Why did Priest not think DeFalco was just fucking with him?
Ned Leeds
Brody Johnson
Jayden Cruz
Bump
Nathaniel Smith
What's the point of the question? Defaclo got cucked anyway
Jason Wilson
Unironically there was no good option for his secret identity
They all sucked
Cool costume though
Josiah Adams
Are you sure?
Luke Carter
>They all sucked
Nope
Carson Nelson
He's not very bright.
Brayden Davis
Who would you have picked them mr.smarty pants hmmmmmmm
Ayden Morris
If you were a Marvel editor, would you reasonably suspect one or more of your writers is lying to you and to everyone else at Marvel about his plans for where his book's big mystery story is going? Unless the guy had past history of lying to editors about his plans, you'd likely need to be paranoid to even consider it. If DeFalco tells Priest that Ned Leeds is the Hobgoblin, Priest has got no reason to doubt it, especially since DeFalco did enough work to set up clues pointing towards his red herring, but hadn't yet set up any clues pointing towards his real plan of Richard Fisk.
Austin Watson
Richard Fisk would have made sense imo
Owen Long
Why else do you think Priest killed Ned and laid out all those contradictory origins? The dude was being spiteful. He made sure Richard was the Rose beyond a question of a doubt (killed Ned the weakest of the Hobgoblin suspects along with slapping on origins to Ned being the Hobgoblin that made little sense) and killed off Kingsley (so DeFalco couldn't bring him back as the Rose).
Why DeFalco went back to the Rose post-Clone Saga to do it "his way". I think it's more remarkable that Roger Stern somehow took the mess of the pissing contest that Priest and DeFalco had then with Kurt Busiek somehow made a timeline that made more sense on how Kingsley became the Hobgoblin and made Ned a dupe.
Daniel Ramirez
And then Slott came in and shat all over it with Urich. And also by doing the same fake-out with Kingsley twice.
>he's dead... OR IS HE???
Which is even more pathetic when you consider Stern already did this exact same thing in one of the earliest Hobgoblin appearances with a fake-out of his death.
Nolan Nguyen
Why Slott did it. He said he "loved" the Stern stuff and only a bastard would kill off an amazing villain like Kingsley then not think of the oldest trick to check who's under the mask.
Samuel Johnson
I do enjoy the whole Kingsley ripping off other identities to make a mint along with a goon squad idea. But, no one has really has used it save a throwaway line by Spencer.
Samuel Nguyen
I think the real reason Slott did it was to explain the OOC of Kingsley in the Bendis comics at the time too. Given Bendis has mad-on hate for the Hobgoblin identity.
Literally having him act as a goof and loser worse than even the worst portrayal of Macendale ever got when he had the identity.
Elijah Wright
The big problem with the way Stern brought the Hobgoblin back was that it resulted in "when he loses, it's just a brainwashed dupe" being baked into fan expectations, so a character who was ultimately kind of redundant by the time they brought him back is still expected by fans to permanently have the same level of plot armor he had when it was necessary to keep the mystery going.
I'm inclined to believe Slott really did mean to kill Kingsley and replace him with Urich, and backed out of it because of reeeing fans.
Easton Foster
Phil got fucked over by everyone post-Spider-Girl. From Cebulski (Loners with him having his breakdown) to Slott (going full-in) and I forgot the third author. He wrote Ben trying to cure Phil, but the latter wasn't having any of it in an annual. I also hate the way Slott just casually discarded Phil. Literally having him be thrown to Red Goblin and job hard.
Anthony Moore
Pretty sure the books Benis wrote came years after Slott's Hobgoblin stories.
Macendale seemed to be caught between writers like DeFalco, Conway, and Mackie who wanted to write him as a serious villain and others who were just treating him as a loser because NOT MUH HOBGOBLIN. Editors shouldn't have let writers be that petty when it's doing actual damage.
Logan Rogers
At this point the hobgoblin identity is so convoluted and confusing they might as well start from scratch and just have a new character fill the role.
I could see an eric o'grady angle being fun. Dude steals the tech and costume and tries to make it as a superhero for profit.
Jordan Walker
Nope. Hobgoblin appeared in an Alias ongoing that came out during Slott's run. He showed up for the contract on her, pumpkin bombed her place. Thought she was dead, claimed, "I WON FOR ONCE." then gets defeated by Spider-Man off panel.
Then there was the Sinister Six arc where Bendis killed Kingsley by having him betray the team stupidly and get kicked out a helicarrier without his glider.
Cameron Collins
Who knows what will become of the identity with Ned back on the board. Then again I doubt any writer will touch the subplot with him and Betty with a ten-foot pole.
Parker Robinson
>Nope. Hobgoblin appeared in an Alias ongoing that came out during Slott's run.
Slott was still writing Spider-Man, but he didn't use Kingsley again after that Goblin Nation prelude story around 2014. Bendis' Hobgoblin stories were both after that.
Anthony Nelson
Spencer seemed to be building to something with all those retcons about Ned being alive and having taken the Goblin Formula, but it all got abruptly dropped just before Sinister War.
Matthew Harris
I know the Sinister Six one was way after but I thought the Alias was around the same time as Goblin Nation. No matter what he built in the "it was a dupe" angle subplot that a few writers had to call Kingsley out on it (like in Axis).
Adam Ward
It feels like Ned was a secondary plan by "Harry"/Kindred. Given the place he visited was the same one where "Harry"/Kindred laid out all their plans to destroy Norman/Peter.
James Miller
Just that the whole "timeline" feels off because Harry didn't have a relapse into being the Green Goblin again until WAAAAAAAAY after Ned was dead.
So there's no way this could be Harry waiting for him by his grave. Plus the serum was a pure Stromm which always drives the taker crazy or kookier.
Something Ned was struggling with in his return.