The Hobgoblin III
First appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #18 (as Ned Leeds); Marvel Team-Up #138 (as Hobgoblin III)

A charming, handsome field reporter for the Daily Bugle, Ned Leeds first entered the life of Peter Parker as both a rival at the Bugle and one for the affections of the comely Betty Brant. Betty, who was Peter's first love, fell for the dashing Ned, who despite his traveling on assignments and brief courtship, nonetheless proposed to Betty. Betty, who was J. Jonah Jameson's secretary, eventually left her position and became Robbie Robertson's secretary, and Ned became the Bugle's city editor. It was due to the hectic nature of their jobs that their engagment stood a long while, until they were finally wed. A blissful marriage soon began, though things would take a turn for the worse when Ned became an unwilling ally to one of Spider-Man's greatest foes.

Following an epic battle between Spider-Man and the Hobgoblin, the Hobgoblin's battle van was launched into the Hudson river and it seemed that Spidey's enemy had finally been defeated. The Hobgoblin surived though and returned to one of his hidden lairs, all the while being followed by investigative reporter Ned Leeds. Ned followed the Hobgoblin into his hideout to try to get a closer look at his face to learn his true identity, but the Hobgoblin got the jump on Ned and subjected him to a bio-electric brainwashing device. At first the Hobgoblin used his control over Ned to get files for him from the Daily Bugle, but soon began using Ned as a stand-in for himself, making Ned the third man to don the garb of the Hobgoblin. The original Hobgoblin sent Ned to form an allience with Ned's old friend Richard Fisk, who, believing the Hobgoblin to Ned Leeds, formed a partnership with him. However, the treatments from the Winkler brainwashing devices had an ill effect on Ned, making him irrational and angry towards his friends and Betty, who began to feel more and more distanced from her husband.

As Ned began to fall more and more towards anger as a side effect of the treatments, Betty found solice with her old friend Flash Thompson and the two struck up a shortlived romantic liason behind Ned's back. Meanwhile, Thompson himself spoke out against the Hobgoblin on national television and was eventually used by the Hobgoblin himself, drugged and placed in a Hobgoblin suit. Thompson was arrested and the book on the Hobgoblin was closed. In fact the belief that the true Hobgoblin had been caught, went so far as to draw the criminal killing vigilante, the Scourge out, and he unsuccessfully tried to gun Thompson down. Meanwhile, Ned's irrational behavior began to extend towards his actions as the Hobgoblin, and the original Hobgoblin found himself arranging meetings for Ned to pursue his journalistic activities in addition to his work as the Hobgoblin. By this point though, Ned had become unhinged, and in a fit of rage he attacked Flash Thompson and tore off his mask in front of Betty, who fell into shock at the sight of Ned being the Hobgoblin.

With his patience drawing short with Leeds and interesting waining with the whole Hobgoblin stand-in debacle, the original Hobgoblin decided to step out of the lime light for a time, and would do so by having Ned unmasked as the Hobgoblin and murdered. The original Hobgoblin leaked out information on Ned's plans to pursue a news story in Berlin to the Foreigner, who sent his men to kill Ned Leeds. By sending a Hobgoblin suit to Ned's hotel room, the brainwashed Ned put on the suit, just as the Foreigner's men arrived. Beating Ned senseless and then sliting his throat, the men left Ned in his hotel room, half dressed in his Hobgoblin suit and strapped to a chair. His body would later be found by Spider-Man, and documentation of his murder provided by the Kingpin, an enemy of the Foreigners.

Ned's death would become public knowledge to the world, though his apparent unmasking as the Hobgoblin would not. In fact the world at large would not even suspect the death of the Hobgoblin since the criminal known as the Jack O' Lantern became the fifth Hobgoblin soon after Leeds' death. Despite their enstangment, Betty would become greatly affected by Ned's death, and for a time went into a deep state of denial, believing that Ned had not died at all. Betty would eventually overcome this and make peace with Ned's soul. Much later, when the fifth Hobgoblin was standing trial for murder charges, he revealed to the world that Ned Leeds was the original Hobgoblin. This revelation would draw the true original Hobgoblin out of hiding, and he would be unmasked as industrialist Roderick Kinglsey. The fifth Hobgoblin was murdered by Kingsley, and Kingsley was arrested for causing Ned's death.

With Ned's name finally cleared, Betty and her friends finally made peace with Ned's memory, and laid the mystery of the Hobgoblin to rest.

Powers and Abilities: Ned Leeds was brainwashed into becoming the Hobgoblin, and during his time under the mask, he was as ruthless as the original Hobgoblin. Leeds had all of the Hobgoblin's tools at his disposal, but did not have the serum inducing Goblin strength.

REFERENCES: Amazing Spider-Man #18-20, Amazing Spider-Man #29-32, Amazing Spider-Man #38-43, Amazing Spider-Man #45, Amazing Spider-Man #47, Amazing Spider-Man #51-52, Amazing Spider-Man #55, Amazing Spider-Man #58, Amazing Spider-Man #64, Amazing Spider-Man #66-67, Amazing Spider-Man #70-71, Amazing Spider-Man Annual '96, Amazing Spider-Man #113, Amazing Spider-Man #115, Amazing Spider-Man #119, Amazing Spider-Man #128, Amazing Spider-Man #130-133, Marvel Team-Up #27, Amazing Spider-Man #140-142, Amazing Spider-Man #145, Amazing Spider-Man #147-149, Amazing Spider-Man #151, Amazing Spider-Man #153, Amazing Spider-Man #156, Amazing Spider-Man #193-195, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #2, Amazing Spider-Man #231-235, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #17, Marvel Team-Up #138, Spectacular Spider-Man #103, Amazing Spider-Man #268, Amazing Spider-Man #271, Spectacular Spider-Man 110, Secret Wars II #7, Amazing Spider-Man #273, Amazing Spider-Man #275-276, Amazing Spider-Man #278, Amazing Spider-Man #280, Spectacular Spider-Man #130, Web of Spider-Man #24, Amazing Spider-Man #284-286, Power Pack #29, Amazing Spider-Man #287-289, Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1, Web of Spider-Man #29-30, Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives #1-3

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