Green Goblin #10

Background

An anonymous client has taken out an ad in the Bugle; $10,000 Dead or Alive for the Green Goblin!!! J. Jonah takes a golden opportunity to make news, and runs with it. Phil Urich, in classic style, decides to turn himself in for the dough! But Ricko the Sicko applies a little New York muscle to Phil for info on the Goblin. What follows can only mean one thing....trouble!

Story Details

As Phil leaves to go to the rendezvous point, Rick follows him. Urich ducks into his costume just as Rick comes around the alleyway. The Green Goblin applies a little of his own muscle onto Rick, turning the tables on the hood. As he does, however, a garbage truck sucks them both up with a huge vacuum. When Phil awakes, he's trapped inside a gigantic pinball in Murderworld, Arcade's kingdom! Seems like Gaunt (and his mysterious employer), have hired Arcade to capture the Green Goblin and get all of his equipment (Hmmm, I wonder why they'd want to do that?)

GG gets thrown into a fantasy realm and without his glider, he clicks his jet-boots (jet-boots?), and flies through the air. He even manages to save Ricko's sorry behind from a Conan-Android thing. From the control room, the madman laughs at the Goblin's antics. Gaunt, however, just wants the job done. Green Goblin tries to escape, but comes up against some Marvel-looking robots (namely, Spider-Man, Colossus, the Hulk, and Doctor Doom). After running like hell, Phil and Rick walk through a holographic wall, into a tunnel. The Goblin realizes his mask scanner is picking up the glider-cam (glider-cam?) from right behind Arcade and Gaunt. He takes this chance to fetch his ride and blast the bad guys at the same time. He retrieves his glider, grabs Rick by the collar, and flies down an escape tunnel to safety.

The adventure ends with Goblin threatening Rick, informing the Sicko that "whether you like it or not, you now work for me!". Rick runs into the night, and Phil retreats back to his loft. As he pulls off his mask, he hears shuffling sounds in front of his door. Upon opening it, he finds a non-descript package and opens it, revealing...the ten thousand dollar reward!!! Who says you can't have your cake and eat it too?

General Comments

There were just a couple of things I didn't like. First, the use of other Marvel character likenesses has gone too far. We saw it last issue with Netshape, and we see it again with Arcade's robots. I don't want to see Spider-Man's android, I want Spidey!! Maybe that will happen before issue 13, maybe it won't. Second, I am sick and tired of Gaunt and his mysterious employer! Enough already with MULTIVEX and the anonymity, tell us what's going on!

The things I did like about this issue was the change-up in story formats (I was getting tired of the 'villain bursts in, Phil researches at the Bugle and beats the bad guy' routine). This one gives us a change, and plenty of Goblin action. I am dreading the end of this series more than any other. Hell, if they can spin this clone thing into such a mess, why can't they mutate Phil in some manner? Maybe like 'The Purple Goblin', or something. I like this book, I like the stories and characters, but mostly I just like the way Green Goblin is as a hero. I'm going to miss him.

Overall Rating

I have to give it a four-webber this time. It was good, but it didn't knock my socks off. Overuse of other Marvel characters and that Gaunt crap ruined its chances at perfection for me. I liked the change-up of story style, but it could have gone much farther than it did.