Comics Should Harry have been brought back instead of Norman?

[Abaddon]

Norman should be revealed to be a clone.

 

[mre]

I doubt the comics would be as deriative and unpopular as they are today if we had Ben Reilly as Spider-Man.

Is it accurate to say that the Spidey titles are derivative and unpopular?
I mean... They made 3 movies, tv shows, merchandise, games and god knows what else... all based on the popularity of the comic.
I suspect you mean to say that the majority of long-term Spidey fans dislike the recent treatment to the character (I agree with you here, as I have stopped collecting), and that it would be much more rewarding to that audience if Ben was still Spidey.
But, I am just geussing here, I think the sales of the Spidey comics must be pretty high right now. How many Spidey titles are there?
Fact is, there are a number of people out there making thousands... millions off of Spider-man. And it's not because he is derivitave or unpopular.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

I doubt the comics would be as deriative and unpopular as they are today if we had Ben Reilly as Spider-Man.

As interesting as it is to speculate on that, it would only have worked if Ben had eventually assumed the Peter Parker identity. Spider-Man IS Peter Parker.

 

[Spidey_87]

Although I like the character of Ben Reilly, it just would not feel right having someone other than Peter Parker playing the role of Spidey.

 

[SpideyInATree]

But...Peter Parker is Ben Reilly and Ben Reilly is Peter Parker. They're carbon copies of each other.

 

[matt50]

i would have liked for peter to ride off into the sunset with mj and the baby and have ben reilly stay as spidey

 

[Kraven]

It's all the Clone Saga's fault. Marvel had to quickly backtrack and say, "Hey, Spidey isn't really the clone, it was all a hugely elaborate hoax to drive him crazy!"

But who could create such a hoax? It would have to be a very impressive villain, an old arch enemy. Doc Ock had recently died. Venom was not smart enough. The Hobgoblin was Jason Mercendale, again not smart enough. So it had to be either Harry or Norman. Harry coming back would have made a mess of everything.

Norman returning was the only thing Marvel could do.....unless they just stuck to their guns and left Peter as the clone (which I would have respected so much more). I doubt the comics would be as deriative and unpopular as they are today if we had Ben Reilly as Spider-Man.

Anyway, I'd rather both Harry and Norman were still dead. Norman works better as a presence from beyond the grave, the madness of the Goblin always waiting to infect someone else.

Or, what if it was Ned Leeds, the original Hobgoblin (at that time)? He was even at Shea Stadium (I think that's where it was at) when Spidey first met the clone, and Ned was tied up and unconscious. Maybe he was in charge the whole time, and was using the Jackal as a pawn... Maybe that's why he was taken out so easily by the assasins sent by the Foreigner, because he never really died. If the mastermind was Ned Leeds, it could have solved a lot of problems, and you get the gist of the idea, even though I didn't really serve Citizen_Kaine's idea justice.

 

[Citizen_Kaine]

I'm only posting this because I lost a bet over it wayyyyyyyyyyyy back in 96 and still haven't come to terms with it

http://www.superherohype.com/forums/showthread.php?t=256565&highlight=Leeds

Ah ha, see Kingsley wasn't revelead to be the true hobogoblin until 1997's Hobgoblin lives, back in my day he was nothing more than a Fashion Designer who shot a dummy of Spider-man in an issue of Spectacular.

In my day, Ned Leeds was the original Hobgoblin, and he had been known as that for almost 10 years. However when his identity was discovered, he was already dead. Killed in a pretty pathetic assasination attempt, by a bunch of goons hired by the Jack O' Lantern.

Ned Leeds, did make sense as a choice though. He hated Spider-Man for all the heartaches he caused Betty over her brothers death, he disliked Peter Parker for his history with Betty, and possible relationship they had while he and Betty were married. Ned was present at the battle between Reilly and Peter in ASM 149, he helped Peter investigate the Gwen Stacy double, and the majority of all the Clone research. He was captured by Miles Warren, off panel in ASM 148, who knows what dialouge could have occured there. Ned was blindfolded in ASM 149, but he could have eaisly heard Jackal call Spider-Man by his first name, which happened quite a few times. If you don't like that explanation, Ned would've easily overheard/saw Peter and freaking Wolverine talking in their hotel room. It would've fixed all the errors the plauged the reveal of the Hobgoblin in the first place. Why was the Hobgoblin killed by five grunts so easily? Answer: he let them. the healing factor(which was so important in Normans return) simply healed his slit throat after he had been buried. The purpose?: To lull Pete into a false sense of security, and later use the knowledge of everything he attained in Clone Genesis against him.

Yeah but if a bunch of small time goons like that showed up, he had to know he secret had been blown, and if the underworld connections knew, eventually Spider-Man would learn too. If he took a dive, he could work with little to no scrutiny against Pete.

Kingsley doesn't really have a good character for himself though, his character is the Hobgoblins personality, mask on or off. Before Hobgoblin Lives he was a little *****, who screamed and made dresses, Stern and Defalco just took Hobby's manerisms and threw them on Kingsley, which worked out fine because there would be not point in having them act differently when the secret is in the general public.

With Leeds as the Goblin, we fix the improbabilites with ASM 289 and the reveal of the Goblin himself. We cut out two Hobgoblins (Kingsley, Secret War Dude) from the characters extremely cultavated history. And keep the poetic justice that occured in ASM 122, and made the story, that much better.

Ned fills in the role of a long standing Spider-character nemesis (Ned debuted 19 issues prior to Osborn), with ties to the Bugle and the characters in it(Keep the excellent Spectacular Spider-Man subplot, where Osborn ****ed with Peter and Jonah, while making everyone else love him) the previously mentioned plot would have worked even better, as Betty would have a much larger and dramatic role in the story, and Osborn's use of Flash as an assistant would've been even better with Leeds taking an ironic form of vengeance upon him.

 

[Abaddon]

Leeds should come back.

 

[spideyboy_1111]

i don't think many suspected norman... and harry coming back just wouldln't have worked.. he just died a few years before that... and he never "hated" peter.. so it just wouldn't fit

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Is it accurate to say that the Spidey titles are derivative and unpopular?
I mean... They made 3 movies, tv shows, merchandise, games and god knows what else... all based on the popularity of the comic.
I suspect you mean to say that the majority of long-term Spidey fans dislike the recent treatment to the character (I agree with you here, as I have stopped collecting), and that it would be much more rewarding to that audience if Ben was still Spidey.
But, I am just geussing here, I think the sales of the Spidey comics must be pretty high right now. How many Spidey titles are there?
Fact is, there are a number of people out there making thousands... millions off of Spider-man. And it's not because he is derivitave or unpopular.

What I meant was that the comics currently being produced are derivative (endlessly going back to old stories and characters instead of creating fresh stuff) and unpopular with fans (this thread itself is a testament to that).

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I'm only posting this because I lost a bet over it wayyyyyyyyyyyy back in 96 and still haven't come to terms with it

http://www.superherohype.com/forums/showthread.php?t=256565&highlight=Leeds

Yeah, Ned Leeds was a candidate for the original Green Goblin back in the 60's as well.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I'm only posting this because I lost a bet over it wayyyyyyyyyyyy back in 96 and still haven't come to terms with it

http://www.superherohype.com/forums/showthread.php?t=256565&highlight=Leeds

Yeah, Ned Leeds was a candidate for the original Green Goblin back in the 60's as well.

 

[The Infernal]

I don't think Marvel should change continuity like that. Like many I've grown up as that being the norm. It would just be too much of a change.

Though I wouldn't mind Harry being brought back nowadays, but not as an enemy like Norman. Though I'd hardly have him start out as best buds either. Just my opinion but there's a lot that could be explored there.

 

[Infinity9999x]

Now, on the other hand, if they had made the clone saga another one of Harry's little scheme that he set into motion before he died, like the whole Peter's parents thing, I could have dealt with that...

And Godzilla2000, Norman's healing factor has been shown to be slightly less than Wolverines, and Wolverine recently survived being burnt down the the skeleton. So, no I dont think being impaled is too implausible to heal from.

Yes, but Wolverine's Healing ability has also been monumentally inflated in the past ten years. I liked it more when Claremont wrote Wolvie, back then he actually had to worry about stuff like...dying and all that.