Amazing Spider-Man #30

[cyberghostface]

 

Comments

[tcampbell1000]

Turns out Norman already has a lot of goblin formula in his veins as it is, so it really didn't make much difference. Turns out he's been injecting himself for like MONTHS just to make sure that he can handle it through a combination of built-up immunity and really not WANTING to be a kill-crazy supervillain.

"But," you may ask...

A) "Why was Norman wailing as if the world was ending last issue, if he KNEW that the goblin serum was going to have no effect on him? I mean, besides 'we needed a cliffhanger.'"

B) "Isn't taking a lot of goblin serum just to make sure it doesn't work on you a RIDICULOUSLY DANGEROUS AND RECKLESS THING TO DO? Like, even if Sane Norman came up with some safeguards, surely Crazy Norman could disable the same?"

C) "Wasn't the whole rationale for Kamala joining Oscorp to 'keep an eye on Osborn' so he didn't do something exactly like that? Aren't we implying that Kamala wildly failed at her one secret hero job?"

D) "For that matter, wasn't 'keeping an eye on Norman' a big part of why PETER started working at Oscorp? No one...no one caught this, huh? NEITHER superhero and ZERO other employees thought to check stockpiles or monitor activity to make sure the single most famous ex-supervillain in the Marvel Universe wasn't juicing again? Huh. HUH."

E) "If the point of Norrman's arc here is 'it was the person who made the power, not the power that made the person, what matters is WHO YOU ARE and not what gets imposed on you,' then why is there ALSO an arc wherein wearing Doctor Octopus's tentacles mess Peter up faster than if he were holding Sauron's One Ring? It's kind of funny, sure. But if Otto really wanted to take Norman's goodness from him, could he have gotten better results by wiring Norman up to a spare pair of tentacles?"

To any or all of these questions, there can only be one reply: Pointing to the sky behind the questioner, shouting "LOOK, A SPACESHIP!", and running away.

EDIT TO ADD: Okay, okay, it seems like Norman was saying "My body's absorbed so much goblin serum over the years that I basically have more of it than blood in my system at any time, regardless of how much extra gets injected into me." You could take that to mean he's not still putting anything in. But still, the only way he could know that he was immune would be to test it, right? And the only meaningful test he could make would have to have been after the sin-cleanse, right? Right? Okay, I'm Kronk staring at the map here, gotta put this thought-train down and get back to work.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I submit that it could have simply been a working hypothesis that Otto actually put to the test, seemingly confirming Norman's theory.

[tcampbell1000]

That's a sound reading for part of it. But I really can't get my head around Norman's "PLEASE GOD NOOOO, NO, FOR THE LOVE OF HUMANITY DON'T DO THIS eat a dick you idiot i knew all along that that wouldn't work" transition.

[laughing_tree]

I haven’t been following this story, but that actually sounds like the kind of trolling Osborn would do to stick it to someone he disliked.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Well, it was an untested theory, and for good reason. Once he knew the truth...

Though I like Laughing Tree's idea, too.

[cyberghostface]

I think with the tentacles it was a combination of Otto’s brainwaves being connected to them and that Peter had swapped bodies with him before.

[tcampbell1000]

Makes as much sense as anything else!