New ‘Spider-Man’ Series Reveals The First Green Goblin
by Tom Smithyman
It turns out that Norman Osborn was not the first Green Goblin to terrorize Spider-Man’s Manhattan home.
In April’s Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin, writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Michael Sta. Maria unveil the Proto-Goblin as well as its connection to the troubled Osborn family.
The story, which is set early in Peter Parker’s adventures as Spider-Man, has the teenager struggling to find his footing as a hero while dealing with his Uncle Ben’s death. The young hero gets pulled into the dark drama surrounding his best friend’s family.
The four-part series will revisit Spider-Man #-1 and resolve a plot thread involving the Norman’s research assistant Nels van Adder, who was first test subject for the “Goblin formula” which transformed him into Proto-Goblin.
“I’ve always been fascinated with Peter Parker’s early days as Spider-Man, a time before he fully understood what it meant to be a super hero,” DeMatteis said. “Shadow of the Goblin allows us to take a deep dive into young Peter’s mind and emotions as he makes his way through this exhilarating, and sometimes terrifying, new world. We take an equally-deep dive into the dysfunctional dynamic of the Osborn family, seeing how that generational pain sowed the earliest seeds of Norman’s Green Goblin identity and left its traumatic imprint on Harry. If you think you know everything there is to know about Peter and the Osborns, think again!”
Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin will be released April 3 with a cover from Paulo Siquiera.