Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "hobgoblin"

The Amazing Spider-Man: Origin of the Hobgoblin by Roger Stern

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the earliest appearances of Roderick Kingsley and the Hobgoblin in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-man Issues 43, 47,48 and 85 and Amazing Spider-man 238, 239, 244, 245 and 249-251.

Thoughts on the individual issues:

(PPSS #43, 47, and 48): A crime story with Spidey hunting down the villainess Bella Donna. It's got a Noir bent to it as Peter tries to stop him. We meet Roderick Kingsley who seems unlikely to emerge as a supervillain, but we learn, he's selfish, cowardly, and absolutely ruthless in pursuit of what he wants. Enjoyable, though not essential to understanding the Goblin.

(AS #238 and 239): In a situation that has some parallels to the death of Uncle Ben, Spidey catches three of four bank robbers but decides not to chase after the fourth for fear that he'll get lost in the sewer and him wanting to retrieve his film. Unfortunately, this leads to the hood discovering Norman Osborn's stockpiles of Goblin supplies and going to a man in the shadows and telling him about it and that man becomes the Hobgoblin and Peter has some responsibility for it. We also get the first battle between Spidey and the Hobgoblin, and though the Goblin gets away he learns you need more than a creepy costume if you're going toe to toe with Spider-man. Peter is left to wonder whether Hobgoblin knows his secret identity.

(AS #244 and 245): A somewhat ho-hum robbery with Spider-man catching the bad guys takes on a whole new level danger when it's revealed Hobgoblin's involved and plans use stolen information from Osborn Manufacturing to make himself stronger. Has a nice fake-out cover for Issue #245 as it looks like the identity of Hobgoblin will be revealed. Even though what happens on the cover actually happens in the book, we don't get what readers thought they would get when they picked up the book..

(PPSS #85):After framing and killing a hood as Hobgoblin, Hobgoblin has created a formula to make himself stronger. The book features that, but is more about trying to show the challenge in the love affair between Black Cat and Spidey as Cat wants to be part of Spidey's Adventures but Spidey is worried about her being hurt, leading to a confrontation with Hobgoblin where they spaz a lot. Really could have been any villain. Kind of dubious step by writer Bill Mantlo (only issue in this book not written by Roger Stern) though there's a legitimate point about the problem in their relationship that he was trying to raise. I'll talk about that in a review of their larger ark in PPSS one day.

(AS #249-251): Hobgoblin decides to take advantage of Norman Osborne's file to blackmail members of a club to which Harry Osborn, Wilson Fisk, and J. Jonah Jameson belong to. For Harry, the blackmail centers around revealing the truth about his dad. For Jonah, the blackmail comes down to Norman's knowledge about Jameson being involved in the creation of the Scorpion. There are things to nitpick such as it not making much sense for Hobgoblin to pursue blackmail as his first big crime after so much fighting and building up muscle. What there is to like about this is everything else. We have Kingpin saving Spider-man, and we have one of Spidey's greatest fights ever on Hobgoblin's battle van without his Spider-sense. In addition, the story puts J. Jonah Jameson at a crossroads and finally has to make a decision about facing the consequences about some of his shennanigans in pursuit of Spidey, and you have Spidey rightly calling him on the carpet. It's three really great issues that are the crown jewel of the book. It also includes the 250th Issue (cheekily advertised on the cover as a normal sized 250th issue.)

Overall, these showcase some really good work by Roger Stern, along with a below part issue by Bill Mantlo before delivering a stunning finale. Great read for fans of Spidey and the Hobgoblin.



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Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives by Roger Stern

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This books collects the Hobgoblin Lives mini-series written by Roger Stern and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-man #259-261 with plot by Roger Stern and written by Gleen Greenberg .

In the mini-series, Peter Parker's long-time friend Ned Leeds was revealed to be the Hobgoblin, but is he really? Spidey teams up with Mary Jane, Flash Thompson, and Betty Leads to find out the truth. This is a fine mystery plot by Stern that gives us a lot of suspects and a good reveal.

The Spectacular Spider-man story is set with Norman Osborne back from the dead and a partner in the Daily Bugle. However, the imprisoned Hobgoblin claims that some of his journals have survived in containing truths about the Green Goblin. This story brings together Norman Osborn, the Hobgoblin, and the Green Goblin and is pretty fun, although not as good as the mini-series.



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