Hobgoblin (comics)

Roderick Kingsley is an amoral billionaire fashion designer. He decided to create a name criminal for himself by altering Norman Osborn's Goblin formula and improve the Goblin costume/equipment in order to be the original Hobgoblin. Kingsley then frames Ned Leeds as a decoy for his crimes,[8] and later murders his successor Jason Macendale.[9] When his villainous identity is finally exposed by Spider-Man and Betty Brant,[8] he flees to the Caribbean to hide from both the law and his enemies.[10] After his twin brother[11] is murdered by Phil Urich,[12] Roderick returns to New York and dons his old Hobgoblin costume.[13]

Arnold Samuel "Lefty" Donovan was a petty thug. Similar to Osborn, Donovan was a test subject mix the two vital chemicals that were mixed into the Goblin formula, disfiguring Donovan's face and granting superhuman abilities. Donovan is taken to a hospital. Brainwashed by Gerhard Winkler's 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.[14] Donovan (impersonating the Hobgoblin) attacks New York City but Spider-Man eventually confronts and unmasks him. Spider-Man sees his (scarred) face and recognizes Lefty. As Donovan is able to shake off some of his programing and starts talking, his "boss" programmed the Goblin glider to crash into the side of a building, killing Lefty with the falling rubble.[15]

Edward "Ned" Leeds was a reporter working for the Daily Bugle. He was brainwashed to act as a stand-in on many occasions and fool the underworld into thinking that he was the Hobgoblin,[8] and was later murdered by the Foreigner after the actual supervillain was decided that he was no longer needed.[16]

Jason Philip Macendale Jr. was a mercenary who had been trained by the CIA (and various para-military organizations) who was known in his Jack O'Lantern identity before using the Hobgoblin mantle for himself after many deaths.[17]

Daniel Kingsley is Roderick's twin brother who would act as a body double,[8] and later poses as his brother as the Hobgoblin.[11]

Phillip Benjamin "Phil" Urich (who once used the Green Goblin identity to operate as a superhero) takes on the Hobgoblin identity himself as a supervillain with some new gear (new body armor, a winged jetpack, and a flaming energy sword).[12]

Norman Osborn briefly impersonates the original Hobgoblin.[18]

Claude was Roderick's butler who was sent in place and to talk like his master to distract the Goblin Nation. He fought against the Goblin King and was killed in battle. The Goblin Knight discovered who the Hobgoblin that killed was and destroyed Claude's body to keep the Goblin King from finding out who was impersonating Hobgoblin.[19]

Hobgoblin 2211
Hobgoblin 2211 (left) and Spider-Man 2211.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Spider-Man 2099 Meets Spider-Man
Created by	Peter David Rick Leonardi
In-story information
Alter ego	Robin Bourne
Abilities	Superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina, durability and reflexes Genius-level intellect Use of goblin-themed weapons and paraphernalia

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 David) revealed her true identity and origin.

Hobgoblin 2211 is Robin "Hobby"/"Hob" Bourne, 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 time travel, chronal displacement, jumping the tracks to other realities. 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.

In the last issue of JLA/Avengers, the Hobgoblin is among the enthralled villains defending Krona's stronghold, and is defeated by Hawkgirl.[20]

In this continuity, Hobgoblin is an unidentified criminal who found a stash of Green Goblin's weaponry because he had forgotten to leave the entrance locked. Delighted at his new technological power he challenges Green Goblin to a confrontation. Spider-Man defeats them both.[21]

The original Hobgoblin made his MC2 debut as a hired assassin to kill many of the Spider-Girl characters, including Normie Osborn, Spider-Girl, and Peter Parker. [22] After a fight against both Spider-Girl and her father, he came close to victory, but at the end his only success lay in killing the Venom symbiote, and also in escaping without a trace.[23] He attempted a complex plot to become the new kingpin of crime, but was undone due to an act of treachery by his partner, the Mindworm. Killing the Mindworm, and deciding the New York underworld had become too "hot" for him at the moment, he chose to return to the Caribbean, but vowed someday to come back and finish off Spider-Girl.[24] He is later revealed to be the instigator of a mob war against the Black Tarantula, returning to New York to finish the job.[25] He defeated American Dream and the New Warriors. He then dropped them from a great height, planning to kill Spider-Girl as she tried to save them. However, he himself was then killed by Mayhem, Spider-Girl's half-symbiote clone.[26]

The Ultimate Marvel equivalent of Hobgoblin is Harry Osborn when his second personality Shaw takes control. He tries to stop himself during a battle with Spider-Man but Shaw takes over and is wounded by S.H.I.E.L.D.,[27] and later once again used by S.H.I.E.L.D. to attract his father but the two Osborns end up doing battle which leaves the younger Osborn dead.[28]

In the 2007 Spider-Man/Red Sonja mini-series, the Hobgoblin was one of several supervillains who was transformed into a sword-and-sorcery version of themselves due to the spell cast by Kulan Gath. It was never specified which Hobgoblin it was.

The Earth-21205 version of Hobgoblin is Peter Parker. Overwhelmed with rage over the death of Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man murdered the Green Goblin and later retired his Spider-Man identity. He soon after became the Hobgoblin and was later targeted by Verna of the Inheritors (alongside the Hounds Scorpion and Rhino) as a Spider-Totem. The Spider-Woman of Earth-65 attempted to recruit him into a growing army of Spiders to protect him from the Inheritors, but he initially turned the offer down. When Spider-Woman revealed herself to be an alternate version of Gwen, he sacrificed himself to save her as atonement for failing to do so in his own dimension.[29]

The Earth-001 version of Hobgoblin appeared as a member of Verna's Hounds alongside the multiple Green Goblins. Hobgoblin and the other goblin-themed Hounds attacked Silk, Spider-Woman of Earth-65, and Black Widow of Earth-1610.[30] He is killed by Superior Spider-Man, Assassin Spider-Man, and Spider-Punk.[30]

In the Spider-Geddon event on Earth-11580, a version of Hobgoblin is seen alongside Green Goblin, Jack O'Lantern and Demogoblin during the Goblin Night. Under the orders of the Goblin Queen, they try to kill Gwen Stacy, but Spiders-Man arrives and defeats the Goblins.[31]

In "The Amazing Spider-Man" newspaper strip by Stan Lee and Larry Leiber, Harry Osborn as the Hobgoblin has repeatedly attacked Spider-Man, seeking vengeance for his father'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 who has killed friends of the Black Widow in the past), Harry, seeing Spider-Man's heroism, realizes that Spider-Man is a hero, his father was a murderer, and vows to never assume the Hobgoblin identity again.

• An amalgamated incarnation of Hobgoblin appeared in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, voiced by Mark Hamill (in a voice and sense of humor similar to The Joker).[32] This depiction is a composite character of various iterations (Roderick Kingsley's criminal ambitions and likeness, Jason Macendale's mercenary status and name, and Lefty Donovan's criminal background).
• The concept of Hobgoblin was to appear in The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series before being cancelled.[33]
• The Roderick Kingsley incarnation of Hobgoblin appears in Marvel Super Hero Adventures, voiced by Andrew Francis.[32]
• An incarnation of Hobgoblin appears in the 2010s Spider-Man animated series, voiced by Max Mittelman.[32][34] Created by Oscorp, the Hobgoblin technology is donned primarily by Harry Osborn as a crime-fighting hero while Norman Osborn dons a replica suit.

• The Roderick Kingsley incarnation of Hobgoblin appeared in Spider-Man and Captain America in Doctor Doom's Revenge.
• The Roderick Kingsley incarnation of Hobgoblin appeared as a boss in The Amazing Spider-Man for the Game Boy.
• The Roderick Kingsley incarnation of Hobgoblin made an appearance in Spider-Man: The Video Game, voiced by David Hadinger.
• The Roderick Kingsley incarnation of Hobgoblin again appeared as a boss in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
• The Jason Macendale incarnation of Hobgoblin appeared as a boss in Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six.
• The Jason Macendale incarnation of Hobgoblin appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin.
• The Roderick Kingsley incarnation of Hobgoblin appears in the PSP and PS2 versions of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows as an assist character who will throw a pumpkin bomb at any enemy.[35]
• The Roderick Kingsley incarnation of Hobgoblin appears as the Green Goblin's alternate costume in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2.[36]
• An exclusive Marvel 2099 incarnation of Hobgoblin appears in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, voiced by Steven Blum.[37][38] Implied to be a hybrid clone of previous Goblin villains created by Doctor Octopus, this version is a mercenary hired by Alchemax, and has hybrid nanofiber bio-organic circuitry wings bonded to his back along with "Psy-powers". The Hobgoblin ambushes Spider-Man and uses the fragment's powers to torment the futuristic web-slinger into a hellish hallucination. Spider-Man then goes after the Hobgoblin which involves the Public Eye attacking Spider-Man during each fight. After the final fight, the Hobgoblin's wings lead Spider-Man to the conclusion that Alchemax is his employer. During the credits, the Hobgoblin is shown with several, wingless, multicoloured clones standing on the roof of a skyscraper.
• The Roderick Kingsley incarnation of Hobgoblin appears as a playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2.[39]

• The Hobgoblin first received a toy in the Secret Wars toy line produced by Mattel.
• The Hobgoblin was prominently featured in the 1990s Spider-Man: The Animated Series toyline. A total of five figures were produced including the standard 5" figure with "missile firing" goblin glider, a 10" version of the series 1 figure, a talking Hobgoblin with sound effects from the show, a 7" figure featuring an illuminated projector embedded into the chest, and an action pose figure including a motorized battle glider.
• Two incarnations of Hobgoblin are received in the Spider-Man Classics. The first (Series 2) was similar to that of the demonic Jason Macendale version, while the more recent one (Series 17) is similar to that of the original Roderick Kingsley version.
• The Jason Macendale version was reused twice. The first time, it was repainted and given a newly sculpted Green Goblin head for the Spider-Man vs. The Sinister Six box set in the Marvel Legends toy line. The second time, it was repainted and renamed Demogoblin in the Spider-Man: Origins toy line produced by Hasbro.
• A Hobgoblin Minimate was released in late 2007 exclusively at select f.y.e., Suncoast, and Sam Goody stores in a 2-pack including a Scarlet Spider figure.[40]
• Bowen Designs released a Hobgoblin bust in 2005 of the Roderick Kingsley version.
• In 2009, Hasbro released a 3​³⁄₄ inch Hobgoblin for their Marvel Universe toyline. The packaging information signifies that this is indeed the Roderick Kingsley version.
• In 2015, Hasbro made Hobgoblin the Build a Figure for the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Spider-Man line up.
• In 2016, the first officially licensed Hobgoblin Lego minifigure was included with set 76058 (Spider-Man: Ghost Rider Team-up).

The Ned Leeds incarnation of Hobgoblin can be seen in the Islands of Adventure ride The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, voiced by Pat Fraley.