Jason Philip Macendale, Jr. is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Publication history
The character first appears in Machine Man #19 (Feb 1981), and was 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 Hobgoblinâ€"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]
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.
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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
Macendale put aside his personal enmity for Spider-Man, and used his new demonic powers to become a top contract killer. As an independent mercenary and criminal, Macendale would clash with many other heroes, including Ghost Rider, Sleepwalker, Doctor Strange, and Darkhawk. He would also join two reformed incarnations of the Sinister Six.
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. In a rare event, Macendale teamed up with Spider-Man to defeat the duo of Demogoblin and Doppelganger.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A bank robbing Jack O'Lantern identified as Macendale is captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. in Secret War. This Macendale lacks cybernetic implants, no reference is made to his death at Kingsley's hands, and two of his listed aliases are Maguire Beck, Mysterio's cousin, and Mad Jack, the name Maguire Beck and Daniel Berkhart used when they shared the Jack O'Lantern identity.
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.
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 masters 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
- Jason Philip Macendale as Hobgoblin appears in Spider-Man: The Animated Series voiced by Mark Hamill. He appeared in the episodes "The Hobgoblin" Parts 1 and 2, "The Mutant Agenda", "Mutant's Revenge", "The Spot", and "Goblin War". In this continuity, he came before the Green Goblin but his weapons and glider were supplied by Norman Osborn. Unlike Green Goblin, he had no enhanced strength or split personality. In "Rocket Racer", Phillip appeared when he starts dating Felicia Hardy. In "Goblin War", Hobgoblin's identity was ultimately revealed to be Macendale when he became engaged to Felicia Hardy by the end of the third season. Felicia stumbles upon his secret but it's ultimately exposed by Green Goblin's return who captures both of them. After Green Goblin escapes, Felicia breaks up with Jason and he is then arrested by the NYPD. An alternate version of the character appeared in "I Really, Really Hate Clones" where he was shown working for Spider-Carnage alongside Green Goblin.
Video games
- The NES game Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six had the third line-up of the Sinister Six, which included Macendale.
Toys
- The demonic version of Macendale appears in the Spider-Man Classics line. This was reworked for the Sinister Six Marvel Legends set and then repainted for the Demogoblin figure.
References
External links
- Hobgoblin (Jason Macendale) at Marvel.com
- Jason Macendale Jr. (Earth-616) at Marvel Wiki
- Jason Macendale (Jack O'Lantern) at the Comic Book DB
- Jack O'Lantern (Jason Macendale) at SpiderFan.org
- Jason Macendale (Hobgoblin) at the Comic Book DB
- Hobgoblin IV (Jason Macendale) at SpiderFan.org