The Green Goblin is dead, long live the Green Goblin? Strange things are certainly happening, but is that out of the ordinary for the world's strangest super-hero? Hardly! But, just what is going on and why? That's what we're going to find out as we learn whether it's true that "Death Comes to All Who Don the Mantle of the Green Goblin"!
I stand in darkness, alone. I don't know where I am and I'm not even sure what I am. I mean, sure I'm Philip Urich, but I don't seem to actually have a body. Apparently, I'm just some disembodied consciousness or something. Cool.
Then I see something in the darkness. Lilly is crying over… over my body… and suddenly I remember. I remember everything that has happened and everything that has led me straight to this moment. And then I realize…
Ah man, I'm dead!
"I told you, Phil," the voice of Norman Osborn says from out of nowhere. "Death comes to all who don the mantle of the Green Goblin."
"Yeah, yeah, bag that noise! I've heard it a thousand times."
"But now it came true," Harry's voice says. "And now you can spend all eternity… with us! Hahaha!"
I roll my eyes… at least I think I do… or, I would have rolled my eyes if I had eyes to roll… or… whatever. "Gee, that's going to be a lot of fun. Really, don't I get a get out of Goblin hell free card or something for, you know, being the only heroic Goblin?"
"He's right," Ned Leeds says. "He should not be required to haunt the same infernal depths as us."
"Don't tell him that!" Demogoblin whispers. "I told you not to tell him that! All sinners must be published!"
"But he's not a sinner, Demogoblin," Bart Hamilton interjects. "That's the whole point."
"Oh," Demogoblin says.
"Thanks, Bart, I guess," I say.
"Don't mention it, Philip," he says in reply. But we're all still standing in darkness.
I watch Lilly crying over me for a while. I try to reach out, pat her on the shoulder, but I'm, like, a disembodied consciousness, remember? So I can't do anything that would require arms.
Instead, I say, "Lilly, Lilly, don't cry. Lilly, it's going to be okay. Everything will be alright. Look at me, Lilly, I'm fine. I'm perfectly fine. I'm okay. Lilly?"
"Yeah, like that's going to work," Norman says. "She can neither hear nor see you. Or in case you didn't know, you're dead!"
"Hey, it was worth a shot," I say.
Lilly's still crying. "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!"
I wish I could, Lilly. I really wish I could.
"And why can you not?" says a voice. This isn't one of the Goblins. No, it's another voice I've become all too familiar with. Sir Bertilak, the Green Knight, appears from out of the shadows and stands right in front of me. Well, I think he does. Concepts of direction are hard when you're a disembodied consciousness.
"Because, um, because I'm, you know, dead," I say. "That's not something which people exactly just get over. It's the undiscovered country and all that. Not that I feel much like Christopher Columbus or anything…"
The Green Knight smiles his trademark spooky smile. "Ah, so you think it is that simple? Life and death, it is that simple?"
"Well, of course it is!" I say, almost shouting. "You're either alive or you're dead! That's the only two options. And I'm not the former, so I must be the latter!"
"Is that right? There is no room for a middle state?"
"No, none whatsoever! If you wanted me to still be alive, you should have helped me! Where were you when I needed you?"
"As I told you, you must be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice yourself. I cannot always be around to help you. But it is strange. I never thought that the barrier between life and death was so easily fixed…"
"Oh, but it is!" Norman Osborn shouts as he appears next to the Green Knight. "If it wasn't, don't you think I'd have come back by now?"
"Who's to say that you haven't?" Bertilak says with a knowing smile, making the original Green Goblin seem rather uncomfortable. "Who's to say you haven't already breached the barrier between the living and the dead?"
Okay, now this is getting to be just too supernatural for my tastes…
"Death comes to all who don the mantle of the Green Goblin!" Norman shouts. "Philip knew that when he took on the role, and now the time has come for him to pay his dues! The power comes with a price, always with a price!"
"So you say," Bertilak barks back, displaying traces of anger like I've never seen in him before, "so you say. But what is the cause of this curse? Was it not that you and your heirs tried to use my power for evil ends? Was that not the very cause of your downfall, Osborn?"
Norman seems to grow small under this line of questioning.
"Was it not because you abused my power that I arranged for you to lose yours? You were the cause of your own downfall, Osborn, not some curse on your position! How fitting that it was your own glider to kill you! How most fitting indeed! But Philip chose not to follow in your footsteps. He chose to abandon the evil which you and your successors wrought under the Goblin name. He is more than you could ever be, so do not talk to him about death and life! What did you ever know of death and life, Osborn? You who squandered both? Nothing! Now be quiet while the true men talk!"
"Okay, when you put it that way," Norman says, "I'm going, I'm going!" and then he's gone. Just like that, he's gone.
The Green Knight turns to me, I think (you know what I mean) and smiles once again. "Philip, you alone have proved yourself worthy of the mantle of the Green Goblin. You alone have the right to wear that mask. There is a power in you beyond what you believed. It is a power that can even hold back death."
"Like, me, hold back death? I don't think so!" I say.
"It's true. There is still more in you than you have ever expected. You simply need to recognize it and it will come forth."
I don't know what to say, but my attention is suddenly diverted toward Lilly. I see Turk putting his paw on her shoulder and everything in me just wants to sit up and punch him. But I can't, 'cause I'm dead. And suddenly, I'm filled with fear and what will happen to Lilly now that she has no one to protect her.
After Turk mumbles something about his intentions toward her, Lilly remarks, "Somebody's full of themselves." And then, like out of nowhere, she drives one of my razor-bats into his paw, sending it straight through and causing him to jump backward in pain. That was, like, something I never expected. Wow. Guess Lilly doesn't need someone to protect her after all! She's apparently quite able to protect herself!
Oh no, Turk's about to rush her. But then Lilly suddenly turns around. And she looks wild. I mean, literally, almost barbaric. She's got my blood, my blood, running all down her chest and her own blood dripping slowly down her shoulder. Her eyes are, like, almost wild with rage. This is a Lilly I haven't met before.
"What? Can't handle a real she-wolf?" she says. I take it she's not too worried about the situation. And for the life of me (er, bad word choice), I can't help but laugh at her newfound quipping ability.
As Turk jumps for her, she takes my bag of tricks and swings it at him, sending all of its contents flying. I mean, all my bombs and bats and gas-grenades and everything, straight into Turk's mouth. "I wouldn't 'cuddle up' to you if you were the last wolf on the planet. I'm too good for you," she says.
You are, Lilly, you really are. I'm glad you can finally see it for yourself.
And then, with Turk defeated, there's calm again as Lilly returns to my chest and keeps sobbing. I don't like seeing her like this, but what can I do?
"Go back, get up!" the Green Knight says. "You've seen what good you've done for her. Imagine how much more good you could do for the world if you came back!"
"But how?" I demand. "How do I come back? Do I just step inside my body and wake up or what? Tell me what I'm supposed to do!"
"Look within you," the green man says. "Look and find your own strength. That is the only way."
"The only way, the only way! Ha! Like that helps at all!"
"There is still something special about you, Philip Urich. Recognize it and you shall have your answer."
"Boy, you're just full of riddles, aren't you?"
He shrugs, but before I can give him a real piece of my mind, I see Angel Face, standing above Lilly. And Salt and Jenny are in the background, holding Kate and Humphrey and Garth captive. Oh man, things are looking bad…
"Thus do the proud men die. Crucified not upon a cross of gold, but upon a stake of humble tin," she says. And I know that quote. It's from my uncle's book, describing the death of Norman Osborn on his own glider. Well, I'm glad somebody made the connection…
Not!
Angel Face pulls Lilly away and threatens her family with death. That's just foul! Lilly isn't even allowed to mourn me in peace! Angel Face really has no concept of decency!
"In general, she wouldn't," the Green Knight says. "She is a villain, after all."
"Yeah, and not a very good one at that," I say.
"Then you cannot let her win. You must defeat her."
"But I was never that good of a hero either."
"So you keep saying. But then, who is the one who has now saved Lilly three times?"
"Only for them to get caught now…"
"But that does not matter. What matters is that you gave up your life so that Lilly could have hers. Isn't that worth being the Green Goblin?"
"Yeah, of course it is. Of course it is!"
"Then, surely it is also worth a return to life as the Green Goblin?"
"I don't know, am I really all that great of a hero? Am I really all that special?"
And then I see Lilly tear away from Angel Face and throw herself back on my chest. "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!"
Me, Philip Urich, special? Could it really be? I mean, I've always known that the Green Goblin was special, but I never thought of myself as really special enough for the role. But, could I myself actually be special? Me, not the Goblin, but me?
"Yes, Philip," the Green Knight says, apparently satisfied that I'm now beginning to understand. "It was never the Green Goblin which made you special. It was you who made the Green Goblin special. The power… you may have used that mask, that electric shock, to jumpstart your powers, but that mask never actually gave those powers to you. It was just a conduit. The true power is not in the mask, but in the man. The power is inside of you and you have the power to return, to save your friends, and to ensure that the Goblin legacy is one of truth and justice. That is the power that resides within you."
Then I guess I have my answer. I know now what I must do. The green man's right, I can feel the power within me. Even though I'm a disembodied consciousness, I can feel the power within me! And I'm going to use that power to rise again! Today, the Green Goblin is reborn! Hahahahahaha!
And then, I feel myself to be more than a disembodied consciousness. I feel blood flowing through my veins, sense and emotion welling up through my arms and legs, my gut and heart and brains, my whole body. I feel alive! The Green Goblin lives! And just like that, I sit up. And in my ears rings some last words from the green man himself. "You see, Philip, one man can make a difference. And that man is you."
I look down to see my body wholly healed. There's red blood covering my Goblin suit but my wounds themselves have healed. And, strangely, around the wounds, the blood isn't red. No, the drying blood is not red… but green. It seems my final struggle for life ignited the Goblin serum within my blood, sending it coursing through my veins and reactivating my accelerated healing factor. And now I am alive!
I pick up my mask and look into its yellow eyes. Funny, this mask was what I thought made me special but no… something special was inside of me the whole time. Maybe that's why I was the one to find the Goblin lair, to fall into those chemicals, to take this mask and ride the wild night and laugh like a lunatic striking fear into the hearts of… whatever! Because my name is Philip Urich, and I'm more than just another Green Goblin. I am special.
Hahahahahaha!
Time to make Angel Face pay! Time to save my friends! Time to bring justice to this part of Canada! Time… to go green!
Author's Note: I've used the "So do the proud men die..." quote so much (and it is such an iconic part of the original Green Goblin's death scene) that it seemed to make sense to give it some actual in-universe validity by making it a quote from Ben Urich's book on the Goblins.
Yes, heroes can rise again, true believers. It looks like the Green Goblin really is here to stay after all! And won't Angel Face be in for a nasty surprise? All things come full circle next time as we witness the "Resurrection of the Green Goblin"!
