I: Feature Story: "The Return of the Green Goblin!"

Pages: 22

Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Steve Ditko
Inks: Steve Ditko
Letters: Sam Rosen

First Appearance: Charlie, Mr. Brant (Liz Allan's father)

Villain: Green Goblin

Guest Appearance: Johnny Storm/Human Torch, Doris Evans, J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, Aunt May, Charlie, Mr. Brant

Synopsis: As Peter Parker sits in class, daydreaming about what the Green Goblin might be up to, that same villain is honing his skills in his secret hideout, using his brand new jet glider to attack a Spider-Man dummy. His next attack on Spider-Man is imminent. At Midtown High, Peter overhears Flash Thompson telling his classmates that he's forming a new Spider-Man fan club! Liz tries to get him to invite Peter into the group, but Flash refuses to include "puny Parker". Later that day, Peter sees what looks like a robbery in progress: several costumed men are running from a bank and climbing into a waiting helicopter. He springs into action and threatens the costumed men, but it turns out they were simply shooting a movie! Spider-Man apologizes, but news gets out and J. Jonah Jameson is only too happy to print up the embarrassing story.

Peter walks Betty Brant home, and on the way they run into Liz and Flash. Peter's classmates are looking over an advertisement in the newspaper that invites everyone to the first meeting of the Spider-Man fan club, and promises a personal appearance from Spidey himself! Liz starts to flirt with Peter, telling him that he should come to the meeting. Flash says no way is Peter invited, but Liz lays down the law: she says that since her father paid for the ad and is putting the meeting up in his dinner club, she can invite whomever she wants! Peter decides to go as Spider-Man later, but when he finishes walking Betty home, she notices that he never asked her to go with him to the fan club meeting.

Right after, Peter changes into Spider-Man to follow a man who had triggered his spider-sense. Not finding the man, he changes back into street clothes and hears a gunshot ring out. A thief is on the run, and the Human Torch is there to stop him! After the police arrest the thief, the Torch signs autographs for all his fans. The teenage member of the FF hands an unsolicited autograph to Peter himself. Peter offers the Torch's autograph in trade to a little kid for Spider-Man's, and the kid says "No way!" Jameson wants to find some way to keep Spidey's popularity from exploding, so he recruits Betty Brant to go with him to the Spider-Man fan club meeting that night. He tells her to have Parker there with his camera, and he hopes to dig up some kind of bad publicity. Betty doesn't call Peter, hoping that he doesn't go to the meeting and see Liz Allan, who she is very jealous of. Back at Peter's home, his Aunt May is bugging him to go out on a blind date with Mary Jane Watson. He keeps telling her that Betty is his girlfriend, but Aunt May is very insistent.

Liz and Flash meet with Liz's dad at his club called The Avenue Dinner Club. As they greet all the folks who are coming to attend the first meeting of the Spider-Man fan club (including Johnny Storm and his girlfriend Doris), Jameson and Betty Brant settle in, looking for Peter Parker. Suddenly, Spider-Man shows up! He swings in from a window, but the Green Goblin is also there, and he tosses a "Goblin Frog" that cuts Spidey's web in two. Spidey lands without harm, but he realizes that the Green Goblin has tracked him down. He knows how much danger the Goblin promises to put the crowd in, but he doesn't want to cause a panic, so he tries to battle him and at the same time make it look like part of the show. Johnny Storm holds back from entering the fray, waiting to see what develops. The crowd is eating up the battle between Spidey and Green Goblin, except for Liz Allan, who is upset that Peter hasn't shown and wonders aloud where he is, and why he's never around when Spider-Man is on the scene!

Spider-Man overhears her say this, and figures he's got to do something to throw her off that particular trail. Johnny Storm notices three gunmen who are casing the dinner club for robbery up above in a window, and he "flames on" to stop them. Unfortunately, his path takes him between Spidey and Green Goblin, which stops Spidey's web from ending the fight between them. The Torch chases the thieves off, then returns to the dinner club and faces off against the Goblin. Peter decides to let the Torch handle the fight with the Green Goblin for the moment and heads down to the floor dressed in his street clothes. He greets Liz Allan, in an attempt to put her off the path to investigating Spidey's identity, and she immediately brightens up in his presence. She plays with his mussed up hair, and Betty Brant sees this - and Peter sees her seeing it!!!!

Meanwhile, the Goblin pulls out of his arsenal a ghost bomb, which seals the Torch up inside an airtight cloud. Torch destroys the cloud with a supernova flame, but the Goblin keeps him off balance until Spider-Man hops back into the fray. Just as the crowd starts to feel like perhaps this show is actually the real thing, Spider-Man overhears Liz Allan's dad receiving a phone call. The nature of the call is the hospital calling for Peter Parker, because his Aunt May has had a heart attack! Spider-Man immediately rushes off to be at her bedside, leaving the crowd to wonder why he's deserting the fight. Jameson cackles in glee that Spider-Man has "turned yellow". The Torch tries to defeat the Goblin, but the bad guy escapes through the window of the dinner club. The crowd starts to walk out, and none of them are impressed with Spider-Man's cowardly behavior. Only Flash Thompson remains a loyal fan, trying to convince others to also stay loyal, but to no avail. Jameson runs an extra edition of his paper declaring Spider-Man to be a coward, which Peter overhears while walking home from the hospital (where Aunt May has recovered from her heart attack). He wonders if it's any good to remain Spider-Man since all it leads to is heartbreak.

--synopsis by Gormuu

Issues Reprinted
Spider-Man from
Amazing Spider-Man #11-19 and Annual #1

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.