‘Amazing Spider-Man’ #798 Gives Our First Full Look at the Red Goblin

In today’s The Amazing Spider-Man #798 from writer Dan Slott and artists Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, and Marte Gracia, fans got their first look at the Red Goblin in action — and it was pretty deadly.

The central villain of Slott’s swan song, “Go Down Swinging,” The Red Goblin is, as previously revealed, Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin), who has merged with the Carnage symbiote.

Fans tuning in for this issue will not get an explanation for exactly how he gets it, though; Osborn appears as the Green Goblin and takes over the Daily Bugle, sending Peter Parker off to summon Spider-Man for him while keeping the rest of the staff hostage with a bomb. Once ol’ Webhead appears and the staff has the opportunity to get out, Osborn’s bomb detonates. Spidey manages to shield himself, but it appears that Osborn is killed…until he rises back up, now surrounded by the Carnage symbiote. Breathing fiery smoke and throwing “Carnage bombs” that have teeth, fire, and the capacity to follow Peter, he makes his demands.

What happens next…well, you’ll have to read to find out.

Carnage, for those new to the game, is the “spawn of Venom.” Venom was the result of the merging of disgraced photojournalist Eddie Brock and an alien symbiote that had briefly served as Spider-Man’s costume in the late ’80s. Brock blamed Peter Parker, a competitor for freelance gigs at the Daily Bugle, for his downfall, while the symbiote was stung from being rejected by Spider-Man — who tried to get rid of the alien being once he realized that his fancy new black costume was actually a living thing.

After a number of altercations with Spider-Man, Brock found himself separated from the Venom symbiote and doing time in jail. His cellmate, Cletus Kasady, was a notorious serial killer. When the costume itself came to break Brock out of prison, it left behind what appeared to be a tiny portion of itself but later turned out to be its offspring. That offspring merged with Kasady to create Carnage, a leaner and more brutal take on the Venom concept.

Venom had become so wildly popular in those early years that Marvel had a clever idea: Brock’s beef wasn’t with the world in general but Spider-Man in specific. Thus, he could become the kind of ultra-violent antihero that was becoming popular at the time, since Brock still had a conscience and a soul when he wasn’t trying to get revenge on Parker/Spider-Man. Carnage, on the other hand, was their opportunity to take Venom’s general look and power set and apply it to a sadistic, remorseless villain who could not be redeemed. He became the first in a long line of symbiote spawns, and the one that recurs the most often.

The Amazing Spider-Man #798 is on sale today.