I couldn’t have written it better myself.

In my comics world the retcon of Hobgoblin;s secret ID never happened. (I’d stopped reading by that time anyway.)

In fact, it spoke more about the Kingpin as a ruthless adversary that he used the information to twist the knife in Spidey – over an enemy no less- Kingpin knew Hobgoblin being killed but not brought to justice would pain Spider-Man as much as a physical blow- another nice detail that added to the story.

SPOILY SPOILY

Frankly I’ve had a look at the “clues” Stern wrote that supposedly pointed to Roderick Kingsley (also found on Spideykicksbutt), and man o man, you would have to be a deductive genius of the first water to get those. Personally, I found Ned a better if not more logical choice, because there was more emotional resonance to be found in his history than Kingsley’s, who was a bit too much of a background character with no real connections to the cast proper to really bring it home as a stunning reveal (the fact that back in the day, the same argument could be applied to Norman Osbourne is not lost on me by the by).

In the four years that the Hobgoblin saga ran for, Stern, Defalco and the rest of the Spiderman writers never bothered to stockpile a decent number of suspects – heaven knows why not. Ned Leeds was literally the only person it could be. So killing him off a couple of months before it was revealed he was the Hobgoblin was the only way to create any sort of surprise.

And I really liked that Ned died crying for Spiderman, it added pathos.

And that’s how it was for weeks with me.

And then I took another look, thought about it, and frankly, I found it to be one of Marvel’s ballsiest moves ever- even if it was a throw-away wrap up of a plotline.

SPOILERS AHOY:

Ned wasn’t a poor candidate- as anyone who reads the Spideykicksbutt page can attest, he technically wasn’t the best, but he was hardly out of the running. And he was indeed an amateur who simply stumbled on Norman Osbournes stashes (which evidently didn’t bug Norman in the least, who has the largest amount of “stashes” in NY ever seeing how many people including himself still find them).

So killing him off so suddenly, with such contempt, while it rankled me at first, it also did four things:

- made me aware for the first time in comics that the truly dangerous criminals weren’t the flamboyant ones- they were the ones behind the scenes that met their goals without interference or foolishness.
- made me have sympathy for the Hobgoblin- who up till then I found truly hateful- always evading Spidey and pulling something suitably malicious and horrible
- made me realize that the Foreigner’s goons were right- Hobgoblin was, at his core, an amateur, and Spidey had been going easy on him all this time- evidence? Every time the Hobgoblin actually pissed Peter off (see the kidnapping of Norm, Liz and MJ), Peter would break through his defenses, ignore his “super strength”, and beat the living shit out of him. Only Peter’s “good guy” code routinely prevented him from crippling Hobby- the Foreigner’s men had no such restraint.
- made me absolutely loathe the Foreigner even more (I was already upset at seeing Felicia playing Peter and jumping between two beds), but Foreigner taking the hit and carrying it out as an afterthought….

The whole thing chilled me- it was one of the first times the “real world” infringed on the fantasy world- one of these costumed guys with no professional training might just rub someone the wrong way and then they would be dealt with- not battling it out on a rooftop, but invaded when they least expected it, casually disarmed, and taken out not with a bang, but a whimper- the “Spider Man help me!” was haunting- even appropriate- Hobby knew if one person would give him a chance, it would be Spidey.

So though there was short term disappointment from me, in the long term, I found it a very compelling, fascinating choice- I understand if you would continue to loathe it, and frankly reading Christopher Priest’s account of the whole mess behind the scenes (I too thought Frenz was drawing Peter’s head really square) really drove home how there was literally no one at the wheel oftentimes when decisions needed to be made- but I found it a happy accident, where it ended up being so much more than a simple climactic fight- I had seen those before- I had never seen anything like this- the closest being Guardian killed in issue 12 of Alpha Flight, the first time in the series since the first issue where Alpha Flight actually battled as a team.

So for me, the Hobgoblin saga ended right then and there, and I never followed up on Stern’s retelling or anything else. I even liked watching Jason Macendale tool it up until the Hobgoblin was a joke, beaten and thrown out of Fisk tower (note: I prefer to leave Macendale at that point, as then we get into the whole Demogoblin stupidity).

So Menace could be fun (though I can’t stand the costume)- its re-inventing the wheel again, but the added bonus of having Norman around to contend with makes this new Goblin an interesting idea- particularly since he’s under the same impression as the original that he won’t go crazy and will maintain control.

Oh, and I thought at the time and STILL think now that Amazing was the superior book at the time. It’s not even a question of “book”, since I read it in Brazil and got both stories on the same book. The ones by Stern were consistently better, even though I didn’t knew at the time they were being made by different teams. So there.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

It is a classic run.

Thanks for the info. I never read that mini-series, so I wondered if they just ignored the PPTSS story or they explained it away somehow in a story I missed.

Steve: I think if Stern had stayed on the book, it would have resolved far sooner. I don’t have a problem with Stern dragging out the mystery for 14 months, but then, when he left, Marvel decided the mystery was more important than any resolution. That was kind of annoying, and that’s why the issues after this, which are fun, are not Comics You Should Own!

There are two reasons I don’t shy away from spoilers in these posts. One, the comics are often quite old and have been discussed many other places, so I think (I could be wrong) that most people know some of what’s going on. It’s the old “Citizen Kane” trap – how long does something need to be around before you can discuss it without worrying that you’re spoiling it? I think these have been around long enough. Two, I’m trying not to simply review these comics, even though many people might think I’ve failed. I’m trying to examine what the writers and artists do in the comic and how it speaks to deeper themes, and that’s tough to do, occasionally, without spoiling things. As with Enigma (and some of the other comics I’ve looked at), the big twist doesn’t ruin anything at all – I actually like Enigma more now that I know the big twist, because I can focus on other things.

Thanks for reminding me about the spoiler warnings, though. I need to go back and put them in some of the older posts, where I didn’t do it. When it’s not relevant to what I’m writing about, I do try to avoid them, but occasionally I can’t. Again, I apologize.

Buy Enigma! It’s really good!