Amazing Spider-Man #12 pits Peter Parker against the Hobgoblin once again - but which one?
Amazing Spider-Man #11 implied that it's Ned Leeds, who was once framed as the Hobgoblin, with Ned putting on the costume while apparently slipping into a dangerous Hobgoblin person.
Now, we've got a look ahead at Amazing Spider-Man #12 from writer Zeb Wells and artists John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna, Marcio Manyz, and letterer Joe Caramagna which follows up on the previous issue's cliffhanger.
The preview shows Peter's old pal Ned Leeds apparently descending into his previous Hobgoblin persona - a second personality that was implanted in Leeds' mind via a brainwashing technique called the 'Winkler method,' which is namechecked in the pages.
Ned has been putting on his old Hobgoblin costume, and his wife Betty Brant is concerned that he's in trouble, so she asks Peter to check up on him - leading to a much more complicated conversation than even anticipated.
Check out the pages right here:
Though Ned was never consciously the Hobgoblin, he did slip into the Hobgoblin persona a few times as part of his brainwashing, which was engineered by the actual original Hobgoblin, Roderick Kingsley.
Kingsley framed Leeds as the original Hobgoblin back when the character first appeared in the '80s, leading to Ned's apparent death and later rebirth, though the mystery of who is under the Hobgoblin mask has stuck with the character nearly every time he's reared his orange-hooded head since.
In fact, along with mentioning both Ned's brainwashing and Kingsley and giving readers a bit of explanation for Ned's recent return to Amazing Spider-Man, the pages also set up a new mystery around the Hobgoblin, implying Ned may not be the only person running around as the Hobgoblin right now.
Amazing Spider-Man #12 goes on sale October 26.
Keep up with all the new Spider-Man comics planned for release in 2022 and beyond.
