Hobgoblin

For other people using the name Hobgoblin see: Hobgoblin (Macendale), Phil Urich and Shapeshifter.

Origin

Roderick Kingsley was a famous and successful fashion designer who used questionable methods. His rather unscrupulous methods brought him many enemies, such as Belladonna, a woman whose company he ruined with a smear campaign. He had connections to several criminal associates. One such associate, a petty crook named George Hill who was on the run from Spider-Man, ducked into the sewers. He stumbled across an old secret base of the original Green Goblin, Norman Osborn .

Knowing this was valuable information, Hill passed it on to Kingsley. Kingsley thanked him by killing him to ensure no one else would know. Kingsley discovered some of Norman Osborn's journals among all the Green Goblin equipment. He decided to become a criminal himself and altered the Goblin costume and improved the Goblin equipment to become the Hobgoblin.

After a battle with Spider-Man, a battle which he barely managed to escape, Kingsley attempted to reproduce Osborn's formula to gain enhanced strength, but was cautious to avoid the insanity Osborn suffered. He tested the formula on a henchman by the name of Lefty Donovan. Kingsley had Lefty attack Spider-Man as the Hobgoblin as he watched to see any adverse side affects of the formula. Spider-Man thought he had defeated and unmasked the Hobgoblin, but Kingsley killed Lefty before he could implicate him by using a remote control on the goblin glider to cause Donovan to crash into the side of a building. Only Spider-Man knew that the original Hobgoblin was still alive, while the authorities and media believed him dead.

Kingsley, as the Hobgoblin, then tried to blackmail several well-known socialites who belonged to the prestigious Century Club, including J.Jonah Jameson and Harry Osborn. This all culminated into a battle royale with Spider-Man that ended with the Hobgoblin escaping after his battle van sank to the bottom of the Hudson. The only trace of the Hobgoblin aside from his battle van, was his mask left floating in the water.

Kingsley later discovered that reporter Ned Leeds had discovered his identity by following him to his hideout after Kingsley escaped from his battle with Spider-Man in the Hudson. Kingsley brainwashed Leeds into becoming his puppet. He was able to control Leeds and have him take his place in several meetings with other criminal bosses. To further draw attention away from himself, Kingsley even planted information to make it appear as if Flash Thompson was the Hobgoblin, after Flash publicly insulted the Hobgoblin on television. A rivalry subsequently started between the Hobgoblin and the criminal Jack O'Lantern (Jason Philip Macendale) when Jack ruined his Flash Thompson frame-up unwittingly.

Believing that Leeds was the true Hobgoblin, Macendale hired the mercenary assassin, the Foreigner, to kill Leeds when he was on assignment in Paris. The Kingpin decided to pass along information on the "Hobgoblin"s death to Spider-man. Spider-Man was devastated in thinking that one of his friends and co-workers (as Peter Parker) had been one of his greatest enemies. Kingsley decided to retire to Belize with everyone believing that the Hobgoblin was dead.

Macendale decided to take on the guise of the Hobgoblin himself. Though he was a skilled mercenary, he met defeat at Spider-Man's hands many times.

In an attempt to gain more power, he went to the demon N'asrih during the Inferno crisis in Manhattan. Macendale said he would sell his soul for power but was laughed at by N'asrih. In the end as a joke, N'asrih placed a demon inside of Macendale. Later on, the demon inside would split from Macendale and dub itself the Demogoblin. He would later kill Demogoblin by blasting a building on top of him. Following this, Macendale once again sought power in the forms of Kraven the Hunter's strength enhancing formula, and later, cybernetic implants, but these, too, failed to help him.

At one point, when he was arrested and on trial, he revealed that the real "Hobgoblin" was Ned Leeds. The world had no choice but to believe this to be true.

The Return of Kingsley

After some time, Kingsley decided to come out of retirement. Not satisfied with what Macendale had done to his "name," the first thing Kingsley did as the original Hobgoblin, was kill Macendale, which he did by viciously blasting him to death in his cell.

He kidnapped Betty Brant, the widow of Ned Leeds, when she claimed to have evidence that Ned wasn't the real Hobgoblin. This was a ruse to bring out the Hobgoblin, which worked, because Betty had a spider-tracer on her, thus leading Spider-Man straight to them. Their battle ended with Kingsley finally being revealed to be the one and true Hobgoblin. It was also revealed that Kingsley had a brother Daniel Kingsley that often impersonated him when Roderick was away on Hobgoblin business.

When Norman Osborn "returned" from the dead, Kingsley was upset with his denial of being the Green Goblin. He was able to contact Osborn and claimed he had an old journal of his that proved he was the Green Goblin. Osborn had Kingsley broken out of jail with he help of Osborn's genetic construst Green Goblin. Osborn later told Kingsley that he knew there wasn't a journal with this information and used his own finances to buy out Kingsly's empire. Kingsley was furious but had in fact stashed away several millions of dollars in different overseas accounts. Following a massive battle between Osborn, Kingsley, Spider-Man, and the Green Goblin genetic construct, Kingsley then decided to retire (again), but this time in the Caribbean.

Kingsley then seemingly returned yet again, and appeared to be undertaking a job for the Kingpin of Crime. While raiding one of Norman's newest goblin labs, Kingsley stumbled upon Phil Urich, who was looking for some Goblin tech to show off to Norah Winters. Phil managed to access his lunatic laugh and incapacitated Kingsley. Using a firesword, Phil seemingly decapitated Kingsley and claimed he was going to keep the severed head; he later said he dumped the body behind an IHOP restaurant.

Physical Characteristics

• Height: 5'11"
• Weight: 185 lbs
• Eyes: Blue
• Hair: Gray

Narcissist

Kingsley is a true, and proven narcissist. It proved to be his undoing when he returned to kill Macendale off for being an embarrassment to the Hobgoblin identity Kingsley created. Had he not returned for this purpose, he may have gotten away with being the Hobgoblin and his crimes, because at the time, it was widely believed by the public that Leeds was the first Hobgoblin and that Macendale was his successor. He is also a known narcissist because he is willing to exploit and manipulate anyone to further his own agendas (Leeds, Donovan, Daniel Kingsley), with little to no remorse for those who are unfortunate enough to have been used as his pawn. He was once also insulted by Flash Thompson on live TV. This was a personal insult that he simply would not tolerate, so he framed him. His opportunistic nature also saw this as a way to distract all attention from him with people believing Thompson to be the real Hobgoblin.

He is also a cunning man possessing much superficial charm.

Powers

Roderick Kingsley originally had no powers. However he had a keen analytical mind and enough knowledge of chemistry and biology to not only understand the incomplete notes for the Green Goblin formula left behind by Mendel Stromm and Norman Osborn but actually improve on them. His version of the formula contains none of the side-effects found on their versions. The Hobgoblin equipment consisted of somewhat improved variations of the Green Goblin one. Ingesting the formula gained him superhuman strength near Spider-Man's level (able to lift c. 10 tons) and above that of Norman Osborn. His reflexes, speed, stamina and intelligence were enhanced to superhuman levels but how he compares to other superhumans has been left vague. The variation used by Norman granted him a healing factor but its unknown if the same holds true for Roderick.

The standard Hobgoblin equipment includes bulletproof mail armor with an overlapping tunic, cape, and cowl. a variety of concussive and incendiary devices and a maneuverable Goblin glider as personal transport. The glider can reach the speed of 90 miles per hour and can support 400 pounds of weight. It is heavily armored. The equipment also includes concussive and incendiary Jack O'Lanterns, smoke and gas-emitting bombs, bat-shaped razor-edged throwing blades and gloves with channel pulsed discharges of electricity, reaching up to 10,000 volts. Weaponry is usually carried in a shoulder bag.

Arnold "Lefty" Donovan had also consumed the same version of the formula and is presumed to have had the same powers as Kingsley. He also used the same equipment. Otherwise he was a petty criminal of average intelligence.

Edward "Ned" Leeds was brainwashed into the role by Kingsley but did not consume the formula. He originally had the physical abilities of a man who engaged in regular exercise. Kingsley intensively trained his replacement to acquiring the abilities of an athlete. Leeds was a highly intuitive and effective investigative reporter and master of deductive reasoning. He was able to peace together the clues towards the original Hobgoblin's identity and his lairs but fell captive to said foe. Spider-Man himself was unable to peace together the same clues, pointing to Ned being a superior detective. He proved a capable Hobgoblin but Kingsley considered him overly aggressive and somewhat unstable mentally.

Jason Philip Macendale, Jr. was a former CIA agent who had started a lucrative career as a mercenary. He was the original Jack O'Lantern before assuming the Hobgoblin identity for himself. He originally had no powers and relied on the equipment. He later offered his soul to N'astirh in exchange for powers and was bonded to a demon. As Demogoblin, Jason had superhuman strength (able to lift c. 10 tons), sharp teeth and claws. Contact with his skin could cause burns and hallucinations to others. He could throw blasts of heat and could summon a fiery magical glider to replace his technological one. He could also summon mystical versions of his razor bats and pumpkins which apart from their typical effects could emotionally paralyze his victims.

When separated from the Demon, Jason was powerless again. He later consumed a version of Kraven the Hunter's formula which gave him all the physical abilities of Kraven to a slightly lesser degree. He had superhuman strength (able to lift c. 2 tons), speed, stamina, durability, agility and reflexes. Kraven was also granted superhuman longevity by his formula but whether Jason inherited it was left uncertain. Jason later turned to Gaunt for cybernetic enhancements which further improved his abilities. He regained superhuman strength on par with Spider-Man (able to lift c. 10 tons) and gained detachable claws and a bionic left eye capable of night vision and telescopic sight.

Macendale was the Hobgoblin with the most extensive training in hand-to-hand combat. He was supposed to be an exceptional martial artist, though several appearances blatantly ignored that information. He had extensive knowledge of espionage and conventional military weaponry. He also was a master of electrical engineering and physics, slightly improving the Hobgoblin glider for further maneuverability.

Alternate Versions

Marvel 2211 (Earth-9500)

In the year 2211, Robin Bourne is Hobgoblin 2211 and is the daughter of Dr. Max Bourne, who is Spider-Man of the said year.

MC2 (Earth-982)

In this reality, the Hobgoblin is now an assassin hired to kill Spider-Girl, Normie Osborn and Spider-Man. He didn't get to kill all of them, but found success in killing the Venom Symbiote. He planned to become the new Kingpin of Crime, but after a few setbacks, he headed back to the Caribbean until the time best suited him to return and pick up where he left off. When he did eventually return, New York was in the middle of a gang war. Ever the opportunist, he planned to pick up all the pieces when it was over, but before he could ascend to the position of the new Kingpin, Spider-Girl's clone impaled him on a pike, seemingly ending the threat of the Hobgoblin once and for all.

Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610)

Ultimate Hobgoblin

The ultimate version of the Hobgoblin is Harry Osborn. He is revealed to have been affected by the accident that created the Green Goblin (his father) in a similar way. During the Hobgoblin arc it is revealed that Harry's damaged mental state is a result of his father providing him with hypnotherapy since he was little. Harry usually forgot traumatic moments in his life as a result of the therapy until he confronted his father during the Ultimate Six story arc. It seems that in that moment his mind again forgot what had happened but he also created an imaginary friend that knew all that Harry had forgotten and planned a revenge on Peter Parker.

Troubled by his memories and his imaginary friend harry reveals himself as the hobgoblin and has a battle with spider-man. During the battle Harry feels too much guilt and pain and begs for someone to kill him. He is taken out by Nick Fury and a team of Hulkbusters. Harry is taken into custody while spider-man goes against Fury stating that Harry is just a kid and has a damaged mental state.

In Other Media

Spiderman 3

When Harry Osborn became NewGoblin a yellow goblin mask is seen in a secret room hinting it's the HobGoblin mask.

Spider-Man (1994 TV Series)

Hobgoblin appears in six episodes of the Spider-Man series "The Hobgoblin, Part 1", "The Hobgoblin, Part 2", "The Mutant Agenda", "Mutant's Revenge", "The Spot" and "Goblin War". In all episode he is voiced by Mark Hamill.

Video Games

Spider-man: Shattered Dimensions (2010)

This version of the Hobgoblin features as a new villain in the year 2099. Although this character's identity is unknown the probability of it being Kingsley are highly unlikely as it's so far in the future. The character is game exclusive and is voiced by Steven Blum. He is another enemy who acquires a fragment of the tablet, and in doing so wreaks havoc with Spider-man 2099. The way in which this Hobgoblin differs from others is the uncharacteristic "Psy-powers" bestowed unto him by an unnamed criminal mastermind. Combined with the fragment his powers are amplified to such an extent that he can send Spider-man 2099 into a nightmarish hallucination, a gauntlet of his design. His is revealed to be a mercenary who was hired by Alchemax to kill the Spider-man of this era, as they wished the meddling wall-crawler dead. His pay off is seemingly the bio-nanofiber wings which have been surgically grafted to his back, they also contain some circuitry. The task of taking down Miguel O'Hara is made somewhat easier with the addition of the tablet fragment to his arsenal, which he uses to ambush Spidey. Conveniently, while fleeing, the Public Eye intervene and constantly hinder Spider-man 2099's efforts in defeating him. During the final bout and Hobgoblin's eventual demise, Miguel is able to deduce the company employing this maniac as none other than Alchemax, thanks to the scientific nature of his wings.