written by Dan Slott
drawn by Greg Smallwood
colored by Jordie Bellaire
I'll admit, when I saw the cover for this issue, I groaned. After all, Slott had only just finished a four-part story pitting Spider-Man against the Green Goblin, and for him to revisit the character so soon felt like a creative cop-out. I was pleasantly surprised by what I actually read.
Humiliated by his most recent defeat at the hands of Spider-Man, Norman Osborn agonizes over ways to restore his Green Goblin persona, which Spider-Man has since suppressed through the introduction of nanites into Norman's system which biologically suppress that part of Norman's personality. Therapy doesn't work, surgery doesn't work, and when Eastern medicine fails Norman as well he is at the end of his rope, when he receives a suggestion from his acupuncturist to visit a place somewhere in Asia, which Norman promptly does. He stumbles on a monastery where three old monks greet him and offer to teach him their ways...provided he can pass their test.
This issue doesn't really serve any narrative purpose and I think its only real point is to give the series' stellar regular artist Stuart Immonen a well-deserved break after consistently amazing work on the past two storylines. It's pretty much a throwaway issue, albeit a pretty good one, thanks in no small part to Greg Smallwood's excellent art and Jordie Bellaire's nicely textured coloring. Slott looks like he's taking easy here as well, having fun with this little done-in-one.
7.5/10
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