CAPTAIN AMERICA #253 & #254

So, since we just wrapped up the entirety of the original INVADERS series last week, and since today happens to be Independence Day, the most patriotic holiday here in America, I figured I'd take advantage of the happy coincidence to dust off a couple of Captain America-themed posts from the early days of the blog which serve as a bit of a coda to the adventures of the Invaders.

In 1980/81, Roger Stern and John Byrne had an acclaimed and all-too-brief turn as the creative team on CAPTAIN AMERICA. And their final real story (not counting the retelling of Cap's origin they did an issue later) revisited the Invaders. I have to admit, it never really dawned on me how soon these issues came along after INVADERS ended! That series' final issue was cover-dated September of 1979, and this two-parter is from January and February of 1981. A mere fifteen months separated the conclusion of INVADERS and Stern's and Byrne's epilogue to the series!

(I suspect in part that's simply due to the fact that INVADERS feels like a Silver Age throwback to me. The artwork, the scripting style, even some of the plotting -- it's all incongruous with the Bronze Age that was in full swing alongside it. So even though I know when INVADERS was published, it feels like it was published about a decade earlier.)

So, without further ado, here are two posts that originally went up eight years ago, showing us whatever happened to the greatest heroes of World War II:

CAPTAIN AMERICA #253
CAPTAIN AMERICA #254

Okay, I actually do have one final bit of ado: I didn't reference it in the continuity notes for CAP 253, but you'll see it in a screenshot there: Jacqueline Falsworth (-Chrichton) mentions that her brother, Brian -- a.k.a. the Union Jack we just spent several weeks reading about -- died off-panel in a car accident after the war. Kind of an inauspicious end! Mind you, it makes sense that Stern and Byrne wanted the second U.J. off the table to tell their story of the mantle being passed. And yeah, it does add a bit of unfortunate realism to the proceedings -- not every hero goes out in a blaze of glory. But it still feels like a waste to see the character done away with via an offhanded remark like that.

See you in a week, when I reveal what's next on the schedule! (Though if you were reading the earliest INVADERS reviews last year, I already spoiled way back then.)

SONS OF THE TIGER PART 15 - MEANWHILE...

And now we wrap up the saga of the White Tiger with a couple of "reruns" from the earlier days of this blog. Way back in 2014, I looked at one of my all-time favorite Marvel runs -- Roger Stern's tenure on SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN from the early eighties. As part of his work on the former title, Stern decided to revisit Hector Ayala and, at least at the time, give his story a conclusion. Stern did a story about a hero-killing vigilante called Gideon Mace, and I suppose he needed to show that Mace was serious business, so he decided to have him cripple Spidey's pal from SPECTACULAR's earlier days.

When I read this at the time (and previously, in my younger days), I didn't think much of it since the Tiger was a curiosity and not a character with whom I was terribly familiar. But now, with the benefit of having seen his earliest appearances in DEADLY HANDS and some of his struggles in SPECTACULAR, Stern's callous treatment of the Tiger and his family, characters into whom Bill Mantlo clearly had invested a great deal of his energies and interest (and into whom George Pérez had injected biographical tidbits from his own life and family), reads differently, and is perhaps a blemish on his otherwise wonderful run.

But I'll let you decide! Following are my looks at the White Tiger backup serial Stern used to set up his Gideon Mace tale, and then Spider-Man's battle against Mace himself, originally posted here way back in the summer of '14:

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN: THE WHITE TIGER SERIAL
PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #52

But if, after reading these stories, you think Roger Stern was rough on the Tiger, just remember that a couple decades later, in the pages of DAREDEVIL, Brian Bendis had him framed for a crime he didn't commit, after which he was gunned down and killed by cops while trying to clear his name.

So that's it for the White Tiger, but we're not quite finished with this saga yet. There's still one last big dangling plot left over from the final days of DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU, so I broke out the Comicraft fonts and prepared a little "primer" to get you ready for it:

ACTION COMICS #600

“DIFFERENT WORLDS”
Story & Breakdowns: John Byrne | Finishes: George Pérez
Letters: John Costanza | Colors: Tom Ziuko
Assistant Editor: Renee Witterstaetter | Editor: Mike Carlin

The Plot: Superman apologizes to Wonder Woman for kissing her without warning, then the two begin to chat. But their conversation is interrupted when Hermes appears and summons Diana to Olympus. Superman follows, but is separated from Wonder Woman upon arrival.

Hermes reveals to Wonder Woman that a group of New Gods invaded Olympus. Meanwhile, Darkseid and Desaad, observing the two heroes from a control room, send a fake Wonder Woman (actually Amazing Grace in disguise) to seduce Superman and a fake Superman (Kalibak in disguise) to clobber Wonder Woman. The heroes fight their enemies, who perform a switch to lure them into fighting one another, instead.

But Superman and Wonder Woman quickly discern the truth and find their way to Darkseid’s hideout. Confronted by the fact that he failed to kill them, Darkseid departs with Desaad, triggering explosives set around Olympus before leaving. But Olympus will only fall when the gods will it, and is unharmed by Darkseid’s treachery.

Superman and Wonder Woman return to Earth, where they decide that a romantic relationship is not meant to be, but they will be friends.

FANTASTIC FOUR #294 & #295

"HERO WORSHIP" | “WELCOME TO THE FUTURE!"
Plotter: John Byrne (#294) | Scripter: Roger Stern | Penciler: Jerry Ordway
Inker: Al Gordon | Letterer: John Workman | Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Michael Carlin | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
Special Thanks to John Byrne (#295)

The Plot: (Issue 294) Inside the futuristic upper Central City within the black dome, the Fantastic Four and Wyatt are assaulted and soon defeated by misshapen mutants. The creatures’ priestess recognizes them, however, and brings them before the city’s Coordinator, Harvey Jessup. The FF learn that Jessup constructed the black barrier as a way to protect Central City from nuclear holocaust, but where his intention was to isolate the city while time passed much faster outside, the opposite occurred.

But Jessup, now an old man brought in and out of suspended animation for certain important situations, refuses to believe Reed and attacks the FF with his “ultimate adjudicator” helmet.

(Issue 295) Sue saves the FF from the ultimate adjudicator by using her power to slowly turn them invisible, making it appear they’ve been disintegrated. The group soon encounters a woman named Murna, once the city’s high priestess. She reveals She-Hulk is beneath the city in suspended animation. While Johnny, Wyatt, and Murna go to save She-Hulk, Reed and Sue go after Jessup.

She-Hulk is freed and the two groups reunite as Sue and Reed battle Jessup’s minions. Murna links Reed’s and Jessup’s minds and Jessup finally realizes the truth of his mistake. As he dies, he places Murna, his daughter, in command of the city. Reed then uses Jessup’s device to shunt the dome 10,000 years into the future, even as the FF rescue all the original citizens of Central City, hidden underground in suspended animation.

Once more in the real world, Reed realizes Jessup’s lying to his subjects were not all that different from Reed withholding the truth from Ben about the nature of his transformation. Now aware that the Thing is out there somewhere, injured, Reed makes plans to go find him.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: In issue 294, Sue conveniently forgets everything that happened to the FF over the past, oh, ten minutes, and asks Wyatt to explain it all to her. The recap is much less painful in issue 295, where an omniscient narrator simply describes the past couple installments’ events on the first page before jumping into the action.

Jessup’s mutants are all genetically altered to be bizarre representations of the Fantastic Four, and his “Things” wear helmets of the type Ben used in early FF issues (and more recently in Byrne’s FANTASTIC FOUR #239).

HOBGOBLIN LIVES: THE 20th ANNIVERSARY

Twenty years ago this very day, per Mike's Amazing World of Comics, the first issue of SPIDER-MAN: HOBGOBLIN LIVES hit stands. I talked about this series before when I ran my Spider-Man by Roger Stern review series a couples years back. I covered it issue by issue (#1 | #2 | #3). I followed those up with a little missive on how it might have benefited from a different length or format. You'd think I might have written all I had to say on it at this point.

You'd be wrong.

I can't quite articulate how, but I'm about to do my best: this mini-series is incredibly important to me on multiple levels -- but to explain why, I should start at the beginning: As noted when I covered some of the Hobgoblin issues of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, the very first comic I remember owning was AMAZING #245. I said in my review of that issue:

According to Mike's Amazing World of Comics, it went on sale in July of 1983. I would've been a little more than four-and-a-half years old. Barely old enough to read the thing, but the pictures told me plenty. The scene in which Lefty Donovan drives back to the burnt-out mansion and descends into the Hobgoblin's mysterious lair stuck with me more than anything else as the eeriest imagery I had ever seen in my then-brief lifetime. I didn't quite understand the whole story, but I remembered it for years to come, so much that when I picked up the ORIGIN OF THE HOBGOBLIN trade paperback about ten years later, I recognized the artwork from this chapter as if I had just seen it the day before. And when something sticks with for that long, all through the haze of early childhood and into your teens, it's pretty amazing.

Then came the ORIGIN OF THE HOBGOBLIN trade paperback mentioned here. It was released in May of 1993 (again, per Mike's Amazing World) -- almost ten years to the month after issue 245 -- and I was fourteen at the time. It collected AMAZING SPIDER-MAN issues 238, 239, 244, 245, 249 - 251, and SPECTACULAR #85 (though it was heavily edited to excise unrelated sub-plots and focus solely on the Hobgoblin material). ORIGIN was one of the very first trade paperbacks I ever owned, and I read the thing over and over until it was battered and dog-eared, so enthralled was I with the stories it contained.

(To contrast, the issues of the regular ongoing Spider-Man comics released in May of '93 were all chapters of "Maximum Carnage". And while I have great love for some of the more questionable nineties Spider-stuff -- the Clone Saga, for instance -- even back then I recognized "Maximum Carnage" as a pretty lame story.)

THE UNBOXING - JANUARY 2015

A new year brings with it a new series of "Unboxing" posts, and we're kicking things off nicely with offerings from both Marvel and DC this month.

First we have WARLOCK MASTERWORKS volume 1 (paperback edition). I am a huge fan of Jim Starlin's Adam Warlock, and I own the hardcover version of the second WARLOCK MASTERWORKS volume, containing all of Starlin's work with the character (more recently reprinted in a non-Masterworks trade paperback edition). But I've never read the earlier Warlock material by Roy Thomas and friends, so this trade seemed like the best way to do that. Also, it has the dubious honor of being the final paperback Marvel Masterworks volume, as that secondary line has been officially discontinued.

Next from Marvel is X-MEN: THE ROAD TO ONSLAUGHT volume 3, the final installment in the series covering the full year of X-Material between "Age of Apocalypse" and "Onslaught". I will reiterate for the umpteenth time that, despite its many detractors, this was possibly my favorite period for the X-Men growing up, and I love that I now have that full year in my possession via three thick paperbacks. Next stop: ONSLAUGHT OMNIBUS!

SPIDER-MAN BY ROGER STERN: AFTERWORD

Counting my split of SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #60 into two installments and the White Tiger serial as its own review, I've written a series of more than sixty posts on Roger Stern's Spider-Man, covering the gamut from his early days on SPECTACULAR to his beloved run on AMAZING, including some annuals, a couple guest spots in AVENGERS, and the coda in HOBGOBLIN LIVES and its sequel, "Goblins at the Gate", plus the more recent "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut". That's a lot of material. Other writers have produced more Spider-Man issues than Stern -- Stan Lee, David Michelinie, and Brian Michael Bendis spring to mind off the top of my head -- but few have captured the character, his supporting cast, and his trappings as well.

I figured that, while all these issues are relatively fresh in my mind, I might as well mention some of my favorites. Five seems like a nice, round number. These aren't in any sort of ranking order other than chronological; they're just my personal top five issues from throughout Roger Stern's time with Spider-Man. Some of them probably seem like the safe or obvious choices, but it occurs to me that certain things are obvious for good reason:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #629

"WITH GREATER POWER..."
Writer: Roger Stern | Artist: Lee Weeks
Color Artist: Dean White | Color Assist: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: VC'S Joe Carmanga | Assistant Editor: Tom Brennan | Editor: Stephen Wacker
Executive Editor: Tom Brevoort | Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley | Executive Producer: Alan Fine
Web-Heads: Gale, Kelly, Slott, Van Lente, Waid & Wells

The Plot: As Captain Universe confronts Spider-Man and Juggernaut, an earthquake hits. Spider-Man realizes that the Uni-Power has taken control of Captain Universe so that he can repair damage done to the fault lines beneath New York caused by Juggernaut's escape from the concrete in which Spider-Man had buried him years before. When Captain Universe's vendetta against Juggernaut proves more important to him than accomplishing his mission, the Uni-Force deserts him and possesses Juggernaut instead.

Juggernaut imprisons Spider-Man and William Nguyen, the former Captain Universe host, in an energy sphere, then heads beneath Manhattan to fix the fault line. Meanwhile, Spider-Man uses some ingenuity to get William and himself out of their makeshift prison. But Juggernaut arrives immediately after to finish off William. Spider-Man convinces Juggernaut to spare the young man, and the Uni-Power leaves Juggernaut after he agrees to do so. Juggernaut departs.

A few weeks later, William has become a minor celebrity, having written a book about his experiences with Juggernaut and the Uni-Force.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #628

"VENGEANCE IS MINE!"
Writer: Roger Stern | Artist: Lee Weeks
Color Artist: Dean White | Letterer: VC'S Joe Carmanga
Assistant Editor: Tom Brennan | Editor: Stephen Wacker
Executive Editor: Tom Brevoort | Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley | Executive Producer: Alan Fine
Web-Heads: Gale, Kelly, Slott, Van Lente, Waid & Wells

The Plot: Captain Universe announces his intention to kill Juggernaut, then hurls him out of the armory with Spider-Man hanging on for the ride. The captain pursues, but Spider-Man attacks him to keep the still-unconscious Juggernaut safe. Captain Universe flies around the city trying to be rid of the web-slinger, while Juggernaut comes around and goes in search of his foes.

Captain Universe leaves Spider-Man in a construction yard and heads under the Earth's surface, beckoned by the Uni-Force to repair a fault line. But when Juggernaut reaches the yard, Cap abandons his mission and returns to the surface to finish his vendetta against the unstoppable villain.

The Sub-Plots: None to be found this issue.

Continuity Notes: While Spider-Man and Captain Universe skirmish inside Juggernaut's cell, the video screen outside shows Juggernaut still unconscious with nobody nearby, thanks to the wall-crawler setting the security camera on a loop last issue.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #627

"SOMETHING CAN STOP THE JUGGERNAUT?!?"
Writer: Roger Stern | Artist: Lee Weeks
Color Artist: Dean White | Letterer: VC'S Joe Carmanga
Assistant Editor: Tom Brennan | WHAM!ed: Stephen Wacker
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley | Executive Producer: Alan Fine
Web-Heads: Gale, Kelly, Slott, Van Lente, Waid & Wells

The Plot: Peter Parker suffers an intense blast of spider-sense while on a date, and ducks out to investigate. Following the danger to its source, he finds the Juggernaut, fallen from the sky, crash-landed in Central Park. Before the web-slinger can investigate, the police arrive and Juggernaut is taken into custody. Later that night, Spider-Man finds a car parked atop a large structure in Washington Square. The vehicle's drunk driver tells Spider-Man he was deposited there by a blue-and-white figure.

The next day, Spider-Man infiltrates the Inwood Armory in Upper Manhattan, where the Juggernaut is being held. He questions the villain about his current state, and Juggernaut also cites a blue-and-white "flying guy" as the cause of his crash-landing in the park. Then, as if on cue, the all-powerful Captain Universe appears, declaring his intention to destroy Juggernaut.

The Sub-Plots: At the story's start, Peter is on a date with Carlie Cooper, a CSI investigator. They have a second date later in the issue, which is how Peter learns where Juggernaut is being held. Also, Carlie and Peter discuss the fact that Peter recently lost his job at Front Line, the newspaper which replaced the Daily Bugle when the latter ceased publication.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN FAMILY #7

"JUST AN OLD SWEET SONG"
Writer: Roger Stern | Pencils: Val Semeiks | Inks: Mike Getty
Colors: Andres Mossa | Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Assistant Editor: Tom Brennan | Editor: Steve Wacker
Executive Editor: Tom Brevoort | Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley | Executive Producer: Alan Fine
Webheads: Gale, Slott, Guggenheim, Waid & Kelly

The Plot: Peter Parker stops by Aunt May's house to spend the anniversary of her wedding to Uncle Ben with her. As they sit and reminisce, May tells Peter for the first time the story of how she met Ben in Atlantic City when she was eighteen years old. Ben was on leave from the army and they spent time together, but eventually Ben returned to service and May met another man, a gangster named Johnny Jerome. When Ben returned from the service he found May with Johnny and trailed the hood, learning that he was a criminal. Johnny was eventually arrested and May and Ben wound up together.

Early in their marriage, the couple faced a challenge when May miscarried and the doctor discovered she suffered from a cardiac defect which, at the time, was irreparable. But May and Ben persevered and looked after young Peter when his parents, Ben's brother Richard and his wife Mary, left the country. The couple took Peter in as their own when Richard and Mary were killed.

In the modern day, Peter and Aunt May share a toast as Peter realizes he still knows so little about his late uncle. May discusses her relationship with her new fiance, Jay Jameson, then Peter departs to head home.

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #261

"GOBLINS AT THE GATE PART 3: BAD BUSINESS"
Co-Plotter: Roger Stern | Co-Plotter/Scripter: Glenn Greenberg
Penciler: Luke Ross | Inks: Al Milgrom
Letters: RS&Comicraft's Liz Agraphiotis | Colors: John Kalisz
Green Goblin: Ralph Macchio | Hobgoblin: Bob Harras

The Plot: The Green Goblin prevents the Hobgoblin from unmasking Spider-Man. Grabbing both the web-slinger and Daniel Kingsley, the goblins return to Norman Osborn's waterfront hideout, where Osborn reveals that he already knows who Spider-Man is, then gets the Hobgoblin to admit that there never was any surviving journal. After showing the Hobgoblin paperwork stating that Osborn has already taken control of Kingsley Limited, Osborn declares that he no longer needs the Hobgoblin around. This prompts Hobgoblin to attack Osborn.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man comes around and breaks free of his bonds. He tussles with the Green Goblin, unmasking him and forcing him to retreat. The wall-crawler then carries Daniel Kingsley out of Osborn's warehouse, which has gone up in flames thanks to some errant pumpkin bombs from the Hobgoblin's bag. Spider-Man returns to separate Osborn and the Hobgoblin, but Osborn manages to escape. The warehouse collapses on Spider-Man and Hobgoblin, and when the webhead emerges from the wreckage, he finds that his foe has gotten away.

Days later, Roderick Kingsley relaxes on a beach in the Caribbean, reflecting on the trouble he caused himself by reassuming the mantle of the Hobgoblin. He now plans to live off his secret Swiss bank accounts, anyplace he can find without extradition treaties.

SPIDER-MAN BY ROGER STERN: LOOSE ENDS

Even though they were published over a decade after Stern left AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, I consider the entirety of HOBGOBLIN LIVES and the subsequent "Goblins At the Gate" storyline in SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN to be an essential coda to Stern's original run with the character, tying up, as they do, the biggest loose end mystery from those previous stories. Stern did a bit more work for the Spider-Man office around this time, but nothing as integral as those stories, and therefore the remaining contemporaneous issues aren't anything I consider necessary in order to get the full "Roger Stern on Spider-Man" experience. The real meat is the original SPECTACULAR/AMAZING run, after all; the subsequent Hobgoblin stories are, as noted, merely an epilogue.

However, about ten more years later, in 2009, Stern returned to Marvel again, accepting a few odd Spider-Man assignments once more. And while the majority of these stories are fun reads, once again very few relate in any major way to Stern's previous time with the wall-crawler... with the exception of two. First up is a short story from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN FAMILY #7, picking up a stray thought from Aunt May in AMAZING #238, and explaining its context. The second tale is a sequel to one of Stern's best remembered Spider-Man adventures, as the wall-crawler learns that "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut" in AMAZING issues 627 - 629.

Since both these stories relate, in some way, to Stern's original Spider-Man run, I've made the eleventh hour decision to include them in my review series after all. I won't go as in-depth as I did previously with regards to categories like "Also On Sale This Month", and I won't delve into the letter columns or provide copious continuity notes -- but I figure these stories are worth at least touching upon.

So, originally my plan was to provide a sort of "Afterword" to my Stern review series this Wednesday. But instead I'm going to save that for a couple weeks. Meaning, after tomorrow's "Goblins at the Gate" conclusion, we'll continue with Stern's Spider-Man through the holidays and up to the end of the year, devoting some time to a few of Stern's final issues to date starring the wondrous web-slinger, which tie back to his original run on AMAZING all those years ago.

Then, on New Year's Eve, the afore-mentioned Afterword will make its appearance to cap off the entire series.

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #260

"GOBLINS AT THE GATE PART 2: SPIDER IN THE MIDDLE"
Co-Plotter: Roger Stern | Co-Plotter/Scripter: Glenn Greenberg
Penciler: Luke Ross | Inks: Al Milgrom
Letters: RS&Comicraft's Liz Agraphiotis | Colors: John Kalisz
Not the Karate Kid: Ralph Macchio | Chief: Bob Harras

The Plot: After breaking him out of prison, Norman Osborn brings Roderick Kingsley with him back to Manhattan. Meanwhile, Spider-Man spends the night searching for the Green Goblin and Kingsley, but turns up nothing.

The next day, Kingsley and Osborn make a deal: Kingsley will provide the journal which proves Osborn was the Green Goblin, as well as manipulate the stockholders of his company to turn the entire conglomerate over to Osborn, in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Osborn agrees, and provides Kingsley with a Hobgoblin costume and gear to carry out his mission. The journal is in the custody of Kingsley's brother, Daniel, who is being held by the police at the Big Apple Hotel while waiting to testify against Roderick.

The Hobgoblin raids the hotel, but Spider-Man arrives to save Daniel. They struggle as equals until the Green Goblin arrives and knocks Spider-Man out with a tranquilizer dart. Amid the hotel room's wreckage, the Hobgoblin prepares to unmask Spider-Man.

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #259

"GOBLINS AT THE GATE PART 1: SURVIVOR OF THE BIG LIE!"
Co-Plotter: Roger Stern | Co-Plotter/Scripter: Glenn Greenberg
Penciler: Luke Ross | Inks: Al Milgrom
Letters: RS&Comicraft's Liz Agraphiotis | Colors: John Kalisz
"Editor": Ralph Macchio | Cause of Gray Hairs: Bob Harras

The Plot: Norman Osborn, back from an extended stay in Europe, is making the rounds on television to promote his new book, "Survivor of the Big Lie", which explains that he is not and never was the Green Goblin. Meanwhile, Roderick Kingsley sits in prison, fully aware that Osborn's claims are a lie and he is indeed an insane supervillain. Kingsley tells his attorney that he has one remaining Osborn journal hidden away, which will reveal the truth about Osborn. Kingsley's attorney informs the district attorney's office of this fact, and word eventually reaches Osborn himself.

As Kingsley is removed from Great Neck Maximum Security Prison for a meeting with the D.A., the Green Goblin strikes and kidnaps him. However Peter Parker and Betty Leeds are nearby, tipped off about the meeting, and Peter slips away to change into Spider-Man. He has a brief scuffle with the Goblin, but the villain escapes with Kingsley.

Some distance from the prison, the Goblin lands and reveals that he is not Norman Osborn when Osborn appears to confront Kingsley.

HOBGOBLIN LIVES, REVISITED

I think I've established over the past few days that, despite my love for HOBGOBLIN LIVES, it could've been better. My chief issue with the story is that it feels rushed, like there's just too much to it to cram into three issues. Now, I fully accept that three issues may have been the length Roger Stern wanted, and is probably what he pitched to Marvel. And I understand that Marvel was in some choppy financial straits at the time, so three issues was probably all they were willing to budget for this niche vanity project anyway. So I won't second-guess anyone's thinking with regards to what we ultimately received. As I've said, I like the finished product. I still enjoy reading it from time to time, sixteen years later. But that doesn't stop me from speculating on another format and other ideas to beef it up, to make it feel like the true "event" it should have been.

A little more than a year ago, when Not Blog X reviewed HOBGOBLIN LIVES, I suggested in a comment that the series could have been better served as a twelve-issue maxi-series. Specifically, I was thinking of BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN, which launched, over at DC, around the same time as HOBGOBLIN LIVES. LONG HALLOWEEN is a thirteen-issue murder mystery set over the course of one year in Batman's life. But while the series' killings occur regularly, one on a holiday in every installment, they are not always the main plot of a given issue. Readers might see Batman tangling with the Joker or the Mad Hatter even as the "Holiday Killer" is busy in the background. I propose that this format would have served HOBGOBLIN LIVES tremendously well.

SPIDER-MAN: HOBGOBLIN LIVES #3

"SECRETS"
Writer: Roger Stern | Artists: Ron Frenz & Bob McLeod
Letterer: Jim Novak | Colorist: Christie Scheele
Editors: Glenn Greenberg & Tom Brevoort | Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras

The Plot: As Spider-Man swims back to the surface of the East River, the Hobgoblin kidnaps Betty from her apartment and takes her to his lair. He finds a spider-tracer in her purse and another in her locket, and gives both to Roderick Kingsley with instructions to dispose of them. The goblin then brings Betty around and asks about the notes she claims will exonerate Ned. Betty agrees to provide the notes only if the Hobgoblin will grant an "exclusive interview".

While Spider-Man chases both tracers across town, the Hobgoblin explains to Betty that he met Ned after emerging from the Hudson River following his battle with Spider-Man years before. The goblin captured Ned and drugged and brainwashed him, using him to form a partnership with Ned's old friend, Richard Fisk -- the Kingpin's son and the man who would become the crimelord called the Rose. The goblin then worked with the Rose for some time before growing bored of his criminal life. He used Ned as a stand-in more often than not and eventually decided to retire from his life as the Hobgoblin. Setting Ned up one final time, the goblin tipped Jason Macendale off to Ned's "true" identity and whereabouts and let Macendale do the rest. The man behind the Hobgoblin's mask then retired back to his civilian life.

SPIDER-MAN: HOBGOBLIN LIVES #2

"BACK IN BUSINESS"
Writer: Roger Stern | Artists: Ron Frenz, Jerome Moore & Scott Hanna
Letterer: Jim Novak | Colorist: Joe Andreani
Editors: Glenn Greenberg & Tom Brevoort | Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras

The Plot: While the Hobgoblin plots with Roderick Kingsley, Jonah Jameson screens security footage of Jason Macendale's death to the Daily Bugle's top reporters, then sends them off on the Hobgoblin's trail. However, despite Betty's request to be included in the investigation, Jameson orders her to remain sidelined.

Having witnessed Betty's argument with Jameson, Peter Parker changes to Spider-Man and catches up with her outside the Bugle, offering his assistance in clearing Ned. He then runs into Flash Thompson arguing with Jacob Conover on the street, and recruits Flash as well.

Meanwhile, as Kingsley and Osborn's Donald Menken plan a takeover of Osborn Industries by Kingsley International, George Vandergill calls Menken and attempts to force himself into the deal. Later that night, the Hobgoblin destroys Vandergill's manufacturing plant, killing forty people, including Vandergill himself, while the magnate is on the phone with Senator Bob Martin.

The next day, Peter, Mary Jane, Flash, and Betty go over several potential angles on the Hobgoblin and decide to investigate the men he attempted to blackmail years before. Equipped with spider-tracers provided by their ally, Spider-Man, the group splits up. Peter speaks with Ben Urich about Roxxon, the Brand Corporation, and Jonas Harrow, which leads him to suspect Jacob Conover, who had a rivalry with Ned over chasing down corporate corruption years before.

SPIDER-MAN: HOBGOBLIN LIVES #1

"VICTIMS"
Writer: Roger Stern | Artists: Ron Frenz & George Pérez
Letterer: Jim Novak | Colorist: Christie Scheele
Editors: Glenn Greenberg & Tom Brevoort | Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras

The Plot: As Jason Macendale, the second Hobgoblin, stands trial for his various crimes, Peter Parker and Betty Leeds find themselves recalling that Betty's husband Ned was unmasked as the original Hobgoblin years before -- a fact known almost exclusively to the two of them.

Following a guilty verdict, as he is escorted from the courthouse, Macendale informs gathered reporters that he had the original Hobgoblin killed and took his place, fingering Betty as the goblin's widow. Peter saves Betty from a rampage of reporters looking for comment, then changes to Spider-Man and gets the full story from her.

Later, a mysterious man breaks into Great Neck Maximum Security Prison and makes his way to Macendale's cell. Announcing himself as the true original Hobgoblin, this stranger tells Macendale that he only allowed him to play Hobgoblin for as long as it amused him. But he is no longer amused, and kills Macendale in his cell before departing the prison and changing into the costume of the Hobgoblin.

Later still, the Hobgoblin confronts his one-time partner, Roderick Kingsley, and informs him that their relationship is about to begin again.

SPIDER-MAN BY ROGER STERN: TIME PASSES

After Roger Stern left AMAZING SPIDER-MAN in 1984, Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz continued as the creative team, and furthered the Hobgoblin storyline. But internal editorial politics eventually forced them off the series, and soon thereafter the Hobgoblin was posthumously unmasked as Ned Leeds, who had been killed off a few months before the revelation. Jason Macedale, Jack O'Lantern, then took over as the new Hobgoblin.

Spider-Man's living black costume eventually escaped and was replaced by a cloth version which the wall-crawler wore for a few more years, as well. The alien costume, of course, went on to become one half of Spidey's foe, Venom. Shortly after the Hobgoblin reveal and shortly before the end of the black costume and debut of Venom, Marvel made the controversial decision to marry Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson in 1987's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL.

Uncle Rog Speaks: "The only way the writers were able to keep that marriage going on the printed page for as long as they did was by changing who Pete and MJ were, by turning them into different people. And a lot of talented writers worked on Spider-Man during that period, doing their best, but that marriage never quite worked for to me. It was like hearing about two old friends who'd run off and made this terrible mistake."

-- Back Into the Web: Roger Stern on Amazing Spider-Man, Newsarama.com, 2008