So. Many. Goblins.
Part II: Are we sure Peter Parker doesn’t live in Nilbog?
Last week we discussed some of the greatest Goblins to ever terrorize our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. We also discussed Bart Hamilton. This week we get to cover some truly bizarre entries into the Goblin canon as well as the return of a classic.
Demogoblin
Demogoblin definitely falls under the “bizarre” category of Goblin. Remember how Jason Macendale as the Hobgoblin thought the best way to defeat Spider-Man was to allow himself to become possessed by a literal demon? You’ll be shocked to learn that this plan backfired. The demon eventually forcibly split itself from Macendale, but apparently he really enjoyed the Goblin aesthetic and continued his unholy quest to exterminate all sinners as the self-proclaimed Demogoblin. His costume was essentially a tattered version of the Hobgoblin costume with a blue and red color scheme replacing the orange and blue. He also replaced the motorized goblin glider with a seemingly living glider made of hellfire. Sure. Demogoblin’s somewhat ambiguous motivations revolved around exterminating sinners with special attention paid to killing Macendale. Who fit the definition of “sinner” seemed to change depending on the writer. Sometimes that meant criminals and other villains. Sometimes it meant literally everyone because everyone sins. It was a pretty wide berth. Demogoblin was also the Goblin least tied directly to Spider-Man. While Spidey was a frequent adversary, Demogoblin also routinely fought Ghost Rider due to his supernatural themes. He also became friends with Doppelgänger who is a mindless killing machine who looks like Spider-Man with four arms, a giant mouth filled with sharp teeth, and razor webbing. It’s a long story.
Demogoblin is probably most famous for being a member of Carnage’s sadistic “family” that went on a murderous rampage through New York City during the “Maximum Carnage” event that spanned all of the Spider-Man books in 1993. He really epitomized the “extreme” vibe of the 1990s. We’ll return to him later.
Green Goblin (Harry Osborn) Returns
Arguably the greatest Goblin ever told is Harry Osborn’s descent into madness as he becomes the Green Goblin once more in the pages of Spectacular Spider-Man #178-200 by J.M. DeMatteis and Sal Buscema. It’s equal parts tragic and terrifying as battles his personal demons and loses his grip on sanity while being haunted by visions of his abusive (and deceased) father.
This is made all the more heartbreaking because Harry is now family man with a wife (Liz Allan) and a young son (Normie Osborn). Harry does end up wearing the Green Goblin costume once more and begins psychologically attacking Spider-Man. He hits Peter with hallucinogens and forces him to relive some of his worst failures. Eventually Harry has an opportunity to kill Peter who refuses to fight his friend, but he isn’t able to bring himself to do so and flies off into the night.
Harry eventually discovers his father’s original formula and subjects himself to the process to give himself the same super strength and invulnerability the original Green Goblin had. The process is a success, but it also exacerbates his mental issues. At this point Harry is completely unhinged and kidnaps his wife, son, and brother-in-law (the reformed supervillain Molten Man) and forces them to have a family dinner with him in the Osborn mansion. It’s immediately clear to all involved just how unwell Harry is, especially when Harry tosses a pumpkin bomb into Molten Man’s chest while dancing with Normie.
Fortunately Spider-Man arrives before things get too out of hand, and the two square off in a vicious fight. After trading haymakers, Spider-Man finally puts Harry down for the count as the police come to haul him away. Harry announces that he knows Spider-Man’s true identity and will tell everyone, but “not just yet” as he cackles. Harry is then taken to Ravencroft for evaluation and treatment.
After a short stint, Harry is able to use his wealth and lawyers to force his release. At this point has become clear that Harry is reacting much differently to the formula than his father once did. While the strength, invulnerability, and madness are definitely all there, Harry’s heart appears to be giving out from the strain the formula is putting on his body. Sensing his body fail as his sanity continues to deteriorate, Harry begins acting even more erratic and dangerously. He kidnaps Mary Jane as she is walking home and takes her to where his father had once murdered Gwen.
It appears that he intends to do the same to her, but in actuality he has taken her there to tell her he wishes things could go back to the way things were before Gwen’s death. In his irrational state he puts the blame of both her death and his father’s at the hands of Peter and vows to make him pay.
After leaving Mary Jane be, Harry and Peter have a few more “chats” about the states of their lives before finally throwing on their costumes and doing battle one more time in Harry’s home. The two truly hold nothing back this time and throw haymaker after haymaker at each other while Mary Jane and Normie take cover. Spider-Man seems to gain the upper hand, but Green Goblin manages to inject him with a drug to render him unconscious. Green Goblin then arms a bomb to blow up his home and kill his nemesis. As Spider-Man begins losing consciousness, he pleads with Green Goblin to not hurt the people who love him. At that moment, Harry regains control and realizes that his son and Mary Jane are also in the building and about to die along with him and Peter.
Harry grabs both of them and rushes them out of the building. Mary Jane appeals to his humanity to not leave Peter, and in a moment of heroism goes back inside to rescue his longtime friend before the building explodes.
Having saved his friend, the two are able to connect one last time before Harry’s heart finally gives out as a result of the formula that had given him his strength. The final two pages of the story are told without any text or dialogue as Harry passes away and his loved ones mourn.
Hobgoblin (Jason Macendale) Seeks an Upgrade
When last we saw Hobgoblin, he was once again powerless and being hunted by Demogoblin who once possessed him. Not a great situation. In Spider-Man #46-49 by Howard Mackie and Tom Lyle, we get to see this little arc wrap up. Hobgoblin is still being pursued by Demogoblin (while the demon also continues to kill as many sinners as possible along the way). Macendale realizes he has no chance to ever have any peace from Demogoblin unless he figures out a way to take him out. His solution? Tracking down Vladimir Kravinoff, the wealthy son of the late Kraven the Hunter, and having him give him the same powers his father once had. Lo and behold, it works! Now Hobgoblin has super strength, agility, and invulnerability necessary to not only fight back against Demogoblin but Spider-Man as well. Hobgoblin and Demogoblin end up fighting each other inside of a church (of course), and Demogoblin is killed as he sacrifices himself to save a child from fallen debris. It’s a strange send off for a character who less than a year earlier had engaged in the mass murder of hundreds (if not thousands) of people along with Carnage and other villains. Meanwhile, Spider-Man and this newly powered Hobgoblin fight each other with Spidey emerging victorious. It felt at the time that we were about to see this latest version of Hobgoblin ascend to the upper echelons of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. Instead we were about to jump head first into the “Clone Saga” for the next couple of years, so any Hobgoblin developments were paused.
Hobgoblin doesn’t show up again until almost twenty issues later in Spider-Man #68 by Howard Mackie and John Romita, Jr. Despite getting super powers when we last saw him, Hobgoblin has decided to upgrade himself even more by becoming a cyborg and swapping out his orange and blue costume for a black one.
He is also apparently working as an enforcer for the supervillain Gaunt who is himself an underling for another super secret villain. I discussed this in my Ben Reilly retrospective series if you want more info, but we’ll cover certain aspects of it later in this series as they apply specifically to Goblins. Anyway, despite now having both Kraven powers and cyborg powers, Hobgoblin still gets beat by the Ben Reilly version of Spider-Man who literally had no experience fighting any version of Hobgoblin. How humiliating. Jason Macendale as a character had also now been reduced to nothing more than a hired thug again like in his Jack O’Lantern days. Needless to say, there wasn’t much planned for this character going forward.
Green Goblin (Phil Urich)
That’s right, folks. We’ve got a new Green Goblin! This one first showed up in Spectacular Spider-Man #225 from Tom DeFalco, Sal Buscema, and Bill Sienkiewicz. This one is Phil Urich, the nephew or reporter Ben Urich. This happened in the midst of the “Clone Saga,” so the tease was this new Goblin was going to be another Spider-Man clone. Thankfully this was not the case. The twist here is that this Green Goblin was heroic. Phil had stumbled upon Goblin tech just like every Goblin since the original, and he decided to throw it on and become a superhero. He also took a version of Norman’s formula, but it only worked if he wore a special mask that also had a “lunatic laugh” chip in it that allowed him to emit a sonic weapon that debilitated those within range. He starred in a very short lived solo series, but his masked was damaged during the “Onslaught” companywide event and was immediately forced to retire. Even Bart Hamilton thinks that’s a pretty weak career as Green Goblin.
That’s enough Goblins for this week. Next week we see the return of some familiar faces and the deaths of some newer ones.