Marvel Comics has announced Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin, a new four-issue limited series that promises to reveal “the Osborn family’s darkest secret.”
Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin launches in April 2024 from legendary “Kraven’s Last Hunt” writer J.M. DeMatteis alongside artist Michael Sta. Maria. The series takes place during Peter Parker‘s earliest days as Spider-Man, when the wound of Uncle Ben’s death was still fresh. It also revisits the mystery of Nels van Adder, aka the Proto-Goblin, a character who made his first (and, to date, only) appearance in 1997’s Spider-Man #-1.
Check out Paulo Siqueira’s cover art for Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin #1 below:
What is Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin about?
Per Marvel, Shadow of the Green Goblin finds Peter “entangled in a dark drama involving his best friend’s family: the Osborns.” The series will tie up the long-hanging loose thread of the aforementioned Nels van Adder, who was the first subject of Norman Osborn’s “Goblin formula.”
An official synopsis for issue #1 reads as follows: “Norman Osborn was not the first Goblin! Norman Osborn is the Green Goblin you know. But he is NOT the Original Goblin! It’s time to learn the shocking secrets of the Proto-Goblin, and its dramatic connection to the Osborn family! What role does a young Peter Parker, who has not yet understood his great power and responsibility, play in this unfolding of events?”
“I’ve always been fascinated with Peter Parker’s early days as Spider-Man, a time before he fully understood what it meant to be a super hero,” DeMatteis said. “SHADOW OF THE GOBLIN allows us to take a deep dive into Young Peter’s mind and emotions as he makes his way through this exhilarating, and sometimes terrifying, new world.”
The writer continued, “We take an equally-deep dive into the dysfunctional dynamic of the Osborn family, seeing how that generational pain sowed the earliest seeds of Norman’s Green Goblin identity and left its traumatic imprint on Harry … If you think you know everything there is to know about Peter and the Osborns, think again!”
Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin #1 goes on sale April 3, 2024 from Marvel Comics.
