In "To Quote a Phrase," I spotlight memorable quotes from comic books.

I continue a month of "To Quote a Phrase" by spotlighting Spider-Man's reaction to his girlfriend being murdered by his arch-enemy.

Looking back, the Spider-Man/Green Goblin rivalry is really one of Spider-Man's low points as a person. He knows that Norman Osborn is the villainous Green Goblin, but because Norman knows his secret identity as Peter Parker, Spider-Man is willing to just live and let live when Norman gets amnesia and forgets that he is the Green Goblin and forgets that he knows Spider-Man's secret identity. For a dude who goes on and on about great responsibility, that's not a very responsible decision at all, right?

It's like, "Eh, this way I don't have to actually DO anything, and it's not like he's going to regain his memory, kidnap my girlfriend and then murder her to mess with me, right? That would just be ridiculous!"

And yet, in Amazing Spider-Man #121 (by Gerry Conway, Gil Kane, John Romita and Tony Mortellaro) that is precisely what happens. Goblin takes her to the top of the George Washington Bridge (or the Brooklyn Bridge, it's kind of vague) and then knocks her off. Spider-Man tries to save her, but she dies...

This leads into THE quote for me, where Spider-Man has now gone too far. It's ON like Donkey Kong and he basically just tells the Goblin that he's going to flat out murder him...

However, in the next issue, after Goblin gets away and Spider-Man hunts him down, Spidey can't bring himself to actually kill him and when Goblin dies anyways...

Spider-Man just feels empty about it all, which shows that, while he's not always responsible, he IS a good guy.

Okay, folks, if you care to suggest cool comic book quotes that you'd like to see spotlighted here, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com. There's a decent enough chance that if you think the quote in question is super cool than I, too, will find it super cool and feature it here. Not a 100% chance, though, of course. Let's say roughly a 60% chance. I do need a whole month's worth of these quotes, after all!