I’m sure spiderfans know the story by now, but I'll run it past you one more time.
Come mid -1966 Steve Ditko hands in his resign and leaves, citing that Stan should know. Now Stan forgot or so he says and Steve, he isn’t talking. So it might be forever a mystery, but point is that by this time Stan and Steve weren’t exactly on speaking terms any more, working across each other providing still solid work but the writing was on the wall and everybody saw it coming. So when Ditko actually dropped the shoe, it wasn't much of a surprise. The only surprise was the reason which we can only speculate about. It could be that Ditko wasn't too glad with the credit he wasn't getting, that Stan was cited as the sole creator and Ditko merely the monkey dancing to his tune and they are also supposed to have fought tooth and claw over the identity of the Green Goblin. Ditko wanted it to be a nobody, Stan wanted somebody close to Spider-man to have it some real impact. Both points have merit, Stan's however was the one that saw print.
Anyway back to our conjecture, Stan is off course on top of his game by this time, writing the majority if not all the output of the Marvel universe, ( You wonder how he did it.) and took precautions. So what do you do when you just lost your co creator, artist and co plotter ? You replace him with an arguably stylistically better artist. ( John Romita Sr) Resolve the bone of contention, ie the Green Goblins identity because Ditko might just return and if he does, that whole argument might flare up again. Not content however with two bombshells, Stan decided to also have the Goblin unmask Spider-man and put a bound Peter Parker his clothes torn so his spider suit can be seen underneath, pulled through the air by the Goblin on his glider, all lovingly rendered by Romita on the cover. Any true blood spider fan at the time just had to pick that one up ,no matter who it was illustrated by. (Up to this point Spider-Man has been solely illustrated in his own title by Ditko. By Kirby on the cover of AF 15 and in the back up story of ASM 8 and in a two parter Daredevil story by Romita Sr.)
So it went down and so it happened, this is also the over of the Essential Spider-Man Volume 2 I am reviewing the issue from. We start with the goblin on the front page, in much the same position as he is on the cover only minus Peter and a lot bigger. He is flinging a news paper at us.
It is said by Romita himself in an interview, that he tried to adhere to Ditko’s style but I don't see it. The difference in style is immediately noticeable, Romita is bolder more anatomically sound, less gangly and sketchy. His characters are bigger and more muscular, more solid. Peter looks more like the 17 or 18 year old he is here, then the gangly kid Ditko portrayed him as, though Ditko's art did improve from issue 30 and on, though not by much as far as I am concerned.
The move to replace him with Romita was an inspired one which paid off handsomely.
The Goblin, who in Ditko's hand looked a bit like a joke complete with thick eyelashes and large ridiculous looking ears, glares balefully at us on the first page looking a lot more dangerous and real here.
Its accompanied by another piece of Stan bombast and once again he wasn't lying when he said, 'We went all out on this one so buckle your seats and away we go.'
They had to go all out on this one.
On the next page we see the Goblin pulling his mask off, all handily concealed by a shadow …drat. On the next panel the Goblin hides his face behind a mirror or what appears to be a mirror while his mask is on the fore ground, almost if it is laughing at us….drat again. The Goblin dons his mask again, restocks on his pumpkin bombs and tinkers with his glider, which for some reason is called rocket powered flying broom stick here. It might have been that way back in issue 14 but its not any more, before he whizzes off again. All the while gabbing to himself out loud in third person. (Really Stan, would be giving your villains thought bubbles be that hard ?)
We find Peter swinging around telling us he has a head cold or maybe just an allergy coming down on him and he decides to swing by the doctor. Not long after Peter emerges from a broom closet leaving a cleaner flabbergasted as to how Peter actually ended up in the room, seeing the cleaner has been outside all the time. After that some what amusing gag, Peter is let in to see the doctor who doesn't seem to have a lot to do. Which leads us to another gag, doctor Bromwell tells Peter he has the pulse of a super hero, which Peter denies but we all know its true.
Soon after that doctor Bromwell fills us in about aunt May's condition. The operation and I think Stan might have gotten his wires crossed here .It wasn't an operation but an infusion of isotope 36. Which hardly constitutes as a operation but that's neither here nor there and this is off course a reference to issue 33, "If this be my destiny." You know, the issue with the against all odds lifting of a few tonnes of machinery on top of his back. Yeah its that one, I knew you'd recognise it.
Anyway doctor Bromwell continues and tells Peter that aunt May must not have any sudden shocks or excitement, which could prove to be fatal otherwise. Can we say plot point kiddies? I knew you could. To be honest this is one thing that always bothered me about Stan's writing of May. He presents her as a molly coddling, doddering, foolish frail old woman. A delicate porcelain doll who always needs to be saved, rescued, but kept unaware. Doting on her nephew, afraid of that nasty Spider-man but was further almost an obstacle. A flat character that was almost used up, because the way Stan writes her very little could be done with her.
She was given a great send off in... well never mind that. At least JMS gave May a goal and more importantly gave her back some of the spunk and determination Stan showed us she possessed. Frail old woman, my fuzzy blue tail.
Next we see Peter strolling around the ESU campus ignoring Gwen and a invitation of Flash to make amends and we also see Harry Osborn, being dropped off by his harsh father. Who seems to be less then interested in his son, who is visibly shaken by this.
Even Peter notices that Harry is not his usual self and shoots a barbed remark at Harry who predictably snaps at Peter before actually apologizing. Something which surprises Peter before showing us again just how human he is by having a heart to heart with Harry, who up till then had been one of Peters primary antagonists together with Flash. Something which surprises both Gwen and Flash, who cant seem to figure him out. According to Flash, 'Parker is either a real weak sister or more man then he ever gave him credit for.' showing that even Flash Thompson can chance and he does chance eventually. Gwen however seems bit…dweepy compared to her introduction way back in issue 31 and I never really warmed up to her . She doesn't have the spunk or daring of Mary Jane. MJ always seemed to be the fun one, (Though Tom DeFalco eventually shattered that illusion ) and to make it simple, MJ is fun. Gwen is boring, not weepy just yet but she will become that eventually. That's however a story for another day. Next up we see Peter swinging around the city as Spider-man before he spots a hold up on a observation deck on a sky scraper, for some reason I tend to imagine it's the Empire State, but that's impossible off course.
Next up are five pages of Ditko inspired Spider-Man versus thugs round up. If Ditko did mange to do one thing good, it was that he always provided a interesting fight between Spider-man and a bunch of thugs. And Romita shows he is no slouch in this either, although how much this is to placate readers because they lost Ditko's art I would not know. I won’t weep about Ditko's departure though. Eventually one of the thugs tosses a gas grenade at Spider-man who seems bewildered by the whole fact. Unaware that the Green Goblin is hovering far above the fight, surveying the whole scene with a pair of binoculars, still gabbing to himself out loud. At least he isn’t talking about himself in the third person any more.
The gas however didn't seem to do squat to Spider-Man and he takes the thugs out effortlessly before swinging away. Just in time for the cops to clean up his mess.
And this is where we get what we have been waiting for, the Green Goblin unmasking Spider-man. Its not the dramatic capture and unmasking scene we had hoped for and which the cover promised us just yet. But we aren’t at the end just yet either.
Some how the gas has neutralized Peters spider sense and the Goblin can observe un harmed, unnoticed and unwatched how Peter unmasks himself and dons his normal clothes and… Hey! The Goblin has taught balloons, I knew you could Stan !
Understandably the Goblin is a bit perturbed by Peters age. The next page is genuinely creepy as the Goblin follows Peter around, on his glider in stealth mode. His presence can be seen by the reader in the form of shadows and back ground figures, which is genuinely creepy and a nice touch. Not knowing what is going on Peter disappears in to the bugle. Where the Goblin finds out the last piece of the puzzle, Peter's name, thanks to a shot gun mike what ever that is.
And then finally the pay off , the Goblin is hanging in front of Peter's house in mid air proclaiming he knows it all.
The fight scene that follows is what we have al been waiting for and its genuinely thrilling to see the Goblin toying with Peter, chuckling at him and to see Peter being helpless with out his costume or rather with out the filters in his mask and his web shooters. Even with out his gadgets he is still Spider-Man. We get a little interlude of aunt May waking up to the ruckus outside and mistaking the smokescreen from the goblins glider for fog, while doting on her nephew again. It's a darkly amusing scene but really once again a detriment to May's character.
That same nephew seems to have realized he is still Spider-Man as well, because he is sticking to a tree preparing his attack.
Seeing Peter fighting in his civvies, pulling no punches is genuinely thrilling to see as well. He has done it before but this is the first time an opponent actually knows who he is. It means that al bets are off and that what ever may happen will be unexpected and the unexpected does happen. Peter's clothes get torn in the scuffle, we see his spider costume under his clothes and the goblin actually wins this battle. Maybe because Peter is concerned about his aunt or maybe because his costume provides more then just flashy threads, never the less the Goblin manages to stun peter in to unconsciousness. The Goblin is suitably impressed and binds Peter with pliable steel alloy and then we get the scene from the cover, from another camera angle.
In his lair the Goblin boasts to Spider-Man that because he wont live to tell, he might as well unmasks himself. And underneath the mask is the face of ..off wait, ..err who is he again ?
Oh hang on ! Its Harry Osborn’s father ! Which falls a bit flat to be honest, because Osborn is a virtual nobody as well only introduced a mere 7 issue earlier, but then again 7 issues at the time was a day and a age.
When you see that angry, hateful, sweaty face coming out from under the grinning mask suddenly you realize that we are being in earnest here.
All bets are indeed off.
There be monsters around these here parts.

Ratings
Writing: The first thing you notice is just how much Stan packed in to this comic. Twenty pages and I just covered the most obvious points with out going to much out of my way . There are a lot of details I dropped by the way side, not to blow this review up to gigantic proportions. The second is that Stan is not pulling any punches, its almost as if he has been waiting for Ditko's leave of absence. Because he is diving head long in to a new story telling era with gusto, immediately moving forward in to a bold new direction. Not just the unmasking of Spider-man by the Green Goblin which in it self is a bombshell of gigantic magnitude or the resolution of the Goblins identity which cant help but falling a bit flat. Seeing that Osborn at the time was relatively new, although in hindsight Osborn is the right choice after if only thanks to history.
The Goblin shows himself to be an unhinged but inventive character. He has fought Spider-man so often he figured out Spider-man has some kind of sixth sense (And if the Goblin can figure that out why cant Tony Stark have figured it out either? But that's a complaint for another day.) and more importantly he found out how to neutralize that. There is some keen mind working behind that mask and shroud of madness there. Keen but like a broken mirror all splinters, pretty colors and rainbows, still ultimately a thing that is broken.
But other things that show this new direction is Gwen showing feelings for Peter. Harry and Peter making their first steps to friendship and Flash finally becoming more then just a two bit two dimensional bully.
In fact the only ones stuck in Ditko era are doting old aunt May and JJJ but Jonah will never really chance though he seems to be less of a caricature here then he was under Ditko …hmm.
The writing is actually not dated at all and still stands up quite well apart from the third person narration of the Goblin which always struck me as particularly bizarre, but then again the Goblin is a lunatic so who knows.
This comic covers a lot of ground in a mere twenty pages, in modern terms this would be a drawn out three parter at best, to get where it is now. This compressed story telling is always fun to read. But even though Stan was pushing the boundaries and pushing Spider-man in to even newer, Ditko less territories. The spectre of Ditko still looms large and I cant help but feel that the revelation of the Green Goblin's identity falls a bit flat at this point. Osborn was still a virtual nobody. 7 \ 10

Art
I don't really like Romita's art either. I like it more then the scrawny quirky art of Ditko, but Romita is too clean to neat and perfect. It is al to static and plastic for me.
However compared to Ditko the result is like night and day and I'd prefer Romita in this case . He is able to make the goblin a credible threat. He deftly is able to handle what Stan throws at him with almost death defying ease and he draws a better Spider-man then Ditko does. ( Not hard to do admittedly. ) Romita conveys Peter's shock and desperation while he tries to keep the Goblin at bay after being unmasked with aplomb and even aunt May who was portrayed by Ditko as a caricature of an old woman, looks more like a real human being here. And Romita's Peter has turned in to the template for every artist following him. They can al be traced right back at ASM 39 and JR Sr's rendition of our wallcrawler.
The fight between peter and the Goblin is deftly handled by Romita who obviously has fun at putting the scene down. It is a thrilling scene which would have left many a spiderfan at the time gaping with open mouths, most likely with singles from the Beatles, Revolver and Rubber Soul albums in the back ground.
Romita also portrays Osborn pulling his mask off perfectly.
Underneath we see a sweaty, hateful angry face with eyes filled with hate, not the smiling lunatic joker like face and expression we expected.
Romita's art stands with head and shoulders above Ditko and I am sure Ditko fans will hate me for this. 8 \ 10

Overall
A bold new direction that is for sure. Stan and John are pulling no punches and the reader is dragged along for one hell of a roller coaster ride, leaving al conventions and expectations at the door, because we are going in to undiscovered country.
Parts of the supportive cast who al have their part to play and more story then you can shake a web at.
However the revelation of Osborn being the Goblin falls a bit flat, because he was a bit player in the Spider-man comics up till now, despite history proving him to be the only right choice, if only by default.
And that Aunt May is still stuck in idiot demented mode, which only seems to get worse as time goes on. This issue is still a milestone in Spider lore and should be graded as such. 8 \ 10

Reviewed by Chris

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