Throughout the pages of Marvel Comics, several baddies have operated under the guise of the Hobgoblin. The very first character to terrorize Spider-Man and the streets to New York as the masked villain was fashion designer and billionaire Roderick Kingsley.  

Created by Roger Stern, Mike Zeck, and John Romita Jr., Kingsley debuted in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #43 in 1980. Kingsley came into his considerable wealth through unethical business practices and corporate raiding. These murky business practices helped him acquire many connections in the criminal underworld, as well as many enemies. To protect himself and his empire, Kingsley broke into Norman Osborn’s secret lair and stole his Goblin equipment. Realizing that previous wearers have gone mad, Kingsley created the similar but different mantle – the Hobgoblin. 

He later recreated Dr. Mendel Stromm’s strength-enhancing potion, without the harmful side effects of the previous version. As the Hobgoblin he possesses mind-control technology developed by Gerhard Winkler, superhuman physical attributes and intelligence and various goblin-themed weapons and paraphernalia. In his various criminal activities, Kingsley repeatedly loses to Spider-Man while also attracting attention from such powerful criminal as Kingpin. 

Kingsley’s identity as the Hobgoblin was not initially revealed, generating one of the longest-running mysteries in the Spider-Man comics. While Stern wanted the mystery to last even longer, a handful of readers deduced that Kingsley was the Hobgoblin almost immediately. To throw them off the scent – and to provide a retroactive explanation for Kingsley’s inconsistent characterization in early appearances – Stern introduced Kingsley’s twin brother Daniel who occasionally impersonates him. Daily Bugle reporter Ned Leeds was actually the first to unmask Kingsley but was subsequently brainwashed into being the Hobgoblin himself.  

As the hypnosis caused Ned to become more erratic, Kingsley arranged for him to be unmasked as Hobgoblin and assassinated. For years, everybody believed that Ned had been the real Hobgoblin and Kingsley was able to retire. However, he later returned to New York to kill the fourth and then-current Hobgoblin Jason Macendale. During a later battle, Kingsley is finally unmasked as the Hobgoblin. Ned’s name is cleared and Kingsley is thrown into prison for his criminal activities. Not one to stay down for long, Kingsley continued to appear in various comic titles though his appearances have become more sporadic over the years. 

But did you know the original Hobgoblin is preparing to slip into his terrifying suit once more? Writer Peter David and artist Greg Land are revisiting Kingsley as the original Hobgoblin in Marvel’s upcoming series Symbiote Spider-Man: Alien Reality. Read more about this new series here on Scoop.