especially Parker's best friend Harry), Spider-Man destroys the Goblin costume in the resulting fire and tells the authorities that Osborn lost his memory while helping to defeat the Goblin.[47]

Soon, Osborn is troubled by repressed memories of the Goblin and Spider-Man. After a presentation on supervillains by NYPD Captain George Stacy restores Osborn's memory, he experiences a brief return to his Goblin persona. While abducting Parker's friends and threatening Parker's elderly aunt, he is exposed to one of his own "psychedelic bombs", causing a relapse of amnesia.[48]

Later, Osborn stumbles upon an old Goblin hideout which, again, restores his memory. However, the shock of seeing Harry hospitalized, overdosed on drugs, causes Osborn's amnesia to return once more.[49] After the final restoration of his memories, the Goblin kidnaps and takes Gwen Stacy to a bridge.[50][51] During Spider-Man's rescue attempt, Osborn knocks Gwen off the bridge, resulting in the girl's death. Spider-Man, traumatised and obsessed with revenge, tracks the Goblin to his hideout, and in the ensuing battle, Osborn is impaled by his own goblin glider.[52]

ReturnEdit

While Osborn lies in the morgue, it is revealed that the Goblin formula gave him a previously-unknown healing factor which restores him to life; in the process of sneaking out, he kills someone with a similar physique to himself to feign his death. No longer suffering from bouts of amnesia, Norman escapes to Europe, where he can move freely and unnoticed (later revealed he was in France for some time). During this time abroad, believed dead by the general public, he orchestrates several plots, including replacing May Parker with a genetically altered actress,[53] and faking his own son's death (after Mephisto's manipulations of the timeline);[54] prior to the timeline change, Harry's corpse, at one point, was exhumed and tested.[55]

Most significantly, however, he utilizes his fortune to build a vast network of criminals, spies, dupes and co-conspirators to help engineer what would be an almost impossibly complex and meticulously planned plot to destroy Spider-Man's life. To achieve this, he's the leader of the Scrier cabal, taking as his pawns Seward Trainer, Judas Traveller, the Jackal and the cyborg Gaunt, all of whom he utilizes to carry out revenge against Parker. It is this group of individuals who are crucial in duping Parker into believing that the youth is actually a clone of himself created by Jackal,[56] while claiming that the clone – who comes to be known as Ben Reilly – is actually the original.[57] Frustrated by Parker's perseverance despite everything that's been inflicted,[58] Osborn publicly reveals that he's alive on Halloween. During the battle that ensues between the two, Osborn attempts to kill Parker by impaling his nemesis with his goblin glider. When Reilly sacrifices himself to save Parker from Osborn (and immediately deteriorates upon death as all of the Jackal's clones do), Parker discovers of actually being the original. During this same period, Osborn was also responsible for the murder or abduction of Peter & Mary Jane's newborn daughter, after one of his allies apparently caused the stillbirth of the baby.[19]

Returning to his former seat of power, Osborn regains control of his business and also buys out the Daily Bugle, humiliating former friend and societal peer J. Jonah Jameson as the latter no longer has control over the newspaper. He also torments Ben Urich and demands a retraction over an exposé of his time as the Goblin, providing faked evidence that he never was the supervillain, despite Urich's extensive research.[59] However, he saves his most sadistic treatment for Peter, acting not only as a constant reminder of all the pain he's inflicted on his nemesis over the years, but a looming threat that could strike at any time. This build-up of pressure eventually makes Spider-Man snap by savagely beating the civilian and non-resistant Osborn in front of the latter's CCTV, which, combined with Osborn convincing the Trapster to frame Spider-Man for murder, results in Spider-Man being a fugitive again.[20] To get around this, Peter adopts four new identities, using two of these identities to convince Trapster to expose Osborn's scheme,[60] and provide fake evidence that the individual that beat up Osborn was an impostor.[61]

For a time, Osborn retires his costumed persona and uses a stand-in so as not to be suspected of being the Green Goblin.[62] This fifth Goblin kidnaps Norman's grandson and clashes with the wanted and injured Spider-Man.[63] Norman also crosses paths with Roderick Kingsley and initiates a hostile takeover of Kingsley's corporate empire, in retaliation for raiding the Goblin's arsenal and identity.[64] While his stand-in is masquerading as the Goblin, Osborn joins a cult, hoping to receive great power from the 'Gathering of Five', which will grant the participants Power, Knowledge, Immortality, Madness or Death, but while he believes that he will receive Power, he is instead given Madness, which worsens his already mental instability, and threatens the world with genetic bombs. It is during this time that Peter learns May is alive and Osborn's actress died in May's place. Osborn's complete madness is evident, as he hallucinates unmasking and killing Peter; yet in reality Peter easily defeats him. He is rescued from custody thereafter by his cabal of henchmen.[65]

A few months later, the highly unstable Osborn has partially regained his sanity with the help of anti-psychotic drugs. He comes to see Parker as the son he had always wanted and attempts to have Parker take on the Green Goblin mantle using physiological torture, but ultimately fails.[66] Osborn's next plan involves using Flash Thompson drive drunk a truck into Midtown High School, resulting in an accident that causes Thompson brain damage. This successfully enrages Parker into what Osborn anticipates will be a climactic battle. During this confrontation, the emotionally weary Parker tells Osborn of being tired of their constant battle, and declares a truce.[67]

Osborn's Goblin identity is revealed to the public once again through an investigation by Jessica Jones, after Osborn murders one of the reporters from the Daily Bugle. After a battle with Spider-Man and Luke Cage, Osborn is arrested and sent to prison for the first time.[68] However, things were far from over. From behind bars, Osborn again masterminded a plan against Spider-Man. This time, he has MacDonald "Mac" Gargan as Scorpion kidnap May. The plan was for Spider-Man to break Osborn out of prison in exchange for Parker's aunt's life. Peter reluctantly agreed and with the help of the Black Cat proceeded to break Osborn out, only to have twelve of his greatest enemies waiting on the outside.

Osborn had assembled a team of supervillains. However, Mary Jane Watson had contacted S.H.I.E.L.D., and the villains were faced not only by Spider-Man, but the combined might of Captain America, Iron Man, Yellowjacket, Daredevil and the Fantastic Four. During the fracas, the Goblin manages to escape and kidnap Mary Jane, taking Peter's love interest to the George Washington Bridge in order to replay the murder of the last love interest. However, Doctor Octopus intervenes, attacking the Goblin. Spider-Man is able to save Mary Jane after a bolt of lightning sends the two villains into the river. Following some verbal clues from the Goblin, Peter also discovers where he had hidden May, and rescues the latter as well. It is revealed that Osborn sent Peter a letter before the fight, thanking Peter for giving his life meaning and purpose, but Peter never received the letter due to moving to a different residence.[69]

Years after Gwen's death, it is revealed that Osborn had a one-night stand with Gwen after being overwhelmed by his charisma, which led to Gwen's pregnancy with his illegitimate twin children. Osborn thus has three motives for killing Gwen; revenge against Spider-Man, to prevent Gwen from talking of their affair and creating a scandal, and to take their children to raise by himself, thus being his ideal heirs. Mary Jane was the only person who knew of their encounter and their children's existence prior to Gwen's death, despising Osborn for his immoral behaviors long before discovering he's the villainous Goblin. Gabriel and Sarah (who rapidly aged to adulthood years because of the Goblin formula in their genes) return to attack Peter as Osborn has the twins believe that Peter is the twins' father who abandoned the two and responsible for Gwen's death to which Peter learned the details of Gwen's past with Osborn and the twins from Mary Jane. Peter is able to convince Sarah of Osborn's villainy, the truth of Sarah's paternity and circumstances of Gwen's death, and stabilized the Goblin physiology with a blood transfusion due to Peter's blood type matching Sarah's. Meanwhile, Gabriel personally learns the truth of his relation to Osborn after watching a video message at one of the Goblin lairs, aligning with his father to stabilize his own condition using a variation of the Goblin formula at the cost of sanity.[70]

H.A.M.M.E.R. and the Dark AvengersEdit



Norman Osborn as Iron Patriot on the cover of Dark Avengers vol. 1, #1 (December 2008). Art by Mike Deodato Jr.

Osborn attempts to distance himself from his Green Goblin persona after being prescribed medication for his mental state. During the "Civil War" over the Superhuman Registration Act, Osborn is appointed director of the Thunderbolts superhero team, now tasked to apprehend anyone who resists registering.[71] While in this capacity, he directs the Thunderbolts to apprehend or kill Spider-Man,[72] but after Mephisto changes reality, Harry Osborn is alive once more, and no one (including Norman) knows Spider-Man's secret identity.[73] In the end, Spider-Man manages to evade this coordinated attack and escape.[74]

During the "Secret Invasion" by shape-shifting extra-terrestrials, the Skrulls, Osborn shoots and kills the Skrull queen Veranke.[75] He leverages this widely publicized success, positioning himself as the new director of the S.H.I.E.L.D.-like paramilitary force H.A.M.M.E.R. to advance his agenda,[75] while using his public image to start his own Dark Avengers, substituting Moonstone for Ms. Marvel, Bullseye for Hawkeye, Gargan for Spider-Man, Daken for Wolverine and Noh-Varr for Captain Marvel, as well as manipulating Ares and the Sentry into helping to further his cause. Osborn himself leads the Dark Avengers as the Iron Patriot, a suit of armor fashioned by himself after Iron Man's armor with Captain America's colors.[76] Osborn simultaneously forms the Cabal alliance with Doctor Doom, Emma Frost, Namor, Loki and the Hood,[77] but this 'alliance' quickly falls apart when Namor and Frost betray the Cabal to aid the X-Men.[78] Norman's attempts to exert his authority are increasingly jeopardized by various superheroes. After the Superhuman Registration Act records are deleted so that Osborn has no access to the information recorded about heroes after it was implemented, Osborn attacked the brain-damaged Tony Stark, thus showing Osborn brutally assaulting a physically and mentally incapable individual that was not even attempting to strike back.[79] After the New Avengers are forced to allow Osborn to capture Cage when needing medical treatment, the team uses a tracking device Osborn had planted in Luke to trick him into blowing up his own house after rescuing Cage from Osborn's custody.[80]

Harry is approached by Norman with the offer of a job within the Dark Avengers.[81] Norman welcomes Harry into Avengers Tower, wanting to make his son into the American Son.[82] When Harry finds a cure for Lily Hollister's Goblin condition for their baby's safety, Lily reveals that it is a ruse to coerce Harry into taking the American Son armor, whom Norman had plotted would die in a tragedy to increase sympathy for Norman and his Dark Avengers. When Lily also reveals that the baby is not Harry's but in fact Norman's, Harry dons his American Son armor, and fights Norman in his Iron Patriot armor.[83] During the battle, Norman declares that Harry is no longer his son, and that he has bred a better child to replace the 'failure' of Harry. After further taunts from Norman, Harry lashes out and defeats his father, declaring "I was never your son!". When Harry has the option of killing Norman, Spider-Man says to decapitate him, since Norman's healing factor may repair a blow to the head. Spider-Man also cautions Harry that killing Norman will cause Harry to "become the son Norman always wanted". Harry instead backs down, and turns away from his father forever.[84]

At Loki's suggestion, Osborn creates a rationale to invade Asgard, claiming the world (which was, at the time, positioned at the outskirts of Broxton, Oklahoma) poses a national security threat, by sending the U-Foes to attack Volstagg in Chicago, leading to the destruction of Soldier Field. During a pitched battle with several superheroes, Sentry causes Thor's world to fall to Earth. Osborn fights with the recently-resurrected Steve Rogers, however, Stark removes Osborn's Iron Patriot armor remotely, revealing Osborn used green facepaint to create a goblin-like look. Osborn screams that the Avengers do not know what they have done, only for Spider-Man to knock him down. He tells them they are all dead as the Void is released.[85] Osborn knocks out Rogers and tries to escape, but is captured by Volstagg. Incarcerated in the Raft penitentiary, he blames his Goblin alter-ego for ruining his chance to protect the world.[86]

When transferred to a secret underwater government base, Osborn takes steps to ensure his release from prison. He uses a group of followers known as the "Green Goblin Cult" to break out with the aid of corrupt senators; he plans to turn himself in after killing his fellow escapees, setting him up as a 'champion' of the judicial system.[87] After the breakout, he awaits his trial in a new prison, this one controlled by his cult members.[88] Using his staged persona as a voice for the 'disenfranchised', Osborn plans to regain the Iron Patriot armor and creates a new team of Dark Avengers, this time substituting June Covington for Scarlet Witch, Ai Apaec for Spider-Man, Barney Barton for Hawkeye, Skaar for Hulk, Superia for Ms. Marvel, Gorgon for Wolverine and the A.I.M.-rebuilt Ragnarok for Thor.[89] In the team's first fight with the New Avengers, Osborn reveals himself as the Super-Adaptoid, declares himself the head of world security, and orders that the Avengers be arrested for war crimes. However, double agent Skaar betrays Osborn, allowing the Avengers to dogpile Osborn's body, overloading him with superpowers and sending him into a coma. A.I.M. and HYDRA pick up Osborn's leftover resources, and H.A.M.M.E.R. is disbanded.[90] After the Hobgoblin returns to New York, a nurse and doctor are called to Norman's hospital room, only to find him gone.[91]

The Goblin KingEdit

When the children that work for the Vulture are discussing what to do after Superior Spider-Man (Otto Octavius's mind in Spider-Man's body) brutally defeats the Vulture, the Green Goblin approaches and tells the group that he will be the one that crushes Superior Spider-Man.[92] The Goblin is later shown having gathered a new gang of followers together in the sewers formed from discarded members of other villains' gangs like Vulture, Owl, and the third White Dragon's gangs. These henchmen escaped their organizations unharmed because Superior Spider-Man is more focused on the larger threats (where the original Spider-Man would focus on individuals).

As he builds this army to attack Superior Spider-Man, he takes on the new alias of the Goblin King.[93] The Hand ninjas who evaded capture arrive at the sewers and join up with the Goblin Nation. The group reveals in the news that, thanks to Superior Spider-Man's assault, Osborn now owns over half of New York's organized crime. He claims he now owns New York City as the Goblin Kingpin of Crime.[94] With Menace's help, Osborn later releases Phil Urich from a prison transport and upgrades Urich's Goblin armor and weapons, asking in return only that Urich's only identity from here on shall be Goblin Knight.[95] Osborn trains Goblin Knight, anxious to confront Superior Spider-Man.[96] Osborn later poses as the Hobgoblin and is sighted by some of the Spiderlings.[97]

Upon Carlie Cooper being brought to his lair by Menace, he receives Carlie's journal from Menace which reveals to him that Otto's mind is in Spider-Man's body.[98] Osborn douses Carlie with the Goblin formula, causing the woman to mutate into the new superhuman villain Monster. He demands to know Spider-Man's identity, but Monster first asks the Goblin to reveal his own identity. He assures Monster that he is Norman, but refuses to remove his Goblin mask until Carlie has proven a loyal follower and dispatches Monster and Menace on a mission.[99] Osborn battles and kills Hobgoblin, although it is revealed to be a servant with Kingsley still in hiding abroad which Goblin Knight discovers.[100]

Having staged a coup of New York after spreading his resources by exploiting Otto's reliance on technology, Osborn directly confronts Superior Spider-Man, angry that he was cheated out of the opportunity to defeat his enemy, but offering Otto the chance to join him and Otto rejects the offer. When Otto finds being unable to win against Osborn's resources, having had various allies abandoned, and with faith in his own abilities gone, Otto sacrifices himself to restore the original Spider-Man's mind in order to save Anna Maria Marconi.[101] When Spider-Man arrives for the final confrontation, Osborn quickly realizes that the original personality is back in control when Spider-Man responds to his nemesis' taunts with his own wisecracks.[102] In the duel that follows, Spider-Man unmasks Osborn, learning that he has undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance, acting as Alchemax's CEO and intending to re-establish himself as businessman Mason Banks, now that his true likeness is too publicly known as a supervillain. Spider-Man defeats and strips the villain's powers with Otto's serum, but Norman manages to escape through Liz Allan's discreet aid. In hiding once again, he reflects that the various heroes will be unprepared for him when he returns with a new identity and approach as a businessman, seemingly no longer afflicted by the mental illness associated with the Goblin formula.[103]

All New, All Different MarvelEdit

Osborn's Goblin King position was quickly usurped by Phil Urich.[104] However, a mysterious man with a bandaged face is soon shown to be selling Goblin-based weaponry globally to attack Parker Industries. This man reveals himself to be Norman alive again post-Secret Wars and still planning on getting revenge on Spider-Man.[105] He is revealed to have played a part in the recent coup of Symkaria.[106] He restores a semblance of his original features via a twisted form of plastic surgery but which also resembles the Green Goblin's facets, and intends to release a modified version of the Goblin formula to turn the whole country into Goblin-powered soldiers programmed to be loyal to him.[107]

However, in his final confrontation with Spider-Man, despite exposing his foe to a series of gases to temporarily neutralize all of his powers, and triggering an EMP to shut down all the gadgetry within his new Spider-armor, Spider-Man is still able to defeat Osborn as the two clash. Managing to escape while Peter is distracted, Osborn resolves to find a means of restoring his powers, concluding that he has only ever defeated Spider-Man when allowing himself to draw on his inner demons.[108]



Norman Osborn as Red Goblin on the cover of The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 #799 (June 2018). Art by Alex Ross.

The apparent first step in this plan occurs during the "Go Down Swinging" storyline when Osborn manages to steal the Carnage symbiote from an abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. storehouse while Spider-Man is occupied with the return of Zodiac.[109] Osborn's efforts to control the Carnage symbiote initially backfire when he merges with it and finds himself overwhelmed by the urge to kill rather than his own prior plan to direct its power against Spider-Man specifically,[110] but he is able to convince it to let him have control in favor of trying something other than its usual mindless slaughter.[111] While interrogating a captive Jameson for information on Spider-Man, Osborn takes a brief interval from the torture to kill the self-proclaimed Goblin King tried to raid one of his old storehouses. After Osborn appeared as the Green Goblin, Jameson mentioned how he could not stop Spider-Man since even throwing Gwen off the bridge did not stop him from fighting back. Those words caused Norman to remember that Spider-Man is Peter Parker.[112] Attacking the Daily Bugle in his familiar Goblin attire, Osborn gives the rest of the staff time to evacuate as he fights Peter before revealing his new bond with Carnage, proclaiming himself to be the Red Goblin, driving Spider-Man away with 'Carnage bombs' that injure his leg. Discovering a sound-transmitting spider-tracer planted on him, Osborn uses this to deliver a 'devil's bargain' to Peter; if Peter abandons the Spider-Man identity and never performs any further heroics, Osborn will leave Parker alone, but the second he sees any sign of Spider-Man's return he will kill everyone in Peter's life. Peter places the Spider-Man top on a flagpole so that Osborn can see it burn, but privately vows that he will find a way to defeat Osborn as Peter rather than Spider-Man.[113] Peter is able to contact various allies like Human Torch, Clash, Silk, Miles Morales, and Agent Anti-Venom to watch over his loved ones. When Norman moves against the Osborns and proves immune to Carnage's traditional weaknesses of Human Torch's fire and Clash's sound devices, Peter is forced to step back into action despite the injured leg, with Agent Anti-Venom sacrificing a chance to get back into action himself to heal Spider-Man's injury as Osborn merges a part of the Carnage symbiote with his grandson Normie turning into a miniature version of Red Goblin.[114]

Normie goes after May but she gets some unexpected help in the form of Superior Octopus and J. Jonah Jameson who uses an old Spider-Slayer, however both are defeated by Norman. Soon afterwards, Normie watches as his grandfather throws Liz through a window only to be rescued by Spider-Man which causes Normie to turn on Norman. Norman reveals to Spider-Man he infected some of Peter's friends and family with slivers of the Carnage symbiote which he could send to their brain to kill them. However, it turns out that Flash has figured out Spider-Man's secret identity too and went to May and Mary Jane in order to remove those ticking time bombs. Flash then takes the fight to Norman and while it appears as if he's gaining the upper hand, it turns out that Norman still has some Green Goblin tech beneath the Carnage symbiote and he uses that to electrocute Flash. Flash's injuries prove to be fatal and dies in Spider-Man's arms. Spider-Man confronts Norman at Times Square as Red Goblin gains the upper hand. Peter manages to hold him off by pointing out that it's not the Goblin killing the Spider, but rather Carnage and Cletus Kasady. The villain is enraged by this and when Peter removes the Venom symbiote and to challenge him, Norman takes off the Carnage symbiote to reveal his old Green Goblin persona. Spider-Man manages to take his foe down and when the villain begs the Carnage symbiote to help him, the wall-crawler seemingly destroys it by hitting it with an exploding gas tank. However, the Carnage symbiote was attached to Norman when Peter destroyed it, and he wonders what sort of effect that might have had on his old foe's mind. Norman is last seen incarcerated at Ravencroft and believes that Spider-Man is Osborn and he is Kasady.[115]

When Kasady starts hunting all former symbiote hosts to extract the samples of the symbiote codex left in them with the goal of awakening a symbiote god as seen in the "Absolute Carnage" storyline, Spider-Man and Venom attempt to retrieve Osborn from Ravencroft to test a machine that can extract the codex from former hosts, as the Maker is uncertain of potential side-effects. However, Carnage attacks Ravencroft as they attempt to retrieve Osborn, transforming most of the patients into his drone soldiers and turning Osborn into another version of Carnage due to him still believing himself to be Kasady.[116] As Spider-Man works to keep Normie Osborn and Dylan Brock safe, a flashback showed that Kindred had visited Norman Osborn in Ravencroft. He quoted that Norman looked down on the citizens of New York from his tower and states that he could have his centipedes rip him apart if he wanted them to. Kindred even made a reference to how he appeared in Mary Jane's nightmares and how he would not be able to kill Spider-Man as Kindred states that he "already won a long time ago." Back in the present, Norman has defeated Spider-Man.[117] In the rest of the flashback, Kindred sent one of his centipedes into Osborn's head in order to save him from himself. Back in the present, Osborn's Carnage form feels a scratching in his head as he tells Kindred to let him be the one to kill Spider-Man. He then turns his target towards Dylan Brock and Normie. Spider-Man gets to his feet and defeats Norman. As more of the flashback is shown, Kindred states to Norman that he will leave now and will return when Norman is himself again so that they can confront the truth together. As Kindred starts to leave, Norman's Kasady persona states to Kindred that he has a message for him from Norman who states that he is "so proud of him". Kindred takes his leave as Norman's Kasady breaks out in maniacal laughter.[118] After the Grendel symbiote left Norman Osborn's body, Norman regained conscious and escaped during the final showdown with Carnage.[119]

At some point, Norman's mind recovered and he joined the Power Elite.[120]

In the pages of "Ravencroft," Norman Osborn regained his sanity by blaming his actions on the Carnage symbiote to J.A.N.U.S. and became a consultant at Ravencroft at the behest of Mayor Wilson Fisk during it's rebuilding. One of his assignments is to help John Jameson regain the ability to become Man-Wolf so that he can become an asset ranging from having Mister Hyde attack him to creating a clone of Ashley Kafka. In addition, Norman stole the Journal of Jonas Ravencroft to give to J.A.N.U.S. to use. When the Unwanted who lived beneath Ravencroft for years attacked, Norman succeeded in his goal to have John Jameson turn into Man-Wolf in order to fight the Unwanted. J.A.N.U.S.' leaders were pleased with Osborn's success enabling them to use the items in the basement.[121]

During the "Sins Rising" arc, Mayor Wilson Fisk promoted Norman Osborn to becoming the Director of Ravencroft where he found himself being targeted by a resurrected Sin-Eater.[122] When Sin-Eater's army of followers attacked Ravencroft, Norman was rescued by Spider-Man.[123] As Sin-Eater uses his abilities to steal the powers of Mister Negative to corrupt the guards, Norman takes Spider-Man to a bunker in his old cell and finds the items within them gone as the footage as he sees a corrupted Kafka be used to free Juggernaut so that he can steal his powers. Norman reveals that he was planning to use the weapons to counter Kindred who is after both of them. This leads to Norman removing a fake wall containing Green Goblin weaponry ready for combat.[124] Using Juggernaut's powers, Sin-Eater and his followers pursue Spider-Man and Norman Osborn as the Order of the Web considers waiting for Sin-Eater to cleanse Norman Osborn before intervening. As Spider-Man and Norman Osborn escape underground, Sin-Eater catches up to them. As Spider-Man holds onto Sin-Eater to restrain him, Norman Osborn activates an EMP to liquefy the floor beneath them. After getting away, Norman tried to drown Spider-Man as he is saved by the Order of the Web. Upon identifying Ghost-Spider as an alternate version of Gwen Stacy and his plans to do what he did to the other Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man threw him out of the vehicle thery were in.[125] Sin-Eater catches up to Norman Osborn and uses his gun to purge him of his sins. When Norman Osborn recovered, he was found by Kafka as most of Sin-Eater's followers are arrested. While mentioning that Ravencroft is in bad shape, Kafka is told by a remorseful Norman his suspicion that Kindred is Harry Osborn.[126] Not wanting to give him to the police, Kafka brings Norman to her office where he confessed every bad thing that he has done in his life. When Norman still claims that Harry is Kindred and that he must find a way to stop him before he goes further down the path to vengeance, Kafka suggests to Norman that he should enlist someone who Harry would still listen to.[127] [128] When Mary Jane catches up to Norman Osborn and attacks him, Norman expressed his remorse for his sins that Sin-Eater purged him of which Ashley Kafka corroborated on. He claims to Mary Jane that Harry Osborn is Kindred to which Mary Jane claimed that she just saw Harry Osborn alive.[129]

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"IT IS TIME. TIME FOR THE BATTLE -- TO BE JOINED!" --THE LIZARD MEANS DOOM!

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on preliminary phases & published cover art to "SPIDER-MAN" Vol. 1 #2 ["Torment" story arc]. September, 1990. Marvel Comics. Artwork by Todd McFarlane.

Resolution from largest to smallest: 1316x200, 1032x1457, & 759x1167.

MINI-OVERVIEW: ""Torment" Part 2. Writer/Artist Todd McFarlane puts his superstar stamp on Spider-Man with this classic story. The Lizard has left a calling card at one of his murder scenes and Spider-Man leaps into the chase to find him. A bloody battle ensues, but how can Spider-Man stop the Lizard when he feels no pain and refuses to be stopped?"

-- TURBO COMIC SHOP

Sources: https://turbocomicshop.com/products/spider-man-2-blood-lust-of-the-lizard-1990-nm?variant=39990286450806, Heritage Auctions, & Comic Art Fans.

[junker-town]

Every Marvel Cinematic Universe villain, ranked from forgettable to iconic

Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for ReedPOP

From Malekith to Loki, we covered them all.

All week, we’re having a little fun and diving into the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The MCU exists thanks to endless battles between our heroes and the villains that torment them. Some of the villains — hello, Vulture — are fantastic. They’re well-rounded, they have depth, and there seems to be a method to their madness.

Then there are the other villains. Their backgrounds aren’t particularly explained, you’re not entirely sure what they’re doing — looking intently at you, Malekith — and motivations seem weak at best.

As part of our Marvel Week, we took the 26 primary villains from the 23 MCU films and ranked them from 1-to-26. Warning: THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW, so act accordingly. Let’s get to it.

26. Ivan Vanko (Iron Man 2)

Be honest. The only thing you really remember about Ivan Vanko is when he said “I want my bird.”

25. Aldrich Killian/Maya Hansen (Iron Man 3)

This movie had far too many plots, and therefore far too many villains. There’s one point in the movie where it’s revealed that the Vice President is in on Killian’s plans, and then it’s not mentioned again. Surprise! Maya Hansen is actually bad. Surprise! The Mandarin is an actor! Surprise! The VP is in on it! I need this movie and its collection of villains to do a little less.

24. Zemo (Captain America: Civil War)

Zemo’s motivations are clear — he is driven by his rage and sadness over losing his family in Sokovia — but he’s little more than an accelerant to get the real conflict of the movie going between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.

23. Emil Blonsky/Abominable (The Incredible Hulk)

The only really nice thing that you can say about The Incredible Hulk is that the fight scene between Abominable and Hulk is pretty cool. Tim Roth is high key the best part of this movie.

22. Kaecilius (Doctor Strange)

Dormammu didn’t have enough screen time for him to be ranked here, but we do get Mads Mikkelsen’s Kaecilius. The fight scenes are awesome, but I spent a lot of time wondering if he was going to start weeping blood.

21. Malekith (Thor: The Dark World)

Malekith? More like Male-kiss-my-ass, amirite? Sorry, trying to delete.

20. Johann Schmidt/Red Skull (Captain America: The First Avenger)

Red Skull is the most cartoon-like villain of the movies, but there’s still something about the first time he rips that Hugo Weaving face off. Also, being a Nazi gets you an automatic top-20 spot. This dude was evil.

19. Ava/Ghost (Ant-Man and the Wasp)

You could make the argument that “The Feds” are actually the villain in Ant-Man and The Wasp, but for our purposes we’re just going to go with Ghost. Ghost is visually a stunning villain as she phases in-and-out while simultaneously kicking serious ass. She’s not higher up on this list because she’s actually ... not a bad person and is instead trying to find a way to end her crippling pain.

18. Yon Rogg (Captain Marvel)

Wow, they really cast the MCU well. Jude Law is the perfect smarmy guy that you think is on your side til you realize that actually he’s a psycho and is trying to kill an entire group of people. Captain Marvel is more about the origin story for Carol Danvers and less about the villains, so not much to write home about with Yon Rogg.

17. Justin Hammer (Iron Man 2)

What a jerk. This guy just stinks. It doesn’t make him much more of a compelling villain, but he’s the perfect insecure guy that isn’t as smart or creative as his competitors. He brings on Ivan Vanko, gets him his bird, and basically lets a murderous mad man easily take over his whole fleet of replica Iron Man robots. His ambition coupled with the “I will literally do whatever to get that government contract” vibes moves him up this list a little.

16. Ultron (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

I might be alone in this, but I found Ultron far too boring to be a super compelling villain. He goes from zero to murderous in a matter of seemingly seconds, and he is really only saved by James Spader delivering a stellar performance with voice work. The movie actually gets better upon rewatch (especially after watching Infinity War and Endgame), but Ultron just doesn’t do it for me villain-wise. His motives felt rushed and under-explained, and there are far too many monologues.

15. Lieutenant General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (The Incredible Hulk)

Don’t be fooled. Lieutenant General “Thunderbolt” Ross is 100% the villain in The Incredible Hulk. On the annoying-but-not-that-bad end of the spectrum, he’s an overbearing dad trying to interfere with his adult daughter’s dating life. On the other end, he directs soldiers to open fire TWICE in areas infested with civilians. First, they have an open-field battle ON THE CAMPUS OF A COLLEGE. In the third act, when trying to track down Abomination (a creature he helped create, mind you), Ross has a helicopter — with his daughter on board — shoot at what appears to be an apartment building in Harlem. This man would not only NOT be the Secretary of State later (he makes a reappearance in Captain America: Civil War among other films), he would be in prison for war crimes.

And this dude tries to arrest the Captain America side for not signing the Sokovia Accords. This guy sucks.

14. Mandarin (Iron Man 3)

They really could have done so much more with The Mandarin, especially considering they got Sir Ben Kingsley to play the role. Kingsley is really the only thing that saves this performance, going from a cruel, murderous terrorist to gassy, beer swilling fool in a moment.

13. Supreme Intelligence (Captain Marvel)

ANNETTE BENING IN A BOMBER JACKET!!! Bening plays both Dr. Wendy Lawson and the artificial intelligence being that rules the Kree, but it’s her turn as the latter that gives us some pretty intense evil. Let Annette Bening play more sinister characters, imo.

12. Ronan (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Maybe it’s because I remember Lee Pace as Ned from the quaint 2007 TV drama Pushing Daisies, but I loved this performance of Ronan. He’s shadowy enough that you still get that air of mystery about him, but he’s also just straight-up a mad man.

11. Darren Cross/Yellow Jacket (Ant-Man)

This guy literally goes into the bathroom at work, melts Frank into a small glob of former human, then WIPES HIM UP WITH A TISSUE AND FLUSHES IT DOWN THE TOILET. The biggest of yikes.

10. Obadiah Stane (Iron Man)

Obadiah Stane wanted to run Stark Industries so badly he helped orchestrate a kidnapping of Tony. Some good came from that — namely the creation of Iron Man and all the tech that went with it — but Stane also did some super dastardly stuff. The betrayal of a guy that looked up to you after his father’s death is one thing, but all the war profiteering is just too much.

Oh, and him yelling at and firing William Riva (AKA Ralphie from A Christmas Story) for not being able replicate Stark’s arc reactor leads to Riva joining forces with Quentin Beck in Spider-Man: Far From Home. It’s like a coaching tree of villains.

9. HYDRA/Alexander Pierce/Dr. Zola/Rumlow (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Those backslashes are doing a lot of heavy lifting here, and honestly this collection (HYDRA) could have been a little bit higher as they have a lot of tentacles (pun intended) in a lot of places. Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce is one of the best castings, and the “elevator scene” is perfection that somehow gets even better in Endgame.

8. Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

IT WASN’T BUCKY’S FAULT. Cap’s best friend in the whole wide world, Bucky Barnes, was somehow rescued after plummeting from a moving train, frozen, un-frozen, and brainwashed to become a brutal assassin. While Bucky is a hero, Winter Soldier is a war machine (no, not THAT War Machine) that even murdered Tony Stark’s parents. Big yikes.

7. Ego (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)

The mystery around Peter Quill’s father spanned both Guardians of the Galaxy movies before we got Kurt Russell dramatically riding around on the top of a spaceship as Ego in Vol. 2. It doesn’t take long to realize something is super fishy, and that that something is Ego spreading his seed — literally — on multiple planets in the hopes of creating a part-god child to help him take over the universe. Quill turns out to be that offspring, but he is able to break Ego’s spell when Ego TELLS PETER HE GAVE HIS MOM CANCER. That’s messed up, man.

T5. Quentin Beck/Mysterio (Spider-Man: Far From Home)

T5. Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Spider-Man: Homecoming)

I don’t know what it is, but the solo Spider-Man stories have gotten two of the best single-movie villains so far. Michael Keaton’s Toomes is perfection as the arms dealing, jet-pack wearing Vulture, but the added depth of him being the father of Peter Parker’s crush is fantastic. They manage to establish him as a guy with a somewhat relatable story (he’s just trying to make things work!), and the car scene between Keaton and Tom Holland is one of the best moments of the whole movie (and top-10 in the MCU).

Beck is low-key horrible. Anyone who tricks poor, sweet, grieving Peter Parker is on my shit list automatically, but Jake Gyllenhaal plays it so well. All Peter wants to do is tell MJ he has a crush on her, and he gets duped into fighting battles and handing over Tony Stark’s glasses. If that wasn’t enough, Beck literally shoves him in front of an oncoming train and leads to Spider-Man’s identity being leaked.

He does give us J.K. Simmons’s J. Jonah Jameson back, though. That’s a point in his favor.

4. Killmonger (Black Panther)

It was really difficult to rank these top eight or so villains. All of them have intense back stories or more character development than we got in the early movies of the series. Michael B. Jordan’s portrayal of Eric Killmonger in Black Panther was fantastic, and delivered some of the most meme-able moments of a villain (IS THIS YOUR KING?!).

While the rage and hurt felt by Killmonger over his father’s death is understandable, his actions as the movie’s antagonist are brutal.

This scene is so powerful:

3. Hela (Thor: Ragnarok)

The long-lost sister of Thor has some serious family issues. She’s absolutely ruthless, crushes Mjolnir (and therefore Thor’s spirits for a bit), and has an admittedly very cool wolf pet. Cate Blanchett knocks it out of the park with her portrayal. Hela is horrible and evil and also kind of badass, which shoots her up these rankings.

2. Loki (Thor/The Avengers)

Ah, the anti-hero. Loki is a pretty terrible dude most of the time, but he has his moments of actually doing the right thing. He’s petty, jealous, and the most untrustworthy person in the MCU. In Thor, he tries to kill his brother several times. In The Avengers, there’s the whole opening a portal in the sky to let the Chitauri in to kill a bunch of people and destroy half of New York thing. Oh, and don’t forget about when he faked his death, pretended to be Odin, and was content to hang out on Sakkar with the Grandmaster without helping Thor escape the gladiator-esque games.

1. Thanos (Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame)

We get glimpses of Thanos’s lilac tinge in a handful of the MCU movies, but he’s clearly the pièce de résistance of the culmination of Phase Three with Infinity War and Endgame. Josh Brolin plays the genocidal maniac perfectly, even leaving some viewers after Infinity War saying, “you know, Thanos might have a point about how we’re destroying the planet.” He’s willing to kill billions of people on countless planets to get a little peace and quiet, and is the reason we lose a lot of characters we really care about.

Thanos gets the benefit of a multi-movie arc to explain the full extent of his cruelty, ambition, and willingness to do anything (including kill his own daughter) to achieve his goals.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

To add to this:

Roy Thomas’ fill in issues of ASM. He took over after ASm #100, then Stan briefly returned then Gerry Conway took over long term. They introduce Morbius and Gog but the stories are not great honestly

Denny O’Neil’s run on ASM. It’s the first legit bad run on Spider-Man ever. Not meh, not shakey, not mediocre or subpar. It was bad. The man was a Batman legend but his Spider work sucked. He invented Hydro man, Madame Web and fused Sandman and Hydro Man into a mud monster and that’s all you honestly need to know

I guess Spectacular Spider-man before Bill Mantlo became the regular writer. It’s bad and boring in places but the problem is it’s very inconsistent.

Like 99% of Marvel team up. Honestly just dive into individual issues if you like the idea of Spidey taming up with those specific characters but there is little quality to be found in it. The only 2 REALLY essential issues are #48-49, #128 and 131. Those introduce major supporting player Jean DeWolff, sets up something for Kraven’s Last Hunt and introduces one of the better female Spidey villains, the White Rabbit.

A LOT of Web of Spider-Man is trash. Basically Louis Simonson, David Michelinie and  Gerry Conway’s runs are is the only runs worth a damn in it, although. However read issue #38 as it’s hilarious and awesome. In particular DO NOT READ Terry Kavanagh

A LOT of No Adjective Spider-Man. The first arc, Torment, is very famous and I personally adore it, but to be clear as crystal...it’s very badly written. In fact all of McFarlane and Larsen’s stories are poorly written from this title exempting issue #15. Howard Mackie’s run was the ‘best’ but it doesn’t start getting good until Ben Reilly becomes Spider-Man. From then until issue #95 or 96 it’s usually (but not always) decent-great.

Maximum Carnage. Again, I personally kind of like it but it’s the poster child for the worst aspects of the 90s

Personally I find most of David Michelinie’s ASM run after ASM #365 to be meh-bad, though nowhere near as shite as Slott or BND

Avoid Spectacular Spider-Man between the end of Conway and the start of DeMatteis as well as the end of DeMatteis and the start of DeFalco

Now let’s talk Clone Saga. If you just want to read decent-great shit and not bothered by what is ‘essential’ reading pay attention. 

Before ben Reilly becomes Spider-Man (it happens in Sensational #0) AVOID the entire Clone Saga with the following exceptions:

The Exile Returns 

Back From the Edge. Honestly the MJ subplot in this is THE reason to read it the rest is okay at best, bad at worst

Web of Death

ASM #400

Spider-Man: the Lost Years #0-3

Web of Spider-Man #128

Now, starting with Sensational Spider-Man #0 you can read pretty much everything with the following exceptions:

Venom: Along Came a Spider

Spider-Man/Punisher: Family Plot

Spider-Man Unlimited #12-14. In fact avoid everything in Spider-Man Unlimited exempting issues #3 and #11

Web of Scarlet Spider

Spider-Man Team-Up. This began during the Clone Saga and continued after it. Avoid EVERYTHING exempting the Gambit story from issue #5, that’s literally the only halfway decent story in this series.

Okay the Clone Saga is done so let’s move on.

The Gathering of Five+The Final Chapter. With the exception of Peter Parker: Spider-Man #96, just don’t read any of this crap.

Equally do not read ANY of Howard Mackie and John Byrne’s ASM vol. 2 or Peter Parker: Spider-Man vol. 2 work exempting ASM v2 #7-8, PPSM v2 #14 and the Revenge of the Green Goblin crossover.

You can also avoid pretty much everything in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man and Spider-Man’s Tangled Web. The exceptions are Webspinners #1-3 (the art is shite tho), 7-12 and 17-18 and Tangled Web #4-6, #10-11, 13 and 20

Avoid Paul Jenkins Spectacular Spider-Man vol. 2 run exempting the Poker issue and maybe the very last issue, although that has MAJOR continuity issues that fuck things up. Also avoid an arc not written by him from this title called ‘Sins Remembered’

You can also avoid Marvel Knights: Spider-Man after issue #12

Avoid the Other story arc

I guess maybe avoid Civil War but the problem with it is Peter’s major asinine decision in it, how the stories unfold after he takes that decision is actually pretty cool

After OMD and before Spencer’s run avoid literally everything except for the RYV. 

After Spencer arrives avoid war of the realms, Zdarsky’s Spec and Spider-Geddon

Aside from One More Day and Sins Past, are there any other Spider-Man eras and stories I should avoid on because of them being offensive, awful or just fucking boring

Dan Slott’s era is to be avoided. Which is a shame because he wrote Spider-Man for a fuckin long time so theres a huge chunk of comics your not reading. 

Post OMD/Brand New Day is also to be avoided. Especially One Moment In Time which is such a fucking piece of shit, fucking awful, story that i think its worse the OMD. Its so fucking bad it makes me angry just typing about it. 

Really pretty much everything post OMD isn’t good. Some of it is bad other times its just mediocre. Its hard to be invented in that era when it came from such a cynical mindset that “Peter being married to MJ was bad so now that he isn’t with her anymore now we can finally make good Spidey comics again” Its such a fucking slap in the face. 

The only comics i would recommend in this era is Renew Your Vows. 

John Byrne worked on the ASM relaunch in 1999, but its not too good. That era Treated MJ really poorly until J.M.S came in and saved the book. 

[rael-rider]

It’s kind of tragic how Ben Reilly died thinking of his niece who he would never get to meet and who would never get to hear about him because she was stillborn.

However in the MC2 universe May Parker was allowed to grow up and when she becomes Spider-Girl it's Ben's costume she wears and it's his web shooters she puts on, in a way Mayday is Ben Reilly's legacy as much as she is Peter's.

It's also bittersweet that despite never meeting each other they always thought of each other. Ben always protected and cared for MJ when she was pregnant (and even before she was pregnant I might add) and worried about her baby's health. Ben also anxiously awaited baby May's birth as much as her parents did. Mayday occasionally thinks about her Uncle Ben, she asks Peter questions about him (even if Peter hasn't told her the entire truth) and despite not having known him she considers him a hero and thinks fondly of him, she even gets upset with Kaine when she finds out he used to torment Ben.

Also Ben's other legacy, his unknown to anyone but Kaine son, Reilly Tyne protects and guides her as the vigilante known as Darkdevil.

So yeah despite never meeting the bond between this Ben and May is a strong one.

Panels from Spider-Man vol 1 #75 and Spider-Girl #44

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

RIPPING INTO PIECES -- SO SPELLS THE REIGN OF THE REPTILIAN RIPPER.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on the Lizard in all his unholy, bestial savagery -- front & back artwork to trading card #6 in the "Spider-Man: The Todd McFarlane Era" TC series by Comic Images/M.E.G., c. 1992.

BONUS PIC INFO: Splash page of the Lizard in full kill mode against some television burglars, from the pages of "Spider-Man" Vol. 1 #1 ["Torment" story arc]. August, 1990. Marvel Comics.

Artist/writer: Todd McFarlane

Letters: Rick Parker

Colors by Bob Sharen

Sources: Beckett Marketplace & www.chasingamazingblog.com/2014/05/30/ama.

[biggoonie]

WEREWOLF BY NIGHT: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION VOL. 1 TPB

Written by GERRY CONWAY, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN & MORE Penciled by MIKE PLOOG, WERNER ROTH, TOM SUTTON, GIL KANE, ROSS ANDRU & GENE COLAN Cover by NEAL ADAMS & JOHN ROMITA Jack Russell stars in tales to make you howl, as Marvel’s very own Werewolf! Learn how Jack became one of the grooviest ghoulies of the seventies in this classic collection of his earliest adventures! Afflicted with his family’s curse, Jack’s sets out in search for answers. Could they lie in the terrible tome known as the Darkhold? But Jack’s quest is fraught with danger — from mad monks to big-game hunters to a traveling freak show! Then there’s the terror of Tatterdemalion, the horror of Hangman and the torment of Taboo! But few encounters can compare with Krogg, the lurker from beyond — except, maybe, a Marvel Team-Up with Spider-Man…and a supernatural showdown with Dracula himself! Collecting MARVEL SPOTLIGHT (1971) #2-4, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT (1972) #1-15, MARVEL TEAM-UP (1972) #12 and TOMB OF DRACULA (1972) #18. 432 PGS./Rated T+ …$39.99