I am enjoying this mini-series more than I probably should. I liked Stern/Romita Spider-Man in the ‘80s and was interested in the mystery surrounding the Hobgoblin’s identity. As soon as Tom DeFalco took over the writing from Roger Stern, though, he began diluting the mystery into a hokey “comic-booky” resolution. Because DeFalco was Stern’s editor before taking over the writing, I assumed at the time that the hints concerning the Hobgoblin’s identity were consistent from writer to writer, but that was not the case. Starting with his very first script (over Stern’s plot), DeFalco wrote dialogue inconsistent with the clues Stern had established. By the time the Hobgoblin’s “true identity” was revealed, I no longer cared.
Several years later, in the mini-series Hobgoblin Lives! (drawn by Ron Frenz and inked by George Perez), Stern was given the opportunity to overturn DeFalco’s resolution in favor of the ending he had originally planned. I enjoyed the series at the time, but no longer cared about the Hobgoblin’s identity. Until earlier this year I hadn’t read Roger Stern’s 1980s run on Spectacular Spider-Man (which introduces the character who would become the Hobgoblin), and by the time I did, I had forgotten who it was. (Hey, it’s been 17 years since Hobgoblin Lives!) After I finished reading the 1980s Stern stories, I re-read Hobgoblin Lives! just in time for the new Hobgoblin series.
After I read the first issue, I re-read the character’s initial appearances in Spectacular Spider-Man, as well as the post-Stern Hobgoblin stories written by Tom DeFalco in the ’80s. This is the kind of convoluted story that can appear only in comic books (when one writer overturns something established by an earlier writer, and a later writer overturns that). The second issue of the new mini-series shipped yesterday, and I spent some time earlier today catching up on Goblin-related plot developments I have missed over the course of the last 17 years. I may even pick up some back issues before #3 ships!
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I just read issue no. 1 yesterday. I liked the concept of the book and its effort to rationalize the confusing Hobgoblin backstory. Most of all, however, I liked the "appearances" of a number of C-List heroes in the book and trying to remember their names.
I'll grab No. 2 the next time I'm back at my store for sure!
So don't keep me in suspenders! Is the Hobgoblin the fashion guy, his twin brother, Ned Leeds, or what?
Suspenders? This is the 21st century! Get with the times, hepcat!
Yeah, it's "the fashion guy" (Roderick Kingsly), seen here on the cover of his very first appearance.
Although never explicitly stated, Roderick Kingsly was obviously intended to be gay, predating Northstar as Marvel's first gay super-powered character by quite some time.
I'm just digging it because it's goofy fun.
Back in the '80s, Christopher Priest was the editor of Amazing Spider-Man for a time. Then he was demoted to writer. Then he was removed completely. In his introduction to Marvel Masterworks Spider-Man v27, he cited four reasons for this turn of events: "a wedding, a funeral, a bomb threat and the aborted launch of a fourth Spider-Man title."
SPIDER-MAN VERSUS WOLVERINE:
"The funeral: I'm sworn to secrecy by Masterworks editor Cory Sedlmeier, who doesn't want me to reveal who gets it, but suffice it to say that a character's throat was slit in Spider-Man Versus Wolverine #1, leading to the speculation that I (the editor of Amazing Spider-Man and writer of the story featuring this death), had backdoored ASM writer Tom DeFalco and former Spider writer Roger Stern by murdering the Hobgoblin in an unrelated project."
I didn't see it that way, then or now, but let me say up front that I hated Spider-Man Versus Wolverine at the time and I have long since purged it from my collection. Things being the way they are, though, I eventually re-acquired it in one of those "omnibus" collection. I recently had occasion to re-read it, though, and was reminded of exactly why I hated it so much , which had nothing to do with the death of the Hobgoblin (or "the death of the 'Hobgoblin'," I should say). [HINT: It's the same reason why I didn't care for the "Legends" crossover issue of the Superman titles, but at least DC had the decency of removing the incident from Superman's memory.] The ramifications of Spider-Man Versus Wolverine should have reverbetated in Peter Parker's psyche for years after, but they didn't, and I knew at the time they wouldn't... not that I would have wanted them to. Better to simply purge it from my collection and pretend it never happened.
Regarding the death of the "Hobgoblin," I rather like the way that was pulled off: it was presented from two entirely different points of view, one from Spider-Man Versus Wolverine and the other from the follow-up story in Spider-Man #289. "Not a TRICK!" the cover proclaims. "This is the issue you've been waiting far! 'The Hobgoblin Revealed!'" It was, of course, a trick. Or at least it ended up being one, despite whatever Marvel's intentions may have been at the time.
[39-YEAR-OLD SPOILER: If you don't want to know who the Hobgoblin is (or was said to be), read no further.]
I re-read this one, too, and discovered that it almost a work of genius... almost. I have long since decided to allow Spider-Man #289 into my head canon instead of Spider-Man Versus Wolverine; it contains all of the information a reader would need to know, with none of the more unpleasant aspects of the story, which just went on, and on, and on. I can believe that Jason Macendale hired the Foreigner to kill Ned Leeds, but not necessarily the Hobgoblin. On thing I hadn't noticed before (or hadn't remembered), is that the scene depicting the death of Ned Leeds takes place entirely within Spider-Man's mind as he is reading the file provided to him by the Kingpin. That's the "near genius" part. I could believe that the Kingpin deliberately manipulated the information in the file to lead Spider-Man to believe that Ned Leeds was (for reasons of his own), but that explanation doesn't work because other elements in the story require the Kingpin himself to believe it.
The eventual "true" resolution indicates that the Foreinger himself misled the Kingpin. I'm now going to have to re-read Hobgoblin Lives! in order to determine whether or not that aspect of the revised story was ever addressed. This convolute mess isn't quite as bad as the "Clone Saga" (remember all that jazz with the High Evolutionary?), but it ranks right up there.
The first "Hobgoblin" arc was launched with a very simple premise: to reintroduce the mystery surrounding his identity, mimicking that of the Green Goblin. The storyline included many red herrings and ran from Amazing Spider-Man #238 through #251. But then, when it came time to bring the arc to a close and resolve the mystery, Marvel editorial decided upon a course of action all too common when one of the "Big Two" finds itself with a popular direction: they decided to ignore the intended resolution and artificially extend the storyline beyond its intended span of issues. First one, then another suspect was "revealed" to be the Hobgoblin, until finally settling on Ned Leeds. I stopped reading Spider-Man for several years shortly after #289, largely because of poor storytelling choices such as this.
Then, in 1997, Roger Stern was given the opportunity to rewrite the story with the ending he had originally intended and had been building toward for more than a year. But first he had to account for the sloppy storytelling which led to the beg "reveal" in #289. The first two issues of the three-issue limited series were spent doing that, before the Hobgoblin's real secret identity was truly revealed in #3. I was so happy with this series nearly 30 years ago that I went back and re-read ##238 through #289. This time, though, I sort of did it in reverse order. that is, I started with the Spider-Man Versus Wolverine one-shot and Amazing Spider-Man #289, then moved directly into Hobgoblin Lives and discovered that the mini-series could be read directly following Amazing Spider-Man #251 because its first two issues summarize all the nonsense between #252 and #289.
Various iterrations of the Hobgoblin (and the Green Goblin) continued to appear in the 17 years between 1997 and the return of the original in 2014.
Speaking of which, here's one I was unawareof until last week...
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #259-261 - "Goblins at the Gate"
Roderick Kingsley vs. Norman Osborn with Spider-Man caught in the middle.
the collected edition also includes a timeline as compiled by Roger Stern as well as an afterword describing exactly how the "Hobgoblin" story came to unfold over the years. The afterword spells out exactly "who knew what and when they knew it," and timeline comprises every major development from 1983 (Spider-Man #238) through 1987 (Web of Spider-Man #30), supplemented by retcons/revelations from Hobgoblin Lives!
...all of which brings me up to the three-issue mini-series which promted me to start this thread 12 years ago (although I'm sure there are some Hobgoblin stories between 1998 and 2014 I missed). Similarly, there have probably been some Hobgoblin stories since 2014, but i haven't read them. This is probably the best Hobgoblin story written by someone not named Roger Stern. It deals with Roderick Kingsley "rebranding" himself.