Amazing Spider-Man #54

[cyberghostface]

 

Comments

[blues32]

...I...honestly don't know how to feel about this. I did like the idea of Norman getting a redemption arc and all, but...who's going to Goblin now? Someone has to be a Goblin...

[shakalooloo]

MULTIVERSE! I'm actually surprised Marvel has resisted the temptation to counter the Spider-Verse with some form of Goblin-Verse.

[scorntx]

Sssh! They might hear you!

[shakalooloo]

Norman Osborn's sins are sentient?!?!?? Or is there some other mind in that red cloud?

[blues32]

Well, they were, it seems. Looks like they just died.

[beyondthefringe]

For now… until we learn that the tiniest spark still buried itself in Norman’s head and will spend years regenerating until one day…

I mean this is comics after all.

[scorntx]

Or it turns out the sins somehow wound up in Paul, where they eventually died of old age.

[viridian5]

Or boredom.

[blues32]

Wait...does this mean that Peter now owns Oscorp?

[beyondthefringe]

Peter didn’t consent, so the transfer never went through.

[cainofdreaming]

So, who was in the helmet?

[cyberghostface]

The Living Brain.

[cainofdreaming]

With or without Otto? Thanks for the answer, and the future one too.

[cyberghostface]

Without Otto, it’s a new evolved form of the Brain.

[knight_moves]

So basically this is like that episode of Star Trek where a transporter accident splits Kirk into Good Kirk and Bad Kirk, only instead of the message being that both 'halves' are required to make a complete individual, now it's that if you can split all your 'evil bits' into a separate being and kill them... you should? How Doc Savage.

Like, part of what made Norman bad was his abusive upbringing, so does he not remember that now or something?

[shakalooloo]

Well, the abuse was the action that created the sin... energy? That product has now been destroyed but the source that created it is still remembered. I think.

So, Norman 'got over himself' essentially.

[knight_moves]

[cainofdreaming]

Did he get over his mental health issues too? Because that really sets a bad precedent if he did. All those people telling you to tough it out will never shut up.

[cyberghostface]

Most of his mental illness issues were caused by the Goblin formula which he’s learned to manage, his ‘sins’ are something else. There was a bit in Dan Slott’s run when Norman was rendered sane and he was still evil.

[shakalooloo]

Yeah, it's... it's not a good 'message' for the comic. Evil/madness is just an external force that can be shucked off like a coat, very easily if you're just a naturally 'good' person.

[cyberghostface]

He remembers everything he’s just plagued by guilt over his actions. The Gold Goblin miniseries went into detail.

[beyondthefringe]

Well, this certainly was a story which existed.
I am surprised, only that Norman neither died nor became the Green Goblin full-time permanently again, and the "sins" of the Goblin are somehow "destroyed" even though by the end they were a free-floating possession entity capable of passing between the two hosts with a simple head bonk or hand wave.

Which, truth be told, is much less interesting than "Norman is a genuinely mentally ill person with a long history of succumbing to his illness" because while turning the Goblin into a separate entity capable of transferring itself into other hosts is very comics, it's also an easy out for "Peter defeated it with the power of his innate 'being Spider-Man' and it died in midair" as a handwavy solution.

Especially since we know it will never stick permanently. Somehow, at some point, the Goblin will return. At least when it was just part of Norman's illness, it was unpredictably under the surface...

[shakalooloo]

The recent retcons regarding Sins Past and such are proof that Marvel is as happy as it will ever be to retcon stuff in convoluted ways to make more Spider-Man stories, so having Norman Osborn become the Green Goblin again despite the focussed totality of his sinful thoughts being blown away like a turd on the wind will be a neat challenge to the writer at that future time.

[mastermahan]

How did the sins suddenly gain the ability to transfer themselves when they needed the spear before?

Why was Peter able to defeat the sins with his innate goodness now when it never worked before?

What happened to Peter's head being full of brainwashing?

Why am I even thinking about this mess so much?

[blues32]

Well...the spear was used to transfer the sins from Norman to Peter...

Peter couldn't access his innate goodness on his own. That's what the Living Brain was for. It forced Peter's actual personality to the surface.

Peter was fixed by Ben's...retroactive goo stuff.