Hobgoblin (comics)

The Hobgoblin is the alias of several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most of them depicted as enemies of the superhero Spider-Man and belong to the collective of adversaries that make up his rogues gallery. Created by writer Roger Stern and artist John Romita Jr., the original Hobgoblin first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #238 (1983) as a criminal mastermind equipped with an arsenal of Halloween-themed weapons similar to those used by the Green Goblin, including grenade-like Pumpkin Bombs, razor-sharp bat-shaped blades, and a flying Goblin Glider. Having perfected the experimental chemical formula that transformed Norman Osborn into the Green Goblin, the Hobgoblin possesses Osborn's enhanced strength and intelligence without his insanity, and vies to take control of New York City's criminal underworld.

The original Hobgoblin's true identity was one of the longest-running mysteries in Spider-Man comics, as he often used brainwashed body doubles and stand-ins. Stern's original plan was for the character's alter ego to be Roderick Kingsley, an amoral billionaire fashion designer and Mary Jane Watson's former boss, but editorial conflicts following Stern's departure from Marvel led to the Hobgoblin instead being revealed as Ned Leeds, Peter Parker's journalist co-worker at the Daily Bugle, in 1987. Stern was dissatisfied with this revelation and, upon returning to Marvel in 1997, retroactively established Kingsley as the original Hobgoblin with Leeds reframed as one of Kingsley's many fall guys. Other characters that have been framed or manipulated into serving as Kingsley's decoys over the years include Lefty Donovan, Flash Thompson, his twin brother Daniel Kingsley, and his butler Claude.

The Hobgoblin mantle has also been assumed independently of Kingsley by Jason Macendale and Phil Urich, while Robin Borne and Harry Osborn have adopted the persona in alternate continuities.

The Hobgoblin has been adapted in various media incarnations, including television series and video games. An amalgamated incarnation of the character named Jason Philip Macendale appeared in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, voiced by Mark Hamill.

Publication history

thumb|left|Cover of The Amazing Spider-Man #238 (March 1983), which featured the Hobgoblin's debut. Art by [[John Romita Sr..]]

The Hobgoblin was created by writer Roger Stern and artist John Romita Jr. for The Amazing Spider-Man #238 (March 1983). Like other writers, Stern found himself under pressure to have Spider-Man fight the Green Goblin again, but did not wish to bring Norman Osborn or Bart Hamilton back from the dead, have Harry Osborn be a villain again, or create yet another Green Goblin. Stern instead created a new goblin as heir to the Green Goblin's legacy and developed the Hobgoblin. Stern recounts that he directed Romita to base the costume on the Green Goblin's costume but to make it "a little more medieval-looking", while Romita asserts that he was given no direction beyond using the Green Goblin as a basis. Both agree, however, that the costume was chiefly Romita's design.

The Hobgoblin's identity was not initially revealed, generating one of the longest-running mysteries in the Spider-Man comics. According to Stern, "I plotted that first story with no strong idea of who the Hobgoblin was. As I was scripting those gorgeous pages from [John Romita, Jr.], particularly the last third of the book, and developing the Hobgoblin's speech pattern, I realized who he was. It was Roderick Kingsley, that sunuvabitch corporate leader I had introduced in my first issue of [[The Spectacular Spider-Man|[The] Spectacular [Spider-Man]]]." Though the Hobgoblin's posthumous unmasking as Leeds was unpopular with fans, David said in a 2009 interview of still being proud of the story, arguing that the Hobgoblin being unmasked in a climactic battle with Spider-Man was the sort of tale readers had already seen countless times before, whereas having an archvillain unmasked in a flashback after having been brutally killed by nameless assassins was unprecedented and shocking.

Fictional character biography

Roderick Kingsley

thumb|upright|Roderick Kingsley unmasked as the original Hobgoblin in [[Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives #3 (March 1997). Art by Ron Frenz.]]

Roderick Kingsley became a socialite, fashion designer and billionaire with criminal underworld connections by using unethical business practices and corporate raiding. Kingsley was an employer of Mary Jane Watson for a time. As a means of avoiding the drill of day-to-day appearances, he has his timid identical twin brother Daniel Kingsley pose as him to run his corporation. Kingsley's activities give him many enemies, one of which is Bella Donna (Narda Ravanna), a rival fashion designer whose business he ruined. She attempts revenge on Kingsley but is twice thwarted by Spider-Man.

After these incidents, Kingsley seeks to protect himself and his empire by gaining more power. The thug George Hill reports to Kingsley of stumbling upon Norman Osborn's secret lair in hopes of earning a reward. Kingsley instead kills Hill to make sure that no one else gets wind of the discovery. Upon examining the lair and gleaning its secrets, Kingsley decides to use the Goblin equipment. Arriving to the conclusion that all the previous Green Goblin mantle wearers went mad, he creates a similar but different mantle: the Hobgoblin identity. and attempts to buy Osborn's old corporation Oscorp and merge it with his own. These schemes bring him into conflict with Spider-Man, to whom he repeatedly loses, as he lacks raw physical power. Among Osborn's notes, Kingsley finds remnants of Mendel Stromm's strength enhancing potion and eventually perfects it, but, aware that Osborn was driven insane, Kingsley opts to test on someone else first. He tricks small-time hood Lefty Donovan by using a mind-control equipment developed by Gerhard Winkler (Osborn's former employee), the "Winkler Device", able to turn anyone into a Hobgoblin enthralled to another. Kingsley monitors his pawn's vital signs and behavior from a distance. When Spider-Man overwhelms and unmasks Donovan and the brainwashing begins to fail, Kingsley acts to protect his identity by programming Donovan's glider to crash into a building, instantly killing Donovan. Judging the experiment a success, Kingsley immerses himself in his completed formula derivative and gains greater strength than the original Goblin. He uses this strength to battle Spider-Man and the Black Cat. Despite his increased abilities, he is still narrowly defeated by Spider-Man. Worse, he attracts the attention of powerful criminal interests who perceive him as a threat, including the Kingpin. Kingsley discovers Daily Bugle reporter Ned Leeds investigating his lair. Kingsley captures and brainwashes Leeds with the Winkler Device into being the Hobgoblin. During the events of Secret Wars II, the Hobgoblin is recruited by Mephisto to join the Legion Accursed, a team of ninety-nine supervillains who try to destroy the Beyonder. Leeds works with Richard Fisk on a plan to bring down the Kingpin's empire as Richard adopts the Rose crime lord identity, using Leeds to handle some negotiations. As Leeds gets too erratic to function as a decoy, Kingsley arranges for Leeds to be assassinated by Jason Macendale and the Foreigner while on a trip to Berlin, and retires from the Hobgoblin identity.

After several years, Kingsley returns to New York. He kills Macendale to prevent him from giving the authorities information that would jeopardize his secret identity in addition to seeing Macendale as an unworthy successor. In the final fracas, Daniel is captured and the Hobgoblin is unmasked, clearing Ned's name. Roderick is taken to prison, imprisoned in the same cell where he killed Macendale. Osborn provides Kingsley with new Goblin equipment, and both Goblins swoop in to collect Daniel, now in protective custody, who Roderick claims knows the final journal's location. Spider-Man defends Daniel, but is drugged and both men are taken back to Osborn. but this was in fact Daniel with Roderick still active in Ecuador under the alias of Devil-Spider. Roderick learns of his brother's murder and returns to New York City and the Hobgoblin role, intending to go after Urich. Kingsley attacks Urich and the Kingpin in Shadowland. After a brief battle between the two Hobgoblins, Parker and Max Modell escape with the Goblin Key (a key to one of the Goblin warehouses). Kingsley and Urich call a brief truce and go after them. After accessing the warehouse, Peter uses the Goblin tech to make himself a "Spider-Glider" and escapes. Urich insists on going after but Kingsley stuns Urich with a taser so they can both escape. Kingsley decides to let Urich remain the Hobgoblin, but only if Urich gives him a cut of whatever profits are made.

Hobgoblin ends up in a gang war with the Goblin Nation, selling equipment to low-level criminals. He is killed by the first Goblin King while his henchmen are claimed for the Goblin Nation. It is later revealed that Kingsley's butler Claude died in his place and that Kingsley is actually in Paris.

During the "AXIS" storyline, Kingsley appears as a member of Magneto's unnamed supervillain group during the fight against the Red Skull. When Magneto arrives to recruit him, Kingsley attacks and is subjugated and forced to join Magneto's team. The inversion spell caused by Doctor Doom and Scarlet Witch affects the Red Skull and all those present in Genosha, making the superheroes present evil and the supervillains present good. Following his inversion, Kingsley returns to New York and finds himself happier with his inversion, although still motivated by greed rather than altruism. He reactivates his franchises where he leases the personas and costumes of deceased or retired superheroes to ordinary people, but remains a wanted criminal. He also enfranchises his Hobgoblin persona to various people to perform heroic deeds as Hobgoblin and publishes a comic about the group for promotion. After the reinversion spell is cast to restore the Avengers and X-Men members that were affected by it back to the side of good, Kingsley is evil again.

Kingsley later attempts to make a business deal with Norman Osborn, who returned the companies he had stolen from Kingsley years earlier in an attempt to put an end to their ongoing feud. Subsequently, in the storyline "The Hobgoblins' Last Stand", Kingsley and Ned Leeds are brainwashed by the Queen Goblin into both resuming their roles as Hobgoblins once more, serving as her enforcers. The Hobgoblin and the Prowler provide weapons for the Enforcers in order to sway them to Hobgoblin's side. The Hobgoblin later watches the altercation between the new Spider-Man and the Cape-Killers. During Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, and Gust's fight with the Hobgoblin and Rabble, Spider-Man notices that the Hobgoblin's suit has been upgraded as the Hobgoblin's drones attack him. While Rabble gets away, the Hobgoblin sets off his pumpkin bombs, destroying his hideout.

Roderick Kingsley hires Itsy Bitsy to take out Rhino, who gives Rhino drugs that drive him berserk. Spider-Man is given the same drugs, but manages to overcome the hallucinations caused by them. He webs up Itsy Bitsy and then goes after Hobgoblin. Hobgoblin attacks Rand Enterprises and targets Brian Nehring and Maira Osmani-Milton. As Spider-Man fights Hobgoblin, Nehring throws a mushroom whose spores cause Hobgoblin to hallucinate being swarmed by spiders, causing him to flee.

Outside the courthouse, Roderick Kingsley was with his lawyer at a press conference as his lawyer states that he showed up as a courtesy. The prosecutors dropped the charges against him in the cola-tampering case and plan to find the people who accused his client. Norman Osborn was present and privately congratulated Kingsley on getting acquitted. Before leaving, Kingsley states to Osborn that he lost his edge when he stopped being Green Goblin and denied sending an assassin after him stating that he would've done it himself. This was witnessed by a mysterious hooded person who tells his people that they have a new ally to their cause. Kingsley later meets with these people who are shown to have grievances with Osborn.

Lefty Donovan

Arnold Samuel "Lefty" Donovan was a petty thug until he was exposed to the Goblin formula, disfiguring Donovan's face and granting superhuman abilities. Donovan is taken to a hospital. Brainwashed by the Winkler Device, Donovan eventually escapes the hospital and follows preprogrammed instructions to go to a hidden cache of Goblin weapons and dress up as the Hobgoblin. In 1997, Leeds was retroactively established to have been brainwashed by Roderick Kingsley to act as a stand-in on many occasions and fool the underworld into thinking that he was the Hobgoblin, and Kingsley takes back over the role. In a 2022 story, Leeds and Kingsley are brainwashed by the Queen Goblin into both resuming their roles as Hobgoblins once more.

Jason Macendale

Jason Philip Macendale Jr. is a mercenary and former CIA agent who once operated as the supervillain Jack O'Lantern. Mistakenly believing that Ned Leeds is the original Hobgoblin, Macendale hires the Foreigner to kill Leeds so that he can replace him as the second Hobgoblin. Macendale is later killed by Roderick Kingsley.

Fifth version

An unidentified fifth Hobgoblin was introduced in the series Secret War. He received his equipment from the Tinkerer. Hobgoblin is sent along with Lady Octopus to attack Captain America in his civilian identity by a terrorist. This Hobgoblin is jailed along with the various defeated villains after the conclusion of the Secret War.

Daniel Kingsley

Daniel Kingsley is Roderick Kingsley's twin brother. He acts as a body double until he is exposed by Betty Brant while the true Hobgoblin is unmasked by Spider-Man.

Claude

Claude was Roderick's butler who was sent in place and to talk like his master to distract the Goblin Nation. He fought against and was killed in battle by the Goblin Knight, who then discovered it was Claude who was killed and destroyed his body to keep the Goblin King from finding out about the imposter Hobgoblin. the latter of which allow him to survive otherwise fatal gunshot wounds.

Alternative versions

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows

Am alternate universe version of Roderick Kingsley / Hobgoblin appears in The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows. This version is a member of Regent's Sinister Six. During a fight with Spider-Man, Hobgoblin is killed by his own pumpkin bomb after Spider-Man webs up his hand.

Hobgoblin 2211

Hobgoblin 2211 first appears in Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man. While her costume sports the twentieth-century Green Goblins' green-and-purple color scheme, she boasted that she was the Hobgoblin of 2211. Her identity was not revealed to readers (or to the visiting Spider-Men of previous eras) at the time, but her later reappearance in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (also written by Peter David) revealed her true identity and origin.

Hobgoblin 2211 is Robin "Hobby"/"Hob" Borne, Spider-Man's daughter. Her father always seemed to put his superhero career before raising his own daughter. She wanted to save the universes from 'intersecting'; in other words, having other parallel universes merge with the existing one, causing it to override. She was later arrested by her father for something that she would have done in future: unauthorized travel across time and space. She was held in a virtual reality prison where she lives a benign and trouble-free existence in what appears to be Kansas. Her boyfriend attempts to free her by uploading a virus into the prison, but inadvertently causes her to be driven insane. She attacked her father with a 'retcon bomb' (a variation on the original Goblins' pumpkin bombs) but it hit her boyfriend instead, erasing (or 'retconning') him from existence.

Now suited up as the Hobgoblin, Robin managed to time-travel to the current year, attacking the current Spider-Man in his reality and derailing an Uncle Ben from another reality into the present one causing a time paradox. Later, in a confrontation with her father, she threw a 'retcon bomb' at him. Spider-Man, believing it to be no more harmful than a regular pumpkin bomb, caught it with his web and threw it back to Robin, unwittingly erasing her from existence.

JLA/Avengers

The Roderick Kingsley incarnation of Hobgoblin appears in JLA/Avengers as a brainwashed minion of Krona.

Marvel Adventures

An original incarnation of Hobgoblin appears in Marvel Adventures. This version is an unidentified criminal who stole Green Goblin's weaponry after he inadvertently left his stash unguarded.

MC2

A possible future version of Roderick Kingsley / Hobgoblin appears in the MC2 imprint. This version is a hired assassin. He attempts a complex plot to become the new kingpin of crime, but is undone due to an act of treachery by Mindworm. After killing Mindworm, Kingsley leaves for the Caribbean, but vows to eventually return and finish off Spider-Girl. Kingsley later returns to New York City and instigates a mob war against Black Tarantula, only to be killed by Mayhem, Spider-Girl's half-symbiote clone.

Harry Osborn

Harold "Harry" Osborn is an equivalent of the Hobgoblin in two different Marvel continuities.

Newspaper strip

In "The Amazing Spider-Man" newspaper strip, Harry as the Hobgoblin has repeatedly attacked Spider-Man, seeking vengeance for Norman Osborn's death. After trying to kill both Spider-Man and Black Widow after, under hypnotic influence of psychiatrist "Dr. Stone" (actually spy-assassin Dimitri Gregorin), Harry, seeing Spider-Man's heroism, realizes that Spider-Man is a hero, his father was a murderer, and gives up the Hobgoblin identity.

Ultimate Marvel

The Ultimate Marvel equivalent of the Hobgoblin is Harry when a second personality takes control.

Old Man Logan

An alternate universe version of Roderick Kingsley / Hobgoblin appears in Old Man Logan. He is among a group of villains who attack the Avengers in Connecticut. He and Vulture confront Wasp, only for Wasp to shoot Hobgoblin off his Goblin Glider.

Spider-Geddon

An unidentified alternate universe incarnation of Hobgoblin appears in Spider-Geddon.

Spider-Gwen

In the alternate continuity of Spider-Gwen, the Green Goblin uses an army of Hobgoblin-based androids while battling Spider-Woman.

Spider-Verse

Two alternate universe versions of Hobgoblin appear in "Spider-Verse":

Hobgoblin of Earth-21205

Overwhelmed with rage over the death of Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker murders the Green Goblin, retires the Spider-Man identity, and becomes "the Goblin", a villain similar in costume to the Hobgoblin. The Spider-Woman of Earth-65 attempts to recruit the Goblin into a growing army of Spiders to protect him from the Inheritors, but he initially turns the offer down. When Spider-Woman reveals herself to be an alternate version of Gwen, the Goblin sacrifices himself to save her as atonement for failing to do so in his own dimension.

Hobgoblin of Earth-001

The Earth-001 version of Hobgoblin appeared as a member of Verna's Hounds. He is killed by the Superior Spider-Man, Assassin Spider-Man, and Spider-Punk.

In other media

Television

upright|thumb|200px|The Hobgoblin as depicted in [[Spider-Man: The Animated Series]]

The Jason Macendale incarnation of the Hobgoblin appears in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, voiced by Mark Hamill. This version is initially armed and hired by Norman Osborn to assassinate Wilson Fisk, but he manipulates and betrays them both to replace Fisk as New York City's Kingpin of Crime before being defeated by Spider-Man. In his subsequent encounters with Spider-Man, the Hobgoblin also clashes with Herbert Landon, the X-Men, and the Green Goblin until his identity is revealed as Felicia Hardy's fiancé Jason Philips and he is arrested. Additionally, an alternate reality version of the Hobgoblin appears as Spider-Carnage's enforcer in the two-part series finale.
Roderick Kingsley appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man episode "Accomplices", voiced by Courtney B. Vance. This version is an African-American crime lord and the owner of a perfume company.
The Harry Osborn incarnation of the Hobgoblin appears in Spider-Man, voiced by Max Mittelman.
The Roderick Kingsley incarnation of the Hobgoblin appears in Marvel Super Hero Adventures, voiced by Andrew Francis.
The Roderick Kingsley incarnation of the Hobgoblin appears in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 as an alternate costume for the Green Goblin.
An original Marvel 2099 incarnation of the Hobgoblin appears in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, voiced by Steve Blum. This version is a mercenary hired by Alchemax and possesses nanofiber/bio-organic circuitry wings and "psy-powers". Hobgoblin 2099's video game profile states that he was created from splicing the DNA of the different Goblin villains.
The Roderick Kingsley incarnation of the Hobgoblin appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2.
The Earth-21205 version of Peter Parker / Hobgoblin appears as a playable character in Spider-Man Unlimited.

Notes

References

External links

Hobgoblin I at Marvel.com
Peter David site: "Foolish Consistencies and..."