Just as we're all wrapping our heads around the idea that the new Ultimate Spider-Man is an adult Peter Parker who is married to Mary Jane with two kids, Marvel has now unveiled our first look at Spider-Man's arch-enemy, the Green Goblin on the cover of Ultimate Spider-Man #2 by series artist Marco Checchetto. And he's got a real Sam Raimi, Willem Dafoe kind of vibe about him.
There are some differences between the new Green Goblin and the classic Spider-Man movie version's look of course. For one thing, the new Ultimate Universe Green Goblin lacks the gaping maw of the Willem Dafoe version's classic helmet. And there's a lot more purple in the new Ultimate Green Goblin's costume.
But the new Ultimate Green Goblin design goes straight for the plated and segmented armored look of the classic movie version, a style for the character that was first made popular by the original Spider-Man movie.
Though Norman Osborn's Green Goblin costume has become more armored over the years since the original Spider-Man movie's 2002 release, he's never quite gone for a full tactical armored look in the mainstream Marvel Universe, so the new Ultimate version stands apart from the core version significantly, just based on that.
It's also markedly different from the Green Goblin of the original Ultimate Universe, who was a massive, monstrous, almost Hulk-like mutation with actual hellfire abilities.
Still, the new Ultimate Universe Green Goblin has big shoes to fill in the case of his Ultimate predecessor, not just because of his monstrous size. The original Ultimate Green Goblin actually killed the original Ultimate Peter Parker before dying in battle himself, leading to Miles Morales becoming the second Ultimate Spider-Man.
However, given that this is a whole new continuity, the new Green Goblin may not be anything like we expect. Writer Jonathan Hickman has already revealed that the new Ultimate Peter Parker got his powers in adulthood as a married father, bringing a totally different set of complications to Peter's life as a superhero.
That means we shouldn't necessarily predict that the new Ultimate Green Goblin is even Norman Osborn, let alone his son Harry Osborn or any of the other known Goblins in the mainstream Marvel Universe.
In fact, we don't even know that the new Ultimate Green Goblin is actually Spider-Man's enemy or a villain at all - Marvel's sparse press release doesn't say anything except that he's the Green Goblin.
We'll find out more when Ultimate Spider-Man #1 goes on sale on January 10, followed by Ultimate Spider-Man #2 on February 21.
Stay up to date on all the new Spider-Man comics Marvel has planned for release.
