The Amazing Spider-Man finally reveals some of Queen Goblin's origin story.
It was announced back in November 2021 that the current "Beyond" storyline, helmed by Kelly Thompson, Cody Ziglar, Saladin Ahmed, Patrick Gleason and Zeb Wells, would give Ben Reilly a Goblin nemesis of his own. Promotional material for the upcoming issue teased that Queen Goblin would be as significant as the original Green Goblin, Hobgoblin and Red Goblin, who all committed horrific acts to impact Peter Parker's life. The Amazing Spider-Man #88 will feature the villain's first appearance, and a preview for the issue teases just who the foe really is.
"Beyond" has seen Ben Reilly -- Peter's clone -- take on the mantle of Spider-Man with the Beyond Corporation's technical and financial support. Though they outfitted him with a fancy new suit and granted him and his girlfriend Janine other perks, he discovered that the corporation had some dark, hidden secrets and tried to bring them up to his therapist at Beyond, Dr. Ashley Kafka, in Amazing Spider-Man #86. However, Beyond executive Maxine Danger was listening in and had Ben's mind wiped of his negative experiences with the company and his memories from Peter Parker, though she had other plans for Kafka.
Kafka is the likely candidate for Queen Goblin's original identity. In The Amazing Spider-Man #87 (the issue prior), Maxine threatened Kafka with an unknown red substance if the doctor wouldn't "play ball" any longer with Beyond. Even if Queen Goblin turns out to not be Kafka, the preview for ASM #88 reveals that not only is Beyond getting into the hero business, but the villain business as well. The company created Queen Goblin and will now have their manufactured hero and villain duke it out in the upcoming issue.
Of course, after Ben faces Queen Goblin, he will have to fight Peter for the right to be Spider-Man in ASM #93. Peter has been training with Black Cat and Captain America to become the friendly, neighborhood wall crawler again, but Beyond has no interest in other Spider-Men like Peter and Miles Morales running around. The preview and solicitation for ASM #88 can be found below.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #88
- ZEB WELLS (W) • MICHAEL DOWLING (A)
- Beyond Board: KELLY THOMPSON, PATRICK GLEASON, SALADIN AHMED, CODY ZIGLAR & ZEB WELLS • Cover by ARTHUR ADAMS
- Variant Cover by TBA • DESIGN VARIANT COVER BY PATRICK GLEASON
- X-GWEN VARIANT COVER BY FRANCESCO MANNA
- Who is QUEEN GOBLIN?!
- For almost sixty years, Spider-Man has been defined by Goblins, and Ben Reilly has a brand-new one all his own.
- 32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
The Amazing Spider-Man #88 is written by Zeb Wells with interior art by Michael Dowling, cover art by Arthur Adams and Alejandro Sánchez, colors by Brian Valenza and letters by VC's Joe Caramagna. Variant covers for the issue were contributed to by Mark Bagley, John Dell, Brian Reber, Patrick Gleason, Francesco Manna and Flavio Dispenza. The issue goes on sale Feb. 2 from Marvel Comics.
Source: Marvel Comics