Red Goblin crashes the final exam
Well, I guess this is what happens when your Spider-school curriculum includes “how to fight supervillains” and your principal is Norman Osborn.
Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Versity #5 wraps up this arc by immediately cashing in on last issue’s wonderfully terrible idea: Norman Osborn bonded with Carnage to save Maka, and now the Red Goblin is back. Jordan Morris and Joe Kelly write the issue, with Pere Pérez on art and Guru-eFX on colors. And appropriately enough, the result is less “graduation ceremony” and more “every lesson we learned this semester is suddenly on the final exam.”
PROS
The biggest thing this issue gets right is that the entire Spider-Versity concept actually pays off.
Norman has spent this series teaching these young heroes to think differently, study their enemies, improvise and use everything available to them. So when Red Goblin comes roaring back, the solution isn’t simply everybody jumping him at once and hoping enough punches eventually solve the problem.
Everybody starts reaching into the weird little toolbox they’ve built throughout the series.
Silk and Spider-Woman experiment with sound. Araña makes use of repurposed Goblin technology. Ghost-Spider busts out Ringmaster’s hypnotic hat. The team even sends previously encountered villains and machines into the fight. It is gloriously messy, but that is also the point: Spider-Versity has turned these people into a team of improvisers.
And Red Goblin is a perfect final test because Norman knows all of them.
That gives the battle a fun cat-and-mouse quality. Every clever move they make is something Norman—or rather the part of Norman still fighting inside Carnage—understands. Carnage keeps pushing him toward the old temptation of power and violence, while Norman desperately tries not to become the monster he once was. The opening sequence inside Norman’s mind gives the issue just enough emotional weight without turning what is fundamentally a big superhero brawl into something overly grim.
I also really liked that Maka gets the decisive moment.
Her ability to recreate the powers of others has been sitting there waiting for the perfect payoff, and having her become the one who ultimately helps separate Carnage from Norman feels earned. Norman realizes that she may actually be the most powerful student in the group precisely because she has learned from everyone around her. For a book built around teaching Spider-heroes how to become better together, that is about as appropriate a conclusion as you could ask for.
Pere Pérez also absolutely understands the assignment here. The fight is huge, bright and constantly moving. Red Goblin looks appropriately monstrous, but the action never loses that slightly goofy Saturday-morning-cartoon energy that has made this mini-series enjoyable. Carnage getting hit by everything from hypnotism to Spider-powered attacks to Goblin tech makes the whole thing feel like someone emptied an entire Spider-Man toy box onto the floor.
And then there’s Norman.
The quieter aftermath might actually be my favorite part. Once Carnage is removed, Norman immediately believes the solution should be killing him. Jessica refuses. She doesn’t excuse what he did—she directly calls him reckless and dishonest—but she also points out the irony: they defeated the Red Goblin because Norman trained them well enough to do it.
That is a much more satisfying place to leave Norman than simply declaring him “redeemed.” Nobody forgets who Norman Osborn is. Nobody completely trusts him. But maybe he genuinely did something good here.
Naturally, by Monday, class is back in session.
Perfect.
CONS
My only real complaint is that this finale is so packed with characters, powers, callbacks and gadgets that some of the Spiders barely get room to breathe. If you’re specifically here for Miles, Gwen, Silk or Spider-Boy, you may wish each of them had gotten a little more individual spotlight. The Red Goblin confrontation also resolves fairly quickly considering how massive last issue’s cliffhanger made his return feel.
Still, slowing everything down probably would have worked against the deliberately chaotic charm of this series.
FINAL THOUGHTS: PASSED WITH FLYING COLORS!!!
Spider-Versity #5 sticks the landing by understanding exactly what kind of book this has been.
It isn’t trying to reinvent Spider-Man mythology. It’s a strange, colorful superhero school story where Norman Osborn somehow became the teacher, half the curriculum involves recycled supervillain equipment, and your final exam can literally turn into fighting the Red Goblin.
More importantly, though, the series leaves its Spider-students better than it found them.
Norman built Spider-Versity because he believed they needed training. By the end, they prove something slightly different: sometimes the best lesson isn’t learning how to fight alone—it’s learning who you can fight beside.
Class dismissed.
…Until Monday.
