#which means he killed osborn and unmasked himself

[enough-spider-noir-stuff]

oops: local fanfic author tried to write a funny fic while staying in character, now it turns out this character has major trust issues

[dailybuglenow]

WEDNESDAY, 5 AUGUST 2024. EDITED BY J. JONAH JAMESON.

BACK & BETTER THAN EVER, OR, A TALE OF REALITY WARPING & RESURRECTIONS 

Gone, but never forgotten. That’s what we’ve repeated to ourselves time and time again in the six years since the Mad Titan Thanos snapped his fingers ( an act we call the Cleanse ) and half the world dissolved into ash. It wasn’t until five long years later that a group of brave heroes reversed what he had done and restored the world to a shade closer to what it once had been. This was, of course, not without great costs having to be paid. When Thanos was finally vanquished for good two founding Avengers were laid to rest: Natalia Romanova, the Black Widow, and Anthony Edward Stark, aka Iron Man. News of their deaths were confirmed by a representative for the New Avengers the day following the New Avengers Facility battle against the Black Order that culminated in the largest hero team-up we’ve yet to see.

Natalia Romanova, more commonly known by the alias Natasha  Romanoff started her career in Russia’s infamous Red Room academy, which turns young girls into trained assassins. Romanoff’s ledger was made public in 2014 following the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the revelation that the Nazi organization H.Y.D.R.A. had been embedded in the agency for years. After being recruited to S.H.I.E.LD. by fellow Avenger Clint Barton ( Hawkeye ), Romanoff worked as an agent for years before becoming a founding member of the Avengers in 2012, where she continued to serve until 2016 when the Sokovian Accords were passed and stricter international restrictions were put in place. Although she originally sided with Stark and the government, following the Clash of the Avengers in Berlin Romanoff dropped off the map. She was spotted once in Russia before going on the run with the former Captain America, Steve Rogers, and his associate Sam Wilson ( the former Falcon who has recently taken up the Cap mantle -- for more, on this please see Christine Everhart’s article on page 3 ). Despite two years as an international fugitive, Romanoff fought in the Battle of Wakanda against Thanos and acted as the representative to the public during the Cleanse. One of the more vocal Avengers dead set on righting Thanos’ wrong, a New Avengers spokesperson confirmed that Romanoff died on April 26th, 2023 securing the Soul Stone from a classified location alongside Barton. She was laid to rest in a private cemetery with the Romanoff Scholarship for at Risk Girls being created in her honor shortly afterwards.

Anthony 'Tony’ Stark was always in the public eye due to his father, Howard Stark, being an inventor, scientist, engineer, businessman and movie director. The elder Stark created Stark Industries, which his son later inherited after his untimely passing. As an arms dealer Tony was taken hostage in Afghanistan in 2008 but freed himself by creating a suit of armor. Living with an arc reactor in his chest, Stark became the first superhero with a public identity as Iron Man and became a founding member of the Avengers. After nearly sacrificing himself in 2012′s Battle of New York, Stark remained active even though it was his actions that led to the creation of the villainous robot Ultron and the untimely destruction of a large part of the European nation, Sokovia in 2015. Many considered Stark’s actions to be an apparent disrespect to life and property and urged him make amends. As a result, Stark sided with the Sokovian Accords and urged other heroes to sign as well.  Because of this he and Steve Rogers had a falling out that lasted years as Rogers went on the run and Stark started the Stark Internship, whose inaugural recipient was high school student Peter Parker ( who was recently unmasked as Spider-man ). After going to space in 2018 to try and stop Thanos, Stark came home after briefly being presumed missing and largely vanished from the public eye. The failure of the Avengers to stop Thanos from the Cleanse was something not commented on by Stark, who chose to move Upstate with his wife, Stark Industries C.E.O. Pepper Potts, and their daughter, Morgan Stark. He came out of retirement to help retrieve the Stones and was the one to don a specially created Infinity Gauntlet to kill Thanos once and for all. Following his passing Stark was buried a few days after and the Stark Foundation for the Rehoming of those Disrupted by the Cleanse was created.

For the last year, the world mourned the losses of both Stark, Romanoff and other deceased heroes, such as the synthezoid known as the Vision who was killed by Thanos in 2018 when the Titan stole the Mind Stone from his forehead. Rumors began flying recently, however, when Avenger Wanda Maximoff ( the Scarlet Witch ) appeared to be spotted with a man who resembled the Vision. This set in motion what appears to be a new era in which what we lost has been returned to us. The New Avengers were able to confirm that it was, indeed, the Vision returned by means not yet confirmed. Mutants have been known for their resurrections as of late, but that seemed limited to their nation of Krakoa. It never seemed like something that we’d see in our world at large. Not until recently, that is.

On August 3rd, 2024, President Norman Osborn held a press conference that promised a sign of hope and change. Osborn’s Avengers, known as America’s Avengers, have been received with various degrees of public support. Along with him Osborn brought team member Star, who was recently revealed to be reporter Ripley Ryan. A controversial member, it has been revealed that Ryan possessed the Reality Stone from her home world of Earth-616 in her chest. “I don’t want to dip into the cliché and say that I live to serve,” she stated at the press conference. “but my goal is to be an Avenger for the people, and that means doing everything in my power to make the world a better place. Thankfully, I happen to have a lot of power.” This sentiment was echoed by Osborn, who pointed out that in the past the Avengers had failed as public servants and had instead caused more harm than good. He went on to add, “Instead of trying something futile like banning them once more, we’ve taken a new route. We’re leading by example, making good of our gifts. We’re making America a place you can feel safe and secure in. Consider this the first step.”

The ethics behind President Osborn’s following announcement have already been debated on popular social sites like Twitter as the public weighs on that which was once considered impossible: resurrection. That’s right, folks. You’re hearing it first here from the Daily Bugle that President Norman Osborn along with the help of Star has resurrected Natasha Romanoff and Tony Stark. The two were present at the conference and expressed gratitude for their return but remained, for the most part, silent and let Osborn speak. A call to the New Avengers confirmed that they were unaware of the President’s plans or the return of their teammates. We have reached out to Stark’s widow, but so far Ms. Pott’s has been unreachable.

“The last thing we wanted to do was dishonor Stark and Romanoff’s respective sacrifices, but this was a wrong that we knew we could right. Under careful supervision Star was able to achieve a great feat and there’s no ulterior motive or fear that reality will crumble. We’ve  worked with multiversal experts to see what it’s possible to achieve. We also won’t be pushing Iron Man or Black Widow to join America’s Avengers. They’re welcome to rejoin their old team or retire and enjoy the world they helped save. This is the power that heroes who work in the best interest of the people possess. This is a world that we can live in, and America’s Avengers are dedicated to continuing this notion. We hope you accept this offering and remember that we live in a world of possibility.”

As soon as the dust clears the Bugle plans on reaching representatives for Romanoff and Stark to try and get individual statements. Osborn spokeswoman Lily Hollister, who handles statements for America’s Avengers, has promised that more details will soon be revealed and that an exclusive interview with Star will take place. In the meanwhile, sources have reported that Stark and Romanoff have been taken to the New Avengers Compound in Upstate New York to reacclimatize. The Bugle will continue to update the story as it unfolds, but in the meantime we wish the best to our fallen heroes and hope they’re happy to see the world they died to protect. If we live in a world where the dead walk again, what will we become when life is no longer fleeting?

— Ben Urich, Daily Bugle News Senior Reporter

TOO MANY COOKS IN THE KITCHEN: CAP’S, THOR’S AND MORE. OH MY.

Captain America. Thor. Captain America. Thor. The names are likely to be familiar to anyone who follows the Avengers, but lately things have become a bit convoluted. Following the final battle against Thanos on April 26th, 2023 our beloved Captain America, Steve Rogers, retired and passed the shield off to friend and former Falcon Sam Wilson. In the year since we’ve reported the trajectory of Wilson’s attempt to get his footing as the public pushed back with the unfortunately popular hashtag #NotmyCaptainAmerica. Some have accredited the hesitation to embrace Wilson as Captain American as a racist statement due to Wilson being an African-American man, while others attribute it to an inability to let go of the old and embrace something new. Rogers, meanwhile, has voiced his support for his friend but has remained out of the debate for the most part. Old rumors have placed Rogers and the deceased Romanoff in a romantic relationship, and his withdrawal from the spotlight could be a direct result of her death and the two years he spent on the run as an international fugitive. An issue some have had with Wilson is that appears to be too ‘bipartisan’ to be Captain America, and they prefer the United States Government’s option to #takebacktheshield: John Walker. Walker stated that he was flattered to be considered but doesn’t step on any toes. Still, if Rogers picked Wilson as a replacement he must see something in him that the rest of the us should believe in.

Similarly, there’s a new Thor in town. Although we love Thor Odinson whether he’s rocking long hair or short, he seemed to fall on hard times during the Cleanse and has only recently resurfaced as a hero. In the meanwhile a new blonde, helmeted, Mjölnir wielding Thor has made an appearance. Although dubbed the Mighty Thor by some, public reactions to a female Thor has been mixed as preciously repeated. Despite this she has served as a New Avengers as of late even though it appears that no one knows her true identity. When asked if she had any inclination of who it could be, Asgard’s current King, the Valkyrie, scoffed and stated, “No, but she’s worthy so that must mean something. Asgardia needs the help she can get, and we seem to have a preference for beautiful sparkly blondes.” It not the most illuminating statement, and while it may be concerning that their leader doesn’t even know the name of one of their champions the Asgardian’s need a break after all the sorrow they’ve faced between Thanos and the mutants during the Avengers v X-Men conflict of last year. As for our original Thor, he’s been spotted in both Norway where Asgardia is located and around New York with a very large axe. As it stands we’re not totally sure of the relationship between the two Thor’s and why they share a name, but it only seems like a matter of time before some answers come to light. Some wonder if Thor Odinson will try to take the throne back, especially as reports about the Valkyrie’s drink continue to pop up. Welcome to Earth, Asgardians. Hope you like speculations.

I’m sure everyone has their preference on which Avenger they prefer, but I personally am open to trying something new. After all, we as people aren’t stagnate beings. Some things change and people do as well. It’s natural to see mantle passed from one hero to another as time goes on. Hero work is, in a strange way, a job and sometimes positions need to be filled. Of course, time will only tell how well these new faces hold up against the daunting legacies of those who came before them. If it counts for anything, they have the good luck of this reporter.

— Christine Everhart, Daily Bugle News Senior Reporter

IN OTHER NEWS:

Despite the passing of Kamala’s Law within the last few months, underaged superhero activity has remained at an all time. The black-suited web crawler Spider-man was recently spotted with his team, the Champions, in Brooklyn despite the fact that their teammate, Ms. Marvel, remains at large for her part in a recent incident at Coles Academic High School that left civilians injured. Recently registered underaged heroes include Ghost Spider, the two children of Reed and Susan Richards ( Franklin and Valeria Richards ), Billy Kapplan ( Wiccan ) and Nadia Van Dyne ( the Wasp ). The majority of the public has so far responded positively to the idea of underaged heroes requiring some form of accountability but response from the heroes has been negative. 

Go away, Guardians of the Galaxy! Not really, but most are scratching their heads over the fact that the intergalactic team that consists of aliens, talking trees and raccoons are still residing on Earth a year after Thanos was defeated. Members Rocket Raccoon and Nebula acted as honorary Avengers to help reverse the Snap, and when the Cleanse was undone their teammates Drax the Destroy, Groot, Mantis and Peter Quill ( Star Lord ) were returned to life. They are joined by former Daughter of Thanos Gamora and seem quite comfortable on our planet. Maybe it’s just part of our apparent alien invasion as the Shi’ar, Skrull and Kree still have dignitaries present. Looks like Earth is getting a little crowded!

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Amazing Spider-Man v5 #30/831 Thoughts

I really enjoyed it but there are some tiny issues.

There are two kinda sorta continuity errors that I have to get out of the way up top.

The first one isn’t as severe as I thought. Reading it on the train home I thought Spencer had made a huge mistake when he recreated the scene of Harry’s coming home party. Namely that Aunt May was there. From my recollections that wasn’t the case. But getting the pages from the original issue (ASM #105 btw) side by side with this I discovered I was mistaken and in a huge way no less.

Not only was Aunt May there but about 95% of the whole scene plays out identically to ASM #105. Seriously even the placement of Randy and Gwen, seen from behind in the original issue, is the same.

Even the dialogue is near identical, there are very few additions to it and the changes are essentially minor, saying the same things with some tweaks to the wording.

There is that annoying 5% though, however since the scene is clear from Peter’s memory it’s entirely possible (especially since he’s in the middle of a fight) that he’s misremembering some details. Case in point Gwen’s got her iconic headband in the flashback which is absent in the original issue, and her hair is noticeably shorter. If intentional this would be a brilliant conveyance of the tricks memory plays upon us. If unintentional, hey it’s easily No. Prized and not a big deal.

The more significant error is more to do with characterization. Peter makes the point that he feels guilty and responsible for Absolute carnage because he brought the Venom symbiote to Earth….buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut David Michelinie himself did a story all about that towards the end of his ASM run. In said story a drugged Spidey does briefly believe this, but then when the drugs wear off essentially disavows this. He’ll still fight the symbiotes of course but he refutes that every evil act Venom and Carnage commit are his fault merely because he brought the symbiote to Earth without knowing what it was.

Again, you can No. Prize it somewhat.

Moving on this issue is very interesting in regards to it’s existence as a tie-in.

As an Absolute Carnage chapter it currently doesn’t seem particularly essential.

And yet Spencer uses it to propel his own story along. I mean honestly who’d have thought you’d get major movement on the Kindred subplot in an Absolute Carnage tie-in?????

In this sense Spencer demonstrates how you can turn a forced tie-in to your own advantage.

Not only do we get major clues regarding Kindred (see this really great post to look at some of those).

but we also get a pretty great examination of Norman Osborn. It’s not comprehensive but for the angle it’s going for it’s very much on the money. It acknowledges Norman as the worst of the worst and cleverly uses his current status quo to the story’s advantage.

We contrast Norman’s prior dominance and scare factor with the depths he’s been reduced to at the start of the story whilst also depicting him as technically more powerful than ever before, able to physically dominate Spider-Man with ease. And all the while emphasising the point that Norman won against Spider-Man years ago because of the emotional scars he inflicted, with the dialogue playing out in tandem to Norman’ physically beating Peter too.

That’s making lemonade out of lemons right there!

Now are Kindred’s words accurate about how Norman won against Spidey years ago?

Yes and no.

A point I bring up time and again to jackoffs who are either fans of other villains or for whatever reason hate Norman on principle and denigrate his feats, is that Norman doesn’t merely want to kill Spider-Man.

Norman in essence has primary and secondary objectives in regards to his conflicts with Spider-Man and fulfilling any of them counts as a win of somekind in his book.

Yes he wants to kill Spider-Man but more significantly he wants to break his spirit. On these fronts Norman acknowledges and is frustrated by his thus far failure. The fact that Peter remains heroic, remains having a fulfilling life for himself in spite of every nasty thing Norman and other people have done to him enrages Norman.

However Norman is if nothing else, sadistic. And for him inflicting a scar, especially an emotional one, is itself a form of victory. In PPSM #75 although Norman is frustrated that the Clone Saga hasn’t broken Peter’s spirit and that he cannot outfight Peter he vocalizes to Peter that killing Ben Reilly was still a win for him and even as he was caught up in a huge explosion he laughed about having still won because he took away Peter and MJ’s baby. In the bonus pages to that story in the trade releases he mentions how things turned out quite nicely, even though he didn’t actually beat Peter.

From the point of view of scarring Peter for life of inflicting wounds he has to live with Norman absolutely did win a long time ago. This is conveyed in the story by Peter dredging up memories in response to Norman’s presence, memories that by rights should be happy but are in fact painful BECAUSE of how Norman has tainted his life. He has of course killed Flash, Gwen, kind of killed Harry and hurt himself and MJ. It’s just a great use of classic continuity and an issue rarely revisited at that.

I also sort of like the idea of Norman being scary because he represents the cynicism of aging and the illusion of optimistic youth. Now that does kind of smack of ‘Spider-Man is about youth!’ but I dunno if that was Spencer’s intention. It’s a nice idea nevertheless as Norman in Spider-Man always represents a kind of dark father figure, not necessarily always to Peter specifically but in general. So Norman’s age is definitely an important component to who he is.

Spencer in (I think) putting all that across demonstrates that he gets this often misunderstood character.

The Kindred stuff itself is interesting as we see another side to him, see how personal this is and how a chance encounter has set him off. We have confirmed he’s modelled himself after Norman, which might be in reference to his look or his general attitude. It should be noted that his outfit does have shades of the Goblin, especially the hood.

Let’s switch over to the art.

Ottley is back and everything looks great especially Carnage!...but...I’m afraid his rendition of the V-man leaves something to be desired. I dunno what it is, maybe I’m just too used to seeing Venom drawn by Stegman at this point, but Ottley’s take doesn’t quite work for me. I think it’s something to do with the eyes.

One final little problem is regarding Normie.

I brought this up in my thoughts post about Absolute Carnage #1 but it bears repeating...does Normie know who Spider-Man is?

I only skimmed Red Goblin because...y’all know why...but I don’t recall Normie learning the truth about Peter so with that said Pete half unmasking to him seems odd if the kid doesn’t know.

I did like merely seeing Normie and acknowledging he’s Peter’s godson though as it’s something I’m annoyed went ignored for so long.

Over all another great issue with some slight problems but highly recommended.

[angry-taco-lover]

.Really? While they laugh, I will thank the co-writers who helped him make their characterization possible. Slott was damn good plotter and could do characterization, but he heavily favored one over the other when he had to make deadlines and pretend otherwise is revisionism. Black Cat, for example.

People lean too intensely into "BND MJ the terrible". Mary Jane made a few mistakes that should be acknowledged, but she's not an irredeemable person or close to it. Unconditional love should not mean unconditional tolerance. I remember Mary Jane having insecurities and well-earned doubts about their relationship. I also remember him hitting a pregnant MJ in the middle of a breakdown. We all know how Marvel characterized a similar situation with Hank Pym. Peter Parker's choices during civil war are enough of an excuse for a breakup. He unmasked in front of the entire world, putting a target on every person with whom he interacted. Even with the scarce knowledge we have of what the pro-Registration side required, This decision was unnecessary. Next, he takes his family out of the protection of the Avengers after endangering them. Then he had them go on the run with him from the government and the enemies he'd made that were working for the side he now opposed, which resulted in the logical conclusion of May Parker getting shot. If she had pulled through or not, it would logically put the marriage in question since Mary Jane can no longer trust his judgment. MJ isn't only in this marriage to have kids, but she eventually wants them. She knows what it's like to lose her baby to a villain. Aunt May's shooting would be a wake-up call for Mary Jane. It would cause her to rethink whether she could bring a helpless child into the world where her husband might do something so reckless and flip-flop between sides because Peter hadn't fully understood what he was getting into before he did it. I'm not saying she'd think, "Oh, how horrible of you, Peter." I'm saying MJ would respect his morals and stick by Spider-man as a friend, but he'd have to earn that trust back before MJ has Peter as a husband and lover. It would have been an unpopular but logical response to an OOC choice. Marvel didn't divorce the couple because they felt an official split would have aged Peter Parker. The civil war event was so miswritten we don't know what it was even about. Instead, rampant mischaracterization, Nazi metaphors, barely considered civil rights analogies, anti-gun control parallelism, and anti-accountability conceit was hurled around. I'd have liked a story about Peter Parker slowly earning his way back into Mary Jane Watson's life far more than anything we've gotten from Mephisto. Mephisto emboldens writers who think he gives them an excuse enough for butchering these characters, but he is just a symptom of a more deadly disease. Editorial's stance on "Peter the Younger" ruins this damn franchise.

I could probably write a paper on how the Green Goblin was accidentally turned into Spider-Man's archenemy. Choosing to avoid using him only thrust him further into the position.

It wouldn't have made a lousy Elseworld story. It's a good backstory for this guy.

There's not much on Ghost Goblin/Norman Osborn. Osborn could have given up his son for money. Later, when Osborn discovers what he did, he blames the societal expectations that influenced him to make that decision and destroy his entire universe. In the ultimate monkey's paw of situations, Mephisto stops Mayday from ever being born but is killed in that universe by his Rider in revenge. Afterward, the goblin continues destroying universes and Mephistos where Harry Osborn is dead in an omnicidal suicide run, forcing others to take Osborn out because he won't do it himself because the goblin considers suicide the coward's way out—doing this in 616 means the Osborns are not even valuable pawns. Norman's actions brought about what Mephisto wanted to avoid. Harry made it obvious he didn't want to hurt Mary Jane and didn't do much to stop Peter and MJ from getting together.

Mephisto'ssinvolvement is another way of showing their lack of respect for Peter Parker. The retcon is not even using his rogue's gallery. It's outsourcing the villains. It's as if Eobard Thawne were responsible for Joker's fixation or Teth-Adam influenced Lex Luthor. It would be best if you didn't do that with characters like Spider-man.

I can't really judge his behavior in the preview since Spencer established he's a good actor. If Osborn is feeling nothing, it reinforces my opinion that the Arch dynamic causes its holders to lose their personality beyond existing as an extension of their heroes and is fundamentally harmful to the villain who has it. Your threat level usually goes up in proportion to how much your hero is respected, but the cost is often losing character nuance. Before anyone points out Victor von Doom, he avoids this by being written by fanboys, relying on malfunctioning Doombots, ignoring his flaws, and vilifying Reed Richards.

This is far too soon to justify Oscorp. We haven't even explained how Osborn works at Oscorp.

[aion-rsa]

Line of Duty Series 6 Episode 7: H, The Fourth Man, the End of AC-12 & All Our Questions & Theories

https://ift.tt/2SmUqg7

Warning: contains spoilers for the Line of Duty series 6 finale.

Perhaps thanks to the extra half hour of screen time, or perhaps because there was a genuine sense of threads being tied up as AC-12 went into storage for potentially the last time, there are fewer questions left to answer than usual after Line of Duty series six. The finale gave us lots of certainty, and just a few things still to mull over. After you’ve read our weekly episode review, catch up on the post-finale theories and questions below.

So, Buckells was H all along?

He was bent all along, ever since being part of the corrupt team that investigated the racist murder of Lawrence Christopher. But Buckells only stepped into the shoes of ‘H’ or ‘The Fourth Man’ or whatever you want to call the senior corrupt officer coordinating OCG criminal activity, after the death of ACC Derek Hilton at the end of series four. As Buckells tells it, Marcus Thurwell and Patrick Fairbank were working with Tommy Hunter’s OCG until Thurwell left the force and Fairbank retired. Then ACC Derek Hilton and DI Matthew Cottan took over, but after their deaths, Buckells took over from them. When Lisa McQueen and John Corbett were getting orders on their laptop in series five, they were being typed by Buckells, and he was the one who ordered Jo to “get rid of” Kate.

Does this mean CC Osborne isn’t bent?

Technically, that’s still unconfirmed. If you rewatch Buckells explaining the historical chain of command, he lists pairs of corrupt officers who worked with the OCG: Fairbank and Thurwell, Hilton and Cottan… then he’s interrupted by Ted Hastings, who names him as “the last man standing.” Perhaps Buckells was working alone, perhaps he was working in collusion with CC Osborne, we don’t know, and honestly, it doesn’t really matter.  

What we do know is that, even if Osborne didn’t personally collude in OCG activity, he certainly turned a blind eye to it to protect his own reputation and that of the force. And he conspired to cover up police wrongdoing in the murder of Kareem Ali. He’s a PR-man with no backbone who surrounds himself with cronies. Osborne has done everything in his power to suppress anti-corruption, including forcing Ted to retire, Sindwhani to resign, and dramatically restructuring the department to minimalize its power. He doesn’t have to be working with the OCG to be a villain.

Who ordered the hit on Gail Vella? 

That had to be Buckells and/or Thurwell, with or without the collusion of CC Osborne. All the other murders – Denton, Waldron, Cottan, Hilton, Corbett, Thurwell, Lakewell… were carried out by the OCG in their own interest. The only people who stood to benefit from Vella’s murder were Buckells, Thurwell, and Osborne, to silence her investigation into their corrupt suppression of the Lawrence Christopher murder. 

How did Buckells disguise his IP address?

In the search of Marcus Thurwell’s house in Spain, computer equipment was discovered that had communicated with IP addresses belonging to Joanne Davidson and Lisa McQueen. Buckells’ UK-based laptop was rerouting through this Spanish equipment to throw cyber-investigations off the scent. 

Why did Tommy make Jo think Fairbank was her father?

To control her through fear. Tommy was skilled in grooming young, vulnerable people, and he made up the lie that Patrick Fairbank was the dangerous corrupt copper who’d raped Jo’s mother so that Fairbank could be used as a kind of bogeyman to scare Jo into doing Tommy’s bidding. What an evil piece of work.

Read more

TV

Line of Duty Series 6 Episode 7 Review: H Unmasked At Last

By Louisa Mellor

TV

Line of Duty: Will There Be a Series 7?

By Louisa Mellor

What was under the concrete floor in the industrial unit?

Insurance in the form of murder weapons covered in the blood of their victims and the fingerprints of the killer, or the person the OCG were threatening to frame as the killer. There was the gun Carl Banks had used to kill Gail Vella. There were the knives Ryan Pilkington used to kill Maneet Bindra and John Corbett, and the knife an OCG member had used to kill Jackie Laverty before contaminating it with Tony Gates’ fingerprints while he was unconscious. 

Was Chris Lomax bent?

When Lomax was named as the requesting officer on the forged paperwork extracting Davidson from HMP Brentiss, it looked like he was definitely bent. But then Kate Fleming was named on that same paperwork as the supporting officer for the production order, and we know that Kate is true-blue. So Chris’ name could equally have been forged, meaning that there’s no hard evidence as yet that he’s corrupt. 

What about Patricia Carmichael?

We didn’t really learn much more about Pat this episode, apart from the fact that – as Buckells accurately detected – she wanted to stay as far from his interview and arrest as possible, so that she could continue to do the CC’s work and pretend that institutionalised corruption doesn’t exist. Is she bent? I wouldn’t say so. Is she only interested in her own career? I would say so. Will she carry the fire? What do you reckon?

Which fan theories were right, and which were wrong?

Speaking to The Caddy himself, Craig Parkinson on a special episode of BBC Sounds podcast Obsessed With… Line of Duty, writer-creator Jed Mercurio confirmed that Chloe Bishop is definitely not Tony Gates’ daughter, calling the idea “preposterous.”

The idea of a character turning out to be the surprise daughter of someone from series one though, clearly wasn’t preposterous, as the fan theory that Jo Davidson would be related to Tommy Hunter proved to be absolutely right. 

In the finale, Chloe poured cold water on the idea that Marcus Thurwell wasn’t really dead when she confirmed that the bodies were officially identified as Thurwell and his wife, who’d been strangled some weeks ago. Dead as el doorknob, amigo.

All the hubbub about Steph being bent/H/keeping Marcus Thurwell in her loft was just hot air too.

Is this the end of AC-12? 

It could very well be. As things were left, Ted was being forced into retirement, and 90 percent of AC-12 staff were going to be redistributed or let go as the units merged into one. Depending on how his medical evaluation goes, Steve could go to work for Jolly Rogerson at Serious Crime. Kate could stay in command of MIT. And Hastings could take up bird-watching and Italian cookery. If it is the end, then at least AC-12 got their man. 

However, to leave things open for a potential seventh series, Ted has lodged a complaint against his forced retirement, and Kate told Steve that she’d be willing to come back to anti-corruption. So we’ll see. 

Is there going to be a seventh season?

We ponder that in more detail here. 

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from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/338txyt

[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]

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

A lot of people don’t give Spider-Man’s role in Civil War much shit whilst I have seen people criticize his inaction in the original Renew Your Vows book.

  Here’s the thing with both, they’ve got it the other way around.

  In the times we live in there is a lot of talk about direct political action, whether it should be used at all and if so when it is appropriate and when it isn’t and the extent of how far it should go.

 And I’m not really starting a debate about that, I just want to speak to Spider-Man’s actions in these 2 specific stories.

 The idea that Spider-Man was ‘in the right’ to go on the run and directly oppose the registration act the way he did because of what the act was analogous for bypasses the character’s history when you put it into context of the specifics of the Super Human Registration Act.

 One of the big problem with Civil War 2006 as a political story is that it’s mixing up a lot of political analogues and being disingenuous over the stuff we should suspend our disbelief over.

 Because in the REAL WORLD, sure super powered people should be registered as opposed to being allowed to run around unchecked.

 In this sense the SHRA could be seen as an analogy to registering gun owners or even a gun control law with super powers as a substitute for weapons.

 However the story especially in so far as Captain America’s objections to the act was NOT framing it a right to bear arms but...I guess something along the lines of the civil rights movement or something?

  This mixing of your metaphors and the wishey washey way in which Civil War wanted you to treat super heroes MORE realistically than before but still not go all the way is why a lot of character’s actions can kind of be justified or not justified depending upon how you look at it. because Civil War itself was so poorly written and defined (even the specifics of the SHRA itself was never set in stone) that it was very fluid.

  If you run with the idea that the SHRA is equivalent to something along the lines of the Patriot Act and infringes upon freedom for the sake of security then Captain America point of view is right and proper but you can very seriously debate as to whether going on the run and recruiting an underground army was the best way to combat that.

 The problem being that, as the story ITSELF points out, because of the specific realities of Civil War (the general public’s fear of unchecked super powered beings) Cap doing that is mind bogglingly stupid and had real plan or direction. He wasn’t protesting, he wasn’t rioting he wasn’t doing anything beyond beating up the pro-registration side and declaring it to be bad whilst flaunting the law that the majority of the public were in favour of for frankly realistically believable reasons.

 So in that sense Cap’s plan was fucking stupid as was Peter Parker opting to join his team upon learning about Negative Zone Guantanamo Bay.

 If written honestly Peter WOULD have been in the pro-registration side but out of necessity not out of genuine loyalty or belief in their principles. Regardless of how realistically registering super powered people does make sense, Peter Parker has seen the cost of his identity being exposed and also experienced persecution by authority figures too many times for him personally to side with that. But if he goes on the run he will be a criminal and thus endanger his family, friends and students. Tony Stark revealed his own identity to the President of the United States and other Avengers (many of whom are pro-registration) had even LESS personal friendship with him. Thus going on the run as Cap did would’ve led to the exposure of his identity, the ruination of his personal life and a very serious endangerment of his family and friends from his enemies and from a government he has some trust in but is aware is scared, unscrupulous and in many/most respects corrupt. Not to mention generally angry or unhinged members of the public who have beef with him personally or heroes in general. This isn’t even taking account of how some of his enemies were WORKING for the government.

 Peter might see the act as wrong but it’d equally be making HUGE targets out of a lot of innocent people and those closest to him if he openly opposed it as a criminal and make criminals of anyone who’d try and help him, even those he’d never ask to help him tell not help him.

After all he knows his friends and family well enough and knows a fair few of them will back him regardless, Betty Brant certainly did and he’d barely spoken to her all year. Technically she was a criminal for aiding Peter but she did it willingly anyway with no prompting.

 So no, Peter wasn’t reasonably going to go on the run let alone do so and leave his family in the clutches of a government he had a fair idea were unscrupulous.

  His situation became even more untenable after he (foolishly) unmasked publically. Again, Peter would never be on Stark’s side of the issue and would certainly never unmask like that because of the targets it places on the people in his life as I’ve already stated.

 However him deciding to pull MJ and Aunt May out of the safety of the Avengers Tower because he wants to switch sides was fucking stupid.

 By that point he knew how bad the government had become so to go on the run alone would’ve meant leaving his wife and mother incredibly exposed and alone to defend themselves against a manipulative and exploitative government (which Norman Osborn was working for and would soon take over effectively, with Venom as his attack dog). So going on the run would’ve been even LESS of an option by that  point, though once he crossed the threshold and became a criminal himself and made them criminals too even cutting a deal with the government was comparatively LESS of a safe bet for him. He’d seen how far they were willing to go and knew they had villains on their payroll. Having destroyed any semblance of trust between himself and the government as much danger as MJ and May were in as fugitives for Peter (and it wasn’t an unreasonable belief) life underground on the outside had become safer than life on the inside where there was much easier access for people to hurt his family.

 We then come to Renew Your Vows, which for the sake of argument we’re going to presume has a Peter with a similar history to his 616 counterpart.

 In this story Peter effectively quits being a hero and never participates in any resistance as the Regent takes over and begins hunting down and killing all remaining super powered individuals, along with whomever resists him.

 This is obviously far WORSE than what has happening in Civil War but again I don’t think Peter could be called out as outright immoral for what he did, or rather for his inactions.

 I’ve seen people compare the Regent’s world to Nazi Germany or even modern day America but that’s not entirely a fair comparison.

 To begin with the Regent himself is African America so the idea that he’s strictly speaking a fascist is at best incredibly questionable. He’s a dicator and a tyrant for sure though the world he rules isn’t (mostly) something out of 1984.

 It is mostly like (then) 2015 New York city with higher levels of technology but where metahumans have to fear capture and death, though not out of bigotry. The Regent wants to steal their powers and in fact wants to do so to destroy Doctor Doom and free Battleworld from his rule which isn’t an immoral cause necessarily but also doesn’t justify his immoral actions in pursuing it.

 Peter’s lack of actions do however means he’s allowing innocent people to be hunted and harmed so in that sense criticisms of his lack of actions are incredibly valid as are the comprimizes to some of  the basic freedoms people should be entitled to, like freedom of criticisms and freedom of speech. The latter isn’t wholesale removed but it’s obvious you can’t say anything against the Regent himself lest you want to face reprimands.

  However Peter’s inaction isn’t that unjustified when we consider his primary reason for not acting against the Regent’s regime was protecting his own children. In a very real sense had Peter fought back against the Regent he’d have been exposing his family and his CHILD to almost certain death in a way that (to my understanding which I reserve the right of being corrected on) few Western political activists risk.

 If Peter fought back against the Regent he was GUARANTEED to lose. The Regent was just too powerful and this is where trying to speak purely in symbolism and analogy breaks down. In much the same way that mutants as an allegory for minorities kind of hits a wall because in the real world LGBTQ people can’t punch holes in mountains, the Regent isn’t merely empowered through military might or state power or any of the things that empower real world political leaders or dictators.

 The Regent is one man army. Hell if he has the power of the X-Men, Avengers and virtually every other superhero COMBINED he’s got the power of MULTPLE armies all at once. He has flunkies with lower level but still significant abilities AS WELL as super villain henchmen and regular soldiers armed with advanced weaponry.

 We’re talking about a guy who is more powerful than he was 8 years before when he soloed the Avengers, which when he was more powerful than when he soloed the X-Men. This dude dismembered and murdered the goddam HULK...whilst killing the OTHER Avengers.

 Spider-Man stood no hope if he took direct action against him and if he had it would’ve meant the exposure of his identity (thus opening up his friends and family to his old enemies) and more seriously the endangerment of his family, especially his CHILD who also had super powers

 Now he could’ve worked with the resistance but (unless I am forgetting something) he honestly didn’t know they even existed and they had exactly no hope until they discovered Peter’s inhibitor technology.

 In fact their efforts were shown to be pretty toothless until Spider-Man himself got involved. Without his intervention, Power Pack would’ve died. Without Annie’s presence the Sinister Six would’ve killed the resistance AND dismantled them.

 In fact if not for Annie AND MJ’s intervention alongside Peter the Regent would’ve lost period. The fact is the resistance might’ve been HELPED by Spider-Man in whatever meagre efforts they were putting in but when push came to shove it took the combined efforts of THREE super powered people (one of whom obtained her powers through the Regent’s technology) to bring down the bad guy.

 The resistance even helped by Spider-Man therefore stood little chance and in fact needed Annie and MJ to be around to succeed.

 Which wasn’t going to happen if Peter had joined their group. Peter would NEVER have allowed Annie and MJ to enter into battle (it was even bullshit that MJ allowed Annie to go into battle) so the resistance were screwed. Worse Peter’s chief contributions to the resistance would’ve been his powers, the mere use of which pretty much would’ve exposed the resistance because the Regent could pick up the use of super powers.

 Essentially the resistance needed three super powered people to defeat the Regent and Annie was both too young and simply not going to be allowed to enter the fray at an earlier point in time than when the story actually happened. And half of that occurred by coincidence.

 More poignantly...I have to ask...how immoral is it to not resist evil when the act of resisting will all but certainly wind up killing your family, including your child?

 Frankly, at best this is one of those things that has no clear cut answer. People in the real world do run that risk but at the same time is it really right to reprimand a parent for not taking action that will likely cause the death of their child?

[aion-rsa]

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ending Explained

https://ift.tt/35qd0Yx

This Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales article contains spoilers.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales ends in notably epic fashion considering the deeply personal story at its heart. Most of the game focuses on the conflict between Miles Morales and his best friend Phin Mason, whom he discovers is the villain known as the Tinkerer, the leader of a terrorist group known as the Undeground that has been waging war against the shady Roxxon Energy corporation on New York’s City streets.

Phin’s out for revenge on Roxxon for the death of her brother Rick, and Miles, who has been left to protect the city while Peter’s away in Europe, finds himself stuck right in the middle. He’s forced to stop Phin at all costs before she can blow up Harlem by exploiting Roxxon’s NuForm energy, which is what killed her brother.

This all leads to an explosive confrontation between Miles and Phin that will likely shape the young hero’s crime-fighting career for years to come. Miles’ latest test as a new Spider-Man turns out to be pretty life-altering.

Let’s break down what happened in the game’s final moments:

What happens between Miles and Phin?

When Miles confronts Phin at Roxxon Plaza, which she plans to demolish by overloading a NuForm reactor, he tries to explain to her that Roxxon scientist and criminal mastermind Simon Krieger tampered with the reactor and that the explosion will cause far more damage to the surrounding neighborhood, killing thousands of people in Harlem. 

But Phin is overcome with rage and resentment, still reeling from the death of her engineer brother, who lost his life trying to eradicate NuForm, which he invented but subsequently discovered made people sick. She also doesn’t trust Miles after he lied to her about wanting to join her in the Underground all while withholding the fact that he’s been trying to thwart her plans as Spider-Man all along.

They’re at an impasse: Phin is deadset on avenging her brother and Miles vows to stop her to protect his city. They come to blows high above the Harlem streets and Phin gets the best of Miles as the energy converter pulsates and threatens to destroy everything around it. But amid the chaos she glimpses the faces of the New Yorkers down below, running terrified as the volatile reactor sends tremors down the city streets.

Eventually, she loses her footing and plummets to the ground below. Miles saves her (taking off his faulty tech mask in the process), but they crash land mere feet away from the crackling reactor.

How does Miles save the day?

When Miles comes to, he stumbles toward the overloaded NuForm reactor to shut it down with his electricity-based Venom Power. He is successful but can’t hold in all of the energy he’s absorbed for long.

Phin comes to her senses and decides to grab Miles, run up the side of the towering Roxxon building with her Underground tech-powered boots, and rocket high into the night sky. She tells Miles to “let go,” which he does, resulting in a giant explosion that evidently vaporizes Phin and sends an unconscious Miles hurtling toward the earth below. He crash lands AGAIN, this time unmasked for all onlookers to see.

The fact that Phin ultimately uses the technology she developed not to take Roxxon, but to literally “go high” and save lives while paying for her own wrongdoings with her own life, is a poetic exclamation point at the end of an intensely personal story.

What happens now that Miles has been unmasked?

A few civilians—including his best friend Ganke, his mother Rio, Spidey ally Hailey, and the artist responsible for the Spider-Man mural outside Miles’s apartment building—discover Miles’ secret identity. A news reporter arrives as Miles flees the scene and asks the bystanders if they saw his face. They refuse to identify him and instead refer to him as “Our Spider-Man,” a refrain among the citizens of Harlem throughout the game. It seems as if his secret identity will remain safe for now.

This moment underlines one of the story’s main themes — that underrepresented, marginalized people deserve a hero they can call their own. They protect Miles’s identity because they know he’s one of them—he’s from THEIR neighborhood.

What happens to Uncle Aaron/The Prowler and Simon Krieg?

Four weeks after the incident at Roxxon Plaza, it’s revealed via radio host Danika that Uncle Aaron, also known as the Prowler, who briefly worked with Simon Krieger, flipped on his former associate, sending the evil CEO to prison in embarrassing fashion. He’ll do time himself but may get a reduced sentence. Like Phin, he’ll pay for his mistakes, but has also started to redeem himself in the process.

Read more

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Where do Miles and Peter stand?

By the end of the game, Miles has finally started to feel comfortable in his role as Harlem’s very own Spider-Man. We see him in a good mood, strutting down his block, flirting with Hailey underneath the Spider-Man mural (which now features his masked likeness in addition to Peter’s), and stopping for a quick bachata dance in his Timbs with an old lady before ducking into his apartment building. 

We then see Miles meet with Peter, who’s back from Europe, on his apartment building’s roof. Miles is wearing his new suit (updated with a slick hoodie), which Peter approves of. “Gotta be me,” says Miles as he casually sips coffee while hanging upside down, a nod to a moment between the two heroes at the start of the game that signifies he finally feels ready to be the hero he was meant to be. More importantly, he’s ready to be his true self.

“Roxxon did this uptown because they saw us as disposable,” Miles somberly explains to Peter. “I think part of our job is making sure they can’t get away with it.” This is a poignant moment that hits again on the idea that New York’s POC communities deserve heroes that represent them.

Why is Harry Osborn in that vat?

After the game’s credits, we cut to none other than Harry Osborne floating in a vat of murky green liquid. He sees his father, Norman, enter the lab he’s being held in and get an update on his recovery from the Lizard himself, scientist Curt Connors. Norman says that he wants his son out of the vat now, but Connors advises against this, citing Harry’s dangerous “disease,” but Norman is insistent.

This is actually the continuation of a story whose seed was planted in the original game, in which Peter conducted research for Harry across New York while he was handling Oscorp business “overseas.” In reality, Harry was sick the entire time, and the game’s deadly “Devil’s Breath” concoction was a failed attempt by Norman to cure him. In a short scene in the game, Norman vows to find a cure that actually works.

Now it seems that Norman has finally found a way to release Harry from his emerald cocoon, and this surely means we’ll be seeing Harry and Norman featured front and center in the inevitable Marvel’s Spider-Man sequel, with Harry suffering from side-effects from his treatment that turn him into the Green Goblin.

It’s also notable that in the scene we hear on the radio that Rio Morales’s campaign for city council was successful, which could mean Rio will play an even bigger role in the Spider-Man story to come.

What did Miles learn from his mom?

When all of the end game cinematics are through, we see Miles set down the science award he and Phin won together in middle school atop Trinity Church, as he says his final goodbye to his old friend. 

He then shares a conversation with Rio on the phone and they discuss his feelings about Phin. He says he’s conflicted about his feelings for his late friend because she caused so much damage but also ultimately gave her life to save others. She tells him that he doesn’t have to pass judgment on Phin’s life but simply remember why he loved her.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

It’s a powerful note to end the story on, as Rio touches on the idea that people don’t simply fall into the categories of “good” or “bad.” This is a story about forgiveness and empathy, and no character exemplifies this more than Rio.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is out on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 now.

The post Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ending Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2JWJeCw

[multiverseforger]

Jester and screwball Spiderman villians

Screwball was self-styled as a performance artist and the world's first live-blogging super-villain. She was an Internet personality and social-media attention monger to such an extent that she commited crimes on camera. Her real name and identity remain as of yet unknown. Her first crimes were filmed by an amateur camera crew, and uploaded on a website.[2]

One of her earliest crimes consisted of robbing an off-track betting parlor for the sake of it, but she was sighted by Spider-Man . He tried to give chase, but eventually fell behind due to Screwball's proficiency in parkour. During this time, corrupt NYPD officers were employing Spider-Tracers to incriminate Spider-Man in numerous deaths; so when Spider-Man tagged Screwball with a Spider-Tracer, she believed she had been marked for death, and turned herself over to the nearest police officers to find protection from the alleged killer.[2]

Screwball's original costumeThe superhero fight bookmaker Bookie paid for Screwball's bail in exchange for her to dress up as Spider-Man and arrange a fight with the Basher so that he could swindle his supervillain clients at the Bar with No Name, who had bet Spider-Man wasn't going to accept Basher's challenge. After Screwball took down the Basher, the real Spider-Man appeared in the scene and chased after Screwball. He webbed her up and unmasked her.[1]

Later on, Screwball started using a camera embedded into her helmet to record her exploits. She was taken down by Spider-Man after stealing ten million dollars from an investment firm. However, she managed to evade him after hurling the stolen property into the air, forcing him to go after it.[4] Since the traffic to Screwball's site went up eighty-five percent any time she and Spider-Man tussled, she hacked into the screens of New York's cab fleet to display a message to challenge Spider-Man to a fight.[5] Spider-Man's took advantage of Screwball's challenge, and lured her to a confrontation between him and Raptor to use her as a distraction. After Screwball served her purpose, Spider-Man knocked her out.[6]

Following the birth of Lily Hollister and Norman Osborn's baby, Doctor Octopus rallied numerous villains to go after the infant. As the child of two people powered by the Goblin Serum, Octavius believed its blood carried the key to cure him of his crippling illness.[7] Screwball was one of the villains that tried to track down the baby. After the Chameleon took off with the child and tricked Spider-Man into thinking it had died, the wall-crawling hero went on a rampage to take down every villain involved in Doctor Octopus' scheme. Screwball was approached in Midtown Manhattan by the Looter to warn her of Spider-Man's actions. Before she could finish brushing him off, Screwball was taken down by Spider-Man from behind.[8]

Screwball was briefly seen being chased by Spider-Girl who had informed Screwball that she was no longer broadcasting her show due to the heroine taking out her cameraman. She was last scene being arrested by the police after Spider-Girl left.[9]

Screwball later joined forces with Jester into pranking Mayor J. Jonah Jameson. Upon uploading the prank on the Internet, both villains were defeated by Spider-Man, whose mind at the time had been taken over

She was later seen in Las Vegas[11] having formed a partnership with Arcade in which she did his bidding and he gave her training, equipment and exclusive streaming rights.[12]

Jonathan Powers was a struggling actor of huge ego who finally got his big break as the leading character in an off-Broadway revival of Cyrano de Bergerac. Panned by critics, jeered by the audience, and disdained by his fellow performers, Powers was fired after one performance. Obsessively, he continued to study the various arts and crafts that he thought would make him a versatile actor: fencing, gymnastics, body building --everything except acting lessons. Still, he was only able to find employment as a stooge on a children's television show taped in New York. Finally getting fed up with having pies thrown in his face, Powers decided that if the public wants laughter at other people's expense, he would give it to them. Contracting the criminal weapons-maker known as the Tinkerer to make him a number of gimmicks, Powers fashioned himself a gaudy harlequin-like disguise and called himself the Jester.

Criminal Career

Committing a wave of crimes based on his toys and gimmicks, and then secretly hired by corrupt politician Richard Raleigh to threaten D.A. candidate Franklin Nelson, the Jester was opposed by Daredevil, who eventually stopped his criminal activities and saw him put behind bars.[2]

The Jester escaped on numerous occasions to plague New York anew. In one of his biggest plots, he began distributing false newscasts claiming that John F. Kennedy was still alive,[3] or that the Vietnam War had never happened to get the public to stop trusting the news media.[4] He also created false commercials and newscasts for Foggy Nelson's reelection campaign as District Attorney which caused him to lose the election.[5] He then went on to frame Daredevil as a murderer,[6] before finally having a fake President Ford denounce the NYPD as criminals. When Daredevil was overcome by an angry mob, he staged a trial to sentence him to death.[7] Daredevil then freed himself and defeated the Jester, restoring order to the city.[8]

Briefly, the Jester, impersonating a famous actor, performed Cyrano on television. This appeared to end his criminal career after fulfilling his dream.[9] He left prison years later and became a stylised performer, process server, and showman.[10]

Superior Spider-Man

Powers eventually backslid, becoming partners with Screwball for a web-show called Jested. After pranking Mayor J. Jonah Jameson and uploading it live on the Internet, both pranksters were targeted by Spider-Man (whose body was being controlled by Doctor Octopus at the time). When Spider-Man came into conflict with Screwball and the Jester, their tactics of bullying and pranks caused him to snap and brutally beat them up within an inch of their lives.[11]

Death & Resurrection

After serving his time in prison for any and all offences, Powers once again abandoned his life of crime. He still ended up in prison once again when an undercover federal agent and a paid informant got him to confess his desire to return to his bad habits. She-Hulk represented Powers in court, but her argument that Powers shouldn't be arrested for thinking about committing a crime rather than actually committing a crime wasn't enough to convince the jury. He was killed by a prison guard during a scuffle started by other two inmates.[12]

Through unrevealed means, the Jester was revived and returned to a life of crime, only to be defeated by Jessica Jones and Spider-Woman.[13]

Powers and Abilities

Power Grid [16]Intelligence4 Strength 2Speed 2Durability 2Energy Projection 3Fighting Skills6 

Abilities

The Jester is an above-average athlete with special skills in gymnastics, swordsmanship, and unarmed combat.[14]

Strength level

The Jester possesses the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise.

Paraphernalia

Weapons

The Jester employs a variety of harmless-looking toys and gimmicks modified into deadly weapons or special tools. He has a yo-yo whose weighted knob can be used for striking and whose thin steel cable can be used for strangling. He has a bag of polished ball bearing marbles which he throws onto the ground to make an opponent lose his footing. He has a box of popcorn-like objects which explode on impact and emit a noxious tear-gas. He has a number of 8-inch diameter plastic flying discs rigged to squirt an anaesthetic drug. He has various sized rubber balls containing plastic explosives in their centers. He has an extendable artificial hand on a scissors rigged with a high voltage electrical charge, as well as an artificial hand that can be fired from a small air-cannon.

Besides these weapons, which he carries on his person or in a pouch, he occasionally employs larger and more complicated weapons, such as miniature (2 feet tall) robots outfitted with laser weaponry, diamond drill bits, etc., that can be remotely controlled by a radio-linked micro-processor that responds to spoken commands.

The Jester is constantly expanding and refining his arsenal of deadly toys

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Let’s dissect this shit shall we.

Yes Peter you have had a brother. His name was/is Ben Reilly as far as you and Marvel and Slott are concerned he came back during an event from earlier THIS YEAR which this story DIRECTLY REFERENCES. FFS!

Jonah is right. Spider-Man WAS an idiot for considering something so utterly childish. Spider-Man has demonstrated legitimate investigative skills in the past and been able to piece things together off the back of relatively little information. Peter is intelligent, but not just in so far as he knows about biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, etc. He is honestly intelligent when it comes to strategy to a certain extent and again investigative skills. For fuck’s sake he literally used to WORK for a newspaper!

How the fuck is Peter renegading on their deal to go address crime proving him to be a menace? It’s even a stretch to call him untrustworthy as he was breaking their deal specifically to go out and address an immediate problem Jonah just got done berating him for moments before

Right here in this issue in multiple ways we are witnessing the legacy of Civil War in action and proving my feelings as a dumb 14 year old in 2006 entirely correct. Unmasking Spider-Man was a short sighted idiotic and creatively reductive decision. Because there is no good resolution for it. You can’t commit to it so you HAVE to reverse it but there IS no way to organically reverse it without major ramifications. This is one of those. Jonah doesn’t know who Spider-Man is. But he did USED to know. And then he forgot. 

But as Spider-Man stories made a point of establishing, he and everybody else didn’t forget the fact that Spider-Man unmasked, just exactly WHO he was. In New Ways to Die Norman Osborn even acknowledges that he doesn’t know who Spider-Man is but that he does remember the fact that he USED to know. The same applied to the Fantastic Four. The same should apply to Jonah. Except now that the psychic blindspot got removed (see Spider Island) everyone should START to remember because there is a gigantic Peter Parker shaped hole in their memories. Jonah was a fucking investigative journalist for a living. HOW did he not figured out based upon those gaps in his memory that Peter is Spider-Man?

I don’t know how to feel about this particular explanation of Jonah’s hatred of Spider-Man. I guess it’s reconcilable with the explanation from Tangled Webs #20 and isn’t that bad really considering the 90s cartoon used it too.

I equyally don’t know how to feel about Peter chewing Jameson out. Jameson is after all someone he cares about at the end of the day. In Spec #241 he actually expressed concern for him noticing just how old and tired he seemed. So I don’t buy that deep down Peter really believe Jonah is worthless or doesn’t do some stuff to help people. He knows the people at the Bugle like Robbie and Betty and Ben Urich definitely help people and Jonah after all employed them. However I can equally see him in the heat of the moment here lashing out at the guy who has made his life Hell. 

Okay now for the big one. The unmasking.

Like I said this goes back to Civil War. 

The rules surrounding the mindwipe established that the act of unmasking would restore someone’s memories completely so right now Jonah should be remembering Peter unmasking in support of the Super Human Registration Act and their conversation during Back in Black.

But we don’t see that.

Whilst this is an act of compassion on Peter’s part and in a sense that is very true to who he is Civil War once more rears it’s ugly head.

In Civil War Jameson was a man who had the Bugle, had the support of his employees and friends, had his wife, had his adopted daughter and had his son John.

He also had years of gruff yet ultimately true friendship between himself and Peter and he also respected Mary Jane and Aunt May. He was sympathetic towards Peter once or twice upon learning of May’s health problems. He made a point of looking out for information on Mary Jane’s abduction by Jonathan Caesar. He secretly paid for a high price lawyer when Peter was arrested for murder during the Clone Saga. He recognized there was a vendetta between Peter and Norman Osborn during the former’s ownership of the Bugle and partially because of that (and partially due to other factors) resolved to kill Osborn.

Jonah was when push came to shove Peter’s friend.

And yet despite that friendship and the generally positive place his life was in at the time, when Peter unmasked Jonah didn’t see his young friend whom he’d watched grow up over the years. He saw the menace he’d dedicated his life to destroying who’d been tricking and humiliating him for years. Consequently he decided to try and avenge himself on Peter by suing him.

And Peter knew all that.

Jonah in this story has little left to lose and his vendetta against Spider-Man is all that he has left. He even says as much.

So knowing Jonah reacted in a bad way that hurt him back during Civil War, knowing his life has gotten demonstrably worse since then to the point where his hatred for Spider-Man is all that drives him now, Peter decides to unmask.

What is even the fuck.

Peter in this very issue states the mask is there to protect his loved ones.

Loved ones have DIED because a few individuals have known he he was.

So now he’s going to not just give that information to the guy who’s CLEARLY got severe such severe issues with him that he’ll go to extremes to ruin him (and have been doing so since day 1 of his career) but also REMIND him of that OTHER time he knew who he was? Alongside all those times he objectively tricked him to divert suspicion away from the truth, which included making him believe his own son was his hated enemy?

Peter is REALLY going to risk doing that?

What?

Is he going to make Eddie Brock remember all their good times together too, so long as Brock seems sad enough?

Yeah okay, that’s a false equivalence because Jonah has never deliberately tried to hurt or endanger other people in his pursuit of Spider-Man and isn’t generally speaking psychotic.

But for fuck’s sake he’s funded the creation and efforts of killer robots and multiple super villains to bring in Spider-Man and they’ve usually gone rogue!

So it isn’t THAT false of an equivalency.

Peter knows Jonah values journalistic ethics generally speaking but that he is also has such a deep vendetta against Spider-Man that he is willing to make exceptions in his specific case.

I don’t give a shit if you say “But he was Peter’s brother-in-law! They were family!”

That doesn’t mean anything when you consider

a) Following May and Jay’s wedding Jonah publicly denounced Peter for faking pictures and got him blacklisted from any news photography gigs even though Peter faked those photos to HELP Jonah

b) Jonah got Peter his job at HORIZON labs but ONLY upon Marla’s insistence

c) Jonah to some degree at least held Peter accountable for his father’s death!

Face it the modern day Jonah never really considered Peter family and if he did that consideration definitely didn’t stretch to the point where he’d be all that kindly or caring towards him. 

Peter has a VERY reliable track record of Jonah’s past behaviors that would make it plain fucking obvious to him that he shouldn’t let his compassion in the heat of the moment rule his judgement because Jonah is NOT likely to keep his secret, IS very likely to hold a grudge and by extension is a HIGH risk to the secrecy which he vitally needs to protect himself and his loved ones.

In summary Peter unmasking, whilst dramatic, is bullshit.

Yeah, yeah he implores Jonah to look past the mask and see the man he’s known for years. 

Except he KNOWS Jonah DIDN’T do that last time, even when Jameson was FAR LESS vulnerable and Joe Robertson (Jonah’s veritable Jimeny Cricket) was by his side trying to talk sense into him.

And yeah he says he did it because he didn’t want Jonah to feel that way. But that becomes royal bullshit when you consider all those times Peter kept OTHER people who were far LESS likely to betray him in the dark despite doing so meaning they felt sad or thought badely of him. Literally up to the 1980s (unless I am forgetting) the ONLY people he entrusted with the secret that could kill people and ruin his life was the woman he loved and a child who adored him and who’d be dead within a few months anyway.

By far and away this is the best issue of Spec so far and there is real merit to be had here but the central twist of the story, the thing it’s been building to the whole issue is so utterly idiotic it ruins the whole thing.

[enough-spider-noir-stuff]

damn it, my tags are good

It's about Hobie, BUT think about it:

Living in a surveillance state; family is most likely dead, for Some Reason he spends lots of time in the spider society instead of his home dimension with his band (what happened to them?? --ive got a couple headcanons but not the point here)

Personally I'm keeping most of comic!Hobie's backstory, which means he killed Osborn and unmasked himself; he's gotta be paranoid as fuck

He's wanted by the government, he's embodying everything they hate, he's living rebellion. He won't trust people easily; much less full-on organisations. Everyone has an agenda of sorts alright

Also i think he has attachment issues as well. Punk is about community, that's the fundamental aspect, but also he HATES responsibility i think. Just. Being dependant on someone else;;;; I think it happened to him. Like maybe he was put in an orphanage or something and he was dependant on someone else and their goodwill and if he went against that things got Bad. He HATES being dependant on anyone -- and he's lowkey terrified of having that sort of power over anyone else.

Also where'd that motto 'no gods no masters' come from for him specifically?? Do i smell religious trauma in here as well?? Possibly :)

I think Hobie has fought tooth and nail to become his own person. To be independant. To live his own life. [Coulda sworn I rambled more in the tags. Who cares. adding on]

And he won't risk losing that.

I think having friends is one thing, people he relies on to a degree, people he fights side by side with and trusts. That's a cornerstone of punk and surviving in a world such as his. But I think he needs people who are willing to let him go. If he feels free around them, not bound by anything, he'll stay on his own, of course he'll stay, they matter to him. But the moment someone tries to keep him closer, the moment it feels like there's borders and bounds and he's locked up in a situation all over again, he's out of there.

(Well, that's nuanced. I think if he feels responsible, like he's needed, he'll stay. But the longer he's staying there out of need and dependancy instead of entirely free volition he gets more and more restless. It just--it keeps piling up. He's good at keeping it hidden, as with every part of himself because masks are survival, but he'll want that distance so badly, at least long enough that that sense of someone/something else forcing him to stay is gone.)

Just. Hobie, man. He seems like you can just see so much of what defines him but neither us nor the other characters can really know what's going on in his head. I mean, I've successfully fully convinced myself of that headcanon and when I write him I can do what I want but. !!!!CHEWING ON GLASS THERE'S SO BLOODY MUCH TO HIM OKAY I AM NOT OKAY

oops: local fanfic author tried to write a funny fic while staying in character, now it turns out this character has major trust issues