Goblin War

The **Goblin War** was a huge city-wide gang war from Marvel's *Spider-Man*. It deals with a gang of criminals armed with Goblin armor technology called the Goblin Nation who are trying to take over New York City with a powerful weapon known as the Goblin Mech. The war takes place in the four-part Season 2 finale, "Goblin War."

## History

### Background

It all started with a man named Norman Osborn, CEO and founder of a large science company known as Oscorp. Norman was a very evil man who wanted to use his company to take over New York City and create a legacy for himself, mostly through his son Harry who was the best friend of Spider-Man. During his goal to achieve that, Norman would hire other scientists and minds for his company in an effort to exploit their technology and genius. One of them was a man named Adrian Toomes who was a scientist who used to work for a man named Max Modell and his school Horizon High until he was fired for stealing equipment. He then turned to a life of crime as a supervillain called The Vulture who was armed with a special vulture suit that allowed him to fly and produce a sonic scream. Norman hired Vulture to serve as a teacher for his school, Os Academy which he created to keep an eye on Harry and keep him from attending Horizon High after Norman got him suspended by sabotaging one of his projects with help from another evil scientist named Spencer Smythe. After Norman Osborn disappeared and was presumed dead after his last fight with Spider-Man, Vulture went back to his old criminal roots. But then one day, a group of stunt performers called the Wake Riders stole his technology and were using it to perform dangerous stunt videos. They also secretly used it to steal technology from other companies to upgrade their tech. At first, Spider-Man and Vulture worked together to stop them but then Vulture joined them when he found out that they and their leader, Barkley Blitz idolized him but Spider-Man was able to stop them. Meanwhile, Harry became the new CEO of Oscorp and discovered a message Norman left for him which were the blueprints for a huge machine called the Goblin Mech which was capable of controlling any form of technology within its range. Harry believed it was a gift from his dad but it was actually something Vulture made that Norman stole from him. Harry started building the Goblin Mech for months and kept it a secret by claiming he was out of town on a business trip because he was afraid of how everyone might react to it. After Harry finished the Goblin Mech, he split the activation key needed to activate it into three parts and hid them throughout New York City. Then after Doctor Octopus switched minds with Spider-Man to become Superior Spider-Man and defeated the city's crime lords; Hammerhead, Silvermane, and Sandgirl. There was a huge power vacuum within the city's criminal empire so with help from the Wake Riders, Vulture started a secret shadow cult gang called the Goblin Nation to claim that power using the same Goblin armor tech Harry created which Vulture stole from Oscorp, combined with his Vulture tech, and mass-produced it. Now calling himself the Goblin King in an effort to gain respect for his genius, Vulture started recruiting other thugs and criminals from all over New York City into the Goblin Nation including Alistair Smythe, Electro, Crossbones, and Silvermane who combined their own tech to the Goblin armor to make their own form of Goblins. Then as a sign of their goal, the Goblin Nation spray painted their logo all over the city which Spider-Man barely noticed. Afterwards, Vulture tried to gain control of the company, Beemont Chemicals to produce more Goblin tech through one of its scientists, Dr. Joseph Rockwell. Who tried to get rid of the founder and CEO of the company, Alan Beemont by secretly coercing one of its employees, Jalome Beacher into becoming a supervillain named Slyde to ruin Alan Beemont's reputation. But they were both thwarted by Spider-Man with help from Doctor Octopus and his Spider-Bots who had reformed after he and Spider-Man switched back minds. But by doing so, they learned about the Goblin Nation from Dr. Rockwell which caused it to come out of the shadows, and used a secret underground lab hidden under the Osborn Family Tomb that Norman built to produce more Goblin tech instead which Harry had visited long before they started using it.

### The Battle

Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus start researching the Goblin Nation and try searching for it then Spider-Man encounters one of its members one night who was spray painting the Goblin Nation's logo on the roof of a building. But Doctor Octopus can't see him through his Spider-Bots due to the Goblin using stealth tech to hide himself from video surveillance. After that, Spider-Man believes that the Goblin is Norman due to recalling how Norman tried to make some stealth tech so Spider-Man calls Harry about it and questions him about the Goblin armor. Harry tells Spider-Man that most of his Goblin tech designs were destroyed when half the Oscorp building blew up. But he still kept copies of them back at Horizon High where he started them, then Harry agrees to help Spider-Man stop the Goblin Nation when they see each other again. The next day, Spider-Man sneaks into Horizon High as Peter Parker with help from his friend, Miles Morales, and discovers that the designs for Harry's Goblin tech were accessed by Alistair Smythe who took Peter's place after Doctor Octopus quit the school in Peter's body. As a result, Spider-Man believes that Alistair is the Goblin and is behind the Goblin Nation so Spider-Man follows Alistair to an old building the next night even though Doctor Octopus doubts it could be him. While searching for Alistair, Spider-Man activates the security system within the building which sends out Spider-Slayer robots to attack him. But Spider-Man is able to defeat them with help from both Spider-Girl and Ghost-Spider who followed Spider-Man as Peter Parker because they believe he is Goblin and is behind the Goblin Nation. The next day, Peter meets up with Harry and takes him to Doctor Octopus' lair back when he was Superior Spider-Man, the Spider's Nest. However, both Harry and Doctor Octopus aren't happy to see each other due to their past troubles which causes Harry to leave. Then Spider-Girl and Ghost-Spider find the Goblin, fight him off, and call Spider-Man to come and help them but after Spider-Man catches the Goblin with his webs, he unmasks the Goblin who is actually an unknown man. He later frees himself and more Goblins arrive to help him out but the Spider Team fights them off with help from Doctor Octopus' Spider-Bots even though they still can't see the Goblins until the Spider Team covers the Goblins up with their webs which allows the Spider-Bots to see and defeat them. But then some more Goblins start attacking a cable car bridge but the Spider Team fights them off, defeats them, locks all of the Goblins up in one of the cable cars, and unmasks them all who are all unknown people until they unmask the last one who is revealed to be Alistair. But Alistair and the other Goblins reveal to the Spider Team that he didn't start the Goblin Nation he was actually recruited by it. They the Spider Team leaves the Goblins all for the police with the Spider-Bots guarding them but they are all freed by the Goblin King who takes out the Spider-Bots which Doctor Octopus spots from outside the Spider's Nest. The next day, Peter and Doctor Octopus talk about both the Goblin Nation and the Goblin King at the coffee shop then Harry comes to Peter and tells him that he thinks that his father, Norman is alive and wants Peter to come with him alone since he still doesn't trust Doctor Octopus.

Harry takes Peter to the Osborn Family Tomb revealing that someone broke into it and opened the memorial crypt which has some stairs that lead down it which Harry found out after coming to the place yesterday after leaving the Spider's Nest. Harry and Peter follow the stairs as Spider-Man and Hobgoblin but set off a trap which Harry deactivates with a passcode then they follow a large underground tunnel. Spider-Man and Harry later talk about Doctor Octopus and what he did to Spider-Man then Spider-Man realizes that Harry has been down the tunnel before so Harry reveals the truth about his business trip and how he built the Goblin Mech. This leads to an argument between Spider-Man and Harry over building the Goblin Mech then they discover the lab where the Goblin tech is being mass-produced and are attacked by the Goblin King and some of the Goblins so Spider-Man and Harry as Hobgoblin fight them off. Spider-Man believes that Harry set him up but Hobgoblin denies it even though he still believes that the Goblin King is his dad. But during the fight against the Goblins, Spider-Man finds out that the Goblins are the Wake Riders which means that the Goblin King isn't Norman, it's Vulture much to Hobgoblin's sadness. So Harry tries to fight him off but gets beaten by Vulture who steals the data about the Goblin Mech from Harry's Hobgoblin armor when he realizes that Harry built it then he and Wake Riders escape after destroying the lab. After Spider-Man and Harry escape the lab and get to safety, Harry realizes what Vulture took from his armor and goes to stop him. Meanwhile, Ghost-Spider and Spider-Girl are searching for the Goblins when Doctor Octopus tries to warn them about Spider-Man with his Spider-Bots but they don't listen and fight them off. Then they fight off a Goblin with electric powers and use his tech to trace back to the lair of the Goblin Nation with one of Doctor Octopus' surviving Spider-Bots secretly following them because he thinks that Harry is behind the Goblin Nation. Doctor Octopus then does research on Harry's business trip and discovers how Harry never went anywhere then Ghost-Spider and Spider-Girl find the Goblin lair. Ghost-Spider and Spider-Girl later find the location of the lair in a subway tunnel but are attacked by more Goblins with electric powers then they get attacked by Electro. Doctor Octopus then calls Spider-Man and tells him that Ghost-Spider and Spider-Girl are in trouble with Electro who is leading her own team of Goblins called Electro Goblins.

Spider-Man then goes to help Ghost-Spider and Spider-Girl fight off against Electro and the Electro Goblins but after beating them, Crossbones arrives with his own team of Goblins called War Goblins. Which the Spider Team fights off and also defeats then they escape after Crossbones blows up the whole subway tunnel. The Spider Team all regroups with Miles Morales as Spy-D at the Spider's Nest where Spider-Man introduces them to Doctor Octopus but everyone has a tough time trusting him because of his past. But then Hobgoblin shows up and tells everyone all about Goblin Mech, what it could do, how Vulture knows about it now, the safety protocol Hobgoblin put into the mech so that only he could activate it, and where he hid the activation key pieces needed to activate it which Vulture now knows about as well. With that, Spider-Man convinces everyone to put aside their differences and work together to stop Vulture and the Goblin Nation and save New York City. The Spider Team all splits up and goes to the places where the activation key pieces are with Doctor Octopus coordinating them with help from his Spider-Bots and getting help from Anna Maria after Spider-Man calls her to help. Who manages to get the Spider-Bots to see the Goblins which was due to an intrusion worm Vulture put into one of them which spread to the other Spider-Bots and made them unable to see anyone wearing a Goblin mask. But at the same time, the Spider Team fights off the Goblin Gangs led by Electro, Crossbones, Barkley Blitz, and Silvermane with each group armed with a different form of technology relating to the villains. With Spy-D and Spider-Girl fighting off the Electro Goblins led by Electro and later the War Goblins led by Crossbones, Ghost-Spider fighting off the Wake Rider Goblins led by Barkley Blitz, and Spider-Man and Hobgoblin fighting off the Cyber Goblins led by Silvermane. Despite the Spider Team's best efforts in fighting them off and defeating them, Doctor Octopus finds out that the Goblin Gangs were all just to distract the Spider Team so Vulture could get the activation key pieces which he later reassembles and now heads for Oscorp to activate the Goblin Mech. Spider-Man and Hobgoblin go to stop him but meanwhile, both Electro and Crossbones fight each other with their Goblin Gangs which puts other people in danger so Spy-D, Ghost-Spider, and Spider-Girl try to help them and stop the Goblin Gangs while being coordinated by Anna Maria using the Spider-Bots. Spider-Man and Hobgoblin then arrive at Oscorp to try and stop Vulture despite Doctor Octopus' warnings that something is not right. When Spider-Man and Hobgoblin arrive to check on the Goblin Mech, Vulture traps them in special foam and reveals to them that he let them lead him to the Goblin Mech and reveals that he is its true creator. Vulture then uses the activation key to activate the Goblin Mech then he uses it to attack and destroy the Oscorp building with Spider-Man and Hobgoblin in it.

Spider-Man and Hobgoblin manage to escape both Vulture's foam and the Oscorp building's destruction with help from Doctor Octopus who informs them that Vulture is taking the Goblin Mech to an offshore military installation to take control of all the gear stored there once the Goblin Mech activates its full systems. Spider-Man and Hobgoblin manage to stop the Goblin Mech from activating its full systems by using an encryption code on the Goblin Mech's mental interface to freeze Vulture out of his control of it. But Vulture tries to get the encryption device to bypass the encryption code so Spider-Man and Hobgoblin try to escape from him but Hobgoblin gets hurt during the chase. Doctor Octopus then sends the rest of the Spider Team to help Hobgoblin and fight off against Vulture and the Goblin Mech. But despite their best efforts, Vulture manages to beat the whole Spider Team and gets the encryption device which he uses to activate the Goblin Mech's full systems, giving him complete control of every piece of technology in New York City as his personnel army. Spider-Man tries to fight off the Goblin Mech alone but it's too powerful for him to defeat, especially since it's controlling all the Goblin tech of the entire Goblin Nation as well then Vulture uses the Goblin Mech to have the technology to attack everyone in the city. Spider-Man then gets a call from Hobgoblin and Spider-Man tells him about Vulture activating the Goblin Mech's full systems and asks how to stop it. But Hobgoblin reveals that there is no way to stop it or override Vulture's control of the Goblin Mech since he is using his brain to control it. Hobgoblin then says that in order to override Vulture's control they would need another mind-machine interface. Then Spider-Man gets an idea and goes to Horizon High to get the Neuro Cortex device Doctor Octopus built and used to become the Living Brain and swap minds with Spider-Man to retake control of the Goblin Mech back from Vulture. Anna Maria calls Max Modell to evacuate Horizon High and tells him about Spider-Man's plan to use the Neuro Cortex. But when Spider-Man arrives at Midtown High, Vulture confronts him with the Goblin Mech then Hobgoblin arrives and helps Spider-Man hold off Vulture and the Goblin Mech while Spider-Man gets the Neuro Cortex since his Hobgoblin armor is immune to the Goblin Mech's control. But while Spider-Man is getting the Neuro Cortex ready to stop the Goblin Mech, Doctor Octopus warns Spider-Man that using the Neuro Cortex is dangerous. As it could destroy him by tearing his body apart from the molecular level with only a two percent possible chance of surviving it but Spider-Man decides to accept those odds. Meanwhile, after Vulture defeats Hobgoblin, he uses the Goblin Mech to take control of the Stark defense space satellite to destroy New York City unless Spider-Man surrenders. Spider-Man then shows up and is about to use the Neuro Cortex but Doctor Octopus arrives with his mechanical arms, takes the Neuro Cortex, and uses it instead. Which allows Doctor Octopus to override the Goblin Mech with his mind and defeat Vulture who is later captured by Spider-Man, saving the city.

### Aftermath

However, in the process of Doctor Octopus using the Neuro Cortex it tore his body apart from the molecular level, killing him. But not before bidding Spider-Man a tearful farewell and telling him that he did it because it was what a hero would've done. A funeral is then held for Doctor Octopus the next day where Spider-Man and his friends pay their respects by honoring him for the brave hero he was. The Goblin Nation was then disbanded with all of its members now arrested including Vulture. Peter is also welcomed back into Horizon High thanks to a special endorsement letter Doctor Octopus gave to Max before his death.

## Belligerents

### Spider Team

* Spider-Man
* Spy-D
* Spider-Girl
* Ghost-Spider
* Hobgoblin
* Doctor Octopus
* Anna Maria Marconi
* Spider-Bots

### Goblin Nation

* Vulture/Goblin King
* Barkley Blitz
* Electro
* Crossbones
* Silvermane
* Alastair Smythe
* Wake Rider Goblins
* Electro Goblins
* War Goblins
* Cyber Goblins
* Other Goblins

### Other

* Max Modell
* Students of Horizon High
* People of New York City

## Navigation

*Disney*: Operation W.A.R. • Robot Riot • Kree-Skrull War • Graviton's Attack • Gamma World • Kang's Invasion • War for the Cosmic Cube • Loki's War • Skrull Invasion • Assault on 42 • Invasion of Galactus • Asgardian-Symbiote Attack • Skirmish on the Tri-Carrier • Battle of the Web Warriors • Attack of the Synthezoids • Contest of Champions • Attack on the Triskelion • War of Carnage • Doctor Octopus' Last Attack • Mystery Shack Zombie Attack • Weirdmageddon Rebellion • Attack of Cosmic Skull • War of the Squadron Supreme • Invasion of Thanos • Ultron Revolution • Frozen Invasion • Secret Wars • Kree Invasion • Battle of Sarrish • Battle of Christophsis • Malevolence Campaign • Battle of Quell • Defense of Maridun • Battle of Orto Plutonia • Liberation of Ryloth • Skirmish on Felucia • Attack of the Zillo Beast • Second Battle of Geonosis • Battle of Saleucami • Skirmish aboard the Coronet • Attack on Kamino • Battle on Wasskah • Civil War of Mon Cala • Skirmish on Naboo • Battle of Umbara • Attack on Dathomir • Liberation of Onderon • Invasion of Scipio • Battle of Anaxes • Siege of Mandalore • Siege of Lasan • Attack on Phoenix Squadron • Assault on Seelos • Assault on Garel • Battle of Atollon • Liberation of Lothal • Asgard War • Symbiote War • Attack of Magus • Conquest of Serpent • Saporian War • Battle of Old Corona • Battle of Corona • **Goblin War** • Symbiote Invasion • Robot Revolution • Wakanda-Atlantis War • Battle of Jakku • Battle of Castilon • Battle of the Barabesh System • Toad Tower Heron Attack • Hunter vs. Alastair Feud • Newtopian Barbari-Ant Invasion • Toad Rebellion • Amphibia Revolution
*Nickelodeon*: Attack on the Shredder • Triceraton-Federation War • Attack on TCRI • Battle of the Battle Nexus • Triceraton Invasion of 2003 • Final Shredder Battle • Battle of the Five Dragons • Kraang-Triceraton War • Rat Wars • First Kraang Invasion • Second Kraang Invasion • Battle for New York • Triceraton Invasion of 2012 • War for Dimension X • Super Shredder Attacks • Invasion of the Netherworld • Invasion of Dregg • Monster Invasion • Carmageddon
*Movies*: Battle for Pride Rock • Lion War • War of the Brotherhood • Fight of the Stone Generals • Battle of the Red Death • Ogre Revolution • Battle of Gongmen City • War of the Brothers • Battle of Bricksburg • War of the Dragons • Battle of Panda Village • Battle of Gotham City • Garmadon's War • Battle of Ninjago • Brother-Sister War • Dragon Hunter Battle • Northuldra War • The Mitchells vs. The Machines Battle