"BRING BACK MY GOBLIN TO ME!"
Writer: Stan Lee/Plot/Pencils: Steve Ditko/Inker: Steve Ditko/Letterer: Artie Simek/Editor: Stan Lee/Cover Art: Steve Ditko
This review contains spoilers for ASM #27
Synopsis: Spider-Man breaks free from his captors and goes after the Crime-Master, but he'll have a few surprises in store for him along the way...
Review: And so we come to the last ever issue Steve Ditko produced featuring the Green Goblin (unless you count Norman Osborn's appearances in Issues #37 and #38). It's kind of a great send-off for the character, but much like last time, the Goblin doesn't really feature all that much. It's fantastic fun seeing him enter the battle royale at the start of the issue, hurling pumpkin bombs and shooting his sparkle blasters at Spider-Man, but once the big fight's over, he flies out of a window, not to be seen again until the issue's final page, where he vows to take a rest from his criminal career, until Spider-Man has almost forgotten about him, and then, when the wall-crawler least expects it...he'll strike. It's a great, ominous scene to end Ditko's Goblin on, with the culprit's face still wreathed in shadow as he holds his grotesque mask aloft, but I feel that as an overall story, the Lucky Lobo adventure from Issue #23 is a better showcase for the character than this two-parter.
These last two issues have been all about the Crime-Master. Whilst he may not have gone down in the annals of Spidey history as one of the greatest villains of all time, I'll always confess a fondness for him; I can never resist a Ditko 'masked man in a suit' character. It's in this issue that we finally discover who the Crime-Master really is, and after all the mystery, all the build-up, all the hints about Foswell, the villain turns out to be...some guy we've never heard of and have never been introduced to. I can imagine that the reveal of Nick 'Lucky' Lewis as the Crime-Master would have been a bit of a disappointment for anyone reading this story for the first time (I think my own teenage reaction was a feeling of anti-climax), but after several repeat readings, I think you can come to appreciate just how well Ditko misdirects you. He ensures that everything is coming back to Foswell, the man who is obviously connected with events pertaining to the Crime-Master, and then, at the eleventh hour, he pulls the rug out from under you and manages to give you something of a surprise - not to mention a frustrating scene where a dying Crime-Master is about to reveal who the Goblin really is, but breathes his last before he can give the name. The fact that the Crime-Master's unmasking happens halfway through the issue is another shocker; you'd have thought it would be saved for the final page, but Ditko allows the last seven pages of the issue to be dedicated entirely to the characters.
This could be a problem, and lead to a story that feels weirdly structured, but every scene is so good that you really wouldn't notice. Spider-Man going back to retrieve his camera from the warehouse where the fight took place, only to find it's not there; falling into the sea and having some kids throw him back his camera; finally ripping off the store-bought costume he acquired last issue; selling his photos to the Daily Globe instead of the Bugle, but deciding that the nosy and overbearing Barney Bushkin is even worse than Jonah; Jameson taking all the credit for the apprehending of the Crime-Master; a lovely scene where Peter takes Aunt May out to the cinema after realising she's feeling lonely, and the most startling scene of all, the reveal that Foswell does indeed have a masked alter ego, that of the stool pigeon Patch, who we met in one panel last issue. Whilst I'm sure readers were probably wanting him to be a more impressive character, I personally love the surprise this offers; I'm sure most people reading the story for the first time would assume that Patch was just another new character being introduced, only to find out that it was Foswell in disguise all along. I think it's a brilliant ending, and Foswell's Patch identity will come into play in several issues to come.
ASM #27 is a superb conclusion to the story that began last issue, beginning with a terrific battle featuring Spider-Man - with an assist from the police - against the Goblin, the Crime-Master and a horde of hoods, before giving us a brilliantly tense chase scene as Spidey pursues the Crime-Master under the waterfront, to every shock reveal that it provides us with later on. I know some people will probably never be satisfied with the revelation that the Crime-Master was a complete unknown - we know that Stan certainly wasn't keen - but I for one think it's a bit of a genius twist. Not much in the way of Goblin action, but there's a hell of a lot of substance here; easily one of the best issues of all time.
Rating: 5/5
Next time, Peter Parker graduates from Midtown High, but he'll have to contend with the Molten Man first...
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