Jason Macendale

Jason Macendale, Jr.

Panel from Web of Spider-Man #93 (October 1993). Pencils by Alex Saviuk.
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance As Jack O'Lantern
Machine Man #19 (February 1981)
As Hobgoblin
The Amazing Spider-Man #289 (June 1987)
Created by Tom DeFalco
Steve Ditko
In-story information
Alter ego Jason Philip Macendale, Jr.
Team affiliations Sinister Six
Partnerships Gaunt
Notable aliases Jack O'Lantern, Hobgoblin
Abilities Highly trained hand to hand combatant, martial artist and spy
Expert mechanical engineer and physicists
Superhuman physical abilities due to Kraven's formula and cybernetic implants
Use of various goblin-themed weapons and paraphernalia
(When possessed by demon):
Superhuman strength, speed and agility
Hellfire powers
Ability to create organic fibers

Jason Philip Macendale, Jr. is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Publication history

The character first appears in Machine Man #19 (Feb 1981), created by writer Tom DeFalco and artist Steve Ditko. In The Amazing Spider-Man #289 (June 1987) he switches identities from Jack O'Lantern to the Hobgoblin.

The character was killed off in Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives #1 in order to make room for Roderick Kingsley to assume the Hobgoblin mantle. Writer Roger Stern recounted that he was initially uncertain of how to resolve the situation of there being two Hobgoblins:

When I was preparing to revisit the Hobgoblin, I went over the story that Howard [Mackie] and JR had done in Spider-Man #68, which was still fairly recent at the time, and I said to the editors, “Wow, they did all this work to revamp the second Hobgoblin—what do you want me to do? I can have Macendale beat my guy [Kingsley], anything you want, because you just went to all this trouble.” I heard back and was told that I could open my story by having my guy kill Macendale. That left things pretty open![emphasis in original][1]

Fictional character biography

Jason Philip Macendale was a former CIA agent who was recruited out of college to become an agent for the organization. Macendale proved to be a liability to the organization, due to his violent nature and amoral personality. This rejection turned Macendale to become a mercenary and ultimately a costumed terrorist, as he adopted the costumed alter ego of Jack O'Lantern.[2]

Jack O'Lantern became a regular nemesis for Spider-Man, meeting him in battle the first time in Spectacular Spider-Man #56. He was later hired to retrieve the Hobgoblin's lost battle van and despite the untimely appearance of Spider-Man, pulled off the mission successfully.[3]

Wishing to increase his underworld status, Macendale formed an alliance with the Hobgoblin, who at this time was using brainwashed journalist Ned Leeds as a proxy. The brainwashing treatments used on Ned Leeds to make him Hobgoblin began to affect his sanity, ultimately leading to him doublecrossing Macendale when the two were fleeing a horde of police officers.[4] Macendale vowed revenge against Ned Leeds, ultimately hiring the Foreigner to have him killed. Upon killing Leeds, all known copies of the Hobgoblin's weapons and costumes were handed over to Macendale, who took over the identity in order to steal Ned's notoriety within the supervillain community.[5]

Macendale's scheme was foiled; he was exposed as the new Hobgoblin, and lost a battle against Spider-Man which was meant to prove his ability.[6] Deciding he needed the original Hobgoblin's powers if he was to match his reputation, Macendale attempted to steal the Green Goblin's secret formula for superhuman strength, resulting in a confrontation between himself and Harry Osborn, the second Green Goblin. Green Goblin overcame the Hobgoblin.[7]

Dejected and humiliated, Macendale offered to sell his soul to N'astirh, a demon leading an invasion of Manhattan, in exchange for the power of a demon. N'astirh fused a demon to Macendale.[8] Enhanced by the demon's power, but horrified to see his once handsome face transformed into a demonic one, Macendale blamed his suffering on Spider-Man and hunted him down for revenge. With his new demonic powers, he defeated Spider-Man easily, but Mary Jane Watson intervened before he could deliver the killing blow.[9]

Macendale put aside his personal enmity for Spider-Man, and used his new demonic powers to become a top contract killer.[10] As an independent mercenary and criminal, Macendale would clash with many other heroes, including Ghost Rider,[11] Sleepwalker, Doctor Strange,[12] and Darkhawk. He would also join two reformed incarnations of the Sinister Six.[13][14]

Eventually, Macendale's personality was overcome by the insane demon who shared his body, and he began to consider himself an agent of God sent to Earth to kill sinners. This led him into conflict with Ghost Riders Danny Ketch and Johnny Blaze and Spider-Man; during the battle, a blast from Johnny Blaze's "Hellfire Shotgun" destabilized the demon within Macendale, long enough for him to briefly regain his sanity.

During a fight between Macendale, Spider-Man, Moon Knight, and Doctor Strange, the heroes realized that Macendale's insanity was partly caused by despair over losing his handsome face. To try to calm the monstrous man/demon, Doctor Strange agreed to cast an illusion spell upon Macendale that caused Macendale to see his true face in reflections of himself. This helped Macendale enough that he was ultimately able to expel the demon from within himself, with the demon referring to itself as the Demogoblin. As Hobgoblin, Macendale was stiff-armed by Doctor Octopus into joining the 2nd incarnation of the group the Sinister Six, which twice tried to take over the world, failing due to counter measures by Spider-Man, the Hulk, Ghost Rider, the Fantastic Four, and many more heroes.[15][16] In a rare event, Macendale teamed up with Spider-Man to defeat the duo of Demogoblin and Doppelganger.[17]

Next the Hobgoblin was hired by the Foreigner to assassinate Moon Knight and Nick Katzenberg, only to be stopped by Moon Knight and Spider-Man. Spider-Man turned him over to the authorities.[18]

Macendale obtained the strength formula of Kraven the Hunter, which enabled him to easily defeat his demonic doppelganger, Demogoblin, who then died saving a young child in battle.[19]

Macendale was defeated once more by Spider-Man along with Coldheart, during an attempt to kidnap Macendale's long-lost son. However, Macendale's reunion would be an unhappy one as Macendale attempted (unsuccessfully) to use his son as a hostage to avoid going back to jail. He would remain in jail for some time before being freed by Gaunt, sending him into combat against Ben Reilly. In exchange for doing Gaunt's bidding, the scientist turned Macendale into a cyborg, complete with removal of one of Macendale's eyes with a new high-tech cybernetic eye. He failed however and was once again arrested.[20][21]

Jason Macendale went on trial for his many crimes. Found guilty on several counts, including convictions for acts caused by both the Roderick and Leeds Hobgoblins, a disgusted Macendale responded by revealing that Ned Leeds "was" Hobgoblin. Roderick Kingsley, fearful that Macendale's continued testimony could expose him as the original Hobgoblin, broke into prison and murdered Macendale.[22]

A bank robbing Jack O'Lantern initially misidentified as Macendale is captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. in Secret War. This individual was using several false aliases including Jason Macendale, Maguire Beck (Mysterio's cousin), and Mad Jack (Daniel Berkhart). The true identify of this Jack O'Lantern was never revealed but it was not any of the aliases he was using. [23]

Powers and abilities

Macendale originally possessed no superhuman powers, but used similar paraphernalia to the Hobgoblin and Green Goblin; in both his Jack O'Lantern and Hobgoblin persona he used a rocket-powered glider, pumpkin bombs, and gauntlet blasters.

During the time in which a demon was grafted to him, he had superhuman strength, speed, and agility, as well as hellfire powers enabling him to create weapons and gliders at will. In one story it is implied that his demonic abilities allowed him to create organic fibers strong enough to bind a normal person.[24]

After Macendale acquired the formula of Kraven the Hunter, he had enhanced his strength, speed, stamina, durability, reflexes, and agility to superhuman levels. His later cybernetically enhanced body further increased his strength, speed, reflexes, durability, and stamina.

Personality, skills, and training

Macendale had extensive military training in hand-to-hand combat, martial arts, espionage, and knowledge of conventional weaponry. He often used conventional military weapons. When he adopted the Hobgoblin persona, he was able to make improvements to the maneuverability of the goblin glider by utilizing skills he gained from his master's degrees in both mechanical engineering and physics.

Macendale was a sociopath and a sadist, which led to his dishonorable discharge from the military.

In other media

Television

The Hobgoblin in the Spider-Man animated series.

Video games

Toys

References

  1. ↑ Greenberg, Glenn (August 2009). "When Hobby Met Spidey". Back Issue!. TwoMorrows Publishing (35): 21.
  2. ↑ Machine Man #19
  3. ↑ The Amazing Spider-Man #254
  4. ↑ The Amazing Spider-Man #286
  5. ↑ The Amazing Spider-Man #289, Spider-Man Vs Wolverine
  6. ↑ Web of Spider-Man #38
  7. ↑ The Amazing Spider-Man #312
  8. ↑ Spectacular Spider-Man #147
  9. ↑ Web of Spider-Man #48
  10. ↑ The Spectacular Spider-Man #161
  11. ↑ Spider-Man #6-7
  12. ↑ Dr. Strange (vol. 3) #11
  13. ↑ The Amazing Spider-Man #335-339
  14. ↑ Spider-Man #18-23
  15. ↑ The Amazing Spider-Man #335-339
  16. ↑ Spider-Man #18-23
  17. ↑ Spider-Man #24, Spirits of Vengeance #5
  18. ↑ Web of Spider-Man #93-96, Spirits of Vengeance #6
  19. ↑ Spider-Man #47-49
  20. ↑ The Amazing Spider-Man #411
  21. ↑ Spider-Man #68-69
  22. ↑ Hobgoblin Lives
  23. ↑ Brian Michael Bendis (w), Gabriele Dell'Otto (p), Gabriele Dell'Otto (i), Gabriele Dell'Otto (col), Cory Petit (let), Andy Schmidt (ed). "The War Begins" Secret War #1 (April 2004), New York City: Marvel Comics
  24. ↑ Spider-Man #6

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/27/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.