Roderick Kingsley
Roderick Kingsley is a male comic supervillain that features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Roderick Kingsley was a male human who had a brother by the name of Daniel Kingsley. (Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives v1 #3)
At some point, he established Kingsley Limited that dealt with modelling shoots. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #271)
A thug by the name of George Hill accidently discovered the secret headquarters of the Green Goblin near Osborn Manufacturing and reported his findings to Kingsley. Upon discovering the secret of Norman Osborn, Kingsley had all the equipment shipped to his home with Georgie helping in the hopes of getting a reward. After the task was complete, Roderick had Georgie killed to ensure that no one else learnt of the discovery whilst Kingsley himself fashioned the identity of the masked villain known as the Hobgoblin. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #238)
Return
Kingsley had actually set up operations in Delvadia as it was the drug capital of Central America where he adopted the guise of the Devil Spider. He made a name for himself and forced the other gangs to acknowledge him as their leader. Despite these operations, he also had intended to ensure his return to New York and intended to strike against the Kingpin. To that end, he dispatched his brother Daniel Kingsley with the intention of him recovering his old Hobgoblin equipment and operate in that supervillain persona for Roderick's eventual return. However, Daniel was killed by Phil Urich who had replaced him and become the new Hobgoblin with this news coming to Roderick through an informant in the police force. After learning of this, Kingsley decided to make his move to return to New York City and reclaim the mantle of the Hobgoblin. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #691) He arrived at New York where he began observing the activities of the new Hobgoblin and tracked his movements through a hidden GPS signal in the bat-drone he was using at the time. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #695) Through it, he managed to discover the identity of the imposter who was Phil Urich where he went to his apartment to find more about the boy including his girlfriend Norah Winters. Kingsley then went to the Kingpin's stronghold in Shadowland where he attacked Urich in an effort to claim the Goblin Key which Fisk had acquired. The battle between the two Hobgoblin allowed a captive Peter Parker to escape capture alongside his employer Max Modell with the pair taking the Goblin Key with them. The Kingpin forced the two goblin supervillains to go after the key with them deciding to form a temporary truce until the item was recovered. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #696) Their attempts at gaining access to the Goblin's Worshop failed when Spider-Man caused it to self-destruct. Kingsley then betrayed Urich but rather than kill him he decided to allow him to continue to operate as the Hobgoblin in exchange for a percentage of his cuts. He then went back into the shadows to continue his business of establishing new supervillain identities for prospective buyers around the world. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #697)
Overview
Personality and attributes
He never thought of himself as a criminal but everything he had was taken from others. (Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives v1 #3)
Roderick made use of his brother Daniel to manage their company's assets but treated him cruelly and simply dictated commands for him. They often used disguises where Daniel wore a mask resembling his brother allowing Roderick to operate as the Hobgoblin whilst publically he appeared to be managing the business. (Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives v1 #3)
Powers and abilities
In time, he used his business acumen to develop himself as a billionaire tycoon. (Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives v1 #3)
After using the equipment for years, he came to know the Hobgoblin technology better than anyone. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #695)
For a time, he managed the Kingsley Limited that operated as a business empire for him. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #271) Kingsley International originally started as a company that worked in the fashion and cosmetic market but expanded into publishing, electronics and other fields. (Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives v1 #2) It was also known as the Kingsley Investment Group that was managed by both Roderick and Daniel Kingsley. (Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives v1 #3) He later established a business model that sought to sell supervillain franchises to people. This involved himself operating in the identities of various deceased supervillain that were shown as a brand with this being sold to criminals that took over the mantle. After taking over mask, these new supervillains then sent a percentage of their profits to Kingsley who made such operations global with it operating in various countries. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #697)
Notes
- Roderick Kingsley was created by Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr. where he first appeared in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man v1 #43 (June, 1980) before appearing as Hobgoblin in The Amazing Spider-Man v1 #238 (March, 1983).
- As Hobgoblin, the character was based on the Green Goblin who was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
Alternate Versions
In other media
Television
Video games
Toys
Appearances
- Amazing Spider-Man v1:
External Links
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