First Appearance of Red Goblin is Kinda Epic

Norman Osborn is once again back in Peter Parker’s life after such a long time away from each other and this time, he’s not alone because  he’s also become the Red Goblin. Spoilers from this week’s Amazing Spider-Man # 798.

The issue is written by Dan Slott with art by Stuart Immonen.

So in this issue, Green Goblin attacks the Daily Bugle where Peter Parker is now working once more after the fall of Parker Industries. They were trying to find out where Phil Urich aka the Goblin King hid at the time of the attack. Peter manages to slip away and change to his Spidey costume and a battle ensues but then the bomb that Osborn brought along with him detonated.

Parker finds Osborn impaled by one of the glass shards from the Daily Bugle explosion and he thinks that that’s the end of his encounter with the Green Goblin.

Then Osborn begins his transformation into Red Goblin which catches Parker by surprise. And I swear, this is one of the cooler transformations in recent Spider-Man book history.

We then get a full blown splash page of Norman Osborn in his new form, we give you, the first appearance of Red Goblin.

This Green Goblin / Carnage hybrid proves that he’s more than a match for Spider-Man. He even flaunts his new powers by throwing Carnage bombs, as opposed to the traditional Goblin bombs Osborn’s been famous for.

Not only are they deadly, they can also track their targets for a sustained amount of time. Poor Peter Parker had the distinction of the first superhero to feel the bomb’s “bite”.

Amazing Spider-Man # 798 ends with a sour note with Spider-Man retreating after being injured by Norman Osborn.

So there you go, the first appearance of Red Goblin’s pretty neat and it definitely feels like a classic where the new villain is more powerful than the hero until hero finds a way to beat the odds. For “Go Down Swinging” though, it looks like the vilain’s going to beat up all the Spider themed heroes in New York City.

Don’t forget to pick up the issue this week and subscribe to the mailing list to your daily dose of comics and popculture news.