One of my favorite aspects of Spider-Man are the mystery villains - you know, the bad guys whose true identities get teased for months (or years!) until we finally find out that it was [insert supporting character here] all along! I love that stuff. And you probably all love it too. So I ask you - of the mystery villains, who's the best?
Who is the Green Goblin, Part 1? (Amazing Spider-Man #14-Amazing Spider-Man #39) - The ghastly Green Goblin is secretly Norman Osborn, billionaire industrialist and father of Peter's friend Harry!
Who is the Jackal? (Amazing Spider-Man #129-149) - The vengeful Jackal is secretly Professor Miles Warren, Peter's favorite teacher!
Who is the Green Goblin, Part 2? (Amazing Spider-Man #175-180) - The third man to don the Green Goblin's mantle is secretly Dr. Bart Hamilton, Harry Osborn's psychiatrist!
Who is the Hobgoblin? (Amazing Spider-Man 238-Amazing Spider-Man 289...and then Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives #1-3) - The hellacious Hobgoblin is secretly Ned Leeds, star Bugle reporter and husband of Peter's first love Betty Brant...except he's actually Roderick Kingsley, crooked fashion designer!
Who is the Rose, Part 1? (Amazing Spider-Man #253-Web of Spider-Man #29) - Masked crimelord the Rose is secretly Richard Fisk, son of the Kingpin!
Who is Gaunt/Who is the Clone Saga Mastermind (Amazing Spider-Man #410-Peter Parker: Spider-Man #75) - The living corpse known as Gaunt and his mysterious master are secretly Mendel Stromm the Robot Master, and Norman Osborn!
Who is the Rose, Part 2? (Amazing Spider-Man #414-436) - Masked crimelord the Rose is secretly Jacob Conover, disgruntled ex-Bugle columnist!
Who is the Green Goblin, Part 3? (Peter Parker: Spider-Man #88-Peter Parker: Spider-Man v2 #18) - The fifth man to don the Green Goblin's mantle is secretly...a nameless, faceless "genetic construct"? Yeesh.
Who is Menace? (Amazing Spider-Man #546-586) - The maniacal Menace is secretly Lily Hollister, Harry Osborn's socialite fiancee!
Other: First guy to say FACADE gets slapped in the face with a dead carp.
View Poll Results: Best mystery villain?
- Voters
- 22. You may not vote on this poll
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Green Goblin (Norman Osborn)
2 9.09% -
Jackal
1 4.55% -
Green Goblin (Bart Hamilton)
0 0% -
Hobgoblin
14 63.64% -
Rose (Richard Fisk)
0 0% -
Gaunt/Clone Saga Mastermind
0 0% -
Rose (Jacob Conover)
0 0% -
Green Goblin (construct)
0 0% -
Menace
3 13.64% -
Other
2 9.09%
Results 1 to 14 of 14
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06-29-2018, 01:29 PM #1A Green Unpleasant Man
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Who's the Best Spider-Man Mystery Villain?
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06-29-2018, 01:32 PM #2World's Greatest Hero
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Either the first Green Goblin mystery or the Hobgoblin mystery IMO, but so far I'm leaning towards the latter.
"Anyone can win a fight when the odds are easy! It's when the going's tough - when there seems to be no chance - that's when it counts!" - Spider-Man
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06-29-2018, 03:19 PM #3The Superior One
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The original Hobgoblin was the best mystery villain of all time IMO.
"So you've come to the end now alive but dead inside."
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06-29-2018, 06:13 PM #4Moderator
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How the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon handled the Green Goblin mystery.
I mean, they managed to somehow make Norman Osborn being the Green Goblin still a surprise in this day-and-age, which I think is pretty impressive.
If we're just strictly limited to comics, I'd probably go for the Hobgoblin mystery if only because of how involved and convoluted it ended up being.
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06-29-2018, 06:54 PM #5Fantastic Member
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I'm voting for Facade cause their identity is STILL secret!
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06-29-2018, 07:12 PM #6Ultimate Member
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I really liked the early Lee/Ditko run with the Green Goblin and the Crime Master fighting over control of the gangs. They would be my vote for best mystery villains (although I think that Norman Osborn being the Goblin has become such a part of pop culture that he's lost his edge here a bit).
Doctor Strange: "You are the right person to replace Logan."
X-23: "I know there are people who disapprove... Guys on the Internet mainly."
(All-New Wolverine #4)
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06-29-2018, 07:42 PM #7Astonishing Member
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Oh god yes, that ending still blows my mind, they got all of us! Also that reveal ended up being incredibly dark too, which I love.
Originally Posted by Frontier
In terms of comics, I wouldn't say its the best, because like people have mentioned Green Goblin and Hobgoblin were overall better, but I do have to give credit to Menace, even going into the story knowing she was Lily the whole time, I thought it was a very well executed mystery.
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06-29-2018, 10:25 PM #8Incredible Member
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Where is Crime Master?
Yes, it took only two months before he was revealed as Nick Lucky Lewis Jr, not even Spidey knew him, and he was only more stretched out in Untold Tales of Spider-Man decades later, but he should of been more of a notable name of notability, not to mention the Green Goblin / Crime Master dynamic was the original Hobgoblin / Rose dynamic, than under "Other".
And, what about Black Tarantula? Yeah, maybe no one bothered asking "Who Is He?" back in 1997 - 1998, as Carlos LaMuerto's first appearance as Carlos LaMeurto was on the very same issue they gave Black Tarantula a name, but for that period of time in Amazing Spider-Man, he did kicked all kinds of awesome at seemingly unstoppably beating Spider-Man to defeat, twice, including the removal of the hero's mask, to display for a trophy in front of the crime lords - perhaps we just simply accepted him as shadowy, mysterious, and awesome.Last edited by ngroove; 06-29-2018 at 10:36 PM.
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06-30-2018, 06:59 AM #9Ultimate Member
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Norman Osborn narrowly beats out the original Hobgoblin, mainly due to the quality of the reveal (it wasn't until Slott's run years after Hobgoblin Lives that anyone came up with a new approach for the Hobgoblin that worked when the mystery was done.)
Bart Hamilton wasn't really a mystery as much as a twist since the story was meant to make it look like he was Harry. It's a bit like the Sin-Eater saga where the Sin-Eater seemed to be a nutcase who kept hearing voices.Sincerely,
Thomas Mets
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06-30-2018, 07:03 AM #10BANNED
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Crime Master (you never saw his face even in the reveal issue)
Even though it was a done-in-one, the mystery about the Big Man was also a favorite of mine, with Peter being so sure it was Jameson and then it's revealed to be Frederick Foswell
For the sake of the poll though, I'll go with Hobgoblin.
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06-30-2018, 08:02 AM #11Master of Magnetism
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Facade
10char
Seriously, the Hobgoblin by far.
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06-30-2018, 08:53 AM #12Amazing Member
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Hobgoblin easily...ah the memories reading issues with him in it as a youth!!
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06-30-2018, 05:02 PM #13Astonishing Member
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I voted Hobgoblin.
The mistery of who was Hobgoblin through many Spider-Man stories was great,just the speculation of who could be in the letters section was quite funny to read as well.
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07-01-2018, 08:32 AM #14Ultimate Member
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I liked Lily, simply because they went the route of having her goblin transformation make her Hulk-out.
As for Carlos, the comics never made a point of having you CARE who he was outside his identity as the Black Tarantula. In Lily's case, Pete actually tried to publicly unmask her. But her Goblin transformation changes her face instead of her wearing a mask. So he ended up yanking on her horns until she yelled ouch, then she ran away.
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