But unlike “Hunted,” which at least featured some outstanding character beats throughout (seriously, that Gibbon tie-in issue is flawless), the finale of both the Kindred saga and Spencer’s entire run is a sheer, empty-calorie exercise in playing the hits remixing the familiar just enough to fool the unassuming but without taking the care to understand why the original worked as well as it did. This isn’t the first time Spencer redid something that DeMatteis did first, and better (“Hunted” was a reworking of “Kraven’s Last Hunt” to the point that it even ends with the titular villain committing suicide a second time). Spectacular Spider-Man #200 was (and still is) a master class in character-driven sequential storytelling.īy contrast, Nick Spencer’s dispatch of Harry in Amazing #74 rings false, and even somewhat desperate.
After everything, Harry quietly, poignantly died as Peter’s friend once more. As the tension ratcheted up, Peter and Harry collided in final battle, ending with Harry redeeming himself amid a momentary burst of sanity, saving Mary Jane’s life, then ultimately succumbing to a Goblin serum-induced heart attack. DeMatteis’ run (with the inimitable Sal Buscema on art, pulling off the best work of his career) was a dramatic, melodramatic psychodrama that focused on the strained friendship between Peter Parker and Harry Osborn after the latter regained his memories, re-assumed his father’s mantle as the Green Goblin, and proceeded to torment Peter, Mary Jane, and pretty much everyone else around them with an ever-present Sword of Damocles in that Harry knew Peter was Spidey, and could potentially tell the world at any time.
DeMatteis’ two-year run on Spectacular, which was his official follow-up to “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” published just a few years earlier. Art by Sal Buscema and colorist Bob Sharenįor those of you perhaps too young to know or remember, the above page is the grand finale of writer J.M.
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