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Spider-Man is getting a new Goblin-themed foe in 2022 - Queen Goblin.
Spider-Man's arch-enemy Norman Osborn began his villainous career as the Green Goblin, eventually spinning off his legacy into numerous Goblin-related Spider-enemies (and even a couple of heroes) over the years. Now there will be another Goblin added to the ranks, and we have a first look at her debut.
Queen Goblin will debut in February 2's Amazing Spider-Man #88, and continue to plague Ben Reilly in his new job as Spider-Man at least through Amazing Spider-Man #90.
"Queen Goblin was one of the coolest ideas from our 'Beyond' story summit," Marvel's Spider-Man group editor (and the company's executive editor) Nick Lowe says in a press release. "All of the writers were riffing on the concept and character and when Pat Gleason dug in on the design we all lost it. You aren’t going to believe this newest addition to Spidey’s rogue’s gallery!"
Gleason, who is on the current Amazing Spider-Man team as both a writer and an artist, says this Queen Goblin design is 'New-Medieval.'
Gleason is unique, in that he's participating in Amazing Spider-Man and the 'Beyond' think tank as both an artist and a writer. In fact, he's writing Amazing Spider-Man #89 (with artist Mark Bagley) and then writing and drawing Amazing Spider-Man #90.
"When Nick and Zeb asked me to help with character design for Queen Goblin in 'Beyond' I was thrilled," says Gleason. "We went New-Medieval with some tweaks on the old Goblin toys. What’s even more fun is letting her off the chain and watching the rest of the art team like Arthur Adams run with her. The writing team has been working like crazy to make her debut worthy of a queen. I'm writing a scene now that will hopefully melt some brains too."
Check out this preview of Amazing Spider-Man #88, by writer Zeb Wells and artist Michael Dowling:
A key question in the arrival of Queen Goblin, given the long 'Goblin Legacy' as Marvel calls it, is 'Is she a totally new character?' In one of Norman Osborn's most recent appearances as the Green Goblin in the story Superior Spider-Man: Goblin Nation, he upgraded his moniker to become the Goblin King.
In 'Goblin Nation', Osborn also enlisted several Goblin-serum enhanced allies, including the prior Hobgoblin and one-time Green Goblin Phil Urich, who Osborn dubbed the Goblin Knight, and Lily Hollister, the already Goblinized villain known as Menace. He also kidnapped and subverted Peter Parker's former love interest Carly Cooper, turning her into a twisted Goblin villain he named Monster.
So could Queen Goblin be a re-Goblinized, returning version of Monster or Menace? Or is the character totally new?
That question could be a key factor in the story of the Queen Goblin, as dating all the way back to the original '60s Green Goblin stories, into the '80s with Spider-Man: Origin of the Hobgoblin, and even into the mystery of Menace's secret identity in the Spider-Man: Brand New Day era, the question of who is actually under the mask (or behind the mutated visage) is central to stories involving Goblin villains.
It may also be worth noting - though maybe only tangentially - that Queen Goblin is just a slight change from the name Goblin Queen, which has been used by the X-Men villain Madelyne Pryor.
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