sometimes impersonate him, sealing the deception by having the Hobgoblin appear in the same room as Kingsley in The Amazing Spider-Man #249. Stern's original plan was to have the mystery of the Hobgoblin's identity run exactly one issue longer than that of the Green Goblin's identity, meaning the truth would be revealed in The Amazing Spider-Man #264. However, Stern left the series after The Amazing Spider-Man #252, and his successors felt Kingsley was a weak choice for the Hobgoblin's true identity. Thus, the Hobgoblin was ultimately unmasked as Ned Leeds in The Amazing Spider-Man #289 (after considerable creative struggle over the issue), and Jason Macendale took over as the Hobgoblin. Stern was unhappy with the revelation that the Hobgoblin's civilian identity was Leeds and wrote the three-issue miniseries Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives in 1997, with the retcon that Kingsley was the original Hobgoblin and had brainwashed Leeds as a fall guy. Stern followed up the miniseries with the Spider-Man storyline "Goblins at the Gate", which resulted in Kingsley and Norman Osborn being bitter rivals obsessed with each other's destruction over the Goblin legacy, although Leeds would later be retconned further by a different writer to have also been a willing Hobgoblin. Fictional character biography Roderick Kingsley started out as a socialite, fashion designer and billionaire who had criminal underworld connections and had come about his wealth through unethical business practices and corporate raiding. Coincidentally, Kingsley was an employer of Mary Jane Watson for a time. As a means of avoiding the drill of day-to-day appearances, he had his timid identical twin brother Daniel Kingsley pose as him to run his corporation. Kingsley's activities gave him many enemies, one of which was Bella Donna (Narda Ravanna), a rival fashion designer whose business he had ruined and attempted revenge on Kingsley but is twice thwarted by Spider-Man. After these incidents, Kingsley seeks to protect himself and his empire by gaining more power. The thug George Hill reports to Kingsley of stumbling upon Norman Osborn's secret lair in hopes of earning a reward. Kingsley instead kills Hill to make sure that no one else gets wind of the discovery. Upon examining the lair and gleaning its secrets, Kingsley decides to use the Goblin equipment. Arriving to the conclusion that all the previous Green Goblin mantle wearers went mad, he instead creates a similar but different mantle: the Hobgoblin identity. Soon afterwards, he encounters Spider-Man.