Spectacular Spider-Man 147 - Inferno

Spider-Man teams up with J. Jonah Jameson whilst the Hobgoblin tries to deal with demons.

Spectacular Spider-Man #147

Script: Gerry Conway
Art: Sal Buscema
Letters: Rick Parker
Color: Sharen & Wilcox
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Hobgoblin is frustrated after his battle with Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. Still seeking power and encountering the Limbo demons he decides to try seeking it from them. He goes to N'astirh and offers his soul for the power of a demon. N'astirh laughs at the idea he would want such a soul but rewards him for the amusement. A wounded Spider-Man staggers into the Daily Bugle office where he finds Jonah leading the staff in defence against demon attacks and the two find themselves fighting side by side. Elsewhere both Mary Jane and Harry Osborn see off demons whilst Robbie Robertson faces down a panicking neighbour.

This is another multiple cast issue again looking at how many of the supporting cast are handling the ever growing menace. And many are standing their ground firmly with especial courage shown by both Jonah and Mary Jane. When the demons attack the newsroom it's fun to see Spider-Man and Jonah teaming up but there's also a monologue about many of the frustrations of urban living and how for the staff this is just another thing to get through. I don't know if Gerry Conway was still living in New York when he wrote this issue but it does feel like a statement of defiance and pride in a city that had a lot of problems at the time.

But the big focus in this issue comes with the Hobgoblin. Let's cut straight to the chase - Jason Macendale was a lousy loser even long before he first donned this costume. As Jack O'Lantern he frequently screwed up and got his butt handed to him. He couldn't even take down the original Hobgoblin (as he and everyone else thought at the time) himself but had to resort to hiring assassins. As the second Hobgoblin his career so far has consisted of blundering through, getting chucked about to establish the credentials of new villains like Tombstone, equipment malfunctions and so forth. Other underworld figures openly mocked him including to his face. And he spent a lot of time whining about his situation including at the start of this issue.

It's now well established that this situation did not come about by design as briefly discussed when looking at Web of Spider-Man #47. To put a bit more detail the original Hobgoblin's identity was a mystery that got tangled up as multiple writers and editors came and went with their own plans that either made it impossible to establish intended characters as suspects or else ruled them out and the revelation issue was effectively a fill-in commission between regular writers with Peter David discovering to his horror that all the clues led to Ned Leeds who had just been killed off and no other suspect fitted. So came the unusual revelation that the Hobgoblin was Leeds and a replacement was hurriedly found in the form of his killer. And thus the legacy of not one but two of the biggest villains in Spider-Man's history was now held by a loser.

The Inferno issues of the Spider-Man titles seem to be trying multiple ways to resolve this. Putting Harry Osborn back into the Green Goblin costume may at first seem a one-off to allow for a long expected battle and set the Hobgoblin up for the next stage. But it might also have been a deliberate plan to have Harry back as the Green Goblin permanently though as it turned out this would take a little while to happen. However either way something still needed to be done up the Hobgoblin. And the end of the issue shows that's he's been changed by his meeting with N'astirh. Giving him enhanced powers seems a natural step. Having him transformed by a demon is a bit far out from the normal run of Spider-Man foes. Although the crossover provides the opportunity for it to happen, it does seem a rather odd route to go down. But how the changed Hobgoblin will work is a matter for later issues.

Otherwise this issue continues the pattern of Spectacular Spider-Man doing a lot of the subplot and character work whilst the other titles carry the main action. The battle in the Daily Bugle newsroom is hardly essential to the grand scheme of things but provides for a fun encounter and some great moments between Spidey and Jonah. Sal Buscema continues to provide the best Spider-Man art for the period able to capture the full range from the comedic to the dramatic with an especially strong final page as we see the Hobgoblin's face beneath the mask. This is a title living up to its name.