Amazing Spider-Man #244-#245

Faced with the prohibitive hospital bills the Black Cat will face once she is released from the hospital, Peter decides his only recourse is to take a leave of absence from graduate school. Across town from where he is dealing with the university's bureaucracy, Harry and Liz Osborn are just finishing up lunch with Mary Jane Watson. Returning to the corporate offices of Osborn Manufacturing, they are startled to find the place ransacked.

When news of the latest Osborn Manufacturing break-in reaches Spiderman, he wonders if it has anything to do with his new enemy, the Hobgoblin. "This sounds totally different. The job was pulled in the daytime...employees tied up by a small group of men...files rifled!" Not wanting to take any chances, Spiderman goes to Detective Jean DeWolff's office, where he reads the robbery report. While there, he overhears of a robbery in progress at a chemical storage warehouse owned by the Osborn company.

Arriving at the warehouse, Spiderman crashes through the skylight with an announcement: "All right, this is a citizen's arrest! I see at least six cases of illegal use of firearms! And one violation of local noise ordinances!" Making a common mistake, the thugs pile onto Spiderman. When it seems the Web-slinger has gone down under their greater numbers, one sneers: "I read where he's s'posed to be as strong as ten men! Too bad there's more'n ten of us!" From the bottom of the pile, Spidey tsk's. "You really shouldn't believe what you read in those sleazy tabloids! The correct information is: 'he has the proportional strength
of a spider!' And that's a heckuva lot stronger than ten men!"

Watching from a waiting truck as Spidey throws off his attackers, an obscured figure reaches into a glove compartment and extracts something. The next moment, everyone is ducking for cover as metal-edged bats fill the air. Spidey charges the truck, but is forced to dodge an incendiary bomb tossed from the cab. The warehouse begins to go up in flames. Unable to leave the other hoods to burn to death, Spiderman lets the truck speed away. Turning the rescued criminals over to the police, Spidey overhears one of them give the name of the man who hired them: "Lefty Donovan, eh? I have a name for you now, Mister Hobgoblin. All I have to do is track you down!"

On Long Island, a truck pulls up to a rented summer house. Racing into the house, Lefty Donovan tells someone sitting in the shadows that the job was a "Piece'a cake! I got the chemicals, and the rest of the boys took a dive--just like you planned. Spider-man even showed up...Just like you suspected he might! But I used the stuff you gave me, and I lost 'im. I wish I knew how you did it, sir!"

The Hobgoblin, his ribs heavily bandaged, is dismissive. "It's really quite simple, Donovan...just a matter of getting to know your adversaries and planning how best to humble them. With the compounds you'vesecured for me, humbling Spider-man will become even more of a 'piece'a cake' than it is now! Those chemicals will give me the full physical power which the original Green Goblin possessed! With such strength at my command, Spider-man will be powerless to stop the Hobgoblin!"

In this issue the Long Island hideaway of the Hobgoblin, a dimly-lit man sitting at a chemistry workbench mixes carefully mixes together two compounds, with explosive results. Responding to screams, another man races in and pulls the wounded experimenter to safety before blowing up the house.

At the Daily Bugle, Peter Parker sees J. Jonah Jameson carrying a gym bag, something so unusual he has to tell Betty Leeds. Betty is equally astonished: "Jonah always said that exercise was for health nuts!" The two go to meet Betty's husband Ned for lunch. Peter is surprised to find a fourth person attending: Mary Jane Watson, who once turned down his marriage proposal. It makes for an uncomfortable meal.

While Spiderman continues his search for the Hobgoblin, a heavily bandaged figure listed as "John Doe" lies comatose for weeks. Coming to abruptly, he pulls off his bandages and, realizing he feels fine, makes his way to the ruins of the Long Island house. In a secret storage area underneath the blasted building, he finds the Hobgoblin uniform and pulls it on. His memory is hazy, but he attaches sensors and steps onto the goblin glider. "Yes! I can feel the power surging inside me! Now the Hobgoblin can really begin to mystify the world!...I have to find Spider-man and teach him the meaning of fear!"

Word reaches Spidey that the Hobgoblin is tearing up Times Square, demanding the presence of the Web-Slinger. Spidey is astonished when the Hobgoblin picks up a huge industrial dumpster and hurls it at him. Spinning a layer of protective padding, it is all Spiderman can do to prevent the dumpster from flattening the nearby crowd. Warned by his Spider-sense, Spiderman catches a pumpkin bomb and throws it back at Hobgoblin: "You're pitching pretty good today, fella--but how's your fielding?" Although he dodges the bomb, the explosive backlash whips the Hobgoblin into a nearby roof. Leaping to the roof and pulling off the Hobgoblin's mask, Spiderman recognizes: "Lefty Donovan! But you can't be Left Donovan! What kind of scam is this? How'd you get so strong? Talk!"

Donovan is so dazed he can barely speak. "S-strong? it was the Osborn formula...boss said it would make a man unbeatable--but it blew up! Hard to think..." When Spiderman demands to know the name of the "boss", the glider unexpectedly takes off on its own. "He doesn't want me to talk!" screams Donovan. "He--!" The words are cut off as the glider slams, full speed, into the side of a building.

Watching the medics cart the body away, Spiderman thinks to himself that the story is not over. "The guy who set him up--the real Hobgoblin--is still alive out there! He must be! And now I know he'll stop at nothing!" And, watching the telecast from Times Square, an unseen figure congratulates himself on accumulating enough data to avoid the unstableness inherent in the Osborn formula. "For the time being, the world will believe the Hobgoblin to be dead...though Spider-man no doubt suspects the truth. If he does, all the better! Let him worry about how and when I will strike next! It will only add to his downfall! For it shall be the death of Spider-man which is reported...in the end!"