Amazing Spider-Man #697 spoilers--aka The Return of...

[stillanerd]

So, in the conclusion of "Danger Zone" in this week's Amazing Spider-Man #697, we got a couple of interesting developments.  Peter Parker and Max Modell are being chased by the Hobgoblins, Roederick Kingsley and Phil Urich, who have been ordered by the Kingpin to retrive a passkey that allows access to Norman Osborn's hideouts which contains his Green Goblin equipment.  Peter and Max make into the lab, only to be confronted by a hologram of Norman Osborn, which informs them at, unless they type in the correct password, the place will self-destruct.  So what does Peter do?



That's right...the guy who looks like Walter White from Breaking Bad is actually Harry Osborn.  And, after being gone for approximately fifty issues, he oh so happens to have made a cameo appearance right on the eve of a story in which Peter Parker will supposedly no longer be Spider-Man resulting a new Spider-Man taking his place.  Seems like a very big coincidence, don't you think?

One guy who probably won't be the new Superior Spider-Man?  Phil Urich.  Not because Roderkick Kingsley kills him, mind you.  Instead, we get this...


Turns out that Roderick Kingsley has made a rather lucrative business in creating and licensing out super-villain identities, and he's just made Phil Urich his newest client.  Which means as long as Phil keeps up his payments, he gets to continue being the Hobgoblin.  So no chance he gets to be the new Superior Spider-Man now, it seems.

However, it looks like there could be a new possible contender to become the new Spider-Man:



Gee...yet another huge coincidence that Norman Osborn oh so happens to wake up from his coma also on the eve of Peter Parker's "last story" as Spider-Man and the upcoming debut of Superior Spider-Man.  Not to mention this is giving me flashbacks of this cover from Dark Avengers #11.



I don't know about you folks, but I've now got a very strong and very uncomfortable feeling that the new Superior Spider-Man is going to be an Osborn.

Comments

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah, yesterday I heard the idea of Harry being the new Spider-Man, which I think could work for a little while, except I don't think he would be the kinda guy to call himself the Superior Spider-Man.

Now Norman, on the other hand...

[nightauditguy]

Here's to hoping it's at least Harry.

[shadowpsykie]

hmmm when did Norman go into a Coma?

[stillanerd]

During New Avengers #20-24, as a consequence of his gaining the powers of the Super-Adaptoid and being betrayed by the Hulk's son, Skaar.

[captainbellman]

Wow. Even the summarisation of that story is forgettable.

[darkknightjrk]

But the image of a hulk-sized Norman with purple skin wearing tighty-whities is not, no matter how many times you scrub your brain with bleach.

[darkblade]

So it's confirmed. Gamma radiation turns undergarments purple.

[cyberghostface]

Heh. I remember that and I still didn't put two and two together when I saw Norman's bed.

[silicondream]

Oboy, we might get to see Norman pulling the O-face on MJ. Maybe they'll get married!

[captainbellman]

"The Superior Spider-Man" is Miguel O'Hara. Slott himself admitted as much on Twitter. I doubt that Harry Osborn would sexually harass MJ, and if Norman put on the costume he'd probably have more important things to worry about. Miguel, however? Well, if he's trapped in the past and Peter's swapped places with him, he'll probably be on a reckless Booster Gold-esque trip, thinking he can do whatever the hell he wants because it's the past - e.g., using his 'Superior' strength to get at the original Spider-Man's girlfriend.

(Yes, the goggles, claws and 'darker' costume are also a giveaway, as is the concept of a hero from the future considering himself 'Superior'. However, I really don't think we should take the focus away from the idea that this new Spider-Man is possibly an irresponsible, arrogant thug and a potential rapist.)

[stillanerd]

Unfortunately, according to what Rich Johnson of Bleeding Cool posted yesterday, the new Superior Spider-Man will NOT be Miguel O'Hara.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/11/13/spoil-amazing-spider-man-298-and-dan-slott-will-block-you-for-life/

[captainbellman]

Eh, whatever. Given that Slott's writing, he'll still be an unlikeable jerk awash in a sea of uninspired plots that go nowhere and do nothing. Johnston's article title seems a bit superfluous - barely anyone is going to care whether this story is blocked or not, and I highly doubt anyone really gives a toss if Dan Slott's 'blocks' them on any Internet service. Hell, if he has to block them it's just a sign that they hadn't yet got round to blocking him...

[halloweenjack]

This. Even though Rich Johnston has gone out of his way to promote titles on BC before, his shilling for this "event" has made me even less likely to pay attention to it (or pay for it) than before. Steve Wacker's repeated trolling of the BC comment forums hasn't helped, either.

[cainofdreaming]

They kept Norman Osborn in a regular hospital room? Heck, a regular hospital?

[majingojira]

Humans of the Marvel Universe: 10 Times Stupider than you think.

[silverhammerman]

That was my first thought. I mean, really? Norman Osborn, a mass murderer even before the Dark Reign stuff, and they just stuck him in a regular hospital? That;s idiotic. Not to mention that I think he was in there for overloaded superpowers, so they should have at least put him somewhere separate from the regular patients.
It's annoying.

[stillanerd]

Not to mention he apparently is not even under police guard! Even if he was in a coma and the assumption was that wasn't going to wake up anytime soon, you'd think they would have a regular watch 24/7 on a guy who, by all accounts, is public enemy #1, especially from possible reprisals.

[silverhammerman]

I'd actually be pretty onboard for Harry as Spidey, at least for a little while. They haven't really done anything of consequence with him since his revival post-OMD, but his past as a supervillain/drug-user/father/son-of-a-supervillain/multiple-divorcee/mentally-unbalanced-dude could be a pretty interesting starting point for a hero. Also, with Norman on the loose again I could see him coming after Harry for rejecting the Goblin legacy and choosing to follow in the footsteps of Norman's worst enemy.
As a bonus, he used to date MJ, so them getting together in some capacity would have a precedent.

Also, I like seeing Kingsley beat up Urich. I think stuff like that is often symptomatic of how comics refuse to move forward ("The original Hobgoblin was the one I read growing up so this new one must suck!") but I'm willing to let it slide given that Kingsley didn't actually kill him and franchising his identity is kind of what he does.

[stillanerd]

Harry does make sense as a potential new Spider-Man, but I do have quite a few problems with it. For one thing, Mary Jane, by all accounts, is still very much in love with Peter, and I don't see why she would all of the sudden start having a relationship with her ex-boyfriend who also happens to be the best friend of the man she loves. Unless she assumes Peter is dead and looks to Harry for comfort, but even so.

Also, as this issue reminds us, Harry is a newly single dad. His top priority is raising his son and keeping him out of any "drama" that he believes messed up his own life. Especially since he knows his dad and any one loyal to him is looking for him and his son. Plus, he'd have to move back to New York. Granted, the fact he made an appearance in this issue after so long does suggest he's going to be dragged back into Spidey's world in some capacity, whether he likes it or not.

[cyberghostface]

One thing I'll give credit to Slott is he didn't kill off Roderick Kingsley.

I was expecting that, in response to the ambiguity of the other Hobby's death (that it might have been the brother), that he would bring Kingsley back just to kill him off more permanently as a middle finger to the fans.

[long_silence]

I was expecting Phil to get killed when Kingsley came back.

[ablackraptor]

To Slott's credit, he doesn't intentionally try middle finger the fans, and not a total idiot. When he first 'killed' him and got the resulting death threats, he admitted later that he was surprised people believed he really died and admitted he would never kill off such a great villain.

[cyberghostface]

Happy to hear that but in Marvel nowadays it's par for the course to kill off characters in such a way.

Bendis is probably the most guilty, but even Slott gave Silvermane (who's not the greatest villain but is still a Stan Lee classic) a half-assed death just to pave way for some Mysterio plot where he pretended to be him.

[grazzt]

You know, I think if Roderick Kingsley had killed off Gwen Stacy, the Marvel Universe would have been much better off for it. They keep trying to jam Norman Osborn into this master planner niche that he's too crazy to actually pull off, because he had that one good story so very long ago. And I just never buy it. But Kingsley actually works when he's doing, well, the sort of thing he's doing above.

[cyberghostface]

I don't know, I still think Norman's a more interesting character even if he is misused occasionally. He's probably more sane than the Joker and God knows how much stuff he's been able to pull off.

[drmcninja]

Agreed. He works great as the Green Goblin, and even as a general leader, like in the Thunderbolts, but they're trying to turn him into this Lex Luthor figure of the MU. He's insane. The heroes always knew it, his own henchmen called him that while working for him, and the entire world knows after Siege. Only the writers would ever believe him capable of any long term, large scale plan anymore.

Then again, the occupants of the MU are dumber than a sack of hammers. No, scratch that, they are dumber than a single hammer with fifteen concussions.

[mrstatham]

Agreed. The only reason I think the last story in Avengers/New Avengers with Norman actually worked is because Norman was made the figurehead of a - people he used to lead in HAMMER who were disillusioned by the regime change back, and b - groups of evil sorts who needed a leader like him, who, whilst he had screwed up rather badly with Siege (thank you Loki), could pull off something large scale.

[long_silence]

How old is Harry's kid? He looks pretty big.

[stillanerd]

Probably close to a year old would be my guess.

[silverhammerman]

What about his other kid? Normie or whatever his name was, what exactly happened with him? Where is he in all this?

[stillanerd]

Normie is still with Liz Allen, who was granted custody of him after her and Harry's divorce.

[jlbarnett]

I swear they're trying to make Spider-Man more about the Osborns than anything.

[cypherfdp]

Yes. I am definitely sure that Peter Parker will cease being Spider-Man foerver.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing Peter'll be Spider-Man again in six months, at most. Still, if it's not Peter Parker, it's not really Spider-Man. From the very beginning, Spider-Man has been more about Peter and his life than about the suit and the powers.

[naebler]

Ben Reilly. My continuity brings him back. I want to see Ben Reilly come back and bitch slap peter. "What do you mean we never got married to MJ!?"

[blackruzsa]

Is this gonna be a game now?
Is there a betting pool?

Will we trade ideas?

[ablackraptor]

I have to say, while the rest of the story was forgettable, Kingsley being revealed to have set up his own 'Hobgoblin Incorporated' is pretty awesome. He's pretty much an evil Batman right now.