Having rushed home from Canada after the news last
issue, Spider-Man peeks in the window at the Osborn residence to see Harry not
doing at all well. A doctor friend of Norman’s tells Gwen and Mary Jane that
Harry’s been taking LSD and now has total clinical psychosis as a result. Spidey
changes back into Peter, all the while agonizing about what made Harry start
taking drugs again. Just as Peter is about to go in to see Harry, he’s stopped
by Norman Osborn, who blames Peter for what happened and forbids him from
getting anywhere near Harry. A startled Peter worries that Osborn is starting
to regain his memories of the Green Goblin, when Gwen and MJ come out and
discover Peter is there. Norman kicks them all out and forbids them from seeing
Harry again, while they all stress about what could have led to this. Back
inside, the possible reasons become clear when Norman receives a call about his
increasingly plummeting stocks. A very out of it Harry comes in, stressed that
everything his father has worked hard for seems to be falling apart, when Harry
suddenly collapses again.
As Norman phones his doctor friend once more, Spidey
makes his way to the Daily Bugle. He arrives, feeling more winded than usual
and determines that he must have caught a virus when he was in Canada. A weary
Peter makes his way inside and delivers his photos of the Hulk to Robbie. Not
long after, Jameson arrives demanding Peter leave due to his sickness, which
Peter is all too happy to, desperately wanting to crawl into bed. He changes
back to Spider-Man and starts to swing back to his apartment, wanting nothing
more than have a good talk with Gwen. Back at the Osborn’s, Norman’s friend
says there’s nothing he can do for Harry, it’s up to him at this point. Norman
gets more paranoid by the second, feeling as if he’s surrounded by enemies,
when he fully hallucinates Spider-Man taunting him. Norman lashes out to no
avail, before losing his mind completely in a full psychotic break! He rushes
out to one of his old hideouts, his memories of being the Green Goblin having fully
returned, and promises that Spider-Man will pay! The Green Goblin flies off to
Peter’s apartment, only to discover an unsuspecting Gwen there instead…
Mere blocks away, a woozy and wobbly Spider-Man makes
his way back to his apartment, crawling in the window before stopping dead in
his tracks! He discovers the place torn apart and Gwen’s handbag with a pumpkin
bomb on it! Knowing what this has to mean, he jets outside to frantically
locate the Goblin, his spider-sense eventually leading him to the George
Washington Bridge. He discovers the Goblin atop the bridge with an unconscious
Gwen, who tells him to forfeit his life or she dies! Spider-Man springs into
action, narrowly avoiding the Goblin’s initial attack. Not wanting the Goblin
to figure out how sick he is, Spider-Man decides to try and end this quickly!
He snags the Goblin by the neck with his web and pulls him in for a huge punch
with all his strength!
As the Goblin plummets down stunned, Spider-Man makes
his way up to Gwen, planning to get her out of there as quick as possible.
However, the Goblin recovers, landing back on his glider and swoops back up,
knocking Gwen right off of the bridge! Time seems to stand still as Spider-Man
desperately fires his web down to catch Gwen, snagging her by the leg! He
carefully pulls her up, joking about a job well done, when he stops
mid-sentence. Gwen isn’t moving. The cold reality then hits him as he pleads
with Gwen not to be dead. She can’t be dead. He saved her. The Goblin taunts
Spider-Man, saying that she was dead before his web ever reached her, but that
his own death will be much more painful! As he cradles Gwen’s body, Spider-Man
howls out that the Goblin is going to pay for this! For killing the woman he
loves, the Goblin is going to die! To be continued!
For the special marvelite in you