Peter Parker: Spider-Man #44
A Death in the Family Part 1
On an evening of heavy rain, Aunt May is cooking in the kitchen when she hears a knock at the door. She is on alert, warning whoever it is that she has a loaded gun and called the police until the person knocking reveals that it is her nephew Peter Parker. When May opens the door, she sees her nephew standing on the porch soaking wet and shivering from the rain.
Meanwhile, Norman Osborn has arrived at a cemetery and refuses his assistant’s offer of an umbrella, telling him that he enjoys the rain. As he walks through the cemetery, he thinks of his last battle against Spider-Man where he nearly broke the wall-crawler.[1] He eventually stops to pay his respects at the grave of his son, Harry Osborn.[2] Norman finds it amusing that after all these years he was unable to find a way to talk to his son until after he died.[3] He laments that all he ever wanted to do was understand Harry, and then his son went and died of a drug overdose, and scoffs at this because he always viewed his son as a failure. He figures his son is the one laughing now as Norman has no heir to give the world to, particularly since he offered it to Peter Parker only to be rejected. He intends to get revenge on Parker for this and then after telling Harry how his wife and son are doing says he won’t be back after tonight.
By this point, Peter is warming himself in front of Aunt May’s fireplace in silence. Seeing that her nephew is deep in thought, May asks Peter what he’s thinking about. He tells May that he has been haunted by the same dream recently, but he can’t bring himself to tell her. He then tells her that life’s great one moment, and the next day it seems like everything is falling apart. May understands since Peter has been dealing with Mary Jane’s recent departure from his life.[4] May points out that she has learned a lot in her life and has the wrinkles to show for it and asks Peter to tell her about his dream. Unfortunately, Peter can’t, saying that the person he could confide in can’t be reached.
By this point, Norman Osborn is back at his office watching the storm outside his window. He thinks Spider-Man can hear him and goes to the secret room where he keeps his Goblin gear. Seeing his Goblin maks look at him with empty eyes he tells it to stop laughing at him. He then tells his secretary to cancel all his appointments for the next few days and then puts on his Green Goblin costume and flies out into the storm. Later that evening, Mary Jane Watson answers her phone and when nobody answers on the other end of the line she thinks it is another stalker and threatens the caller. It’s only when the person hangs up that she realizes that it might have been Peter who called her, she would be right as Peter. He hung up because Mary Jane used her maiden name instead of calling herself Mary Jane Parker. This upsets Peter because he hoped that he could talk to Mary Jane about his dream, but now he thinks that he might have lost her.
As he tries to make sense of the sudden dread that he is feeling, Spider-Man whirls around when his spider-sense goes off and is mortified to see that the Green Goblin is standing directly behind him. Spider-Man asks the Goblin what he wants, and Norman explains that he has come to renew their acquaintances.[5] Not wanting to deal with the Goblin, Spider-Man takes off his mask and tries to get through his Norman Osborn persona. Instead, the Green Goblin attacks, prompting Peter to ask why he has come now. The Goblin doesn’t see why not, saying that Peter has gotten fat and predictable and as the two struggled, the Goblin slices Spider-Man’s shoulder. He warns the web-slinger that this is merely the beginning as he is calling the shots. He tells Peter that there will be an Osborn family reunion. As he flies away, the Goblin admits that it is hard getting the who Osborn clan together but can always rely on a good old fashioned funeral doing the job.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Green Goblin, Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson
Continuity Notes
Spider-Man and the Green Goblin last fought in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #25/Peter Parker: Spider-Man #25. In that story, Norman almost got Peter to become the next Green Goblin.
Harry Osborn was believed to have died due to complications from the Goblin Formula in Spectacular Spider-Man #200. In reality, Harry survived and his father took him to Europe where he is currently in rehab. He’ll return in Amazing Spider-Man #545. The cover-up was explained in Amazing Spider-Man #581-582, the reason why Norman is visiting his son’s grave is to keep up the deception that Harry is dead.
Norman says Harry has been dead “all these years”. According to the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, Harry has been “dead” for roughly three years at the time of this story.
In Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2001, Mary Jane decided she needed time apart from Peter after she spent months as a prisoner of a deranged Stalker from Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13 to Peter Parker: Spider-Man #29. May refers to Mary Jane as Peter’s wife here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As a result, Mary Jane would be referred to as Peter’s fiancee here.
Norman calls Peter a son without a father. This is a reference to the fact that Peter’s father, Richard Parker is dead. Richard and his wife Mary were government agents who were killed while on a mission as we learned in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5.
