![](https://www.chasingamazingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/Gates_banner-590x200.jpg)
Roderick Kingsley Archive
![](https://www.chasingamazingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/Gates_banner-590x200.jpg)
The three-part Spectacular Spider-Man “Goblins at the Gate” arc which ran in issues #259-261, is the comic book equivalent of the Wrestlemania 18 showdown between Hulk Hogan and The Rock. In these three issues – which also function as a postscript to the Roger Stern/Ron Frenz Hobgoblin Lives miniseries
![](https://www.chasingamazingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/HobgoblinLives_Banner-590x200.jpg)
Retcons are often the lifeblood of comic book storytelling. I mean, who doesn’t appreciate somebody fixing the mistakes of a previous editorial regime by wiping that older story from existence? While I can understand some hang-wringing regarding how some retcons have been deployed in the Spider-Man universe over the
![](https://www.chasingamazingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ASM249_banner-590x200.jpg)
After months of planning, plotting and misdirection, Amazing Spider-Man #249 shows an invigorated Hobgoblin who is finally starting to make his master plan of conquest apparent to his intended victims. Beyond the Hobgoblin’s initial introduction in ASM #238, this issue and the two that follow (marking the end the
![](https://www.chasingamazingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ASM245_banner-590x200.jpg)
Amazing Spider-Man #245 reminds us of a period of the Hobgoblin’s existence where his secret identity was not the source of such hand-wringing and controversy. As he did for the character’s three previous appearances in ASM, writer Roger Stern plants small clues along with some serious pieces of misdirection
![](https://www.chasingamazingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ASM239_banner-590x200.jpg)
What’s so unique about Amazing Spider-Man #239 is how writer Roger Stern takes his new creation, the Hobgoblin, and expertly crafts the villain as a legitimate physical and psychological threat to Spider-Man, while also exposing the character’s vulnerabilities and weaknesses. In the 20 years of Spider-Man comics that preceded