Review by Ian Keogh

A mainstay of Zeb Wells’ run on Spider-Man has been a cured Norman Osborn as a benign industrialist no longer cursed by his Green Goblin alter-ego and a friend to Peter Parker. The cover to Going Green suggests that’s all about to change.

Surely no Spider-Man fan believed Osborn’s new personality was going to be a long-term affair, yet credit to Wells for keeping it going over almost a dozen volumes and for the interesting way Osborn reverts to his previous personality. That, though, is just part of a well thought out, five chapter thriller drawing together numerous threads from Wells’ work. Reunited in Breathe, the Sinister Six play a part, Ben Reilly, Rek-Rap and Kamala Khan turn up, and the Living Brain becomes more than a giant pulsing disembodied genius, although is ultimately wasted.

Going Green primarily features two artists previously known for their lack of restraint. Ed McGuinness still has the blockers off, and he delivers most of the raging action following a distressing transformation. It’s what you want from McGuinness, bold and unrestrained while telling the story clearly. Todd Nauck is there for the more nuanced moments when the explanations are required.

While much of Going Green hits the spot, enjoyment depends on believing the sins of Norman Osborn, or the Green Goblin personality, to be a separate entity, and that’s rather a leap despite having been introduced a while back. The reason there’s lesser credibility here is because it’s progressed from being a rather abstract concept to a concrete one with the Goblin as a sort of demonic entity, and that’s troublesome after all these years. Still, it’s an attempt to do something different with a conflict every Spider-Man writer eventually builds toward, and Wells really surprises with the ending. It doesn’t reset everything, and opens the door to some new possibilities.

This has a valedictory feeling of a writer saying their goodbyes, but that’s not the case and Wells actually signs off with Dead Wrong.