—Queen GoblinGood boy. I needed two of you in the end, but we succeeded. Osborn's back on the road to becoming his true self. His sins have come back to haunt him.
Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Oscorp
- Norman Osborn
- Norman's assistant
- Betty Brant
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth
- Hell (Invoked)
Items:
Vehicles:
- Goblin Gliders
- Bug (Spider-Glider Pack) (Destroyed)
Synopsis for 1st story
In hospital, Norman calls for his nurse to send the NYPD to 75th and 193rd in Queens to save his employee, threatening to buy the hospital to fire her if she does not. Concurrently, Spider-Man dodges attacks from Hobgoblin (Ned) and Hobgoblin (Kingsley), concluding Kingsley put Ned in the Winkler Device to implant some brainwashed notion of Norman scheming to abduct his baby. Pondering the motive, he is forced to retreat, while Norman fails to get a signal through to call him. As his nurse lets him know the NYPD are en route, there was nothing more for Norman to do, and he "agrees" as he stares at the prototype armor designs on his computer. As Spider-Man gets airborne on Bug, he uses his web-shooters to give him an edge, allowing him to fly back and grapple Ned trying to talk him out of the brainwashing. Spider-Man is instead forced to fight but Bug drops him to perform an emergency maneuver to intercept the other Hobgoblin's glider. Thrashed about while falling, Spider-Man crash lands into a rooftop A/C unit, as Kingsley directs Ned to brutalize Spider-Man, his electric gauntlets shattering Spider-Man's helmet, exposing Peter's bloody smoke-painted face.
But after directing him to use the glider for the fatal blow, Norman blitzes through them to take Kingsley to the air, who orders Ned to attack the rooftops and Norman uses an energy blaster on Kingsley. Ned saves the falling Kingsley and still wants to hurt Norman, but Kingsley berates Ned and tells him he was brainwashed again, before Kingsley knocks Ned over as a distraction for his own escape. Peter catches and redirects Ned to a rooftop, who attacks Peter in a mad fervor until Norman counters and knocks him out. Needing Peter to have him stop as he continued punching after Ned passed out, Norman is shocked and apologetic by his instinctive brutality. Later, Norman's lawyers keep NYPD off him as Norman enters his OsCorp tactical trailer, where his assistant updates him on Spider-Man's medical attention with applied confidentiality protocols. Although Norman thanks her for delivering his laptop, which led to Spider-Man's rescue, she immediately corrects him as she respected his rest and ordered nobody disturb him, a truth troubling Norman.
After recovering, Peter visits Betty to update her that Norman is giving Ned a lawyer and the authorities began a manhunt for Kingsley. Betty fears they'll throw the book at Ned, but while Peter is optimistic as the police need only examine the machine, Betty corrects him thinking Spider-Man must have been mistaken: the Winkler Device wasn't in Ned's office like it was expected to be. In an unknown location, Kingsley's men retrieved the Winkler Device and he is "left alone" to sit in it, speaking to someone hidden. While her plan needed both Hobgoblin actors in the end, the Queen Goblin reveals herself as the shadowy mastermind of this whole incident, guiding Kingsley to sit in the chair and let his mind simply turn off in her care. As the Winkler Device engages, Queen Goblin is still content as Norman is now on track to becoming his true self, as his sins[1] have come back to haunt him.
Solicit Synopsis
• Hobgoblin's story comes to a chilling end, and no one is going to be rocked harder by it than Norman Osborn!
• Witness the birth of the Gold Goblin!
• What does this mean for our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man?!Trivia
- Queen Goblin's involvement was alluded to in issue eleven's cover.
- This issue's cover is an homage to Amazing Spider-Man #122