Fifty years ago…
The two men that sat down in the cramped offices of 635 Madison Ave to discuss that week’s work had no idea they were about to create one of the most colorful and enigmatic villains of the 20th century. This new creation (probably the third they’d come up with that week, and it was only Tuesday) was imperfect, as all great villains must be. Born of conflict, driven by self-preservation, a desperate businessman would transform himself into a criminal mastermind, losing all he held dear in the process. Making his debut in issue #14 of the company’s most talked-about comic, this new villain would be the hero’s better in every way: stronger, faster, with unlimited resources, and a willingness to kill any who stood in his path. He knew our hero’s weakness and quickly learned his greatest secret. Readers would soon discover his true identity, but to Spider-Man he’d forever be:
From the beginning, Green Goblin was a different sort of villain. He held himself above Spider-Man’s more common foes: in spite of his enhanced strength, he wasn’t a brawler, only dirtying his hands when it was necessary. Unlike ornery octogenarians Vulture and Doctor Octopus, the Goblin didn’t have some generation-gap hate-on for Peter Parker; the web-slinger was merely in his way. Oh, sure, it got personal later (“SNAP!”), but in the beginning Goblin was just a guy who wanted control of New York’s criminal underworld.
Hands up, who would buy an Enforcers three-pack? Okay, now everybody wave to MSWord.
Creative differences led to Steve Ditko leaving Marvel and his best-known creation with Amazing Spider-Man #38. As if to signal the change, the very next issue revealed the Green Goblin’s identity to be well-known New York businessman Norman Osborn. The fact that Norman was Peter’s best friend’s father suddenly made the conflict personal, and before you knew it stuff like this was happening:
Yeah, uh, maybe you’d better get your pen ready, MJ — just in case. At any rate, Osborn got a little too crazy this one time, killed a couple people close to Spider-Man and ended up impaled on a Goblin Glider for his troubles. Oh, sure, he got better — but we’ll get to that. That bottom line is, from the summer of 1973 on, Spider-Man’s most recognizable foe was suddenly out of circulation — and would be for decades to come. Still, the Green Goblin would not go away.
With Osborn’s demise, Doctor Octopus became Spider-Man’s top nemesis. Yet in spite of Doc’s high profile (one month he nearly married dear old Aunt May!), it was the Green Goblin who was on Mego’s radar. Perhaps Doc Ock’s extra arms made his inclusion in the line cost-prohibitive, or maybe the toy designers simply preferred the Goblin’s design. Whatever the case, Green Goblin was issued in 1975, finally giving Spidey someone of his own to fight.
1975 saw Mego firing on all cylinders, and the company brought its A-game when it tackled the Goblin. The figure featured a vivid green screen-printed costume, eye-popping paintwork, and one of the most impressive head sculpts in the line’s history. From his curled booties to the tip of his peaked cap, the Goblin was Mego at its absolute best. But they weren’t done yet.
Mego used the Goblin again in its smaller Comic Action Heroes and Pocket Hero lines. Goblin was even singled out to have his own vehicle, the Mangler. Unlike Mego’s Spider-Car, the Mangler never actually appeared in the comics, which is too bad. Based on that box art, it would have been pretty epic:
Tankenstein here was designed to “mangle” your 3.75-inch Mego Super Heroes — in this case, mangle meant “enclose them in its dumpster-like jaws and then spit out a piece of cardboard out of its ass with the hero’s likeness on it.” Well, the Green Goblin’s likeness, anyway — I don’t think Mego ever made any other cards for it.
Even at 10 I knew something was wrong when Remco began advertising their Energized Marvel heroes.They looked like cheap plastic junk, and they were — it was quite a step down from Marvel product of just a few years before. The future looked grim for action figures, but in 1984 Mattel produced its Secret Wars line.
After more than a decade, Marvel decided it needed a new Goblin. Instead of exhuming Osborn, they had a new mysterious criminal mastermind using the Goblin’s gear and powers. The Hobogoblin first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #239 but didn’t appear in the Secret Wars comic, making his inclusion in the toy line puzzling. Guess he had a good agent. Also, Hobby is the spitting image of William DaFoe, which is funny when you think about it.
Green Goblin finally made it back to toy aisles with his inclusion in ToyBiz’s popular Marvel Super Heroes line. Gone were the days of hand-stitched suits and fluid articulation; these new figures were stiff and badly painted, but they offered something older toys did not: availability. ToyBiz saw to it that these figures were cheap and plentiful, which made collecting them hard to resist.
Marvel Super Heroes spawned Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which begat Spider Wars, which begat Techno Wars, which begat Vampire Wars… other than the obligatory figure in the Animated line, Goblin sat them all out. Or was he benched? Did the line’s targeted buyers (children) simply prefer Hobgoblin over his Green sire? Or had the Goblin’s absence from comics finally impacted his status as Spider-Man’s #1 villain?
Once ToyBiz settled on the 6-inch scale for their ongoing lines of action figures, the company focused heavily on the various Goblins, Green and otherwise. The larger scale allowed for more detailed sculpts and increased articulation, bringing a whole new level of comic accuracy to the process. When the Marvel license moved to Hasbro we saw even more Goblins, both movie-themed and otherwise. But what about old Norman himself?
In 1996 Marvel Comics finally brought Norman Osborn back from the dead, but he’d soon hang up his scaly tights for a shiny new suit of armor. While his role as the Iron Patriot allowed Marvel to tell some interesting stories, his return, in a sense, lessens his legacy. Osborn died at the climax of one of the most memorable Spider-Man stories of all time, and having him schlep around today’s MU just feels cheap. But it could be worse:
It can always be worse.
Enjoy this article? Discuss on the Fwoosh forums!
Jason R Mink is the Man in the Anthill
