Ned Leeds
Ned Leeds was a Daily Bugle reporter whom Roderick Kingsley brainwashed into becoming the Hobgoblin until his eventual demise.
Name:
Ned Leeds
Publisher:
Real name:
Edward "Ned" Leeds
Aliases:
- Hobgoblin
- Ned Leeds
- Edward Leeds
Birth date:
None
Gender:
Male
Powers:
- Intellect
- Tracking
- Unarmed Combat
First issue:
Origin
Ned Leeds was a reporter for the Daily Bugle. He had a relationship with Betty Brant; but worked abroad. When he came back in New York; he forced Betty to decide between him and revil photographer Peter Parker (Spider-Man). While Betty had a relationship with Peter at the time, she decided to choose Ned because Peter had too many secrets. For Peter this meant that, once again, his Spider-Man alter-ego had destroyed a relationship for him.
Creation
Ned Leeds was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #18 (1964).
Mayor Story Arcs
The Hobgoblin
Ned and Betty dated for a few years and the two got along great. Ned eventually even proposed to Betty. She accepted and the two where married not soon after. Ned seemed to have it all, being married to Betty and even a promotion at his work with the Daily Bugle. This promotion however did mean that Ned would be working more in the office now and not on the streets as a journalist. The walls of the office however did not contain Ned for long, as he was still a reporter from the inside. One day, after a battle between Spider-Man and Hobgoblin, Ned followed the defeated Hobgoblin to his secret haunt and learned the Hobgoblin's secret identity, namely Roderick Kingsley. Kingsley however found Ned while he was in his secret base and he captured Ned. He however did not kil him. Roderick Kingsley decided to hypnotise Ned in order to use him as a Hobgoblin 'double' for the jobs that Kingsley himself found uninteresting or too dangerous.
For instance, Ned (disguised as Hobgoblin) worked with Richard Fisk in order to obtain information about Richard's father, the Kingpin. This in hope of bringing the Kingpin down and become the crimelord of New York City himself. The hypnotic sessions that Kingsley had given Ned however started causing brain damage and soon affected Ned’s sanity. He became more violent towards his wife Betty, witch caused her to flee into the arms of Flash Thompson. Further affects of his loosing sanity was that Ned, as the Hobgoblin, told the Kingpin everything about Richard Fisk and his intentsions with his father.
Death
Roderick Kingsley, upset, decided to eliminate Ned. He succeeded to persuade mafia that Ned Leeds was Hobgoblin. Jason Macendale ( Jack O'Lantern), who wanted to take his revenge against Hobgoblin, rented Foreigner services in order to kill Ned. Ned Leeds was eventually killed by Foreigner’s agents when he was on a job in Germany. At first it was thought Ned had become a victim of his own journalistic peace, diging in places where he should not have. Everybody thought for years that Ned had been the real Hobgoblin. Only years later, it turned out that Roderick Kingsley was the evil man behind the mask and the one whom had destroyed Ned's life. Betty finally cleared Ned's name with the help of Spider-man and Ned was restored as being the good man and photographer he once was.
Other Media
Spider-man (2002)
When Jonah makes his first appearance in the film he's arguing with Joseph Robertson about the few pictures of Spider-man. Robertson replies the "Eddie" has been a week searching for him. This could refer to Leeds or to Eddie Brock.
