Ned Leeds

• 1. Introduction

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  Ned Leeds is a Daily Bugle reporter in Marvel Comics, and the husband of Betty Brant. In 1987, readers learned that he had secretly been the supervillain Hobgoblin. By then he was already dead. That order of events shaped everything that followed, because the accused could no longer speak for himself.

  Over the years, writers reopened the case. They made him a scapegoat, a sorcerer's apprentice, a clone, and a man who cheated death. Who decided his fate in the first place? Was he ever really a villain? And how did a supporting character in Spider-Man's world end up on the big screen?

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• 2. Debut and Rivalry

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  The Amazing Spider-Man #18, dated November 1964, gave Ned Leeds his first appearance, and it did not even give him a name. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created him as an unnamed employee at the Daily Bugle. In the following issue, Betty Brant introduced him to Peter Parker as Ned Leeds.

  Betty, the Bugle's secretary, became the prize in a contest between the two men. Peter eventually dropped out. He had realized that Betty would never be able to accept Spider-Man's double identity.

  Ned won her outright when Betty went into stress-induced shock. The trigger was an attack on J. Jonah Jameson at the Bugle by the Scorpion. Ned and Betty married shortly afterward. The marriage was often strained, and it eventually became abusive.

  In 1987, the editor of the Spider-Man books chose an ending for Ned that his regular writers had never been told about.

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• 3. Killed Without Warning

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  Spider-Man vs. Wolverine, a one-shot comic dated February 1987, carried the story of Ned Leeds's death. Jim Owsley, then the editor of the Spider-Man books, wrote it. Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, and Peter David worked on the ongoing Spider-Man series, and all three objected. They said Owsley gave them no warning that he would kill Leeds, who was a regular cast member in their titles.

  Ron Frenz described how it felt. He said, "We had no heads up until Spider-Man vs. Wolverine came out that Ned Leeds was killed in that story." He added, "I can't speak to why he did it, but I can speak to the way he did it. He kept it a big secret until we felt screwed."

  The Amazing Spider-Man #289 is where the Hobgoblin's identity was pinned on the dead man. A decade later, other writers revisited the evidence, and in 1997 they delivered a very different verdict.

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• 4. The Scapegoat Plan

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  In the version of events established in 1997, the original Hobgoblin was Roderick Kingsley, and Ned Leeds was a decoy. It began when Spider-Man fought the Hobgoblin and Ned followed the villain to a hideout. The Hobgoblin noticed him, captured him, and brainwashed him to serve as a scapegoat in case of unmasking.

  Richard Fisk entered the picture because Ned wanted to learn about the Kingpin. Ned found that Richard hated the Kingpin, and he helped build Richard's secret identity as the Rose. The Hobgoblin then manipulated Ned into helping remove the Kingpin from the scene.

  The brainwashing was regular, and it wrecked Ned's marriage and his professional relationships. Increasingly unstable, he drove Betty to seek comfort from Flash Thompson. Flash made statements about the Hobgoblin, and events were staged so that Flash looked like the masked villain. Meanwhile Ned and Richard disagreed, and Ned decided to hand the Rose over to the Kingpin. With that done, Ned was no longer needed as the Hobgoblin.

  After Flash was cleared, the New York underworld learned that Ned was the Hobgoblin and that he would soon travel to Berlin. Ned and Peter went there on an assignment. The Foreigner murdered Ned at the request of Jason Macendale, a replacement Hobgoblin.

  The Kingpin, through the Foreigner, obtained photos of Ned in the Hobgoblin costume. He showed them to Spider-Man, hoping to send him after the Foreigner. Years later, Peter reflected on Ned's death and concluded that Ned must have been framed. The Foreigner's operatives had no superhuman powers, and they could never have beaten the real Hobgoblin.

  Around then, the original Hobgoblin returned to eliminate Macendale. Spider-Man and Betty then provoked Roderick Kingsley into confessing on tape that he had framed Ned. A confession settled the question of guilt. It did not settle whether Ned Leeds was truly gone.

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• 5. Sorcery and Resurrection

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  Baron Mordo took Ned Leeds as a sorcerer's apprentice in Symbiote Spider-Man: Alien Reality, a story set before Ned's death. While Ned served as the Hobgoblin, Mordo trained him in chaos magic, the art of altering reality. Ned helped Mordo reshape reality so that Mordo became Sorcerer Supreme. In doing so, Ned also made himself Spider-Man's main archenemy.

  The Sanctum Sanctorum was the battlefield. Ned lured Spider-Man there and killed Aunt May in front of Peter's newly resurrected uncle. Swearing revenge, Peter retreated into his own body, and Venom took over his functions. Venom trained for years in a pocket dimension with Doctor Strange. He then beat the Hobgoblin to a pulp while Ned's girlfriend, the Red Cat, fled. Venom travelled into the realm of Nightmare to restore reality, and both Peter and Ned lost their memories of the alien reality.

  In the storyline "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy," Ben Reilly, posing as the Jackal, created a clone of Ned. The clone appeared in Haven, a facility run by New U Technologies. He survived the end of the event and disguised himself as a hobo to keep watching over Betty. She still cared for Ned, and the clone felt proud of her accomplishments. He later died during a fight between Spider-Man, Rhino, Taskmaster, and Black Ant. As he died, he tried to warn Spider-Man about something threatening Betty's near future. That danger was the real Ned Leeds, apparently revived.

  The explanation was that Ned had been alive all along. He had swallowed Norman Osborn's Goblin Formula beforehand, and his body revived immediately after his assassination. He spent years in hiding, stalking Betty, before revealing himself and persuading her to let him back into her life. They got back together and eventually had a child.

  The Queen Goblin was the next to claim him. In "The Hobgoblins' Last Stand," she turned both Ned and Kingsley into Hobgoblins again to serve as her enforcers. The storyline ran from 2018 to 2022.

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• 6. Powers and Gear

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  A Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism was the foundation of Ned Leeds's abilities. He was a master of deductive reasoning and investigation. He was otherwise a normal man who exercised regularly, and his training grew more intensive after he took on the Hobgoblin role.

  The signature uniform came with a glider and a kit of weapons. These included Jack O'Lantern bombs, razor bats, and electrical shock gloves. None of that gave him a healing factor or superhuman strength.

  The Goblin Formula changed that. After he ingested it, Ned developed superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, and stamina. He also gained a low-level rapid healing factor, which let him survive otherwise fatal gunshot wounds.

  Other universes imagine him with none of this gear at all.

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• 7. Alternate Versions

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  Ultimate Spider-Man #121 introduced a variant of Ned Leeds from Earth-1610. This version is an alcoholic Daily Bugle reporter with an antagonistic relationship with Betty Brant. In Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, a teenage variant is Betty's boyfriend, and he previously dated Mary Jane Watson.

  Bob Bergen voices Ned in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, where he is a reporter for the Daily Bugle. The Spectacular Spider-Man takes a different path with a character based on him named Ned Lee. Andrew Kishino voices this Korean-American reporter, who is convinced he can uncover Spider-Man's secret identity and that the Green Goblin is connected. He also shows an attraction to his co-worker Betty Brant. Mostly he makes minor appearances, chasing leads on Spider-Man's identity. His most notable moment comes when he determines that the hero cannot be Peter Parker, after Venom tried unsuccessfully to out the hero's identity.

  The Amazing Spider-Man and Captain America in Dr. Doom's Revenge! is a video game that features Ned as the Hobgoblin.

  Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, released in 2023, has the quietest version of all. A variant from Earth-65 makes a minor non-speaking appearance as one of Peter Parker's bullies.

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• 8. The Guy in the Chair

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  Jacob Batalon portrays Ned Leeds in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017. This Ned is Filipino-American and Peter Parker's best friend, and he is partially inspired by Ganke Lee. At first he does not know Peter is Spider-Man.

  In Homecoming, Ned attends the Midtown School of Science and Technology with Peter and belongs to the Academic Decathlon team. After discovering Peter's secret, he supports him as his self-proclaimed "guy in the chair." Together they work to find and defeat the Vulture, who aims to sell high-tech hybrid weapons to the criminal underworld.

  Avengers: Infinity War, in 2018, gives Ned a cameo. He distracts their classmates so Peter can slip away and help the Avengers. In Avengers: Endgame, in 2019, he shares an emotional reunion with Peter after both are resurrected from the Blip.

  Spider-Man: Far From Home, also in 2019, takes Ned on a school field trip to Europe. He claims to be a single bachelor, then becomes romantically involved with classmate Betty Brant. All the while he supports Peter's feelings for MJ. When the Elemental Crisis cuts the trip short, Ned covers for Peter while Peter investigates and fights Mysterio. Ned later learns that MJ has also discovered Peter's secret. He, MJ, Happy Hogan, Betty, and Flash Thompson team up to escape Stark Industries Combat Drones sent by Mysterio, until Spider-Man saves them. After the trip, Ned and Betty break up mutually and remain friends.

  In Spider-Man: No Way Home, in 2021, Ned, Peter, and MJ struggle to apply to colleges after Mysterio publicly exposes Peter's identity. Peter asks Doctor Strange to make everyone forget. The spell backfires and pulls in supervillains who fought Spider-Man across the multiverse. Strange tasks Peter, Ned, and MJ with capturing them, but Peter traps Strange in the Mirror Dimension while trying to reform the villains.

  Ned and MJ use Strange's Sling Ring to find Peter. They meet two alternate universe variants of Peter, whom they nickname "Peter-Two" and "Peter-Three." Once the three Spider-Men defeat and cure the villains, Strange returns the displaced individuals home. Peter then asks him to erase all memory of Peter from everyone in the universe. As a result, Ned forgets his friendship with Peter and Spider-Man's secret identity.

  The web series The Daily Bugle also appeared in 2021 with Batalon's Ned. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in 2026, is the next film in which he is set to return.

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