Superior Spider-Man: The Goblin War of Nations

Face it, Tiger. You just hit the jackpot. To

the memory of Stan Lee, he will be sorely missed.

He's someone who, with great power and great

responsibility, gave us thousands upon thousands

upon millions of hours of imagination, entertainment,

comics, television, movies, all that cool stuff,

and Stan the man himself was just awesome. I

never got to meet him, but he still had an impact

on my life. And I hope you guys enjoy episode

330 of The Pull Bag with Superior Spider -Man,

The Goblin War of Nations. Hi, this is John Semper,

Jr., the head writer and producer of Spider -Man,

the animated series. And you are listening to

the Geek Cast Radio Network. You've just jumped

inside the pull bag. Join TFG1 Mike and the rest

of the comic reading crew here at the GCRN as

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the pull bag here on the Geekcast Radio Network.

So without any further ado, it's time to talk

about the comics we are reading right now here

inside the pull bag. New York City. Hello and

welcome to episode 330 of The Pull Bag. I am,

of course, TFG1 Mike. Joining me is JT from Saskatoon,

who has an unhealthy something for the 2016 Ghostbusters

film. I don't know what. But, folks, we are in

the way, way back machine. Talk to Mr. Peabody.

Talk to Sherman. Talk to Rocky and Bullwinkle

or Doc Brown or something. From March 13, 2013

to March 19, 2014. JT and I had talked almost

at that point in time every single issue of the

Superior Spider -Man from Marvel Comics that

had come out to that point. We stopped doing

it around issue 25, and then March 19th of 2014

we had done the Marvelous March Spotlight where

we talked about Spider -Man, the Black Cat story.

Volume, whatever it is. And then Spider -Man

Blue. Return of the Black Cat. That's what it

is. So we talked about Spider -Man Blue and Return

of the Black Cat. So it's been a while since

we've done some Marvel stuff on the pull bag.

A number of years, actually. And I figured, oh,

hey, why not get back into it kind of a thing.

And we're going to pick up where we left off,

which was... Superior Spider -Man issue 26. What

we're covering in this episode is issue 26 and

then volume 6, Goblin Nation, which is issues

27 to 31. We are not covering 32 and 33 because

those are a part of Spider -Verse and Spider

-Verse is going to be a whole other thing on

the podcast at some point as soon as I get some

money. So, yes. How are you, sir? I'm doing well.

Yes, we gave you a one -week reprieve, folks,

of listening to JT, because last week we talked

about a Boom Studios WWE Volume 3 Roman Empire

with Ryan the Uneven Float Merkley. But JT is

back this week. We are returning to our roots

back to Superior Spider -Man. I have not picked

any of this stuff back up since we stopped. I

had to look at several different websites, not

only reading the issues, but just to catch up

with where the hell we left off. Yeah, it gets

a little nutsy cuckoo after this series. Well,

okay, so we should have done issues 22 through

26, but I don't think at the time that we did

that episode, 22 to 25, I don't think issue 26

had been released yet. And issue 26 is basically

the end of that arc. Because 27 to 31 is the

Goblin Nation arc. Technically, I guess, this

is the Goblin Prelude or something. It's a prologue

of sorts. I was hoping to see somewhere on the

thing here, like the story thing, where it's

like, hey, this is Goblin Prelude or whatever.

And wow, I'm just going to say right now, when

we get to Volume 6, Goblin Nation, I kind of

love the ending that they gave this. I remember

being so up in arms about them ending Superior

Spider -Man just because a new fucking movie

was coming. Because at that time, Amazing One

with the guy from Garfield. from uh social network

not not lex luther the other guy um you know

andrew garfield yes um you know he his movie

was about to come out so they're like oh well

we gotta end this and i felt like they had to

end it just because the movie came out and that's

probably what they had to do and they did it

and whatever but i had not read the rest of this

at that time i had not finished reading this

So I'm like, how the hell are you just going

to bring Peter back? What are you going to do?

How are you going to get that done? Don't do

that. But after reading this, you know, X number

of years later, I'm like, oh, the story makes

sense. And it's a great, great story. Yeah, it

builds on everything that Dan Slott has done.

Because at this point, this is like year five

or six of his like 10 year run. of writing Spider

-Man stories, which of recent memory, the only

other guy that I know has put in this amount

of time on Batman works for the Distinguished

Competition, that being Jeff Johns and Scott

Snyder, who spent the... I mean, Johns was at

least 10 years on Green Lanterns. Snyder's almost

that on Batman for everything that he did. But

yeah, no, this is honestly one of the... It's

up there. I haven't sat down and made a top 10

list of favorite Spider -Man story arcs, but

this is top 15 maybe, maybe top 10, but it's

built on everything Stan Slott did. It brought

everything to a pretty satisfying conclusion,

and it's just a lot of fun, which as we talked

about off mic, a lot of fans don't seem to take

into account anymore. Can you enjoy the title

without wallowing Going into self -pity and whatnot

in regards to creators' opinions and whatnot?

You can? Well, great. Let us be friends. Mm -hmm.

So. So, issue 26 starts off with Green and Hobgoblin

doing their thing, facing off against each other.

I need to run down really quick before I forget

about it. The creative on this, as you said,

slot on writing. Ramos, Rodriguez, and Martin

on pencils. DeAlzeba, Lopez, and Martin on inks.

Delgado, Rodriguez, and Martin on colors. Letters

is done by Chris Elpoulos. I'm probably butchering

that name, but yeah, I love the art in this.

I think it's so fun and so cool. The Goblins,

I don't know. I'm not too sold on these first

few pages in issue 26 with Green and Hobgoblin.

I don't know if it's the close -ups. I don't

know if it's the weird... I don't know. It's

just, the goblins seem like they're off. Like,

there's a panel where Green says, and for a good

reason, and Hobgoblin says, which is, the spider

has one. You know, seeing the two of them up

next to each other, yes, they are two very different

characters. They're supposed to be two very different

designs. But one looks like a young man, and

one looks like an old man. And it just doesn't,

I don't know, just doesn't look right to me.

Yeah. I mean, I like the cover myself. I mean,

it's two of the greatest Spider -Man villains

of all time, although it's either... And both

versions of the Hobgoblin are in this issue,

Roderick Kingsley and Phil Urich. So you don't

know who it is, but we get into it and... I mean,

for longtime Spider -Man readers, like, they

have the whole Liz Osborn taking over Oscorp

and turning it into Alchemax, which is the evil

super conglomerate from the future of Marvel

2099 in the Spider -Man 2099 title, which, oh,

my God, it's all coming true. Mm -hmm. You know,

and there's basically a mini -goblin war going

on, and this is also writer... Around the time

of... I forget if this was a couple years prior

or just after Avengers X -Men Axis. I think it

was just after, yeah. Yeah, something like that.

Right away you see Roderick Kingsley, a free

franchise for life! Did anyone help me kill Yurik,

this little traitor? Because they had brought

back Roderick Kingsley as the true, proper Hobgoblin,

and he's selling... playing super villain franchises

to whoever ponies up the dough. So you could

become like the new unicorn or the new grizzly.

And that's how he's making his ill gotten gains.

And Phil has become, I think at this point he

was being called the goblin King and had fallen

under sway of Osborne, who was building this

goblin army under the sewer in the sewers in

New York city. You see like the goblin graffiti

tag all over and guys are getting that tattoo.

It's becoming like this subculture and a whole

lot of insanity. And then Norman calls a timeout.

Yep. And Hobgoblin's like, the hell? You can't

call a timeout. Exactly. And the look Ramos gives

Hobgoblin's face when he says, you can't call

a timeout. That just reminded me of A League

of Their Own. There's no crying in baseball.

That's right. Yep. So. So we have three main

stories in this issue. We've got the goblin stuff,

we've got Doc Ock Spidey versus the Avengers,

and then we've got Peter and the Mindscape. Yeah.

And I should say, looking at the art, I was leading

his spider minions against the forces of AIM.

I love the incredulous dialogue from the AIM

leader. It's impossible! How did you know of

our shipment? Our tanker was still shielded.

And Spider -Man's like, you fool. And then the

Avengers bust in. You can see Iron Man's wearing

that black and gold armor that he wore for a

time. And that happened before Axis. So this

definitely happens before Axis, I would say.

But we get Captain America in the awesome Jonathan

Hickman suit he wore during the years Jonathan

Hickman was writing Avengers. And the Avengers

are there to basically stop the shenanigans and

they're going to drum Spider -Man out of the

Avengers for, you know, Otto's bullshit. And

then we get to the mindscape and Peter is, again,

that was the one biggest gripe I had about Slott's

writing is he copied Peter, or he put Peter's

mind into Ox's dying body, sure, but, like, another,

his soul, you know, it's just... I don't know.

I don't get it. I don't get it either, but I

felt it worked because how, like, that was part

of this whole story about, you know, ending Amazing

at the time. Amazing 698 to 700 of, you know,

Doc dying and yada, yada, yada. Well, the only

way you're not going to die is if you transfer

your brain and your memories into somebody else.

What's the perfect quote -unquote revenge than

to do that to your worst enemy? Make them supposedly

die and whatever. And yeah, it's a little confusing

as far as that goes. But as this story progresses

through to the end... you know, Peter gets himself

back. And like, that's the, as I said earlier

in the show, at this point of the podcast, now

I said, you know, that I wasn't sure how the

hell they were going to bring Peter back. Cause

Peter supposedly died in ox body and this whole

mind and soul and heart and whatever kind of

thing. It's like, Oh, okay. It kind of makes

sense. Oh, I know. It's just. just it's always

been my understanding when you do mind swaps

in comic is this mind goes in this body and this

mind goes in that body and nothing is left behind

so it's just meaningless fanboy gripe but yeah

um peter's kind of doing his thing and wallowing

in self -pity because he's not strong enough

to beat auto and take his body back and we get

back to the goblins who basically you got all

of Kingsley's like, you know, villain franchisees

and the hand ninjas and all these guys. And then

there's the goblins on the other side. It's going

to be, you know, a fight for also Kingsley and

Norman get into it. And the one thing I got to

say, the one thing I've always loved about Umberto

Ramos is art, especially when working on Spider

-Man is like, you look at goblins eyes, like

it always draws one of God. one's eyes like it's

like a little bigger like it's kind of bugging

out of his head a bit and just gives him this

really creepy you know psychotic you know turn

to the art and then we get which is essentially

a two -page spread over a few panels of them

getting into it with each other i love it because

green goblin is now beyonce say my name that's

all i could think of is the dusty child song

And we go back to the Avengers, and I love how

they have two completely different artists on

this. I'm just wondering, who did the art? Who's

the other artist? You said his name before. There's

Ramos, and I think this is Javier Rodriguez,

who's doing the Avengers bits. And, you know,

Otto's reflecting, and Iron Man comes in. oh

i'm sorry are we boring you and he's like with

all the charges we're raising for drumming out

of the avengers and this kind of threw me back

to one of the first issues of the music perez

run of avengers when it came back from heroes

reborn where the avengers drum miss marvel well

then known as thunderbird out of the avengers

because she had a drinking problem And this was

really before they have like this, like, screw

you guys. I'm going home and I don't need you.

And it was a few years before, a couple of years

before she got help. And they, you know, they

treated her like how an alcoholic would actually

act when confronted. I love that scene. But yeah,

Peter, I mean, Peter, finger quotes, you know,

is that why did you delete these files? Well,

to protect my secret identity. This is why he

launched a civil war against Stark as a new captain.

So that I could have the right to privacy. And

then everyone's like, this isn't just out of

the blue. Everyone's calling him on his bullshit.

And even Wolverine, who is just like, dude, you're

not right. Yeah, see, I never read Avengers versus

I never read AVX. And I always knew at some point

through other media that Wolverine eventually

was an Avenger at one point or another. But like

seeing him with the Avengers is just it's just

weird because it doesn't feel like something

Cal J. Dodd would do or Hugh Jackman. Yeah, well,

at this point, Wolverine has technically been

an Avenger for about 10 years. give or take,

because he first, he became part of the Avengers

in, like, it was 04, 05, or it might have been

03, like, the very early aughts where they had,

you know, they had canceled Avengers, you know,

they had the Avengers disassembled storyline,

and then Brian Michael Bendis recreated the Avengers

in the first volume of New Avengers, which ran

for, like, I want to say, like, five or six years.

And Wolverine has been part of the Avengers organization

more or less since. In fact, the only time he

ever left the Avengers was when he died, and

then he got better. But yeah, Ock's dealing with

this, and we go back to Peter and the Mindscape.

The comic I have, it goes from... the Avengers

to Peter and then back to the goblins. Cause

there's like, Oh, that's right. There's like

a little page. And I, I like how they recreated.

No, I remember, uh, Spider -Man, just the adjective

list, Spider -Man title at the end of the clone

saga where Ben Reilly died and Norman Osborn

revealed himself. And you see like this huge

scar across his chest, like from where the goblin

glider, you know, crushed him years before and

now it just looks like his chest is made out

of concrete and there's this like piece that's

been broken out you know it's just there's like

this cavity there it's just like okay that's

new and you know at this point he's i guess that's

because hobgoblin like exploded a goblin grenade

in his chest and this whole time he's been Kingsley's

been fighting this guy because he didn't believe

this was actually Osborn. And then Osborn wins

the fight. Of course. Because you don't mess

with the original kid. Nope. And it turns out

that Kingsley was actually using a hologram or

a holographic thing or whatever. And Norman's

like, no one can ever know. Yeah. Well, it's

not Norman, that's Phil, the Goblin King. Oh,

okay. Because the one, and the reason he was

so flimflammed is because the guy that he killed

and beheaded when Phil took over the Hobgoblin

suit way back was Kingsley's twin brother, who

was also active as the Hobgoblin for a time.

It's a whole thing. Yeah. It's a whole confusing

thing. Yeah. So they, they literally have, we

go back to the Avengers and spider. Oh, is all

like, screw you guys. I'm going home. And he's

trying to act all outraged in that. And you can

tell by the look in their all faces, they're

like, uh -huh. Like they, they, they were kicking

them out anyhow. So they really don't care. But

yeah, Spider -Man quits the Avengers. We go back

to the Goblin and Phil wigs out and this first

issue ends with this guy who he's basically strapped

this guy into a rig that looks like it's mixing

part of the Matrix Tron and that scene from Clockwork

Orange where Malcolm McDowell's been strapped

in the chair with his eyes taped open and Kingsley's

been using this tech to implant his memories

and combat skills into somebody and then use

it to you know marionette this other guy in new

york city because we're in paris now and he he's

essentially hid himself away from the world to

do whatever and he's kind of out of the fight

now yeah i don't know the first issue kind of

and it this prologue thing it sets stuff up and

It ends well enough. I can't really complain

about it. Aside from going back and forth between

the three different artists, which I found kind

of not aggravating, just a little annoying, but

it wasn't bad. Yeah. Well, luckily, once we start

Goblin Nation here in a moment, we won't have

to worry about that because it's just Giuseppe

on the art. And the cool thing about... Goblin

Nation, at least in my trade or through Comixology.

I've never seen a trade do this. They have the

main cover, which is the Spider -Man mask with

all the spiders crawling into and around it and

that kind of thing. And then they have the full

cover of what the actual trade paperback would

be, front and back. So they show the back. with

the goblin and the chessboard and it has the

the text from the back the goblin rises under

the supposedly superior spider -man's watch the

green goblin wrenched control of new york's underworld

this is all otto octavius's fault And now it's

his responsibility to take down the goblin. Win

or lose, this will be Otto's greatest battle.

But when spiderlings, goblins, supervillains,

and giant robots clash in a violent assault on

Spidey's home base, Spider Island, will Otto

be able to regain his footing and prevail? Whatever

you do, don't miss the biggest event in the entire

Superior Spider -Man saga. The end starts here

as Spider -Man takes on the Goblin Nation. No

more talking. This is an all -out war. Written

by Dan Slott and Christos Gage. Illustrated by

Giuseppe Canicoli with Javier Rodriguez and Filippi

Briones along with Will Simi. So... yeah this

is like I was not expecting how they were going

to start this out so we've got all that we've

got one of the alternate covers next and then

31 days later okay alrighty nice little time

skip which I mean there's other storylines like

there's the spectacular or superior team up title

where Otto kidnapped and brainwashed the Sinister

Six into becoming the Superior Six. And Spider

-Man is, of course, involved in some other storylines

and crossovers. But yeah, it's a month later.

New York's gone to hell in a handbasket. And

Otto is, again, because the arrogance inherent

in the character, no matter whether he's being

a villain or a hero, just can't understand why...

My tech, it should be telling me that there's

no emergencies, but the city's burning. What's

going on? And it's literally, it mentions, and

it's something that had been referenced previously

in the title, that he can never account for this

glitch in the system. It's because randomly,

like a number of issues before, Osborn found

one of his little spider bots running around

and he reverse engineered it in order to Basically,

any time one of these robots sees the Goblin

logo or anything Goblin -related, it's like the

shadow and his being invisible and men's eyes

and all that. It just doesn't see that stuff.

Yeah, and it's not just looking at it. It's looking

at it through the costume lenses, whether it's

Spider -Man, whether it's... What's her name?

Watanabe Yuri what I love about this opening

part here is this opening narration where where

Otto Spidey is basically saying I should be done

crime should be in a statistical anomaly and

yet dot dot dot there's an editor note see Superior

Spider -Man team up number 10 Steve Now, I know

there's plenty of other Steves in the world,

but I'm sorry. I'm like, oh my God, that's the

ghost of Steve Ditko writing that editorial note.

Sure. Uh -huh. Yeah. But yeah, Otto loses his

shit and, you know, he has to, then he sees,

you know, there's this grid around the Brooklyn

Bridge and he goes and he sees Osborne. All this

time it was you. Because, you know, they've done

like that. It's like that scene from The Dark

Knight Rises where Batman, you know, paints like

lighter fluid on the side of the Gotham Bridge

and sets it ablaze in the Bat logo. And, you

know, we got the goblin tags are up there. And

we go back to Peter, who, again, is wandering

through his memories. And we see some classic

shots like, you know, him not stopping the burglar,

fighting the juggernaut, the symbiote. peeling

off from kissing Mary Jane that one time. And

then he wonders, why are you at the Brooklyn

Bridge? You know, why are you thinking about

the night Gwen died? And he goes and he finds

what seems to be a little more, I guess, solid

memory piece. Like, he basically deadmans Doc

Ock. Like, Doc Ock and he starts going through

Otto's memories now see this to me is cool you

know Dan Slott may have his you know fans out

there that are negative about what the man does

but see because I have not read the last what

is it almost 100 years of Spider -Man comics

or 80 plus or whatever it is like I've never

kept up with a lot of the Spider -Man stuff,

and the only real Doc Ock stuff I know is obviously

the 94 animated series and Spider -Man 2. The

original Spider -Man 2, folks, in 2004. Not the

amazing piece of crap that was that movie. Anyway...

Alfred Molina. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So... Seeing

this and seeing Peter dive into Ox memories and

seeing Ox's story, I love that. I think that's

great. I think that's a great way for Peter to

understand just where Otto is coming from. Otto

just isn't this maniacally laughing, cackling

villain anymore. He actually has a whole story.

And right now, to me, Goblin Nation is the Spider

-Man 2 of the Marvel Universe at this point when

this was written. Yeah. I mean, the whole thing

with Peter taking this magical mystery tour through

Otto's memories, it's the flip side of the coin

of Otto when he took over Peter's body and he

got lambasted by all of Peter's memories and

he got this slightly perverted concept of great

power, pardon me, great responsibility. So, I

mean, it's a little tit for tat and we get back

to Peter and Anna Marie. Anna Maria, yeah. Anna

Maria, yeah. And he's trying to figure out, you

know, why are my spider butts not working? Like,

how did he do this? And, you know, she gives

him like, you know, great again, low blood sugar,

you know, you get cranky. And I like, I really

like Anna Maria as a character and it shows not

And it shows real growth in the character of

Otto that, you know, you know, he recognizes

someone for her mind and he grows the lover for

from that. He grows the lover for everything

that she is. And this is one of my favorite parts

of slots run that he created an actual romance

that is adult and mature. And it doesn't take,

you know, 40 goddamn years for them to get together.

And you see that in that one panel. He's got

the ring in his breast pocket. And then he has

that, oh, yes, of course moment. Curse me for

a fool. I had to look and make sure. Because,

again, I have not read this since we did that

coverage back in 2013, 2014. I had to make sure

that Anna Maria was an actual adult. She is a

character who is. I believe I read somewhere.

She's a little person. She's a little person,

but it specifically said she suffers from dwarfism

is what I read online. Because at first, reading

this again, I'm like, Otto's not a degenerate.

He would not date a kid. And I knew in the back

of my mind that she was not, but I just had to

double check because I felt a little weird in

some of their scenes. Yeah, I mean, but that's...

And the whole look of Anna Maria fluctuates from

artist to artist. Like Giuseppe's work here,

like she has a very youthful, clean look. And

unlike, you know, Umberto Ramos and other artists

who have drawn her before this, where it looks

a little more mature. And you see, so you get

back to when Otto is like, yeah, the one thing

I didn't design that he appropriated, finger

quotes for this, is the kid Uatu. Jackson, who

worked with Peter at Horizon Labs. He basically

stole this facial recognition tech. So, of course,

that's got to be the flaw. And he calls him,

and the kid hangs up on him. Well, if you'd care

to remember, Otto, you were kind of, what's the

word I'm looking for? A colossal dick to everyone

there. And then they see Mayor Jameson, because,

yeah, J. Jonah has become mayor of NYC at this

point in the comics. All these reporters are

parroting what he used to say. You know, the

goblin in spite of your work. Isn't it obvious?

And then this is also because at this point,

Otto has blackmailed Jonah into providing him

with all this access and equipment and whatnot.

So Jonah goes to Alchemax to talk to Liz Allen.

I called her Liz Osborne before. There's Dr.

Tiberius Stone and Mr. Banks and Mr. O'Mara.

It was really Miguel, Spider -Man of 2099. Yeah.

And they've come in and he's taking possession

of some new technology. It couldn't possibly

be Spider -Slayers because what would J. Jonah

Jameson be doing with Spider -Slayers, I ask

you? Hunting Spider -Man? That was sarcasm. Of

course it's goddamn Spider -Slayers. When has

Jonah ever not used Spider -Slayers? Exactly.

He picks his teeth with spider slings. Yes, he

does. What I love is right after this scene,

we cut back to Spider -Man climbing up a wall

or whatever. I will find him no matter what rock

he's hiding under. I just love the image of Superior

Spider -Man here with the wall crawling and the

light -up eyes. I think that's super cool. Oh,

he's not in some building. He's in the underground

Goblin Nation train station. That's after he's

gone talk to Watu and we have this brief interlude

where the cops are looking for Peter Parker at

Parker Industries. He's searching through the

subway tunnels and the sewers. the goblin surprises

him, and they have a... Well, I just love that

page spread, and you see some, like, wow, there

are some old shoutouts to some, like, very obscure

Spider -Man villains. You've got, you know, the

ringer in behind Osborn, whoever that purple

-headed looking dude is. You've got that dude

on the left side with what looks like an exclamation

mark. that's the answer who's this really dumb

supervillain he has the ability to generate any

like a thousand different super abilities but

it's only in response to whatever problem he's

facing so like if he has to melt through a steel

wall he'll generate the ability to generate intense

heat and flames or if he has to lift a car to

save somebody, he'll generate super strength.

I just thought it was interesting, but ultimately

one of the dumbest villain powers you could have.

Yeah, it is. And my only thought is, okay, so

the next thing we're going to see is the question

from DC Comics going up against the answer from

Marvel Comics. Oh, God, that would not end well

for the answer. No, it really wouldn't. Vic Sage

would... break him. But yeah, so they have a

sit down where, you know, Ospar is just like,

boys, away. And he sits down and he's like, you

know, this is going to be a whole new dynamic.

We're going to go on by the book. And this book,

actually, you and I have never been the worst

of enemies, have we? Otto? And It's just literally

Osborn knows and he's now essentially trying

to blackmail Otto. And Otto's like, nuts to that!

And it flips the table and they have a fight.

They have a pseudo -fight. They have a pseudo

-fight because this is a holographic avatar because

Otto went back to Spider Island and he's strapped

up into this VR rig. You may not recognize that.

That's a piece of technology that Otto created

back in the 90s during the Clone Saga when he

had this blonde Amazon bombshell named Bombshell

who was like his... It was the Harley Quinn to

his Joker. And the whole reason was that Bombshell

was this holographic solid light avatar because

the woman inside the rig was this... You know,

it's an overweight woman. You know, she didn't

think she was beautiful, that sort of thing.

And Otto, being a bit of a roly -poly himself

at the time, fell for and created this technology.

It was like the first time that Otto had really,

well, second time Otto had really had a love

interest in comics. I mean, there was that time

he romanced and tried to marry Aunt May because

she inherited a nuclear power plant for some

reason. That's weird. Yeah, so Osborn sends out

the goblin army, you see the goblin king, and,

oh God, I can't remember what's her name, that

was Lily something, she was going to marry Osborn.

Menace, you know, she's like the new female goblin,

I don't know who the other purple and green goblin

is, and they're attacking Spider Island, and,

well, kind of blow it off the goddamn map. Yeah,

pretty much. And I have the single issue digital

comics here, and I love the promo for the next

issue or next. The Green Goblin is back, and

he's playing chess. Or maybe it's a metaphor

of some sort. Yeah. I've got that here, too,

in the collection trade as well. It's very, very

interesting. I love that cover. Yeah. And, yeah,

we get into, you know, issue 28, Goblin Nation,

part two, and everyone's watching from across

the bay, and it's like this giant garbage fire.

Mm -hmm. And I love, again, Otto just can't accept

that no matter how good you are as a kid, there's

usually somebody better. He's like, but I cracked

the Goblin Stealth Protocols. There's no way

his forces could have gotten through my security

grid. And then Osborn hacks in, does the multi

-screen mocking. He's like, did you actually

think you could out -hack me? Spider -Man? And

he's like, I'm going to kill you now. Just attack,

my darlings. Raise the spider's nest to the ground.

Oh, I just realized who that other female goblin

is. That's revealed later on, so I won't leave

that for now. But, I mean, who Monster is. Well,

yes, yes, I understand, but I'm saying, like,

when you said it earlier, I'm like, it's Menace

and Monster. That's what I was thinking earlier.

I just hadn't said it yet. But, yeah, we'll find

out who she is later. Yeah. And, you know, you

got the... living brain shields uh auto from

this and you know the the living brain like i

know it's a robot and it's tech therefore technically

intelligent but the way his uh speech pattern

is it's very like i was at lenny uh like from

of mice and men like tell me about the rabbits

george mm -hmm you know because status did this

unit provide sufficient shielding where click

And I love Otto's... He was my favorite. In that

moment, I thought of the Monarch from Venture

Brothers. And also that scene where Goh bodied

the living brain into a watercraft to escape

from Spider Island. And the reason I say Goh

bodied is very appropriate because he's essentially...

He straps him... stuff to tow behind him and

he's just kind of folded his arms up behind him

and he's got these joysticks and he's like run

and then we go back to Peter you know surfing

the minescape and see all the BS that Otto put

up with in his life and how he got beat by his

dad and you know babied by his mom and And there's

the one image where he's like, Otto, what are

you doing? Girls at your age? You're just a baby.

I won't hear of it. Which is a shout out to a,

I forget if it was a regular Spider -Man comic

or a spinoff in the 90s where it's flashing back

to Otto's path. You know, his mom basically guilts

him out of any joy he wanted to have in his life.

And this one night she's like going out for like,

what? I have a life I deserve. And Otto snaps

and assaults his mom. So it's a shout out to

that because his mom is well, but his mom is

also kind of a raging bitch. But yeah, so we

see Otto's taken over the island. He's like,

what's that? He got away? No matter. I know his

every weakness. I love Kamikaze's art. Even when

he's not maniacally laughing, you can hear the

maniacal laughter. Oh, yeah. And we go back to

Alchemist's Tower and Mayor Jameson and I was

wrong before. They're not spider slayers. They're

goblin slayers. Pardon the hell out of me. And

they have Jameson's face all over them. Because

the guy is nothing if... Yeah. I mean, they turned

him from J. Jonah Jameson into Bill O 'Reilly

after this. Oh, God. They really did. And they

go to... From there, the goblins assault Mary

Jane and... Is that... Hobie Brown, I think?

Hmm... Or no, that's her new... No, that's Ollie.

Is that... Yeah, that's Ollie. That's the firefighter

boyfriend that she had at the time. Yeah. And

I do like that thing where she's... She runs

to her safe and she pulls out... She's got some

OG Spire, like, spinnerets. Thwip, thwip. Yeah.

Thwip, thwip, motherfucker. And she's got that

awesome Spider -Man pose that I'm just like...

Oh, yeah. There's a reason why we love you, MJ.

Exactly. It's... And then we go back to Perk

Industries and he shows up and apparently, yeah,

he's been missing from crime. And, you know,

there's Miss Jaffrey there and she's calling

it a bullshit. I never liked that character.

I just want to say that now. I just find really

arrogant, abrasive characters who act all offended

when shit goes wrong. And, you know, their way

is the only way. I just never liked you. I just

never liked you. You know? More arrogant than

Dr. Octopus, which I didn't think was possible.

No, exactly. And then the Wraith, a .k .a. Yuri,

shows up. And then Monster shows up as well.

Oh my God. It was Carly Cooper the whole time.

You know, it's just of all the girlfriend, like

post MJ. I really thought Carly was going to

be the one to stick, but because writers and

a lot of fans can't know it's Peter and Peter

and MJ, you know, eventually she was written

out and I always wish she would have hung around,

you know? Yeah. But yeah, she attacks Wraith,

unmasks, which isn't really unmasking so much

as she just pulls the hood off her head. A bunch

of goblin ninjas go to May and Jay. Yeah, we

have this whole storyline where MJ gets all Peter's...

relatives and friends and whatever out of town

yeah the whole rest of this issue is pretty much

not pretty much but the whole rest part of this

part is them fighting and talking and all that

yeah I do like the where we go back to the mindscape

and Peter going through Otto's memories like

in his memories it's Peter You don't just see

Otto. No, it's Pierre. He's dressed up like Otto.

He's got the Buddy Holly glasses, the nerdy clothes.

He's strapped himself into that soup pot arm

brace that Otto first had back in... You know,

they even have, like, Giuseppe Camicoli does

a great nod back to the great Steve Ditko art

Spider -Man comics where... you know it's peter

but they're modeled after those exact images

like you know peter is from behind this like

two foot wide piece of leaded glass and the explosion

that bonded him and you know they have that thing

where appeared maniacal after i am dr octopus

and then we go back to the brain tries to Finger

quotes. And, uh, so Johnny and pulls monster

into this lab and she reveals that the old was

Peter as her target is she's fighting for control

and she needs his help to, uh, you know, of the

goblin madness. Yeah. From the serum that she

was injected with. So that's kind of, and then

we jump over to empire state you. and mayhem

shows up or madness or whatever the other menace

there you go and she basically goblin naps anna

maria yeah and i love how it's that uh nod to

the classic uh spider sense where peter's half

half not with that shot of Oh, yeah, Lily Hall.

I'm an old friend of Peter's. Come on, I'll take

you to him. Absolutely nothing. I'm going to

kill you. Absolutely nothing to worry about.

She's a goblin. She's probably nutty like that.

Oh, yeah. This part three's cover, main cover,

might be my favorite. It's Spider -Man 2099 and

Superior. Basically, trust up. By this spider

slayer robot with the goblin's face on it. It's

a goblin slayer. What's that, Jonah? Your plan

to discredit the goblin started? Oh my god, I'm

shocked and appalled by this turn of events.

Like, honestly, I miss the old days where you

would just J .K. Simmons entrenched behind a

desk talking shit about Spider -Man and ignoring

reality. I really wish we could go back to classic

Jonah, but we can't because, like I said, he

eventually becomes Bill O 'Reilly for the Fact

Network. Oh, no. That's a curious spelling of

Fox, but yes, he becomes like this talking head

on the Fact Network and Silk Cindy Moon becomes

his Jimmy. Olsen for a time and then that all

falls apart and in modern and within the last

few months he Peter like revealed himself to

Jonah as being Spider -Man and now Jonah's like

this very obnoxious overprotective I know how

to fight this supervillain Peter do it my way

and yeah he's like the most annoying version

of Bibbo Babowski to Peter's Superman I mean

That's like his idea back in the 90s to make

Matt Gargan the Scorpion. Oh, God. So this issue

here, we go, like you said, we go to Bill O 'Reilly

as the mayor. You know, and he doesn't want to,

you know, have any part of what's going on with

Spider. Well, he does. Glory doesn't want to

have any part to do with this. You know, and

she says, anyway. Your wife's dying wish was

for you to let go of your hate. If you won't

do it for her, you never will. And we cut to

outside Connecticut with all the spider friends

and family. MJ and Peter have a conversation

while they try to get Carly fixed up. Yeah. And

I like how part of that is Sajani went out and

she's playing to the news cameras like, the roof

collapsed on him. I don't know if anyone's alive.

Oh, whatever will we do? She had to do something.

Well, like I said, she's a total bitch. And they're

working on trying to reverse engineer the Goblin

formula. And then Osborn hacks in. He's like,

you wouldn't be trying to reverse my serum, would

you? And it's just so... Again, at this point,

you think Otto would have keyed to the idea that

everything he's doing is wrong and you should

feel bad. Yeah. Like, how do you not know that

Osborn has pretty much figured out your whole

game? You have to, I don't know, figure out a

new way of doing things. And then he runs by

the living brain where, click, doctor, the race

is coming to. Shall I offer her a tasty beverage?

Yeah. Don't ever change, you clanking, clattering

bucket of bolts. I love you. And then the goblin

sets off a bunch of bombs across the city. Basically

all locations that mean something to Otto. The

Heart Clinic. Mocha Cola, which looks like Marvel

Comics. I do love that panel, though. The wide

shot of the panel with the goblin's head and

the laughter all around it with all the locations.

That's awesome art right there. Oh, yeah. I mean,

yeah, the Atomic Research Center, his childhood

home, and then he blows up the heart clinic,

which is honestly one of my favorite facets of

the spider mythos that Slott created. Oh no,

Cardiac, this lame superhero from the 90s is

just blown up. Whatever will we do without him?

Yeah. And it's just, what, boom. It just autos

like literally weep. being in his mask and Osborne's

laughing so hard he's crying he's like oh god

this is like the best day ever and finally Otto

keeps it's a trap I'm a fool if I do what he

says but can I even take the chance he truly

has Anna Maria and it's like what would Parker

do while he'd fight until he won because that's

kind of what Peter does you putz yep and then

he's swinging towards the trap and he's talking

to He calls the mayor, or no, police chief, and

Jonah takes over the call, and he's like, I know

you're in on it. It's all your fault, Spider

-Man. And then he's, Tiberius Stone talks to

Omara, who, I want to call him Jason Omara, but

I don't think that's his actual name. And then

I realized Jason Omara is the actor that's voiced

Batman in all the DCU animated films. But Spider

-Man 2099 has gone off to do his thing. They've

gone to this Empire State University was that

Marla Jameson Memorial Building. And who would

you kidnap Don Lamaze? Yeah. And it's this guy

that that guy. Yeah, and it's basically this

guy that Osborn sees as... This guy is like,

Otto, it's the closest thing you've ever had

to a friend. I saw how you saved this fat ass

in the midget. And I was like, oh, come on, Osborn.

Do you have to be a dick like that? Well, he

kind of does. So we see how more evil he is than

Otto ever was. And again, Otto's like surprised

by this, that he's... Osborn has hacked his Spidey

backpack and his spider armor legs and... Basically

rips them off of himself. Yeah, and this just,

again, proves how stupid Otto is here, because,

dude, your technology has been compromised well

and truly. How do you not put on a fresh set

of clothes? Like, you gotta have a backup, right?

Alright, Don. That's the professor that was giving

him shit in class when he was studying for his

doctorate. And then the professor sacrificed

himself to save Spider -Man from the one remaining

leg that was active and dies in his arms. And

it's a very Uncle Ben -esque moment. Yeah. And

then Miguel shows back up to help. Yeah, after

Jameson kind of kicks his butt and feeling so

superior. And then, what? Oh, my God. Osborn's

taking over the Goblin Slayers. Dun, dun, dun.

Yeah, honestly, that's the only problem I have

with the cover from this issue is it spoils the

ending. Yeah, see, I didn't know that at the

time. I mean, I would have had, like, you know,

me holding two arms like you have in the foreground.

You have, like, the silhouette of the bulbous

egg -shaped head of these robots. And you have

two arms pinning both Spideys to a wall. So you

at least know that's coming. But this sudden

and unforeseen turn of events. See, I think the

cool thing with, I'll have to double check this.

Oh no, it is, well, it is the goblin's face.

I thought the cover originally, now that I see

it now, it's like, oh, of course. I thought it

had JJ's face on it, and obviously it doesn't.

It has the goblin's face. But yeah, that was,

what a way to spoil the ending of the comic.

But it's such a cool cover. Oh yeah. Because

in the actual scene, it's more of a full page

spread kind of thing where, and they're actually

reversed. So it kind of is a spoiler and kind

of isn't a spoiler. Because on the cover, 2099's

on the left and Superior's on the right. While

in this page, they're reversed kind of thing.

But, you know, it is what it is. Semantics. Yeah.

Yeah. I was not sure where this... Because I

figured, oh, it's just issues 27 to 31 and the

annual isn't something else. But coming up after

this issue that we're ending on now, we have

the second... Superior Spider -Man Annual, which

the story is all about Ben and Phil Urich. So

far, in the main story arc, I'm loving it. I

think it's great. I think it's fun. I think it's

interesting. Might be at the point of this writing,

not necessarily this recording, because I know

there have been plenty of other great Spider

-Man stories since this. At the time that this

was written, and me reading it now, this is probably

one of my favorite modern -day Spider -Man stories

to this point. And I remember way back when we

first started Superior Spider -Man, I was super

excited for it because it was going to be so

different than the normal, Peter Parker, I'm

a teenager, I'm in high school. And I get it.

People that grew up in the 50s and 60s and...

That's what they were introduced to it. Yeah,

that's kind of what I was introduced to it with

the 90s animated series and all that. But I remember

at the time when we were first doing this, I'm

like, I want something different. And that's

what Superior Spider -Man was all about, was

basically flipping the script on this entire

universe with regards to Spider -Man. Yeah. And

the annual, you know, I do... I have that here

as well. Like they have Nora's cashing in on

her notoriety. Again, another female character.

I didn't hate her, but I also didn't care for

her because they were so obviously trying to

make her a new version of Lois Lane. Yeah. But,

you know, she's cashing in on this book deal

because, you know, I slept with a supervillain.

And, you know, it's also that, I mean, the main

story is about, you know, Ben Urich. dealing

with the fact that he didn't see this and he's

supposed to be this hot great reporter i exposed

daredevil i did this i did that you know kind

of a thing um and then it gets into the whole

goblin uh venom not venom goblin serum thing

and and everything else and and and all of that

we have more of sanji and Because they're at

Parker Industries and everything else. It's a

nice little one -shot. It's a nice little thing

showing a different version of the Goblin. Like

you said before, it's not the original Hobgoblin,

but it's another version of Hobgoblin. And Ben

wants to cure his nephew, and that doesn't happen.

Yeah, he's about to be. He's got that awesome

fire sword, which is one of my favorite bits

of villain gear that Phil got. Otto pops in and

they fight, and Ben has this realization. He

was trying to justify his mind. No, it's the

juice, and it's making him crazy. But without

the mask, you can see that Phil has gone completely

around the bend. This is who he wants. wants

to be in he read you know robbie robertson's

been kidnapped in this whole thing and it's just

kind of a side story yeah it is a side story

but it also fits in with part of what's going

on with goblin nation like i said with the whole

serum thing and them trying to cure carly and

all that i like how it begins and ends with ben

i've always liked ben I always felt that he was

a really, really cool character. What is interesting

to me is that we have almost a backup story here

by Christos Gage in Chasing Ghosts, because it

kind of continues the Goblin Nation story, but

it's in the point of view of Yuri slash Wraith.

Yeah. And apparently Goblin Juice makes your

hair grow like three feet. Because the artist

draws Carly with Mary Jane levels of hair and,

again, nitpicky fanboy gripe. And again, it's

just these asides, but it does add stuff to the

ongoing narrative. The one thing, just to flip

back... To the Ben story there. I love how they

opened it with Ben and he's kind of had like

that moment of rage and like trashed his apartment.

Everything's kind of off kilter. And there's

this photo, a smashed photo of him, Phil and

his late wife, but he's cleaned everything up

and he's now he's, you know, I still have the

truth. I'm a reporter. He's going to write the

story and tell the truth and let the people decide,

you know, it's a great. moment for him and i

also love the artist you look on the desk there

with his research material there's shots of phil

in the costume there's a couple articles with

osborne and there's that one with the uh just

underneath the pumpkin bomb there's a shot of

the green goblin and again this is one of the

best things about this run of uh spider -man

stories is the artists on duty not give nods

back to previous continuity and previous art

it's specific shots because that image of the

goblin is from the cover of Green Goblin number

one in the 90s when Phil Urich became this heroic

Green Goblin for I think it's like a 10 or 12

issue run like he found an old hideout of Norman

Osborn's he fell into some goblin juice put on

this suit which had this circuitry laced inside

so when he had the suit all on he tucks the mask

in it activates and activates the goblin serum

in his blood and gives him like super strength

and he has like his lunatic laugh that he can

use to disorient people and eventually that gets

damaged and he starts the long slow spiral to

super villainy but yeah like the annual it's

I wouldn't say it's absolutely necessary reading

but I would highly recommend it Yeah, I mean,

like, the end of it where Wraith is running out

and it says continued in Superior Spider -Man

number 30. I mean, yeah, no, it's not must -read,

but if you're like me and you bought the collection

over buying all the single issues, it's here.

Like I said, I wasn't sure where it was going

to fit or what it was going to do, but it's here.

And it's fine. I mean, if you... I really want

to read this and the thing folks, like I have

a whole lot of digital comics that they organize.

So if there's an annual like this, it fits between

two issues. This, the annual would be issue 29

.5. Cause you can kind of read it. It fits in

between these. And then, yeah, we get into 30,

which has this awesome, you know, ripped and

tattered Spider -Man hood. And it looks, this

is like the classic Spidey mask. It's not like

the, it's not superior. it's not only in the

respect that it is completely damaged, but you

have like, it's in the middle of this web with

these spiders, you know, crawling all over. Right.

Yeah. And we get into the story and Spidey. Before

we get too far in, I do want to say that Dan,

Dan slots on the plot. Christos Gage is on the

script. Giuseppe is on pencils. John Dell and

Terry Pallett are on inks, and then Antonio Fabella

is on collars for this issue. And what I'm loving...

Yeah, it is pretty much the same. I just didn't

really look at it the last couple issues that

we've been talking about it. What I'm loving

is they're basically grooming Christos Gage to

take Dan's... I don't want to say his slot, but...

To take Dan's place. Yes, his place after Dan

eventually, you know. And obviously, this isn't

the end. This is just Superior Spider -Man. Dan

went on to redo Amazing, and Amazing had a whole

other run, which we will be getting to, at least.

What I find so interesting and funny is that

I started doing the pullback with Spider -Man.

At the end of a run, which was, like I said at

the beginning of this podcast, Spada, The Bolt

Matrix, and I did issues 698 to 700, which was

the whole lead -up to Superior. The whole end

of, you know, the 700 issues of the original

run kind of thing. And then you and I have done

all this and everything else. And now I'm going

back to the end of the next Amazing, which was

794 to 801. which is Dan Slott's last ride with

Spidey. And we'll be covering Red Goblin at some

point here in the future. Yeah, because I mean,

the way Marvel has this habit in order to get

new readers and all that, Marvel has a habit

of restarting titles. So from this, it goes into

what is a technically Amazing Spider -Man Volume

3, and then Amazing Spider -Man Volume 4, which

then goes back to the original numbering. So

if you count all the... the rebooted amazing

spider -man runs yeah we end up at issue 800

with uh the whole red goblin storyline but yeah

we get into here and you know i'm just going

to call him spidey beyond because i almost trip

over my tongue when i say 2099 but yeah spidey

beyond and superior you know have battled their

way free of the goblin slayers and you know osborne's

taunting them From like, you know, the, the Mysterio

like crystal ball face that all spider slayers

have for some reason. Yep. And then he has, it's

like, don't fall. They're like, we've got Anna

Maria. Don't fall for it. Spider -Man. It's a

trap. And Oh no. I was like, say what you will

about Osborne. He might be a bastard, but he

has fun with his work. And then I'll kill you.

And he punches. because that's going to help

things. And then, you know, Superior dicks off

because he's got a plan, but it doesn't include

Beyond. And then, you know, Miguel's like, you

bit head, which I forgot that's one of the curse

words that, I think it was Kurt Busiek who wrote

a large part of Spidey 2099. He's like, you bit

head, I knew you were supposed to, the real Spider

-Man would never. And then we go back to the

mindscape. been you know it's now we're getting

into the last days of Osborne like the you know

ends of the earth and I love Giuseppe's kind

of take on I cannot remember the artist's name

but it's that awesome shot of you you see Osborne

or Osborne Otto when he's in his iron long octopus

suit with all the tubes and wires plugged into

the back of his head because He basically has

the supervillain version of football's CTE syndrome

and radiation poisoning and he's dying and then

we see the golden octobot transfer his mind into

Peter's body. And after that brief interlude,

we go back to the war for NYC. Yeah, exactly.

And we see the Avengers. Oh, my God. Cardiac

survived. Saints be praised. Honestly, the reason

I keep going back to that, folks, is Cardiac

is one of the dumbest hero characters they came

up with in the 90s. And it's just like, no, no.

Dear God, why? And then we have the whole thing

with Liz and her son, Normie. I'm like, oh, God,

no. Why is she holding a goblin mask behind her

back? Oh, God. Well, because at this point, I

think she's sussed out that Norman is still in

the company. And it's basically Jonah losing

his mind and regressing to And it's not my fault.

It's Spider -Man. It's Spider -Man. It's always

Spider -Man. It can't be my fault. I am a bastion

of truth and integrity. And, you know, Liz is

like coming and is like, look, I told you the

robots weren't ready. You did it anyhow. We're

severing ties. It's all on Jameson. Y 'all will

help the city as best we can. And, you know,

I don't think there's anything nefarious with

the goblin mask. It's just, let's face it, Normie,

Norman Jr. son of harry osborn that kid is gonna

need years of therapy and especially what happens

later on in the red goblin storyline like dear

god that kid is not gonna have a normal life

oh don't spoil it because i haven't read it yet

that's not I'll say this right now. I have not

read, like, I was so pissed when they ended this

just because that new fucking movie was coming

at the time. I was so pissed. So, not only did

I not finish reading Superior Spider -Man, I

have read nothing of the second Amazing Run.

The ending is the only thing I'll be reading.

Yeah. I don't know. But, so yeah, we have, we

go back to the Mindscape and Despite everything

Peter's experienced going through Otto's memories,

he doesn't lose anything of himself. And he starts

taking his mind, like his mind starts taking

his body back. And he walks into the light. But

that's a good thing here, folks. And they have

one of my all -time favorite pages, double -page

spread in a Spider -Man. comic is you know peter

you know he's fully come back into his mind he's

not just this blue ghost and he's you know in

the classic spider -man suit and you see the

web of his life behind him and there's all these

classic it's not just it's not you know giuseppe's

count it's trying to keep the art yeah it is

the classic pages yeah yeah it's snapshots of

john ramita jr and john ramita senior and huberto

ramos I think if I squint, there might be some

Mark Bagley in there and Roy Thomas. It's the

greatest hits of Spider -Man. We talked off air

before we started recording about how there are

these people who hate Dan Slott for the way he

taught his opinions and the way he deals with

stuff in the real world. You know what? That's

all well and good. A lot of people say stuff

I don't agree with. But for people say that he

doesn't get Spider -Man nuts to y 'all. Cause

the, the, the, the dialogue here, every triumph,

every tribe, the heartache and the joy, family,

friends, the adventure of it all in the fun.

Oh my God. There was so much fun. It's mine.

The good and the bad. I built that. I'm not surrendering

one second. I'm taking it all back. He gets Spider

-Man ultimately as much as he wallows in self

-pity and believe you me folks, Peter loves the

wall. Hello in the self pity pool. He was up

to it and he fights back and he fights to win.

Yup. And that's the most important thing about

Spider -Man and how everyone's like, no, no,

Spider -Man's Spider -Man's like this. And Spider

-Man's like, you know what? Unless you're right

in the comic, doesn't matter. Yup. Yeah, exactly.

And I love that page. That is one of my favorite

pages. I have several different panels and pages

out of this entire trade paperback with Goblin

Nation that I absolutely love. But that is by

far one of the best pages I've seen in a Spidey

comic in a long time. We go back to the Goblin

Underground where, you know, they have Amy Chen,

not Anna Maria. And Goblin is... Quite literally

in the money train. I swear to God, the panel

where he says, I've done bridges, this time I

thought I'd go with tunnels. I swear to God,

I'm like, you put him in a Wesley Snipes or a

Woody Harrelson suit, it's the money train. So

Amy Chen's there and she's getting ready to get

hit by a train and Otto's like trying to think

about it. If I miss, if I'm hit, there'll be

no one to save Anna Maria. What should I do?

Ghost Peter, jump! And, of course, he jumps,

saves her, saves himself, yada, yada, yada. We

have a conversation with Ghost Peter and Otto,

which I absolutely love. He says, You screwed

up, Otto. When there's time, you weigh options.

When there's not, you act, and you always do

the right thing, even if it means giving up the

advantage like I just did. You know I'm here

now. And I know what that means. Round two. Well,

bring it. I'm ready this time. Yes, you are.

And the whole time, sorry, the whole time I'm

reading this and after the whole switcheroo between

their two minds, I hear nothing but Christopher

Daniel Barnes from the 94 series as Peter while

I'm reading this right now. Oh, yeah. No, I agree.

Well, maybe Christopher Daniel Barnes, a little

bit of Dan Gilvansan, because those are two of

my favorite Spider -Man voice actors. But when

you said Money Train, I wanted to make a show.

Go back and listen to that episode of MWire,

folks. Yes, exactly. It'll be in the show notes.

But yeah, so Otto drops Amy off with an EMT.

has this, you know, Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket

-like conversation, and they go back to Parker

Industries, and I love where, you know, Sojani's

there, and she's like, wait, you think this is

because we had a thing, and he just says, what

are you doing? You can't go in there! He's like,

shut up! I was like, you're saying exactly what

I was thinking, Otto. Exactly what I was thinking.

And... He straps them into the mind helmet version

two and deletes himself. Basically he, you know

what folks, what, what, what auto basically did

without any kind of glove or any kind of stones.

He just basically, you know, snapped his fingers

and he was gone. One snap and one guy goes, not

the entire world. Thanks a lot. Thanos for nothing.

Yeah. And I, I do. like that in as it's all being

deleted like you know peter gets a look at you

know they get this other like i get another walk

through his memories and you see his heroic deeds

and i love his final words is like only you can

save her because you are are the superior spider

-man and damn right you should cry for him man

because he just sacrificed himself in an incredibly

noble way As much as I don't care for it, and

I know our good buddy Optimus Solo doesn't care

for the single fucking tier, like in, look at

any version, any episode of He -Man or He -Man

and She -Ra or whatever, there's always a single

fucking tier at times. In any 80s animation kind

of thing, here it actually works because it feels

like he's lost somebody. And it's not just his

quote -unquote worst enemy or whatever, but it's

somebody that affected his life in a way that

he never thought that would happen. Now, I don't

necessarily like the fact that he's suiting up

in the classic suit. I love the superior suit,

and I would have loved to have seen what he could

have done with Otto's technology, because Peter

is a genius himself kind of thing. But I do love

that they did bring the classic suit back as

that final panel. um for this issue yeah and

you see the uh closet of those spidey suits that

you know peter's had the characters had in some

respects since uh the big time story arc where

he joined horizon labs which honestly i i was

so bummed when you know auto got peter fired

from horizon and all that because the some of

the like maximum Odell and the supporting staff.

And just like, finally Peter's arrived as a scientist.

And later on when slot had him become like the

science editor at the daily bugle for a time,

I was like, why do we keep going back there?

Like eventually, like eventually he's got to

grow up and move, move out of the house, you

know? But yeah, so we get Peter suiting up in

the classic suit, which again is somewhere in

my top, all -time favorite superhero costumes.

I love this suit. I think it's the best spider

suit he's ever wore. I like the Ben Reilly redesign

they had in the 90s with the web shooters on

the outside of his wrists and he had the impact

webbing and the very 90s looking costume, but

I think that works because it keeps mostly it's

an enhanced version of the classic suit. But

yeah, Spidey, You know, Peter soups up and puts

on his, like, my turn. Like, oh, shit, there's

gonna be a fight. And, you know, we get to the

issue 31, the quote -unquote series finale, because

technically 32 and 33 happened chronologically

a time before this. But, again, like the web

of Peter reclaiming his memories and everything,

And the last issue, all the shattered glass as

Peter, you know, it's like he's falling through

the sky. All the shattered glass is all covers

from Superior. Yeah. Yeah. And I love that. I

absolutely love it. I think it's great. Yes,

32 and 33 are a part of this series, but they're

also part of Spider -Verse, which we will have

to cover way later. As I mentioned in the beginning

of this book, as soon as I get some money to

actually get some stuff on Comixology, we will

be doing Spider -Verse at some point. We will

probably be doing Red Goblin before we do Spider

-Verse because my thought, and I know we have

to get to this review and finish it and all that

and everything else, but my thought process on

the pull -bag Spider -Man coverage going forward,

we cover Red Goblin because I've already bought

it. We cover Edge of Spider -Verse, Spider -Verse,

and then we start into Spider -Geddon, because

Spider -Geddon is the current big event leading

into a new Spider -Verse event. Well, it's technically

Spider -Verse 2, but... Okay, well... Whatever

it is, I'm saying, like, because of Marvel, because

of PlayStation, because of Sony... I've watched

someone play through the entire Spider -Man game,

the new one, and I absolutely love it. I think

it's great. And they're bringing that Spider

-Man into Spider -Geddon, so I absolutely want

to read it because I loved watching the story

unfold in that game and the Black Cat DLC and

all that. So I'm super excited. You folks should

be happy with this episode and other Spidey episodes

that are coming. We're also going to do some

other stuff that we needed to finish up eventually

as well. Because it's been a while since I've

actually wanted to be able to dig into some Marvel

stuff. I mean, most of the pullback stuff. In

the last two or three years has been DC, IW,

Boom, whatever. But anyway, the amazing... The

amazing, wow. The Superior Spider -Man series

finale, issue 31. Wow. So the Goblin has Anna

Maria. And we go back to Parker Industries and

he's changed into his old suit. You know. go

out and save the day, but because this is now

Peter Parker and Otto is gone, supposedly, because

there's also the Superior Octopus right now in

2018, folks. We'll talk about that later. He

sees that Carly is fully, almost fully cured,

except for her goblin eyes. Yeah. And I get that.

You go back to that shot of Norman and Anna Maria,

and I love how it's all wires and everything

connected to all the pumpkin bombs, but I mean,

it looks like some supervillain version of a

pumpkin patch. And I like how you have the regular

softball size, baseball size, and then you got

one that looks like an actual pumpkin. It might

be an actual pumpkin, because, well... Osborn's

cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, so Lord knows. But yeah,

we get back to Parker Industries, and Peter apologizes

to Jenny, and she's, again, a raging bitch, so

she doesn't even hear that. And Tilly's like,

what, you're going to cure somebody? Sure you

wouldn't rather beat them to death first? It

was like, shut up. Please? Yes. And, you know,

Peter goes and apologizes to Carly and tries

to tell her, you know like look that wasn't me

it was auto like look i'm sorry i am so sorry

and they get to work on tweaking the spider tech

yeah and then you have where you know he talks

to aunt may are you guys all right yeah i'm working

on it we're trying to fix this and it's all intercut

with him webb swinging his way across nyc and

along the way just Almost casually taking out

some bad guys. Yes. Almost like what you do in

the video game. Okay, so I love this panel. This

panel might be in the post. I don't know. It's

right after they're working on the spider bots.

He says, okay, things are bad, but I can handle

this. After what I just came back from, I can

handle anything. But first, there's something

I have to do. Something Otto would have... Would

have considered unimportant. But there's nothing

more important. Not in the whole world. I have

to hear her voice. And no she's okay. And obviously

you know. Secure line call Aunt May. When. Okay

so I don't know if you've ever used. Comixology

you may or may not have. But the guided view

does like this. This storyboard panel thing.

And sometimes they. blowout to like splash pages

the full page of him swinging oh i love it i

love the colors i love the art i love the drawing

on it the lines are perfect the web fluid is

a little more blue than white but other than

that whatever who cares it's an awesome epic

image of spider -man So he calls Aunt May and,

you know, as you said, does the talking and whatever

else. J. Jonah Jameson is now flipping over desks

and tables and all of that silly thing that J.

Jonah Jameson does. Meanwhile, Mr. Stone is...

Go ahead. I was going to say, and of course he's

like, they're going down with me. There's no

way they could put a positive spin on this debacle.

I was like, uh... How long have you lived in

the Marvel goddamn universe, Jonah? And how often

have shitheels like Norman Osborn and Obadiah

Stane and et cetera, et cetera, pulled gold out

of bullshit? Yep. Going down. Yep. And Tiberius

Stone is going to be selling the Spider -Bot

units to the highest bidder. Yeah. I can only

imagine that one of the men on the other end

of that call is this face -masked and blue -helmeted

individual. He's like, Destro, this man sells

better tech than you do. He's like, what's going

on, Commander? But yeah, we go back to ESU. Peter

rescues Miguel and tells him, I was brain -swapped.

We don't have time to talk. I'm a goblin. Could

you use some help, old buddy, old pal? And Miguel's

like, That's just stupid enough to be right.

Yep. Pretty much. Let us be chums. Yep, pretty

much. And, you know... Honestly, one of my favorite,

as much as you love that scene of Peter swinging

over the cityscape and calling out May, one of

my favorite images in this, favorite panels in

this issue is where... In my head, I hear that

Mighty Mouse, here I come to save the day, and

foot to the face! Like, he just... ...face in!

Like, boot to the goddamn... I'm sorry, it's

just like... It's beautiful. You know, he rescues

it, literally talks to the Avengers for like

five seconds, and they're like... Oh God, he's

back. Which is kind of goes back to an issue

after this in the amazing Spider -Man volume

three, number one, where this is like, look,

I brought cookies. It was Doc Ock in my head.

And they're like, yeah, that sounds about right.

And we cut back through to Spider -Man showing

up at Alchemax and Tiberius Stone having the

tech and whatever, and he hits a button and basically

screws the pooch on Spider -Man for a minute

until Miguel comes in and punches Stone out,

which is all very interesting and nice, but we

get what I consider the best interaction, and

again... This one specifically has to be Christopher

Daniel Barnes from 94 because of the way the

pun is. And it has to be Neil Ross from the same

series because Neil Ross was Norman Osborn slash

the Green Goblin in that series. I had no idea

Springer was fucking Norman Osborn in the 94

Spider -Man series until I interviewed him recently.

Except the dignity of knowing I never carried

a man purse. it's you the one and only like I'm

sorry like yes I agree with you and I absolutely

love Dan Gilvezan and I love his version of Spider

-Man but my version was 94 the one that the one

that made me read Spider -Man comics as a teenager

in the 90s was The Marvel Comics, Fox, Spider

-Man, John Semper Junior, all of that. This exchange

can only be that version because, I'm sorry,

as much as I love Dan Gilvezan, his series was

never that quippy. You know, I agree with you,

and it's a very nitpicky thing for me. As much

as I love Christopher Daniel Barnes' Spider -Man,

and I do, I always thought his puns sounded just

the tenor. The sound of his voice made them sound

a little meaner than I thought they should be,

which is why I like Dan Gilson's voice here.

Except in this moment, third favorite voice of

Spider -Man of all time, Josh Keaton. I do love

Josh, yes. I can totally hear spectacular Spidey

saying, well, you know, except for the dignity

of knowing I never carried a man purse. You know,

I can just... spectacular Spider -Man coming

out of that. Maybe even NPH. NPH is number four.

I never cared for him as Spider -Man. That MTV

series sucked. That's another podcast for another

day. They get into it and I love it when you

see these panels in art where you see the action

is illustrated. by a couple of the images being

a lighter tone in color. Because you have where

Norman throws a razor bat, and Peter leaps up,

grabs it, tuck and rolls, throws it back, frees

Anna Maria, crushes Osborn's wrists, or at least

the sparkle blasters that he has built into his

gloves. And then he rips off his mask and he's

like, I have no idea who you are. And this is

a thing that I appreciate what Dan Slott was

trying to do here. He's teasing that Osborn has

changed his look, his plastic surgery, and he's

been inside Alchemax from the beginning. And

then within... because it was less than a year

and then Secret Wars happened. In Volume 4, he's

gone back to the traditional Osborn hairstyle

in his face and it's all kind of scarred up and

I don't know if that's from the reverse plastic

surgery or what. But yeah, it's just like, he

looks more like Steve Lombard from The Daily

Planet than he does Norman Osborn. And this is

also the thing, the greatest, you know, it's

akin to Star -Lord's, oh, it's the greatest screw

you Spider -Man has ever done to the Goblin,

where he releases basically any spider mechs

that are loaded with the cure that Osborn has

knocked away, and he removes the Goblin from

Norman Osborn. yeah holy shit that was beautiful

you know and and good then he rescues anna maria

yeah he rescues anna maria and i love this rescue

practice this a thousand times where to latch

on to someone how much counterforce to use reeling

them in at this point i could do it in my sleep

Because I'm determined never to relive old nightmares.

I just love that character development. And the

whole thing at the end here. Because I'm Spider

-Man. And when I'm around, no one dies. Not even

you. Because he doesn't let Goblin die. Yeah.

It's not how I do things. And again, I love the,

is it true? Is it not moment where Liz, Oh my

God, it was a mistake. I just tensed up. And

I was like, we'll never really know. It's just

like, when it's like, Oh, you, you, I'm going

to talk to you later. And then you see like the,

Normie is not right. Cause he's got that wide

eye. Look at his eyes. Yeah. He's got the goblin

look. Yeah. And then, The only problem I have

with this characterization in Osborn is he's

running away on the goblin train. And he's like,

the goblin's gone, but so is the madness. I was

like, no, dude, you were an air -aging, arrogant

a -hole before the goblin juice gave you super

strength. Don't lie to us. You were nuts before

that. Yeah. Yeah. And then the final page of

this. Thanks for saving us. For a while I thought,

no. I just can't imagine a life without him.

And then Spider -Man says in his monologue, she

loved him. I was wrong. For me to even be here,

someone had to die. And we see the, you know,

the vision of Superior Spider -Man as Spidey

and the police with Anna Maria walk away and

we have the end. And then they do this real...

Go ahead. Which is so cool. Yeah. But again,

that's another nod to the Spider -Man No More

cover from back in the late 60s, early 70s. Something

like that. It's one of the most important Spider

-Man comics. But yeah, it's... But yeah, we get

the gallery of covers. Oh, I love it. I love

that they did this. It's so cool. And while Black

Cat wasn't in this that much, I'm hoping in the

future she will be now that it's Peter in control.

We have this little epilogue thing where, you

know, actions have consequences. And MJ and May

and J .J. That's another thing I'll tell you

right now. I'm not... I want Aunt May to be happy,

but I'm not sure moving on to be married to J.

Jonah Jameson's father is a storyline that I

like for Aunt May. I don't know. It's a little

weird to me, but it is what it is. The old girl

deserves to be happy. True. I still love from

where he first finds out that Jonah is technically

junior. And he was a J Jonah Jr. J Jonah Jr.

It's just one of my, I love that moment. And

yeah, and we have this, you know, epilogue story

here. Christos Gage, Will Sliney on art, Edgar

Delgado on color and Chris Eliopoulos. I think

I said that right as the letter. And it's the

aftermath. The, you know, the spider family has

come back to NYC from Connecticut. J. calls peter

on his bullshit and you know what the hell man

and peter says i've fire i quit working for spider

-man i'm gonna you know make it i'm gonna make

it official i just you know i know i don't deserve

a second chance and i will prove myself worthy

and jay's all right and then you have peter bitching

or sorry peter getting bitched out by mj in the

again Sliney's art, and it's referencing the

classic Face It Tiger. You just hit the jackpot

pose. And she's like, I'm sorry, I can't live

here anymore. She leaves NYZ for, I think, about

three or four years and comes back for Tony Stark.

Because that was a thing. Interesting. She basically

becomes the new Pepper Potts of a sort. And she's

still there. It's just that never, never considered

that before. And then he apologized and look,

you got it. You do you. I understand. You see

the press conference where Jane, like Jonah resigns

and, you know, talks a lot of shit to the reporters

on his way out. And we see a Carly hasn't, she

hasn't completely recovered from the goblin juice

yet. Like she's still got like the, You know,

you're supposed to wipe the makeup off, look

like the crusty goblin skin around her eyes.

And she's moving to like Florida or something

to, you know, while, you know, take time and

let the cure work the rest of this out of her

system. And as the two great loves of Peter's

life, they kind of compare notes. And, you know,

Carly Cooper rides off into the sunset, never

to be seen or spoken of again. which is a shame

because she was a cool character I really liked

her and Peter goes to try and apologize to Jonah

you know he had to speak his piece and he swings

away and then Jonah's like oh that would have

been great if he had shown up before I resigned

exactly And in the, again, Amazing Spider -Man

Volume 3, Number 1, we see the scene played out

from Jonah's perspective. And he's like, yes,

I'll go back to the bugle. Proud father returning.

And then they see Mayor Jameson resigns in disgrace

across the first cover. He's like, vultures,

assholes. They never deserved me. It's like,

no one deserves the walking aneurysm that is

J. Jonah Jameson. I'm sorry. Love you, Jonah.

You don't deserve nearly as much of the bullshit

as we give you, but GTFO. Yep. Oh, go ahead.

I was going to say, and that's the end of Superior

Spider -Man. That's the end, folks. As we said,

32 and 33 come into play with Spider -Verse,

which will be covered later. As JT said, this

was the series finale. I absolutely love it.

I'm glad that we went back to it. Goblin Nation

on a whole, I'll give the trade a four and a

half out of five. There were only little bits

and pieces here and there I didn't really care

for, but overall, I love the way they handled

this story. I love the way Dan wrote this. I

love what he did with these characters. All of

them. Because it's so hard, you know? Okay, maybe

not for someone who's been writing these characters

for ten years, but... In my mind as a reader

and as a fan of the Spider -Man franchise, at

least the 616, Peter Parker, Mary Jane, Spider

-Man 94 animated series kind of thing, it's like,

how do you bring new stories to these characters?

And this is why I love this series so much. Putting

Otto into Spidey's body completely flipped the

script for 31 issues, you know? Yeah. And I absolutely

love it. What would you give it 0 to 5? five

like there's no question this is legit one of

my favorites fireman titles all the time you

know dan slott is not a perfect writer but he's

a hell of a writer and he's passionate about

what he does and i think there is a lot of despite

what the naysayers say there is a lot of passion

on display you know i mean like you said a lot

of people plots are simplistic and They're not

character driven. I was like, and that, that

sort of accusations. You're looking for some

sort of, you know, think piece or something like

super villains and superheroes fight and shit

gets wrecked up and it'll never be the same again.

And it's comic books. Like if you want deep thought

provoking character driven stories, read image

comics. Or some very fine publications from other

smaller things. But this is a guy who was bitten

by a radioactive spider. Lesson in responsibility

and has had an incredibly insane and weird, wonderfully

wacky life ever. Dan Slott got that. I thought

he did great. Yeah, me too. And all of the artists

on this series, from Ramos to Delgado to... And

Giuseppe and everybody absolutely loved all of

the work that all of these people did on it.

Before we get JT's contact info and all that

stuff, coming up over the next two weeks here

in November, we've got 331 and 332 of The Pull

Bag. It's a two -parter episode where... The

comic concierge Dan Moverville -Clark and DJ

Valentine from Simplistic Reviews are going to

join me as we take part one, issues one to four,

and part two, issues five to eight of Batman

White Knight. So that's what's coming up here

on the pull bag for the next two weeks here in

November. Where can the people find you online,

sir? They can find me sporadically. on the Comic

Connoisseurs Podcast with co -hosts Ben Carver

and Red Ink. You know, we talk about everything

related to and sometimes stuff completely unrelated

to comics. You can also find me online, Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram, at JT from Saskatoon. Cool.

Awesome. I am at TF2andMike on Twitter. You can

follow at ThePullBag on Twitter. Check us out

on Facebook as well as going to geekcastradio

.com. Make your greatest game of the comics,

and we will catch you next week, folks, when

the Joker is the hero and Batman is the villain,

or so I've been told. He's a white knight. I

don't know. He's the hero the city deserves,

not needs. Who knows? We will... Talk to you

next time. Keep on reading those comics. Oh,

yes. But think of the fun. You've just heard

the latest episode of The Pullback, the GCRN's

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