The Amazing Spider-Man #289 [Direct]

(June 1987)

The Hobgoblin Revealed! (Table of Contents: 1)

Spider-Man / comic story / 40 pages (report information)

Script

Peter David (credited)

Pencils

Alan Kupperberg (credited); Tom Morgan (credited)

Inks

Jim Fern (credited)

Colors

George Roussos (credited)

Letters

Rick Parker (credited)

First Line of Dialogue or Text

You're the best, Foreigner!

Genre

superhero

Characters

Spider-Man [Peter Parker]; Ned Leeds [as Hobgoblin in flashback]; Wolverine (flashback); Felicia Hardy [Black Cat]; J. Jonah Jameson; Robbie Robertson; Betty Leeds; Marla Jamison; Flash Thompson; Blake Tower; Hobgoblin [Jason Macendale Jr.; formerly Jack O' Lantern] (villain, introduction); Kingpin (villain); Foreigner (villain); Rose; Foreigner's Assassins (villains); Lance Bannon (cameo); Ben Urich (cameo)

Synopsis

Ned Leeds' body is returned to the United States and his family and friends attend his funeral. Peter takes Betty home but finds she is becoming more and more unstable. The new Hobgoblin takes out the Rose's men. Kingpin gives Spider-Man the file proving Leeds was Hobgoblin. Hobgoblin comes after Spider-Man for the file and it gets burned up in their battle. Flash Thompson is cleared of the charges that he was Hobgoblin. Peter decides to continue to fight crime as Spider-Man.

Reprints

• in Die Spinne (Condor, 1980 series) #152
• in El Asombroso Hombre Araña (Novedades, 1980 series) #414 (April 27, 1988)
• in Strange (Editions Lug, 1970 series) #222 (5 juin 1988)
• in Edderkoppen (Semic, 1984 series) #7/1990 ([juli] 1990) [page 39 removed]
• in L'Uomo Ragno (Edizioni Star Comics, 1987 series) #82 (30 Ottobre 1991)
• in Astonishing Spider-Man (Panini UK, 2009 series) #5 (February 2010), #6 (March 2010)
• in Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection (Marvel, 2013 series) #17 - Kraven's Last Hunt (2017)

Indexer Notes

Story continues from Spider-Man vs. Wolverine (Marvel, 1987 series) #1; O.K. so this issue reveals that that Hobgoblin was Ned Leeds--sort of; After four years of hints, clues and red herrings, somebody had to be under the yellow Goblin mask; Original Hobgoblin creator Roger Stern left the comic without telling anyone his ideas on the true identity of the villain; Tom DeFalco who wrote many of the issues leading up to this revelation had an alleged falling out with editor Jim Owsley and quit the book without providing the identity of who he intended to be Hobgoblin; According to Peter David, he was told to write this unmasking story and Owsley intended for the secret identity of the Hobgoblin to be the Foreigner; This made no sense to David and they tried to hash out who actually COULD be the villain; Ned Leeds became the only viable suspect (and was a fan favorite for the role) but Owsley had already written the Spider-Man Vs. Wolverine one-shot in which Leeds was killed; It was up to Peter David to paint Ned as the culprit posthumously; Fast forward ten years to 1997 which saw original Hobgoblin scribe Roger Stern returning to the character in the Hobgoblin Lives limited series; In this story, he does a little creative rewriting of history (we fan boys call it retroactive continuity) and he reveals that Ned Leeds was simply a brainwashed dupe of the REAL Hobgoblin, narcissistic fashion designer Roderick Kingsley; Ironically, Kingsley is the only person according to the original stories who could NOT have been the Hobgoblin as he was seen on two occasions to be working with the villain and talking to him without his mask; Stern introduced a secret twin brother, Daniel, in Hobgoblin Lives who impersonated Roderick at key moments and made the Kingsly-as-Hobgoblin theory at least mildly plausible; This is Marvel's official version of the Hobgoblin controversy and the convoluted appearance list issue by issue can be seen under the Hobgoblin character profile on Marvel's official site here: http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix5/hobgoblinkingsley.htm; Peter David discusses the story for this issue and the Leeds/Hobgoblin decision here: http://www.peterdavid.net/archives/002234.html.