Published on April 1st, 1983
This is the second part of the original Hobgoblin story. I'm not sure how many Hobgoblins there have been over the years, but in the current run there are two Hobgoblins. Writer Roger Stern does an incredible job setting up the mystery of who the Hobgoblin is in #238 and #239. I guess we'll see if the big reveal is a disappointment eventually, although since I didn't read the book back in the early 80's, it could be some character I don't even know. The only suspicious character so far is another photographer for The Daily Bugle. His name is Lance Bannon and he's kind of a jerk. There's also a bunch of other stuff going on in this issue besides the Hobgoblin stuff. While the current run of TAS does have some side characters that seem to be setting up future storylines, current comic books don't seem to really do the long-term, world building storytelling you need to do to produce great comic books. The one reason is probably that writers don't stay on the same comic book for very long anymore. Jason Aaron has been writing The Avengers since #1 and they're at #61 now...but that's almost an anomaly. And Aaron isn't exactly a "world builder." But The Amazing Spider-Man #239 is a perfect encapsulation of the world-building strategy. Introducing various characters, various plot points, and using those to anchor the book for future payoffs that reward the reader and mean something. Spider-Man visits the Black Cat in the hospital after she was shot in The Spectacular Spider-Man #76 (which, surprisingly, hasn't been digitalized by Marvel yet...meaning you can't buy that issue online unless you somehow track down a rare hard copy). He also visits Madame Webb who's in the hospital from a Juggernaut battle in a previous issue. Then there's Lance Bannon's female friend that calls Parker for a dinner date. He rejects her ass! Parker then goes to visits two of The Green Goblin's secret hideouts that are, shockingly, still around ten years later (granted, Parker doesn't exactly age much in the book...he's supposedly in grad school in #239...and he's out of school currently but not exactly old). The Hobgoblin just happens to be at the second of The Green Goblin's secret lairs, trying to pilfer some old tech secrets or something. And then we get the first big battle between Spider-Man and The Hobgoblin. What's unique is that The Hobgoblin admits in thought bubbles that he's not up to the task of defeating Spider-Man just yet. He actually is...gasp...a real person with...flaws! I loved this issue. The artwork by John Romita, Sr. is pure, classic, old-school Marvel style. And the way the book is laid out it feels like a great, long-form serial that you get immersed in and by the end you're dying to read the next issue. The next issue has The Vulture...which I actually really want to read even though I kind of started this just to review The Hobgoblin issues. I probably should just give up reading the current issues of The Amazing Spider-Man. It pales in comparison in pretty much every conceivable way. ***
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