Phil Urich was born and raised in New York City, the son of Arnold and Mindy Urich. Like his uncle, Ben Urich, he began working at the Daily Bugle as a full time reporter and continued to report on Spider-Man's adventures.
On a journalism assignment, Phil joined his uncle Ben in an investigation on Oscorp Tower. When his uncle was besieged by attackers in the building, Phil hid and tried to find help. Stumbling upon an experimental new Goblin Armor, Phil also fell into a chamber of the Goblin Formula. Quickly dressing up in the suit, he scared off the hoods. Later on, he decided that the suit and equipment were worth using for good.
Years later, Phil suffered an extreme mental breakdown and gave into his psychosis. In an attempt to impress his journalist co-worker and crush, Phil ran off to one of the old Goblin hideouts, hoping to find a story. Phil encountered and murdered Daniel Kingsley, the twin brother of Roderick Kingsley, who was Hobgoblin at that time. After killing him, Phil became the Hobgoblin and turned to a life of crime.
Featured in these Comics
Personas
History
FIRST APPEARANCE (AS GREEN GOBLIN): Web of Spider-Man #125 (June, 1995)
FIRST APPEARANCE (AS HOBGOBLIN): Amazing Spider-Man #649 (January, 2011)
FIRST APPEARANCE (AS GOBLIN KNIGHT): Superior Spider-Man #16 (October, 2013)
FIRST APPEARANCE (AS GOBLIN KING): Amazing Spider-Man Vol 3 #5 (October, 2014)
APPEARANCE OF DEATH: Amazing Spider-Man #797 (May, 2018)
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RISE OF THE GOBLIN KNIGHT
While fighting the Superior Spider-Man as Hobgoblin, Phil managed to escape and frantically fled the scene. Immediately after he escaped, the Superior Spider-Man then activated the spider-tracer he placed on Phil, and revealed Phil's identity as the Hobgoblin across every screen in the city.
With his identity as Hobgoblin revealed to the public, Phil realized he had nowhere to run and desperately made excuses as his Daily Bugle co-workers turned against him. The Superior Spider-Man captured him, but Phil was quickly freed from a prison transport by the Goblin King (Norman Osborn). The Green Goblin upgraded his armor and weapons, and in exchange for Phil's full dedication to embrace his new identity as the "Goblin Knight".
CROWNED
Following Norman's downfall, Phil became the new Goblin King and took the lead of the Goblin Nation remnants, which became one of the main organized crime powers in New York. He called upon two other crime factions, Mister Negative's criminal empire and the Maggia lead by the Eel, to divide the criminal underground. While waiting for the Eel, they witnessed him being thrown through a window by the Black Cat. Black Cat confronted Mister Negative and the Goblin King, and demanded the Eel's portion of the criminal underground. She claimed that they were all beaten by Spider-Man, but that she would be the one successful in defeating him.
AXIS
In order to prove his worth as the new Goblin King, Urich began hunting for Roderick Kingsley, who had returned to New York and enfranchised his Hobgoblin persona and those of deceased or retired superheroes. Executing a Hobgoblin impostor, Urich mused on his failed attempt to save Lilly Hollister after her arrest.
To get Kingsley's attention, Urich attacked a building with children playing inside. As he expected, Roderick Kingsley did arrive to save the children, as he had recently been inverted due to the inversion spell. After a short battle, Urich realized how distracted Kingsley was. Instead of fighting, he told him to buy his new book about becoming a superhero before fleeing.
Urich later confronted Kingsley at the latter's headquarters, remarking that Kingsley was insane. Urich attempted to kill Kingsley, but was soon confronted by Lily Hollister. She had amnesia, and had joined Kingsley's cause and taken the alias of the "Queen Cat." Urich battled some of Kingsley's leased superheroes before being forced to escape through the window, leaving the message "Find Me Lily."
Back to his base, Urich was visited by John Myers, one of Kingsley's leased heroes (aka Missile Mate), who stepped out and wanted to be a villain. Urich was reluctant on inviting him to his army, which was being formed by half of the leased villains Kingsley had abandoned, however, Myers revealed he had allied himself with the other half of those leased villains.
Urich was visited in his base by the Queen Cat, who had agreed to double-cross Kingsley. During a celebration being held for the declaration of a Hobgoblin Day, Missile Mate failed to kill Kingsley, which prompted Urich and the Goblin Nation to jump into the action. Even though he was bested in combat by Kingsley, Urich expected the Queen Cat to betray the Hobgoblin. However, Lily revealed to have merely pretended to have any regard for their past relationship, and stated that having forgotten her criminal life might have been a gift she wasn't going to waste. After a failed attempt by the Missile Mate to escape with Urich, the Goblin King and the members of the Goblin Nation present in the scene were taken into custody.
DEATH
Urich later resurfaced again during Alchemax's representation of new energy source, trying to steal it. Even though Spider-Man and Agent Anti-Venom appeared and defeated his henchman, Urich managed to escape using his sonic scream. Not long afterwards, he searched for new weaponry in one of Osborn's old caches. He happened to break into Norman's abandoned Upper East Side club, where he was holding J. Jonah Jameson hostage. Osborn caught notice of Urich's presence in the lower levels of the building, and confronted him. Unknowing about Norman's new symbiote and return of his goblin powers, Phil attacked him with his sword. Norman stopped the attack and killed Phil by impaling his chest with his symbiote blades.
