Scripters: Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz
Artists: Ron Frenz, Sal Buscema(i), Gotham(c)
Publisher: Marvel
This issue, Hobgoblin, a villain who to paraphrase Tom Servo is "circling the drain," picks up a pathetic associate. Where's Scourge when you need him? Mayday Parker faces depressing event after depressing event, and she doesn't throw a single punch as The Amazing Spider-Girl.
Hobgoblin was originally a bargain basement Green Goblin. In Amazing Spider-Girl, he impressed me, for the first time, by having a comprehensible goal: to become the new Kingpin. The original Kingpin operated at a time when super-heroes were rife in the city, and he was mostly successful. Hobgoblin has lost sight of the prize. He now obsesses on killing Spider-Girl any way he can. He rationalizes it by believing Spider-Girl to be a "toady for the Black Tarantula," his main contender for the Kingpin title, but I cannot see how the Hobgoblin can be so blind. Spider-Girl's heroic exploits are frequent fodder for The Daily Bugle. J.Jonah Jameson has warmed to this branch of the Spider-Family. She's an Avenger. She has fought every tier of villainy, including villains that would logically pose no threat to any seeking the Kingpin crown. She has identical powers to that of Spider-Man. You may therefore conclude that she is a relation. So, how on earth can you add all these factors up and arrive at Tarantula's enforcer? This is just sad. I had high hopes for the Hobgoblin, but he's back in the basement as an idiot.
Moe gains a stooge. Mindworm is a mutant with the power to cast illusion. He takes on the form of an MC2 celebrity and uses this image to sponge off of unsuspecting hotel chains and have as much sex as possible. This is a rationale I can understand, but Hobgoblin wants him to abandon his successful scheme for the chance to have "real power and riches." This makes no sense. Having the power to become somebody else and live your life like a king is as substantial as securing "power and riches" through fear. The topper? You get to kill Spider-Girl for Moe. Okay. Pretend your Mindworm. So you, want me to risk my cushy fake life which gets me laid every night without effort and as much Dom Pérignon as I can drink in order to battle a "cunning and ruthless adversary" so I can get exactly the same life I had before? Brother, sign me up!
At least the shenanigans between the two are mildly interesting, in a bad movie sort of way. The soap opera section of the book isn't. Because of her actions in a previous issue, May Day's little brother may never hear again! Moose hates Spider-Girl because he believes she killed his father! There's trouble brewing in Boyfriend Land! May Day didn't win the election she had already pulled out of! One tragedy could have provided impact and contrast. Multiple tragedies, and I'd argue that only one can really be considered tragic, blanket each other. The problems lack significance because they blend together, and you really cannot tell which one is affecting May the most. She reacts to them the same way. What it all amounts to is that May's life has become an indistinctive and boring ball of harsh, and she has become one of those hyper weepy-eyed women from old romance comics. Let's hope she hits somebody in the next issue.
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