Web of Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #94

Story 'Target Two'

Hobgoblin trashes a bar looking for Katzenberg, while Demogoblin gets his Spidey-type creature to attack some policemen. Two weird demon-type creatures called Troll and Hag attack some prison van guards. At Nick's there's a big fight between Hobgoblin, MK and Spidey again. The guards' murder means Venom escapes from them and he vows to go after Troll and Hag for murdering innocents. Spidey gets Katzenberg to safety. Hobby is arrested. Katzenberg has a heart attack.

General Comments

In my now on-going story-watch (my attempt to find a plot in Howard Mackie's work that I begun in issue 91) I found the following. In issue 93 eight out of 23 pages have no fight scenes. Issue 94 it's down to just seven. Out of 46 pages, 31 are simple, basic fight scenes.

If you wonder why the story descriptions are so short, the reason is that there's not much else to say. The characters fight, separate and then fight some more. As for the Goblin being 'reborn', Mackie's definition is loose to say the least or wrong to be more accurate.

As a character, Hobgoblin has not been used right since Ned's death. He has been overplayed and thrown into so many losing situations that the hard fact is Macendale is a loser. He loses again here. Why even bother using him as a villain? It's a waste of time.

As for Venom showing up again, the last time he was seen was in the aftermath of the Carnage saga when Reed Richards had the symbiote trapped in a holding chamber. Are we now supposed to believe he was taken out of that and put into some standard issue prison van? Where's the realism?

Overall Rating

The consistency in giving 0.5 webs is becoming depressing. This is not a classic era in Spidey's history by any stretch of the imagination.