The Green Goblin... dead? It certainly looks that way! But now, who's going to save Jasper? More importantly, who's going to save Lilly? Things are falling apart for the good guys, but even in darkness, there can be strength. Lilly was the only one at the side of the world's strangest super-hero as he died from wounds inflicted by his own glider. Now that she's all alone, how shall she react to the Phil's death on "A Stake of Humble Tin"?


"No, don't leave me!" Lilly shouted as she banged on Philip's chest. She lay on top of him, her eyes buried in the folds of his cloak as she cried. She could not hold back her sobs; nothing else in the world seemed to matter. Philip Urich, the man known to some as the Green Goblin but known to her as her best friend, was dead. There was no denying it. He was dead.

She could hear the din of battle. Obviously, Angel Face had not been too badly knocked out when Philip had thrown her against that wall because Lilly could hear her maniacal laugh as she fired electric bolts here and there. That laugh was nothing like the Green Goblin's; Lilly would give anything to hear that horrifying sound one more time.

But those sounds of warfare were distant and almost unrecognizable. Lilly didn't care about any of it. Even though Kate and Garth and Humphrey were fighting for their lives, this did not register. While Lilly knew it for a fact, she could not wrap her mind around it, could not perceive it as something true. It just was not real, not like the death that had just occurred. Lilly could have sworn that, as Philip died, she felt a shiver as his soul rushed past her.

"Philip, you could do it! You could come back! Please, Philip, come back! We need you! And you could do it! You're so much more than I thought you were, so much more than what any of us thought you were. You have the strength inside of you! Please come back!"

She wailed and wailed, pounding her head against the folds of his cloak, but nothing happened. Slowly, she picked herself up and sat next to the body, feeling numb and even dead inside herself. She looked down to see that her chest was all red. It was Philip's blood, she knew that. She should have felt disgusted, queasy, violated. She knew that blood pouring down the fur was nothing uncommon for an Alpha wolf but, as an Omega, the thought always repulsed her. Maybe that was why she didn't try harder to be like her sister. Maybe…

But even that had never been the blood of someone the wolf knew, of a friend and confidant. But this was, and Lilly should have been sick to her stomach to have even a drop on her. But she was not. She knew she probably would be later, but for now she was not. She was simply too shocked, too hurt, too sorrowful for anything other than the fact of Philip's death to register in her mind.

And then, she heard footsteps behind her. Big, lumbering steps. She knew those steps. Knew them too well…

"Hey, cutie, looks like your boyfriend went and got himself skewered. It looks like you need someone new to keep you warm at night!" It was Turk. "Trust me, once you cuddle up here to me, you'll be glad that old green-skin bumped himself off!"

Lilly snarled. She felt the anger welling up inside of her, about to erupt like a volcano. She had never felt such rage in all her life, did not think herself capable of it. But here it was all the same. She was not afraid, did not care about her own life, but she would never forgive what Turk was saying. And he would never forget the price of speaking such words.

Slowly, as he approached her, she unfastened one of the bags-of-tricks around Philip's waist. And then, she felt Turk's large paw press down upon her shoulder.

"Look, baby," he said, "I'm gonna show you a time you won't forget. You'll be thanking me when this is over!"

"Somebody's full of themselves," Lilly said as she reached into the bag. She nearly cut herself on something long and sharp.

And, with speed she didn't know she had, she thrust a razor-bat into his paw. She could tell it went all the way through because of a slight pain in her shoulder. Turk pulled his paw back and began to stagger away. Lilly turned to see her handiwork, paying no mind to the hint of her own blood on her shoulder. The razor-bat was still stuck in Turk's paw but this did not stop him from preparing to charge her.

Lilly smiled grimly. "What? Can't handle a real she-wolf?"

Turk snarled and opened his great jaws to snap down on her. He leaped and came flying toward her. Lilly was ready.

She took the bag of tricks in her mouth and with a great turn of her head, sent all of its contents flying toward Turk. Pumpkin bombs, gas-ghosts, razor-bats, and all sorts of devices which Lilly did not recognize, whizzed out of the bag and zoomed toward Turk. He realized the danger but his momentum was too great.

"I wouldn't 'cuddle up' to you if you were the last wolf on the planet," Lilly said from behind the strap of the bag. "I'm too good for you."

And then Turk disappeared behind a cloud of green gas and red fire. Lilly felt her fur being pushed back by the explosion but would not look away. She saw the fiery ball of destruction seemingly become a storm of blood and gas before finally beginning to dissipate. What remained was Turk, his body prone in a pool of blood. From the heaving of his chest, Lilly could tell that he was still alive, but she knew from the carnage meeting her eyes that he would never be a threat to her again.

Lilly returned to sitting above Philip. She didn't cry any more. She just silently stood guard, like some stone angel upon a tomb. And then, she perceived the presence of Angel Face standing over her.

"Thus do the proud men die," Angel Face said. "Crucified not upon a cross of gold, but upon a stake of humble tin. Fitting, don't you think?"

Lilly turned swiftly. She was not about to let Angel Face, the cause of all of this, speak about Philip this way. She was ready to fight and to die fighting if need be. But then she saw a sight which brought her back to reality and reminded her that her life was not the only thing at stake. She saw Kate, Humphrey, and Garth, all badly bruised and bloodied, being held at bay by Salt, Jenny, and Angel Face herself.

"Attack me and they all die," Angel Face said. "I mean, they'll probably die anyway but at least you can have the vain hope that I might be generous." Looking back down at her enemy, she smiled mercilessly. "It looks like Goblins bleed just as mortal men do."

Lilly did not attack; she could not risk the lives of her still living family and friend. Instead, she threw herself back on Philip's body. "Please, Philip, we need you! Wake up, we need you! Come on, you can do it! You have the strength and the power! I'm not saying that because you have an accelerated healing factor. I'm not saying that because you're the Green Goblin. I'm saying that because you're Philip Urich and you're special. Because you are Philip Urich, I know you have the strength to overcome this! I know you have the strength to come back!"

"Touching," Angel Face said sarcastically as she grabbed Lilly and yanked her off of Philip's body. Lilly was about to fight back when she noticed something. Looking at Philip's wound, she thought she saw an electric spark swimming through the blood, striking the blood cells here and there, causing them to burst. And when they burst, they released a green liquid, which seemed to swarm through the blood and change it all green. Lilly knew that, on this day, miracles can happen. Miracles can happen and men can rise from the dead.

As Angel Face pulled Lilly away, she let herself be led. And she smiled.

Angel Face looked down at her. "What's that smile for, whitey? You just lost your boyfriend there and you're about to lose everything else!"

Lilly looked up at her, those lavender lights dancing with satisfaction. "Things that are lost are never gone forever. And you're about to find that out."

Angel Face shrugged this off and continued to pull on Lilly. But Lilly looked over her own bloody shoulder, back toward where the Green Goblin lay. As she did so, her smile widened.


Things are getting interesting! What is the meaning of this strange miracle? Is the Green Goblin still alive? Or are stranger things - and that is saying something - at work in determining Jasper's fate? Next issue, it will all be revealed as we find out if it's true what they say that "Death Comes to All..." who don the mantle of the Green Goblin. You don't want to miss it!