Review by Ian Keogh
Spoilers in review
During the period Roger Stern, and indeed Tom DeFalco wrote Spider-Man Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, was dead. The reasoning was not to ruin a classic early 1970s story with a cheap revival, but it also removed a deadly foe, despite the tragedy of Harry Osborn as replacement. Stern’s solution was to create the Hobgoblin, and as was the case with the original Green Goblin back in the 1960s, he weaved a mystery around who the person in the goblin suit was. Anyone wanting the fun of following the mystery should avoid the text recaps of events between the reprinted issues, which thoughtlessly assume everyone already knows. Avoid the next to last paragraph of this review for spoilers.
It takes some while for the actual Hobgoblin to manifest, as Stern has temperamental fashion designer Roderick Kingsley targeted by elegant crook Belladonna, who disguises her identity beneath a face mesh. This is among Stern’s earliest Spider-Man work and there’s some settling in, as Belladona’s hardly a convincing threat, tricks notwithstanding. Stern does have an immediate facility for writing the complications of Peter Parker’s life, and for the people who populate it, but you have to allow for the then frequent use of unsophisticated thought balloons and one hell of a contrived escape.
That, though, is just the appetiser, and on the following material Stern has the confidence of someone who’s been writing Spider-Man and his world for some time, his work continuing from Mark of the Tarantula. This isn’t a complete run of Stern’s issues, which can be found as Amazing Spider-Man by Roger Stern Omnibus, so it diminishes Stern spending a full year building the mystery of the Hobgoblin’s identity. However, there’s still enough to distract.
Some good artists are on show, and some not as polished, but more pages are drawn by John Romita Jr. than anyone else and despite it being a distance away from the style he evolved, the storytelling is phenomenal. Some of the other artists are only really interested in the action scenes, but Romita also brings a sparkle to the scenes without costumes, the sample page inked by his father. His art’s strong enough to survive a variety of inkers here (and those working from his layouts), not all greatly sympathetic, with Klaus Janson drawing him nearer to the style he’d eventually develop.
Allowing for multiple thought balloons, the final three chapters remain a total thrill. This isn’t because the Hobgoblin’s unmasked and revealed, but down to the plot Stern weaves around the idea, with the sins of the past coming home to roost. J. Jonah Jameson, usually so prominent in Spider-Man’s life, has a restricted role in this collection, but his involvement in the finale is great.
While most of this collection is very readable, there is one slight disappointment. If you’ve avoided the text pages, you still won’t know who the Hobgoblin is by the final page, despite the teasing cover of them being unmasked. It was a secret kept for several years afterward, and as the Wikipedia page reveals, became very complicated. If that really impacts on your enjoyment, there are those text pages. The 1993 version of this collection omits the Belladonna story.
This material is also available in hardcover as Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider-Man Volume 23, and most is also in Essential Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 11. For the wealthy all Stern’s Spider-Man stories are gathered in the oversized hardcover Spider-Man by Roger Stern Omnibus.
