Amazing Spider-Man #275

April 1986
Writer: Tom DeFalco; Artist: Ron Frenz
Title: "The Choice and the Challenge"

I rate this issue 4 out of 5 stars.

Synopsis:

I came across this old Spider-Man comic book while moving and discarding some old boxes in the closet. I wasn't a regular reader of Spider-Man at the time, but the cover with Spidey in his black costume and Hobgoblin battling while riding Hobgoblin's glider was a great cover. At the same time, the issue showcased Spidey's origin.

Hobgoblin is in a warehouse testing his new arsenal of weapons provided by his new partner, The Rose. They have joined forces to take over the criminal underworld and build a bigger criminal empire than The Kingpin.

There's a get together at the Parker household, holding a surprise get together for May parker's friend wheelchairbound Nathan who was just released from the hospital. Mary Jane Watson finds a Peter Parker in deep thought by the window. She asks him what's troubling him, and he tells her it was his fault as Spidey that Nathan got hurt in the first place. And repeating oh so many times in the past, Peter tells MJ that he is quitting and will never be Spider-Man again.

Meanwhile in another part of town, Hobgoblin takes down two crooks and flies away with their briefcase. He has warned the crooks that the city now belongs to him and The Rose, and that all criminals "working" in the area gives a 10% cut to The Rose and The Hobgoblin.

On another part of town, at Flash Thompson's apartment...Flash's girlfriend Sha-Shan calls the Daily Bugle asking for Peter Parker. He's not in, so she hangs up. An enraged Flash Thompson appears and grabs her, yells, and accusing her of seeing Peter Parker. Sha-Shan in tears says she is not, and that she knows about Flash and Betty Brant-Leeds have been seeing each other. Flash yells at her to shut up and then "KRAKK" punches Sha-Shan in the face with a roundhouse right! She goes down to the floor. Flash then runs out of the apartment.

Going down the subway station Peter and Mary Jane are having a talk about his quitting being Spider-Man. He tells her that his run-ins with the Beyonder and a lot of other weirdos lately has made him think about his place in the grand scheme of things. She then asks Peter how he became Spider-Man in the first place ? An enraged Peter, tells her because she never asked, that she never wanted to know about that part of his life, and walks away from her. MJ goes over to the subway platform and held Peter's hand and tells him she is sorry and that she is asking now.

Long story short...the origin of Spider-Man. Everyone made fun of Parker. He was bitten by a readioactive spider. He doesn't stop the gunman. The gunman kills Uncle Ben. And with great power comes great responsibility...is born.

So Peter and MJ keep talking about why he was quitting as Spider-Man. Peter saying that he does a lousy job of being a superhero. He couldn't save Gwen. He didn't keep an eye on Nathan, leading him to get hurt. He was pursuing the criminal called Sin-Eater who murdered police captain Jean DeWolf because she was too soft of crime. He caught up with Sin-Eater and dodges his shotgun blast, but he couldn't prevent him from shooting at the crowd. Anguish covering Peter's face, he continues that one man died and several were severely injured because he was too slow to save them. That he was trying to stop Sin-Eater while trading puns. He was making jokes stopping a villain while people were dying.

Meanwhile, in the Daily Bugle, Betty Brant-Leeds could not reach either Flash or her husband Ned. Robbie talks to Betty, and she breaks down telling him that Ned never has any time for her, and to stop giving Ned Leeds all those undercover assignments that keep him away from her for weeks. Robbie subconsciously tells himself, what undercover assignments?

At Flash Thompson’s apartment Need Leeds knocks on the door and was answered by Sha-Shan. He asks about Flash’s whereabouts and to tell him that Flash and him have deadly serious business to discuss.

At the Kingpin’s HQ, criminals are complaining about the Hobgoblin’s use of muscle against them. Wilson Fisk deduces if the man beneath The Rose’s mask is the man he thinks, then he fears this gang war.

Flash Thompson deep in thought arrives back in his apartment. An angry Need Leeds confronts him in front of the building accusing Flash of being a housewrecker. Flash retorts that Betty is a grown woman and can make her own decisions. Ned grabs Flash shoulder and Flash responds with a roundhouse right sending Need to the ground. Ned vows vengeance, that Flash will pay for this. Flash enters his apartment and finds Sha-Shan gone along with her belongings. An enraged Flash says that miserable little wench, wait til he gets his hands on her.

Hobgoblin flies to the sky trying to lure Spider-Man in the open. A policeman tries to stop him to no avail. He wants the media involved so he can be televised and have Spider-Man show up. He grabs a bystander and flies up. It’s Sha-Shan.

MJ and Peter arrive in his apartment. They watch the news and see that Hobgoblin has a hostage. Peter tells MJ there are other costumed jerks in the city that can take care of this…The Avengers, Fantastic Four, etc. MJ tells him he’s got some amazing powers that he owes it to himself to use them to help others and to use them properly. What has happened to him? Where is his sense of responsibility?

Above the city, Hobgoblin makes fun of Sha Shan, that he learned from past experience that it isn’t easy to menace someone he fins so appealing. Out of nowhere some tells Hobgoblin that he is a fright face and isn’t it bad enough that he threatened the woman’s life, that he has to insult her too.

Yup interactive banter from the Amazing Spider-Man.

The battle above the city. Hobgoblin with woman in tow throws conventional explosive at Spider-Man, who avoids them with ease. Spidey suddenly realizes that there are people below who would get hurt when the explosives hit them. He shoots a web after the explosive and hurls them to explode up in the air hurting no one. He jams Hobgoblins finger blaster with webbing and it explodes, rattling Hobgoblin. Trying to escape Spider-Man…Hobgoblins throws Sha Shan to the ground way down below. Spidey sees a flashback of Gwen Stacy falling from the bridge and chases after Sha Shan. He reaches her in time and shoots a web to grab onto a side of a building to prevent them from splattering to the ground. But the momentum’s sudden stop hurt his arm and shoulder.

A ticked off Spider-Man goes after Hobgoblin. He catches up with him and Hobgoblins lets loose a barrage of finger blasters. Spider-Man avoids each blast, with great art displaying movement from Ron Frenz. While dodging the blasts, Spidey lands on the injured shoulder and just keeps him off balanced long enough for one of the blasters to hit him. An unconscious Spider-Man lies on the roof with the Hobgoblin hovering just above him ready to finish the job. And the issue ends.

Commentary:

This classic issue is full of conflicts. That is the strength of this issue. The core theme of the Spider-Man mythology is “With great powers comes great responsibility.” Peter knows he can’t abandon being Spider-Man. But on top of that there are other conflicts throughout this issue that grabs the reader’s attention. Flash and Ned’s conflict resulting over Ned’s wife Betty. Flash and Sha-Shan’ conflict resulting in break-up. MJ and Peter. Peter against himself. Peter against the Hobgoblin. There is always something standing in the way of a character’s objective. And these move the story forward.

Tom DeFalco has more than one plot going on at the same time. And he magically weaves them together to synchronize magnificently. He uses brilliant foreshadowing in The Kingpin’s headquarters about a future gang war between The Rose and The Kingpin, who is very powerful yet might know the man behind The Rose’s mask, and fears him.

Peter Parker is well-written here covering the superhero with self-doubts and making him more human than any other superhero. The best part is how the supporting cast comes to life and have problems real people encounter in their life. A reader can empathize with the problems associated with them as it deals with personal relationships. What woman cannot empathize with Betty Brant-Leeds who just wants extra time with her husband. And characters readers can grow to hate but yet are captivated by them. How about the jealous husband in Ned Leeds ? Or the enraged jealous violent boyfriend in Flash Thompson.

As far as art goes, Ron Frenz captures Spider-Man’s fluid movements. During the battle against Hobgoblin, Spider-Man was avoiding his finger blasts and Ron’s drawing of Spidey’s movements captures the fluid movements of a gymnast gracefully avoiding blasts with ease. He has great understanding of body movements almost as if he’s Spider-Man himself.

Huh. Interesting. This is not material that gets discussed a lot.

I've read this issue recently, but it was tough for me to judge on it's own merits. I was mostly annoyed at someone else being sent to replace Roger Stern, who'd been doing very good groundwork on the Hobgoblin story for a long time.

I just re-opened the comic book and it did state that Ron Frenz was the penciller, and that Josef Rubenstein did the finished art, which I would assume was inking.

I am not aware of the comic book universe after the late 1980's until just recently, about a few to several years ago. So I found out about the Michelinie-McFarlane era but haven't read them yet. I'm looking forward to reading them in a future date. As for JMS, I have read some of his Amazing Spider-Man stories. And I was glad to read his explanation online regarding the editorial sabotage of Gwen Stacy in the Sins Past storyline.

I definitely agree with T.D.'s work on Spider-Girl, which is one of my favorite comic book series to read.

I was talking about the cover art, I thought it was implicit.

As for Sins Past, it was beneath JMS, to thrive on controversy, with such a story (not that anything good came out of him, while Deodato was onboard). His Spider-Totem arch, on the other hand, was among the best Spider-Man stories of all time, even though some see it as controversial, too.

I'm sure I could scrape the Marvel barrel and find out something considerable worse 

I like this Spidey era. Yes, the whole Hobgoblin story was not written as smoothly as it could have been but upon reading it, I never found it to be as bad as some people say. It got a bit lost but I think the title continued strong. The Kraven story was excellent and I am someone who has never minded Venom and the intro of McFarlane. Now, I don't like the fact that Venom was published everywhere in the years that followed but his initial introduction worked for me.

The stories may not be as excellent as prior for the DeFalco era but they were good enough and the art was always solid so, as a Spidey fan, I like it.