616 Green Goblin or Ultimate Green Goblin

[Scott Taylor]

Ultimate Norman did tend to die and resurrect alot. And that was part of his story, to the point where he ultimately (yuck, yuck) believed himself to be immortal. He was almost right. Almost.

[JTait]

Having recently reread all of Ultimate Spider-Man, Bendis' Norman was great up to Ultimate Six, but afterwards he started to suck. Bendis didn't really seem to know what to do with him and kept having Norman be captured by SHIELD, seemingly depowered but then emerge empowered without SHIELD's notice, menace Parker, fight and seemingly die. That exact scenario was played over and over and it just got boring.

I agree with this. It reached a stage where he always either seemed to be in S.H.I.E.L.D custody, or aimlessly rampaging around causing havoc. Neither of these scenarios tended to be particularly compelling.

[WebLurker]

Having recently reread all of Ultimate Spider-Man, Bendis' Norman was great up to Ultimate Six, but afterwards he started to suck. Bendis didn't really seem to know what to do with him and kept having Norman be captured by SHIELD, seemingly depowered but then emerge empowered without SHIELD's notice, menace Parker, fight and seemingly die. That exact scenario was played over and over and it just got boring.

I can kind of see what you mean. I did like Death of a Goblin, though and generally think that that's where it should've ended. On the other hand, there really wasn't any other villain that could've been used for Death of Spider-Man, so I'll give them a reluctant pass on that. But, yeah, I don't think all the apparent deaths and survivals worked all that well in the long run.

[Doctor Know]

I can kind of see what you mean. I did like Death of a Goblin, though and generally think that that's where it should've ended. On the other hand, there really wasn't any other villain that could've been used for Death of Spider-Man, so I'll give them a reluctant pass on that. But, yeah, I don't think all the apparent deaths and survivals worked all that well in the long run.

Yeah, after Norman killed Harry/Ult Hobgoblin and Carol Danvers shot him in the head, should've been his ending. And you're right, there really wasn't another villain worthy for Death of Spider-Man. Bringing Norman back again for the return of Peter Parker and having Peter and Miles face him but Miles close the fight solo with Venom Blasts was beyond lame.

[WebLurker]

Yeah, after Norman killed Harry/Ult Hobgoblin and Carol Danvers shot him in the head, should've been his ending. And you're right, there really wasn't another villain worthy for Death of Spider-Man. Bringing Norman back again for the return of Peter Parker and having Peter and Miles face him but Miles close the fight solo with Venom Blasts was beyond lame.

Double-checked my copy. While the venom blasts were a factor, the two Spiders did double-tag Goblin before he expired from all the abuse (punches, venom blasts, and gunshots). To be totally honest, I'm not sure that bringing Goblin back for the Revival story was that good a call (Goblin had not real connection to Miles and his motivations in the story were especially weak). However, I have trouble thinking of another important enough villain to use instead (the Chameleons would've been a decent choice for a story involving questions of identity and if Peter had really come back from the dead, but the were never big name villains in the series). The only advantage besides the big name that I can see to bringing Goblin back is that it allows Peter to even the score after Death of Spider-Man, but even that is kind of lacking here.

I do like that story a lot (not the least of which it gives Peter the ending I wanted to see for him and him meeting Miles), but it did feel like it could've been more. (Actually, the end of USM in general could've been more.)