Fashion designer, Roderick Kingsley used questionable and ruthless business practices to develop a financial empire that reached far beyond the fashion industry. Unsatisfied with conventional methods of doing business, he search for the hideout of the Green Goblin, who was believed dead, to procure his equipment and strength enhancing formula. Knowing of the formulas effect on Norman Osborn, Kingsley modified it hoping to avoid the side effect of insanity, although all indications are that he failed, and he became the cackling criminal know as Hobgoblin.
Mercenary Jason Macendale began his career in the Marines and later the CIA, but defected to a foreign military power, an act which resulted in his American citizenship being revoked.
Wanting notoriety as a mercenary, he assumed the identity of the costumed criminal Jack O'Lantern and attacked the android Machine Man. His exploits brought him to the attention of Wilson Fisk's (Kingpin) right hand man the Arranger, who hired him as the Kingpin's principle enforcer.
Jack O'Lantern was partnered with another costumed criminal, Hobgoblin, by the Arranger, and the Hobgoblin's partner the Rose to overthrow the Kingpin and control the crime families of New York.
Under fire from the police, Hobgoblin spotted his enemy Spider-Man and demanded Jack O'Lantern assist him in killing the hero. Jack O'Lantern not liking the odds of an altercation with both the police and Spider-Man practiced discretion and fled, an act of betrayal which prompted Hobgoblin to attempt an assassination against Jack O'Lantern.
Believing he knew Hobgoblin's true identity, Daily Bugle reporter Ned Leeds, Jack O'Lantern hired the assassin known only as the Foreigner to kill the reporter while on assignment in Berlin. The Foreigner retrieved Leeds' Hobgoblin equipment and Macendale became the new Hobgoblin.
In actuality Leeds was being controlled by the actual Hobgoblin, Roderick Kingsley, who had retired from taking a direct hand in criminal activity.
During an invasion of Earth by the forces of Limbo, known as Inferno, Macendale would attempt make a deal with the demon N'astirh to sell his soul for demonic powers. The demon would refuse his soul but instead transformed him for his amusement by having a demon possess his body, granting him super-human powers but twisting his visage into demonic form, making him a Demo-Goblin.
Macendale would later be free of the demon, but not one to learn his lesson, would return once again after cybernetic enhancements as the Cyber-Goblin.
Recently, Kingsley excepted a job from the Kingpin and found a cache of Goblin Weapons that Osborn recently created. Phil Urich happened upon this cache years ago as the fourth Green Goblin. His mind snapped, Urich killed Kingsley and took on the mantle of the Hobgoblin.
Current Version:
The Hobgoblin (Roderick Kingsley)
Former Versions:
The Hobgoblin (Ned Leeds)
The Hobgoblin (Jason Macendale Jr.)
Demogoblin
The Hobgoblin (Phil Urich)
