*** (three of five stars)
Favorite Quote: "But I forget, you're not the last guy. He could turn a hangnail into an epic tragedy." -- Norman, really on a roll
Summary
The Goblin watches on television the havoc that his Goblin Army is wrecking across New York, with reporters advising residents to stay off the streets and inside. Menace returns with Anna Maria just as a reporter covers the collapse of Parker Industries, where Sajani tells the reporter that Carlie and Peter are buried in the rubble. Menace expresses concern over Carlie, but the Goblin says that the real tragedy is the quick death of Spidey's "best friend," observing that he's going to have to find someone else close to Spidey. (Anna Maria is, not surprisingly, visibly upset.) In JJJ, Jr.'s office, Tyler Stone tells Jonah that the Avengers are stretched to their limits fighting the Goblin Army and helping first responders. He suggests that Jonah launch the Spider-Slayers to help in the rescue efforts. Liz agrees, saying that they're not combat ready, but they're field ready and using them to help with the rescue efforts would be a PR win for both the Mayor and Alchemax. However, JJJ, Jr. refuses, saying that he had them built to take down Spider-Man, swearing that he's involved. Glory expresses shock that Jonah only cares about his vendetta on Spider-Man, with the city under attack and Peter possibly dead. Jonah tries to explain, but Glory won't hear it. Noting that Marla's dying wish was for Jonah to release his hate, Glory quits, saying that she knows that he never will.
Outside Mystic, CT, Mary Jane and company exit their car, with May expressing concern for Peter given the news report, Jay expressing frustration over Jonah not returning his calls, and Ollie feeling anxious that he's not in New York helping. Peter calls MJ to tell her to get to safety, and MJ tells him that she's already gotten everyone to safety. She starts to tell him to call his panicking aunt, but he tells her to deal with it. She berates him over the fact that she's helping him despite them not being together, but he ends the call, leaving her to remark that he could never deal with a woman raising her voice. At that moment, Peter is working with Sajani to find a way to cure Carlie, but he notes that the Goblin Serum is complex and undoing it in a way that leaves the subject alive is extremely difficult. Sajani rails against him for blowing up half their "barely insured building" to fake his own death, but Peter tells her that she's not helping him find a cure by yelling at him. Their fight is interrupted by the Goblin calling Otto and telling him to put on his costume because he has something to show Otto. Peter tells Sajani that he has to go, leaving her incredulous as he instructs her to continue working on a cure. Otto confirms to the Goblin that he's in costume, and the Goblin tells him that he was furious at him, Spider-Man's "number two enemy," for killing Spidey before the Goblin got the chance. He thought that he could get revenge by making Otto his lackey, but, when Otto refused, he was left with no choice but to destroy everything important to him, to "wipe [Otto] off the face of the Earth and the pages of history." He then proceeds to destroy Otto's family home, the lab where he became Dr. Octopus, the Boneyard where his greatest inventions are stored, Mocha Cola where he saved "all those people from getting blown up" (and where they're working a late shift), and the H.E.A.R.T. Clinic where he spent so much time helping people. Otto reels, telling the Goblin that he'll kill him, and the Goblin asks what army he'll use to do that, since he killed them, too. He then tells Otto that he's going to teach him a lesson and that he's "holding class" at E.S.U. where he has someone "very dear" to Otto. Otto realizes that it's a trap to force his hand, but worries that the Goblin has Anna Maria. He realizes that he's never been on the other side of this particular equation before and wonders what Parker would do.
Spidey races across town, calling in a mugging that he witnesses to Chief Pratchett. Pratchett tells Otto that the police think that Spidey is working with the Goblin, and an incredulous Otto tells him to talk to the Mayor. Pratchett ends the call and asks Jonah (who's there with him, along with the Alchemax team) what he wants him to do next. JJJ, Jr. tells him to dispatch the Spider-Slayers to the location that Spidey sent, and Liz agrees to do it, telling Jonah that he knows the risks. Tyler tells Miguel that it's time to head to the lab to monitor the Spider-Slayers' deployment, but Miguel is gone. Spidey arrives at ESU, crashing into a window. The Goblin observes that it's more Spidey than Otto to arrive so bullishly, without planning or henchmen, and Otto warns that he'll learn the difference between them soon enough when he tears his head from his neck. The Goblin reveals that he has Dr. Lamaze, making Otto laugh. The Goblin is confused, since he thought that Lamaze was Otto's only friend, noting that he saw him almost kill himself to save him "and the midget." He tells Otto to view it as the dress rehearsal, raising the stakes for the grand finale. Otto deploys his Spider-Arms, resulting in the Goblin noting Otto's predictability. Saying that he was going to use the following tactic for the finale, the Goblin reveals that he's hacked the arms, chastising Otto for basing them off his old designs and making them easy to hack. He leaves as he orders the arms to attack Spidey, and Otto tells Lamaze to run as the arms are trying to kill him. Otto is oblivious to one of them, and Lamaze hurls himself into it as it lands a killing blow. Otto asks why Lamaze saved him, and Lamaze says that he ran when Anna Maria needed help. Spidey saved the both of them, and Lamaze wanted a chance to do the right thing. He thanks Spidey for teaching him to be a hero, and Otto grieves as Lamaze dies.
Just then, the Spider-Slayers arrive, programmed with Jonah's face. Spidey tells him that he risks being exposed, but Jonah says that he doesn't care. He's lost the woman that he loves and his self-respect, and he doesn't care if he loses his office or freedom if he gets to kill Spider-Man. Otto haughtily says that he can defeat the Spider-Slayers in his sleep, but Jonah delights in telling him that they're now "light-years ahead of the old ones" and "powerful enough to tear [him] limb from limb." However, just then, they stop, and Miguel (as Spidey) reveals himself. Otto asks why he's still in this timeline, and Miguel tells him to be glad that he is, since he's the one who disabled the Spider-Slayers. Spidey suggests using them as a robot army to stop the Goblin, but Miguel tells him that they're not going anywhere until he gets answers. Otto calls him a fool for wasting their time, but Miguel tells him that he has decades, since he doesn't belong there. He's also not sure that Spidey belongs either, telling him that there's something wrong with history and him. He tells him that he's acting like a totally different person from the one that he's supposed to be, and he wants to know why. However, the Slayers reactivate, and Miguel expresses shock. One of them then grabs Miguel, and Norman Osborn's face replaces Jonah's, telling them that Norman "runs this city...and everything in it."
The Review
Slott does something remarkable here: at a certain point, I forgot that we're dealing, at least in theory, with Spider-Man. Slott makes it clear that this war is now between the Goblin and Otto. The Goblin cares less about discovering who Spider-Man actually is and more on punishing Otto for robbing him of the chance of killing Spider-Man. It's an epic super-villain pas de deux. It has some flaws, but it's one of the unfortunately rare moments where I feel like Slott really delivers on the premise of Otto as Spidey.
The Good
1) The Goblin destroying everything significant to Otto is a great twist, the moment when Slott pushes aside the existing storylines and makes this arc all about the war between the Goblin and Otto.
2) Although Lamaze's death feels rushed, Slott does manage to get across his message here. Not only is Lamaze redeemed (and any potential obstacle to a returned Peter graduating from his Ph.D. program seemingly removed), but Otto is also temporarily laid low. He initially dismissed the threat that the Goblin posed to Lamaze, implying that he didn't care what happened to him (at least compared with Anna Maria). But, Otto's clear grief over his death really does leave you with the sense that the Goblin has taken everything from him. Moreover, Lamaze tells Otto that he sacrificed his life to save Spider-Man because Spider-Man had once saved him, inspiring him to be a better man. Otto not only is forced to realize that, despite all his failings as Spider-Man, he has been the type of hero to inspire someone, but also mourn his only true friend at the same time. As Otto said earlier, he's never been on this side of the equation, and it's one of the few moments of growth that Slott has allowed him since this experiment began.
3) I will also say that I do enjoy Gage's Goblin here. He's a little too Joker at times, but he does really have a way with words.
The Unknown
1) An obvious question here is how the Goblin (or, as he claims, Norman Osborn) managed to get control of the Spider-Slayers. Is it because they're using some form of Oscorp technology? I want to hope that we'll get an answer to this question, but, the way things have been going in this arc, I'm doubtful. (Also, speaking of Oscorp, I feel like we've really glided over the fact that Liz is constructing Spider-Slayers for Jonah, given the fact that she just described Spidey as a friend to her chief of staff in issue #17.)
2) I'm intrigued where Slott is going with Jonah. He's clearly unhinged, willing to lose everything not only to stop Spidey, but to kill him. It's a whole new level of crazy.
3) I'm starting to wonder if the Goblin is Normie. The focus on "hacking" (here, with Otto's robotic arms; previously, with the Goblin Protocols) is almost adolescent.
The Bad
The revelation that the Goblin really didn't know Peter's secret identity and was just kidnapping his loved ones because of his affiliation with Spider-Man was yawn-inducing. It's now happened at least twice -- first in "Amazing Spider-Man" #695 when Peter himself got kidnapped, and again in "Superior Spider-Man Annual" #1, when Aunt May got kidnapped. Three times in 36 issues means that it's happening pretty much every six months, given that "Amazing Spider-Man"/"Superior Spider-Man" ships twice a month. It's starting to feel like some sort of 1980s cartoon where the damsel gets kidnapped and the hero has to save her by the end of the episode. Each time, we're threatened with the possibility that the villain actually knows Peter's secret identity, and each time it's revealed that he's really just striking at Parker because of his affiliation with Spider-Man. In other words, the shtick is old.
The Really Bad
Once again, I just can't really buy that Mary Jane hasn't figured out the fact that she's dealing with a different Peter. After all, Miguel is able to put two and two together, and he only met the real Peter once. If that weren't bad enough, Slott continues to engage in pretty much outright character-assassination to make Peter fit into the way that Otto "plays" him. Here, Mary Jane says that Peter could never stand when a woman raised her voice. Of course Slott has her believe that since, if she didn't, she would have to wonder why he reacted the way that he did to her yelling at him. At some point, Slott would've essentially turned Peter himself into a super-villain if this series continued, raising the question why he had as many friends and loved ones as he did if he were really so terrible of a person.
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