Hobgoblin & Video-Man

[Abishai100]

Here's a nice urban-creepiness fan-fic involving two very dissimilar nemeses of the webbed-wonder Spider-Man (Marvel Comics), Hobgoblin and Video-Man.


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Peter Parker had successfully made New York City safer for its residents, since his vigilante work as the wondrous masked web-soaring Spider-Man. Peter's spider-mutation gave him incredible powers, and he wanted to use his strength to help other people but was now seriously considering retiring from crime-fighting altogether. However, Peter was also studying the nasty problems associated with eerie salmonella outbreaks (from poorly-distributed poultry) at Norman Osborn's Oscorp research company.

Two months later, Peter got a call from his boss at the Daily Bugle who urged their photojournalist to pursue a story about a strange mutant super-villain named Roderick Kingsley (fashion designer) transformed into a jet-gliding and pumpkin-bomb throwing creature calling himself the Hobgoblin and a bizarre electric dimension Frankenstein creation called Video-Man who commanded energy beams at his finger-tips. Hobgoblin and Video-Man were having a 'tussle' in Central Park, and Peter told his boss he would pursue the lead and then got into his Spider-Man outfit and soared to Central Park.

When Spider-Man arrived in Central Park, he noticed Video-Man shooting energy at Hobgoblin who was returning fire with pumpkin-bombs. Hobgoblin was soaring rings around Video-Man's electric-body, and the electrical creature fended off blows with energy beams which caught the pumpkin-bombs in mid-air. Spider-Man soared in and took Hobgoblin out of the equation first with some carefully-placed cobweb shots in Hobgoblin's power-controlled jet glider. He then made a giant cobweb wall in front of Video-Man's eyes and the freak couldn't see through it well enough to aim at him. He then opened the fire-hydrant near them and drowned Video-Man in a sea of electrified water.

Peter Parker took photographs of the entire event with his well-placed automatically-shooting advanced camera. He delivered the photos to his delighted boss who congratulated Peter for being the first to photograph the elusive Spider-Man and that he had at least confirmed that Peter was not Spider-Man (Peter's boss didn't know of the special advancements made in recent models of Nikon cameras fitted with automatic-shooting duration capability). Peter passed them off and then offered to write an editorial to accompany the photos, and his boss granted him the assignment.

Peter wrote in the Bugle:

"The engagement between the mutants Hobgoblin and Video-Man in NYC's already-troubled Central Park has led to the incarceration and study sentence at Oscorp and the unfortunate disintegration of the unrepentant multi-phasic creature Video-Man, suggesting that Spider-Man is at least happy."


OSCORP

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[Abishai100]

Mandrake


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Mandrake the Magician was an eccentric 'super-human' who arrived onto the scene and began researching the case and bizarre disintegration of the urban nemesis Video-Man. Mandrake knew Spider-Man had drowned the electrical creature in a flood of water, but he considered the practicality (and profitability) of resurrecting him from the dead. Mandrake went to the ground where Video-Man disintegrated and believed there were electric charge remnants of Video-Man swimming around in the ground. Mandrake used his special electric staff to focus and harness the electric energy during a lightning storm, and when an electric bolt struck his staff, the energy surged through and created a self-organizing cyclone, reversing the entropy of the electric energy.

Mandrake stood horrified as Video-Man came back to life. The giant electric creature fired beams of energy at a nearby tree and it lit on fire. Mandrake proposed that Video-Man help him for a special public performance which would render the creature a modern 'celebrity' and potentially give him the necessary research funding/endorsements to enable him to build himself a giant electric-toy warehouse. Video-Man conceded to the deal and a strange union was formed. Mandrake intended to have Spider-Man befriend Video-Man and potentially use the intellectual intrigue of the 'science and electricity' of the creature as a stepping stone for better understanding about the treatment of the criminally insane (or mutated).

Mandrake presented Video-Man at the NYC World's Fair in front of Nobel Laureates, press, celebrities, and science-fiction fans. He showed the audience how you could use a Polaroid to make instant records of 'frozen time' and therefore debunk the basic unethical questions about the practicality of manipulating time; he then exhibited how Video-Man's control over electric energy made him a modern phenomenon of space energy convolution. Mandrake noticed that Spider-Man had showed up and invited him on stage to do 'tricks' with Video-Man for the audience, and the gallant vigilante superhero agreed. Spider-Man and Video-Man put on a great show until Hobgoblin (Roderick Kingsley) showed up to make trouble, yelling to the crowd, "The day will come when mutants dream!"

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[waltky]

possum once thought he saw a hobgobblin...

... so he went an' hid...

... under the couch.

 

[Abishai100]

Kingpin

Here's another story about developing criminality consciousness in Spidey's modern city.


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A rising super-tycoon named Kingpin had connections to the underworld and used his unscrupulous profits to build himself a small fortress in New York City, and only Spider-Man noticed, so Peter Parker decided to write a series of op-eds in the Daily Bugle about the seething world of urban darkness created by strange mad men such as the mysterious Kingpin. Everyone knew Kingpin's name and reputation but so few people had actually seen him in person that police were forced to doubt his complete existence. Spider-Man knew Kingpin was very real and he used his detective skills to study his background.

Peter discovered that Kingpin was once an average small-town American businessman named Ralph whose strange birth deformity made him very conscious of people noticing how long it took for him to smile. Kingpin (Ralph) suffered from a brain condition, making it difficult for his brain to send proper emotion-reflex signals to his facial muscles and limbs, so people had a hard time characterizing his intentions, which is why Kingpin developed an incredible knack for writing, use the word to communicate what he could not with body language. However, this deformity made Kingpin resentful of humanity.

Spider-Man tracked down Kingpin to his New York City lair and urged him to go with him to the Cosmetics and Facial Reconstruction Research Institute where they could examine his facial-muscle reflex impairment. Kingpin broke down crying and claimed no one had yet ever taken the time to care for his special malady and asked Spider-Man why he wanted to help him, to which the do-gooder simply replied, "I'm a friend." Kingpin confessed to Spider-Man (in gratitude) that he was hiding Video-Man and Hobgoblin in an underground water tunnel beneath NYC.

Spider-Man nabbed Video-Man and Hobgoblin with the help of about 25 NYPD men armed with electric stun-guns. They found the two super-psycho mutants in the water tunnel Kingpin pointed them to, and they were transported back to their Criminal Insanity research institute. Peter Parker wrote an op-ed in the Daily Bugle the next day:

"Once again, Spider-Man has nabbed Video-Man and Hobgoblin (hiding in water tunnels beneath the city), but this time, he was blessed by the information supplied by the detained crime-master Kingpin who himself was now receiving treatment at the Cosmetics/Facial center. Yes, Spider-Man will bring sanity to a city made crazy with machinations..."

Spider-Man then visited Kingpin at his treatment facility, and the big brute broke down crying again and told him that when he was a child (he showed Spider-Man his special baby photo), he would try to smile a lot but received little encouragement and this deformed his psychology. Spider-Man realized that the overly-analytical criminally insane NYC tycoon had a soft side and was being treated and brought back to the world of normal men. Spider-Man decided that the worst threat that New York had seen was the 'metaphysical' corruption that gave genesis to 'Brave New World' ghouls such as the jagged electric creature Video-Man. Peter Parked decided that the best sign of hope thus far was the baby photo of Kingpin.

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[waltky]

Granny says, "Oh lookit the baby...

... does he play pinochle?"

 

[Abishai100]

Kingpin/Hobgoblin



Here's a short-story about the introduction of twin sisters that challenge Spidey's changing world.

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Sheryl and Suzanne were twins (sisters) who were both psychic and psychotic. Sheryl was the more mentally stable of the two, and she had only murdered three people (on a train) with a silencer-pistol shot to the forehead. Suzanne on the other hand once murdered twenty people (during Mardi Gras) with a hatchet. They were extremely beautiful young American women (part of the illustrious Van Doren family) and graduates of Yale University, arguably the most elitist Ivy League school, the kind immigrants drool at when they conceive of the American Dream.

Meanwhile, while Kingpin's treatment for this criminal insanity was being treated, Video-Man was still loose and was joined by the Hobgoblin (Roderick Kingsley) who was throwing pumpkin-bombs on Halloween on the White House lawn. Video-Man had disrupted some of the central computing algorithms of the nation's capital and rendered communications at high levels handicapped. Kingpin escaped from this mental facility and joined the Hobgoblin in a crusade and invasion of New York City.

Sheryl and Suzanne had both fallen in love with Peter Parker, and he couldn't decide between the two and Halloween was approaching again, and Peter (Spider-Man) was more concerned with what to do about the Kingpin working with Hobgoblin while Video-Man was still roaming around. Spider-Man believed Hobgoblin would attack the White House lawn again on Halloween. As he spoke into his personal voice-recorder machine in his bedroom, not knowing Suzanne was in the room next to his, Suzanne heard everything (and realized Peter was Spider-Man).

Sheryl and Suzanne planned to make things more complicated for Spider-Man by somehow contacting Video-Man who otherwise had merely coincidentally shown up at the White House lawn the previous Halloween and found Hobgoblin there (but otherwise never forged any kind of villainy-alliances). Sheryl and Suzanne decided to host a radio show as DJs (for a local radio show in Haddonfield, New Jersey) and sure enough, Video-Man confronted them and the trio made a terrible wager.

As Kingpin and Hobgoblin were staring at Spider-Man who stood across them in Central Park, in a showdown dared by the press/media, Sheryl and Suzanne were preparing to give Video-Man the signal to electrocute all three with his energy beams. Suddenly, Spider-Man noticed Sheryl and Suzanne standing in the distance and realized they were there to perform some evil deed of betrayal and sabotage, Spider-Man yelled, "I love you!" but the sisters did not know which sister he was addressing. They ironically became more enraged, so Spider-Man cocooned them in cobwebs. The then dealt with Kingpin and Hobgoblin.

In the center for the criminally insane, Kingpin, Hobgoblin, Sheryl, and Suzanne, all had their own cells/rooms. They were fed and kept good hygiene and maintained a civil patient atmosphere. Peter visited to take photos and perform interviews and also date his new girlfriend Sheryl. The progress was very good, and Suzanne recommended a comic book doodling contest, and Kingpin and Hobgoblin agreed to participate. The drawings became very popular as emblematic of America's investment for the study and treatment of the truly challenged. Peter became a celebrity and decided to marry Suzanne.

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[Abishai100]

Baby Geniuses

Finally, here's a short story about the cute baby Roderick Kingsley who grows up to becoming a prominent fashion designer before turning into the maniacal pumpkin bomb-throwing Hobgoblin before retiring as a NYC 'fat-cat' calling himself the 'Kingpin.' Kingpin finds his days of retirement unnerved when a new menace who calls himself the 'Raggedy-Man' creates waves and then transforms (by bio-genetic mutation) into the pervasive/evasive electronic-creature 'Video-Man.'

Video-Man has only one goal: to usurp the 'social cutie' image of the Kingsley baby photo as capitalism banter!

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Crowds surrounded baby Kingsley (Roderick) who was going to bring back a classicist rendering of calendar-friendly baby-photography (bringing the 'haute' back into clothing chatter). Roderick grew up to become a very prominent fashion designer indeed, but his wealth started caving in on his own stubborn sense of self-made success. Roderick started to think that his necessary connections to the 'society crowd' was exposing him to creativity-fracturing gluttony. Roderick, in a fit rage, broke into Oscorp science research building A and stole the infamous Goblin serum.

Roderick drank the serum and became the orange-colored jet-glider soaring and pumpkin-bomb throwing NYC freak terrorist the 'Hobgoblin.' Hobgoblin spent 10 successful years terrorizing the people of New York and challenging Spider-Man's efforts at fighting crime with success! In fact, Spider-Man's only nemesis who perpetually eluded him was the Hobgoblin. After a final heist of the Gotham Gold Armory, Hobgoblin retired and became a skin-mask cosmetics sewn society 'fat-cat' the 'Kingpin.'

Kingpin had established multiple crime syndicates in American cities and was now coordinating an airline narcotics-smuggling operation. He co-owned (in secret) the Lufthansa (German Airline) company and was planning to use it as a base of operations and netting. Everything seemed to be going perfectly for Kingpin (Hobgoblin/Kingsley) until a new menace showed up in Miami, Florida. A former 'mall Santa' turned serial killer, this self-proclaimed 'Raggedy-Man' was delivering messages to the press such as, "Kingpin is merely a puppet of capitalism!"

Raggedy-Man was always disheveled-looking and extremely sardonic and sometimes even insulting about sociological norms, behavioral mannerism differences between the economic classes, and communications stereotypes (e.g., ethnic slang). He would post pictures of 'baby Kingsley' on walls with graffiti writing (on top): "This is NOT the face of innocence!" Raggedy-Man killed 12 policemen in the span of only 2 years, and he became Spider-Man's #1 target (and Kingpin was insane with envy!).

One night, while stealing a super-processor from the Ravencroft Institute of science research (the upstart-rival of Oscorp), Raggedy-Man accidentally exposed himself to some bio-genetic mutational atmospheric particles in a greenhouse which completely polarized his cells and turned him into a digital creature with the ability to move around in electronic highways and create devastating beams of static-shock electricity. Raggedy-Man started calling himself 'Video-Man,' and he was more disheveled now than ever. Kingpin decided to engage Video-Man in a debate.


KINGPIN: You have no intellectual right to slander my baby photos!
VIDEO-MAN: I have no constraints imposed by the standard system of biophysics.
KINGPIN: A baby photo is more than 'biophysics'!
VIDEO-MAN: No, it is not, and yours is a shameful pandering of consumerism laziness.
KINGPIN: Because I was a plump and chubby and grinning little baby?
VIDEO-MAN: Yes!!!
KINGPIN: What do you want?
VIDEO-MAN: I want Spider-Man to realize there are true criminals --- not the Hobgoblin cheap variety!
KINGPIN: You think Hobgoblin was cheap or tacky?
VIDEO-MAN: Yes!!!
KINGPIN: I have here an array --- my news-clipping, my baby photo, and a Hobgoblin stick-figure drawing.
VIDEO-MAN: Well, it is certainly 'cute' or 'symbolic.'
KINGPIN: I will become an American legend.
VIDEO-MAN: You will never control the 'virtual world.'
KINGPIN: What is that?
VIDEO-MAN: You will find out --- Every Black Friday!

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KINGPIN (Over the years):

RAGGEDY-MAN:

 

[Abishai100]

The Hobgoblin Circus


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Roderick Kingsley was the well-to-do fashion designer working in NYC, primarily for its prestigious and well-journalised fashion firm The Bow-Tie. Kingsley had developed a new line or bright-orange rain-coats, and the children's clothing company Gap Kids took notice and offered Kingsley an incredible contract. When Kingsley began developing the rain-coats for Gap Kids, people thought he was very creative but extremely eccentric. When Kingsley expressed the intention to fund and chaperone a special EPA luncheon where his rain-coats were sold for environmental groups, people started saying things like, "He is pseudo-obsessive!"

Kingsley started feeling frustrated with these criticisms of his person. Nevertheless, within two years, he had built himself his own orange rain-coat manufacturing company called The Orange Rainmaker. Artists from around the world were invited to annual summer banquets where rain-coat models paraded new designs on a catwalk (in a giant and lavish tent in Newport, Rhode Island). The artists (painters, sculptors, cartoonists) were asked to provide orange-colored artworks to highlight and complement the orange-themed atmospherics of the event held primarily for the EPA with the pro-environmentalism slogan: "Weather-Gear is Activism-Gear."

Two special artists came in to see Kingsley's own artistic contribution to one such luncheon. Kingsley had sent an advance photograph of a canvas-print of a stick-figure doodle of the Marvel Comics super-villain Hobgoblin (a jet-glider soaring maniac who throws pumpkin-bombs) and created arrays in which the prints were mounted next to posters of standard oil-canvas and water-color and colored-pencil renditions of Hobgoblin. The two special artists who came in to see Kingsley's Hobgoblin were interested in how simple it was, which is why they believed it would be smooth and straightforward to market such art to the eco-conscious audience with mottoes such as, "Be eco-conscious, and you're a trumpet-player for art!"

When Kingsley's Hobgoblin generated a great deal of press, more and more people talking about how the fashion and art worlds can be very nicely wed to the pedestrian-engaged politics. A special documentary about Kingsley's achievements aired on Halloween on MTV. A crime syndicate boss named Kingpin noticed all the hoopla about Kingsley and realized that a 'guerilla capitalist' was rising to social prominence and threatened the profit-based allure of his 'pedestrian-psychology dominion.' Kingpin sent goons and minions to stake-out Kingsley's museum and fashion studios and create commotions for the press to magnify. What ensued was known as 'The Eco-Tycoon Hobgoblin War.'

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