"Cellar door."

ourchair

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2005
Messages
13,105
Location
Philippines
So I was re-reading my old Ultimate Spider-Man comics, the ones today's Bendis haters have now retroactively deemed as suck, and reading the Return of the Goblin arc, I came across one of the bits that has mystified me:

"Cellar door."

It's a line that keeps showing up when we readers get a first person view of Norman-Goblin's personal crazy. I keep thinking it's like some weird oblique reference to a movie that Bendis likes about crazy people, or a homonym for something else, but it's never ever explained within the arc.

Was it ever explained in a later arc?
 
"Cellar door" is supposed to be the most beautiful sounding phrase in the English language. They mention it in Donnie Darko and I believe Tolkien figured it out.

Bendis's usage of it is probably just a reference to either of these things. I believe it's brought up in the Hobgoblin arc later on as some hypnotic trigger phrase.

And the earlier Bendis arcs are the only good USM. Return of the Goblin was great.
 
Yeah, they use it really well in Donnie Darko.

Tolkien's explanation for it, though, is hardly "figured it out" and more like "this thing that kind of happened to me, once" about how unlike words like (Chigurgh, Hatchet, Combustion, Snorkel), Cellar Door is somehow beatiful because it might make you think of "Selador", a name, and from there think of a character to fit that name, and then a whole story, and so on.

So basically it only works if you actually are J.R.R. Tolkien.
 
He was trying to convince spider-man his fly was open with by saying "Cellar door" to make spider-man check his zip or "Cellar door" if you will, in an attempt of winning easier and faster with more humiliation had he fallen for the Goblins deception.
 
The one invisible henchman guy (can't remember his name) said it to unlock the hypnosis block on Harry in the Hogoblin arc
 
The one invisible henchman guy (can't remember his name) said it to unlock the hypnosis block on Harry in the Hogoblin arc
I remember that. I just didn't understand its significance.

I suspect it was chosen arbitrarily to the plot on purpose, with the whole "most beautiful phrase" being why Bendis chose it as a writer, which surprised me as I didn't think he was THAT smart.

Was just wondering if it had a higher significance, like something to do with the Goblin's origins and his abusive childhood or sumfin.
 
If I'm not wrong, "Cellar Door" phrase broke the Hobgoblin lock of Harry Osborn, he also found the goblin thingies with his imaginary psych somewhere out of the city (under the cellar door of a small house somewhere outside NY), and all he had in mind was "Cellar Door"...
 
Last edited:
If I'm not wrong, "Cellar Door" phrase broke the Hobgoblin lock of Harry Osborn, he also found the goblin thingies with his imaginary psych somewhere out of the city (under the cellar door of a small house somewhere outside NY), and all he had in mind was "Cellar Door"...
Yes, Random pointed that out as well.

Your Hamneto avatar is AWESOME.
 
If I'm not wrong, "Cellar Door" phrase broke the Hobgoblin lock of Harry Osborn, he also found the goblin thingies with his imaginary psych somewhere out of the city (under the cellar door of a small house somewhere outside NY), and all he had in mind was "Cellar Door"...

it wasn't a cellar door of a house, it was a bunker. Which i guess is like a reinforced metal cellar with no house. And most bunkers have doors...so, i think the connection is obvious.

On a side note, i seem to remember hearing in English class that "syphalis" (how do you spell that?) was the most beautiful sounding word in the English language...how's that for irony?!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top