Spider-Man #88
Who Did Joey Z?
Outside of a Midtown Manhattan police precinct, some officers find a crook hanging upsidedown in what appears to be Spider-Man’s webbing. They have a good laugh and begin thinking about who they should have cut the crook down this time. They decide to get Detective Snipes, who had just recently been promoted to a cushy desk job. When Snipes goes out to cut down the webbing while the other officers laugh and take bets on how long it will take for Snider to free the crook inside. However, the laughter quickly stops when Snipes tells them that this crook has been murdered, apparently by Spider-Man.[1]
A short time later, the phone begins to ring at the Parker residence. Mary Jane wakes up and answers it and quickly wakes up Peter because it is the Daily Bugle and they want to talk to him immediately. Peter soon finds himself in a car with J. Jonah Jameson and Ben Urich to the scene of the alleged Spider-Man murder. Jameson is pleased to be on the scene as it finally proves Spider-Man is a menace.[2] However, he tells Urich and Parker to hurry up as they have to get the story to the presses in an hour. Interviewing the officers on the scene, they learn that the dead man was named Joey Z, a petty street crook with no major arrests and that the medical examiners have determined that he suffocated while bound up in what appears to be Spider-Man’s webbing. Peter thinks this is the last thing he needs ever since Norman Osborn resurfaced and started using his rebuilt public image to turn the public against Spider-Man.[3] As if on cue, Norman Osborn arrives on the scene and condemns Spider-Man for this murder. Norman then plays into Jameson’s hatred of Spider-Man imploring him to use the Daily Bugle to raise so much public outcry that the wall-crawler cannot show his face in the city. The whole time he is saying this, Norman is making eye contact with Peter Parker.[4] Although Jonah tells Osborn that he will run his paper his own way, Peter notices how Jonah is still going along with Norman, something he wouldn’t normally do unless Norman Osborn had something forcing Jameson to be obedient.[5]
Growing sick of the situation, Peter tells Jonah that he is going to rush ahead to the Daily Bugle to drop off his photos. As he leaves, Peter’s spider-sense draws his attention to the rooftops where he sees what appears to be the Green Goblin holding a glowing green torch. Thinking this is Norman Osborn, Parker decides to finish this once and for all and breaks into the building to get access to the roof. By the time he changes into costume and gets onto the roof, the Goblin has vanished. Instead, he finds a pumpkin bomb that suddenly flies in the air and explodes. That combined with Spider-Man’s shouting about not allowing the Goblin to manipulate him again draws two police officers who try to arrest the wall-crawler. Seeing that they are nervous rookies, Spider-Man makes a hasty retreat as they start shooting so nobody gets hurt.
The next morning, Peter and Mary Jane are at the Daily Grind for coffee discussing the recent news. Peter is not surprised that everyone thinks Spider-Man is a killer particularly after the public recently turned on him when the Kingpin framed him for murder.[6] He was able to clear his name at that time but e doesn’t think he’ll be quite so lucky this time, particularly since he’s not the most popular hero in the city. Overhearing Devon Lewis and his mother defending Spider-Man, Peter is glad that at least some people still have faith in his alter-ego. When Mary Jane asks him what the plan is, Peter says he doesn’t know and is not willing to enlist the help of Arthur Stacy’s skills as a private detective. That’s when Peter sees the Green Goblin again, this time standing out in the middle of the street. Peter rushes out to confront the Goblin again but, just like last time, the Goblin disappears before Parker can get close. When Mary Jane asks what’s wrong, Peter says Osborn is toying with him again and there is only one way to deal with this.
Peter pays a visit to Norman Osborn’s office, this time out of costume. Norman instantly begins taunting Peter with all of his current misfortunes. Peter manages to maintain his temper, but only responds to Osborn’s questions by asking him what he wants. Norman finally explains that he wants to see Peter Parker and his family utterly ruined just as Peter “ruined” his son and his good name.[7] With that, Norman tells Peter that they are done and that he knows the way out. Later, when Norman leaves his office in his private elevator, Spider-Man stops the car and yanks Norman up onto the roof for a confrontation. Norman wonders what the wall-crawler wants, figuring the hero won’t cross the line and kill him. To prove his point, Norman jumps off the roof, forcing Spider-Man to save his life. This distracts the wall-crawler long enough for Norman’s bodyguards to reach the roof. When they start shooting, Spider-Man is forced to flee. As he bounds the nearby rooftops he spots the Goblin again, who disappears just as quickly as he reappeared. This confuses the wall-crawler because it’s not Norman Osborn behind the mask, who is?
Several hours later, Spider-Man has come up with an idea that will hopefully help clear his name. Paying a visit to Detective Snipes, Spider-Man covers his coffee cup with webbing. He then tells the detective that he didn’t kill Joey Z because his webbing is different than that which killed Joey. He tells Snipes to hurry up and analyze the sample as it will dissolve in a few hours. Later, Arthur Stacy is at home reading the news about Spider-Man when the wall-crawler comes knocking at his window.[8] When Arthur answers it, Spider-Man asks for his help. Curious, Stacy invites Spider-Man in offering to see what he can do to help the wall-crawler.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, J. Jonah Jameson, Ben Urich, Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, Arthur Stacy, Buzz, Devon Lewis
Continuity Notes
Obviously, Spider-Man is not the real killer and this is a frame job. The true identity of the killer is revealed in Spider-Man #92.
Jameson has had it out for Spider-Man for years ever since Amazing Spider-Man #1.
For years everyone thought Norman Osborn died in Amazing Spider-Man #122. As revealed in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1, Norman survived and went into hiding. He eventually resurfaced in Amazing Spider-Man #412 and publicly revealed his survival in Spectacular Spider-Man #250, using his recent purchase of the Daily Bugle to turn the public against Spider-Man, particularly after he goaded the wall-crawler into attacking him in front of security cameras.
This is because Norman knows Peter Parker is secretly Spider-Man after finding out his identity in Amazing Spider-Man #39-40.
That is exactly what Norman Osborn has done. As seen in Spectacular Spider-Man #240-248, Norman hired Jack O’Lantern to threaten the life of Jonah’s wife, Marla Madison.
The Kingpin framed Spider-Man in Spider-Man/Kingpin: To the Death #1.
There is a lot to unpack in Norman Osborn’s claims that Peter ruined his son and his family name.
In regards to “ruining” Osborn’s son, Norman is referring to his son Harry, who — as far as most people know — died while succeeding has father as the Green Goblin in Spectacular Spider-Man #200.
However, Harry actually survived, as revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #581, Harry survived. His body was secreted away by his father who decided to let the world think Harry died. To this end, he hired Mysterio to create a bio-duplicate of Harry to be buried. Mysterio insisted that Norman continue to maintain the charade by always referring to his son Harry as being dead. As such, some of this is a sham.
As for his reputation, when Norman Osborn seemingly died in Amazing Spider-Man #122, Harry was on site to make sure that nobody tied his father to the Green Goblin. However, years later when Spider-Man was saving Normie Osborn from a dip in the Goblin Formula, he let slip the fact that Norman Osborn was the original Green Goblin to Ben Urich. Urich later published a book titled “Dynasty of Evil” that revealed to the general public that Norman Osborn was the Goblin.
At the time of this story, Norman Osborn has been repairing the damage done to his family reputation caused by this book. His first phase was buying the Daily Bugle in Spectacular Spider-Man #249, then goating Spider-Man into attacking him the following issue. This other Green Goblin is not Norman (their true identity is revealed in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #18), this new Goblin will be used further to trick the world into thinking that the Green Goblin was someone else all along during the Spiderhunt story arc.
The narrative of the story mentions how Arthur’s brother George and niece Gwen died and how their deaths were somehow tied to Spider-Man. George died pushing a child out of the way of falling rubble caused by a battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus in Amazing Spider-Man #90 while Gwen was murdered by the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #121.
