Anyone else underwhelmed by every Hobgoblin reveal? It started out as such a great story and mystery, Roger Stern at his best, but the reveals left me flat.

Hobby worked better as a mystery than as a character.It's a daunting challenge for any writer,even Roger Stern,to replicate the impact of the original Green Goblins' unmasking.Now Hobgoblin is just one among the rainbow array of Goblins flying around.
Might have worked better if we never saw Hobgoblin's true face under his mask,the way we never see Dr. Doom's face under his mask.

I loved the original Hobgoblin reveal. Granted it was also the first comic I ever read that had Hobgoblin in it ... but still.

Yeah, the Hobgoblin was an interesting character in the beginning. I rather liked the design better than the Green Goblin design.

Then there's the Demogoblin...

My thoughts on the Hobgoblin saga, typed with a small amount of nervousness knowing that the character's creator sometimes posts on these boards and that there's a small chance he might read them...

1) I think that Uncle Rog and JR Jr. are absolutely the 2nd-best Spider-Man creative team ever after Stan and Steve and those books are still a delight to read. That said, I can't help but still be bummed that they never revealed the Hobgoblin's identity before leaving the book, and I still don't really understand why that happened. I know that the expectations from fans in the letters column was that ASM #250 would be the big reveal and in retrospect I do like that they subverted expectations there, but it's a bummer that they both left the book then.

2) To the extent that I thought about the people who were creating the comic books I read at the time, I know that I probably assumed that everyone working at Marvel, or at least in the Spidey department, knew who the Hobgoblin really was, and they were all creating the books and writing that mystery storyline with that knowledge, and I was very surprised years later to know that wasn't the case. If memory serves, Tom DeFalco was the editor on ASM during original Hobgoblin storyline and even he didn't know who Stern intended the Hobgoblin to be. I've never known myself if JR Jr. knew. I'm guessing so, but I don't know for sure.

3) I think Tom DeFalco did a pretty good job keeping the Hobgoblin mystery engaging for a while when he took over scripting duties, even if he had to come up with his own idea as to who was behind the mask. And I will always love the Ron Frenz art from that period. But the storyline went on WAY too long. Issues #275 and #276, with the fake reveal of Flash Thompson as the Hobgoblin, are one of the earliest times I can remember being disgruntled as a reader even though I enjoyed the two comics, because it was clear by then we were being jerked around about it. It would take still another year after that to get the "real" answer, albeit not the one Uncle Rog intended.

4) I do think that Ned Leeds as the Hobgoblin was the most satisfying solution to the mystery (or at least it would have been if it had happened in 2 years or less) out of all the suspects, but the ultimate reveal was thoroughly botched, IMO (and yes, I know that Ned was not Uncle Rog's choice for the Hobgoblin's identity). I believe that PAD did the best he could under the circumstances with a solution that IIRC was enforced upon him by editorial just to get it all over with, which I think we can all agree is how the best comics are made. I liked the Spider-Man vs Wolverine one-shot in which Ned was killed, the ASM issue revealing him to have been the Hobgoblin much less.

5) All that said, the Hobgoblin Lives mini-series in 1997 by Stern and Frenz was enjoyable enough and it was certainly great to have 2 wonderful Spider-Man talents making new Spidey comics again (especially after 2 years of Clone Saga nonsense), but it was underwhelming as a reveal of the "real" Hobgoblin, IMO. With all love and respect to Uncle Rog, he had the chance to reveal Kingsley as Hobgoblin back in the day and never did so for whatever reason. To do so all those years later, with the character not appearing in comics for like 12 years at that point...I think it would have been better to just keep Ned as the Hobgoblin.

6) Visually, I still vastly prefer the Hobgoblin to the Green Goblin. Much, much scarier costume.

7) The Hobgoblin storyline provided 2 of my favorite Spider-Man covers to this day, ASM issues #251 and #261.

8) I still also love the corner box of ASM #250, with Hobgoblin cackling "It's great! Steal it!!" Makes me laugh every time I see it.

9) Even as a kid, I found it weird that one of the biggest developments of the Hobgoblin saga---where he exposes himself to the Osborn formula, giving him the Green Goblin's enhanced strength---happened in another book (Peter Parker) by a different creative team. Such an important plot point, but if you were only reading ASM (as I'm sure some readers were), you missed it. It was fine, but I sure wish Uncle Rog and JR Jr had handled that tale instead.

10) I think Hobgoblin has been pretty useless as a character ever since the Ned Leeds reveal, to Kid Nemo's point, no matter how much I love the costume, so I guess the mystery really was the majority of the character's appeal. I never really liked Jason Macendale as Hobgoblin (although I do think something good could have been done with it) and the less said about Demogoblin, the better.

One of my first comics was McFarlane's Green Goblin vs. Hobgoblin. (ASM 312) Man, I read that thing over and over as a kid.

I don't even remember it. I may have stopped reading when Roger Stern left.

Excellent ideas.



Roger Stern is incredibly underrated and I have said repeatedly, my choice for Marvel EIC. having said that, excellent points

Ned Leeds getting caught with his pants down and getting killed like that was a huge disappointment. It was lame. The Hobgoblin from Stern's ASM wouldn't have gone down that easily.

Agree. They retconned it later saying he wasn't the true Hobgoblin but the guy they chose instead was so boring.

If you had to reveal him, who would you have chosen?

Uncle Ben?

...well,if they brought Bucky back...

I was fine with it being Ned- I just had issue with him getting killed like that. Also, story-wise, it's a shitty way to reveal it.

Not going to lie; ever since I found out Mark Ha voiced him on the 90's animated show I can't unhear The Joker?

There were plenty of people who could've been the Hobgoblin which was the appeal of the whole storyline.

If it were me writing it then I'd have revealed him to be someone whom Peter barely remembered, a character from the Lee/Ditko days who'd appeared in one issue way back when and who'd held a grudge for some obscure reason. Ultimately it wouldn't matter who it was - the tragedy would've been that their obsession with Spider-Man had ultimately destroyed them, and that they were someone Peter barely knew. Or something.

That is actually a great idea! People would be looking for that back issue. And imagine if there was something there that could have been a hint?

Excellent!

Makes me wat to dig up those old issues and pick someone

Pick your own Hobgoblin! Who could resist an invitation like that? It would make a great Halloween event.

Put a bunch of names in a hat,pull one out,and that's the next Hobgoblin.

Agreed with all that has been said. The mystery was outstanding. Any reveal would have been a letdown all things considered. All in all, it was a great era of Spider-man and one that I cherish.

I can see where Roger Stern was going with Roderick Kingsley. A fashion designer who had criminal connections who gained himself a number of enemies and needed a way to protect his empires so became the Hobgoblin to do so. Coming in to conflict with Spider-Man was a bi-product of that. The only aspect of that didn't sit well was the twin brother.

Even Tom DeFalco's solution (so as not to use or ruin anything Roger had in mind) with Richard Fisk being the Hobgoblin, and Kingsley being The Rose had its merits.

Ned Leeds could have worked as DeFalco was building him as a viable suspect (even though that wasn't his intent), but Christopher Priest really dropped the ball on it.

I'm just glad Roger did get a chance in 1997 to follow or show his original plans.

The Hobgoblin was a great mystery that Marvel really dropped the ball on.