Amazing Spider-Man #21: Seeing Green

The Amazing Spider-Man #21 is a soft finale of sorts for part of our ongoing cosmic Spider-Man arc, promising to wrap up the earthbound side of this equation with no expense spared. Like so many points of closure do in comics, this one left me with more questions than answers, as the plot of this book finds itself with more loose threads than a broken web-slinger. However, this issue is the climax of everything Joe Kelly, and to some extent Zeb Wells, have done with Norman Osborn since he was purged of his darker half, and it is extremely satisfying on that front. With the character in a more interesting place than he has been since his death back in the seventies, it was hard not to get lost in the cathartic realization he comes to in this issue.

He is Norman Osborn, and there is no running from that.

It’s a rather subversive, yet smart end destination to a story that was all about Norman trying to become someone he wasn’t to atone for the monster he used to be. He puts the attack on Oscorp to an end by activating his brutality without question, falling just short of killing Roderick Kingsley not because he is trying to do what Peter would, but because the Norman he has become draws the line there. With the issue completely focused on this, we follow him through some pretty exquisite moments of tension that are doubled up by quick flashes to the effect on civilian life these attacks had. Kelly has not forgotten about the small threads regarding Norman’s particular character trajectory at all, and makes sure every little piece finds a place.

Which leads to all the new and unanswered questions left in the wake of this issue’s hyper focus. We still don’t know why Ben stepped into Peter’s shoes, or the reason for the true villains of this story to have made the moves they did, or even how they did, but alas, the character catharsis does outweigh the lack of overall answers in the plot. I still would love to know what the hell Kelly was even doing including Ben in this story at all if he served little to no plot or thematic importance in the way his story resolved. If it was simply to get the character to a point of letting go after all the Chasm nonsense, then I feel as though those pages were wasted on something that could have been a much more fleshed-out story unto itself. Overall though, the dramatic tension of Norman’s decision-making in this issue was a thrill nonetheless.

The visuals here were provided by both Todd Nauck and John Romita Jr., and both of them did a great job here at capturing the viscera of Norman’s fight with Roderick, and the greater chaos that surrounded them in the process. Nauck especially does great capturing Norman’s emotional fatigue throughout this issue, with Romita bringing his sense of gritty weight to the version of Hobgoblin we get to see throw down with Norman once, but not quite for all.