Fearsome First Appearance (left) John Romita, Jr.’s initial costume designs for the Hobgoblin. All JR Jr. Hobgoblin character designs are courtesy of Glenn Greenberg. (below) Hobby’s premiere, in Amazing Spider-Man (ASM) #238 (Mar. 1983). Cover art by the Romitas (Jr., pencils, and Sr., inks). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
PART ONE: BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IT!
In 1982, Roger Stern was in the midst of his run as writer of The Amazing Spider-Man, paired with penciler John Romita, Jr. Earlier, Stern had written issues of its sister title, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, where the first seeds for the Hobgoblin had been planted—though Stern didn’t realize it at the time. The creation of the Hobgoblin was actually a response to reader demands. ROGER STERN: There was a huge amount of fan mail from readers who wanted all of the classic villains back: Doctor Octopus, Kraven, etc. That was fine, but they had all appeared not that long before I started writing Spider-Man. I didn’t want readers to say, “Here they are yet again.” Most of the mail asked for the return of the Green Goblin, who at the time was dead. There had been other guys who wore the costume, but I called them “fake Goblins.” One was Harry Osborn, who wasn’t really the Green Goblin—he had a psychotic episode and thought he was the Green Goblin (Amazing Spider-Man #136–137, Sept.–Oct. 1974). And the other was Harry’s crazy psychiatrist, Bart Hamilton (Amazing #176–180, Jan.–May 1978). These two guys weren’t really the Green Goblin because neither of them was super-strong—how did they avoid horrible groin pulls while they were flying around Manhattan straddling a jet engine? Hamilton was dead, Norman was dead, Harry I liked— I didn’t want to put him through this crap again. He had grown into a really good friend for Peter. And I was not into bringing dead guys back and it never occurred to me to bring Norman back. I was more interested in bringing in some new characters, particularly a new, really strong villainous character. I decided to meet the fans halfway—I would come up with a new character who had stolen the Goblin’s equipment and part of his schtick, but he would be a very different character. The one thing that would be similar to the Green Goblin was that no one would know who he was. Unlike Norman, who was as crazy as a soup sandwich, this guy would be frighteningly sane. A megalomaniac, sure, but he knows exactly what he’s doing. He doesn’t do stupid things. He does coldly rational things, which makes him even scarier.
Villains Issue
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