Spectacular Spider-Man #181

Title: “The Child Within part four: Guilt”

Writer: J.M. DeMatteis

Penciller: Sal Buscema

Inker: Sal Buscema

Colors: Bob Sharen

Editor: Danny Fingeroth

At the hospital, Vermin crawls out and asks to please make it stop. He calls out for his mother, but then calls out to the doctor. Edward is told that Kafka is not there right now and that she went home for a few hours. Vermin asks if she is not there and says that she is never there. The man says, “Edward…?” Vermin shouts that he is not Edward! The camera goes black.

The elderly African-American woman sits in the house. She is looking at a picture of young Edward, who looks exactly like the little boy asking Vermin for help getting home, sitting on Santa Claus’ lap.

Kafka sits in her office looking at a picture of Vermin curled up in the corner.

In a dingy room, Harry stands over Peter’s unconscious body holding a pumpkin bomb. He says that he is sorry, but that Peter made him do this. He asks if Peter understands that. Peter groggily tries to get to his feet. Harry says that every time he finds a little peace… ever time he starts to really believe that his father was a good man… that he sees Peter’s face in front of him listing all of Norman Osborn’s crimes. Peter realizes he has been gassed. Harry asks Peter why he can’t let him forget the past. He asks why he always has to remind him that his father was the Green Goblin. Harry grabs Peter by the throat and wants to know why. Harry says that he knows his father loved him. He says that even all those years when it seemed like he didn’t care. When he would ignore him, call him awful names, and treat him like a doormat… he knew the truth. Harry shouts that he knew how much his father loved him. Peter thinks that he has to help Harry. Harry asks what Peter said and punches him. He says that his father was not evil. He says that he became the Green Goblin because he loved him. He says that he needed the money to give him a better life. He shouts that he became the Green Goblin because of him. Harry kneels by Peter’s unmoving body. He says that he knows his father killed Gwen and asks Peter how he thinks that makes him feel… that his father could have done such a thing. He says that he loved Gwen too. He says that it must have been an accident that Gwen died, but that even if it wasn’t that Peter shouldn’t have killed his father. Peter says, “…my best… friend”. Harry asks Peter if he understands what he has had to live with all these years. All he has had to keep inside. He says that sometimes it is too much to be Harry, and that Harry has to go away and the Goblin has to come back. Harry puts his Goblin mask back on. Goblin says that there were all those years of pain, and that he didn’t ask for any of it. He says that he didn’t ask for his mother to die. Didn’t ask for his father to put on a stupid costume and make a bloody mess of everyone’s lives. Harry says that all he has ever wanted since he was a little boy was for people to be nice to him and love him… but that no one ever did. Goblin removes the top of the pumpkin bomb. Smoke starts to seep out. Harry says that if Liz and Normie ever found out what he was really like, how weak he is, that they would leave him too. He says that there is too much pain and that he has had enough of it. He says that he is going to give all his pain to him. Goblin’s face becomes a twisted mess as Peter is overcome by the gas.

Peter seems to hear Harry talking about one of his father’s gases… a psychedelic with hallucinatory effects. The smoke clears and Peter finds himself in his Spider-Man costume. A voice tells Peter to go deep inside himself… into the dark places that he never dares to look. Peter looks around and sees giant tombstones all around him. He looks up at one and says that he can’t go through this again. He sees the one reads, “Here lies Spider-Man, Slain by the Hunter.” Peter asks why it won’t leave him alone, but then the ground starts to give away. An arm grabs Peter out of the declining ground. He says that he isn’t going down just now. Kraven, with a giant hole out the side of his head, puts Spider-Man down. He says that he committed suicide, the greatest sin of all, and that Spider-Man didn’t do anything to stop him. Peter says that he didn’t know. He asks how he could have known. Peter realizes that this can’t really be Kraven. “Kraven” laughs. He grabs his head and pulls it off revealing the Green Goblin underneath. Harry asks Peter if he is in a graveyard. He says that makes sense. He asks if Peter and death aren’t old friends. Peter says that he isn’t his friend and that he hates him. Goblin grabs Spider-Man and takes off on his glider. He tells Peter that he and death are more than friends. He says that they are a team. He says that Peter feeds Death victims. Harry asks what Peter gets in return. Goblin says that they need to go deeper and find out. Goblin holds Spider-man’s head and tells him to tell him what he sees. Peter says not to make him, but Goblin says that he can’t hear him and to tell him what he sees. Peter says that he sees Nathan Lubinsky as his ghost rises out of its tombstone. Harry asks who else. Peter sees Ned Leeds floating out of his grave. Harry asks who else. Peter sees Norman Osborn rising out of his grave. Harry asks if Peter sees his father. Peter says that he does. Harry says that he can’t hear him. Peter shouts that he does.

Right before his escape from the hospital, Vermin shouts, “THE BAD THING! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!” The man on call says to get Kafka on the phone. He says to get in there and sedate Vermin. Men run into the room, but Vermin tells them to stay away from him with their needles. He says that they always want to make him sleep and forget. The men pile on Vermin. Vermin shouts, “Don’t tell anybody! Go down into the dark! Into the ssewerss… like a worthless rat! Hide it away! Hide it away! Well I’m not hiding anymore!” Vermin knocks the men off of him and starts killing them. Vermin kills every last man in his room and then kills the doctor on call.

Goblin drops Peter and says that they have to go deeper… into Peter’s deepest shame. He says that the more pain Peter suffers the less he will. He says that the more bound Peter is by his pain the more Harry will break free of the chains that hold him. Peter lies on the ground surrounded by the tombstones of Captain George Stacy, Gwen Stacy, Ben Parker. He says that all these lives are wasted because of him. Ben’s voice comes to Peter he tells Peter that anytime something goes wrong that he always wonders what he could have done to prevent it. He says that anytime one of the other kids gets hurt that Peter thinks that he could have stopped it somehow. Peter calls out to Ben to help him. He says that May takes such good care of him, but that Ben understands him. Spider-Man curls up to his tombstone. Ben says that he understands him better than Peter understands himself. Ben asks Peter how many times they are going to go through this. He says that it is like a tape loop that keeps running through Peter’s head. Peter says that he let the man that killed Ben get away. He says that he knows it was his fault, but that he has done his best to make up for it. Ben says that this isn’t about him. Peter says that of course it is. Ben says that this goes way back. Peter asks to where. Ben says that Peter knows. Peter looks back at two of the tombstones. Peter denies that he knows. He shouts not to tell him as he hears it again. Ben says, “Peter…? I have some bad news. It’s your mother and father, Peter… your mother… and father… they won’t be coming back. They’re… dead.” Two dark silhouetted bodies come out of the background and reach down to touch Peter.

The maskless Peter Parker screams, “NO!!!” as Harry in his Goblin mask watches on. Peter freaks out. He says that they can’t be dead. He starts smashing apart everything in the room and says that he will do anything. He says that he will be good. The sheer mania of Peter’s pain seems to snap Harry out of his dementia. He pulls his mask off and asks Peter what is the matter with him. He tells him to calm down, and that whatever it is that he is there and that it will be all right. Peter says not to let them be dead. He grabs Harry, unknowingly, and tosses him across the room. Harry hits the wall hard and goes unconscious. Peter bursts out of the wall and starts swinging along without his mask. He thinks Mommy and Daddy to himself over and over. People watch him swing down the street. Peter says that it must be his fault that they went away.

The old white man sits in his bed with a picture on his lap. The picture is of a much younger him with his son on his knee. The young boy again is the exact same boy that has been asking Vermin for getting help going home. A rat runs across the picture. The man tosses it aside and the picture breaks. Vermin steps on the picture. He is holding his mother by the hair and dragging her across the floor. He says, “I’m back, Daddy… and I’m going to kill you!”

Kafka is woken by a loud crash. She looks up to see Spider-Man, without his mask, curled up on the floor amongst the shattered glass of her window. Peter says, “help… me…”

Tangled Web rating: 10 out of 10

Review and pictures by The Leader

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