Red Goblin #4: Family Business

Alex Pakndel & Jan Bazaluda have done a wonderful job of introducing yet another superhero the Marvel U and defining his role in this larger universe with a small scale, personal story. This issue acts as an epilogue to their first arc, and all in all does a fantastic job wrapping up all the loose plot lines that needed wrapping in order to set Normie up for more adventures.

The central plot follows a lengthy fight between Normie and Norman as a plot to steal the Gold Goblin armor happens admist their brawl. I really appreciated how Pakndel was still able to make Norman an antagonist without making him evil once again. He wants to protect his grandson at all costs, and goes to extremes to do so when trying to separate Normie from Rascal. Its during the brawl between Norman and Rascal that the B-plot intersects, giving Norman and Rascal a moment of understanding as they both try and protect an unarmed Normie from the armor thief.

Using the events of Dan Slott’s original Red Goblin story to drive Norman’s fractured understanding of symbiotes allowed Normie to stand up for a ‘monster’ and define the kind of hero he will wind up being. He has an emotional understanding of what it means to be looked at as a monster until proven otherwise, and Normie going down the route of a compassion driven hero against his own safety is immaculate and heroic. I’d go as far as saying it is near inspirational. While there may not be as much ‘plot’ in the mix here, as the story puts its focus solely on the two’s grandfather/grandson relationship, Pakndel still pens a story that is on the surface entertaining and schlocky in all the best ways, but holds with it the satisfying ending to the themes established in issue one.

Jan Bazaluda’s art is growing better and better with each issue. There’s a couple moments in this issue where the art elevates the action into giving it weight. The pain and emotions you can see through the eyes and faces in this book say so much about the genuine fear or anger characters are feeling at all times. It’s hard to believe Norman Osborn, even with his redemptive arc, when he says his interests are in that of helping people, but Jan injects genuine emotions into his face as he speaks.