Legendary comic book writer Roger Stern, the author of such classics as "Superman: The Wedding Album" and "Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut!," is teaming with Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema for The Heroes Union #1. Released by Binge Books on August 4, the team was created by veteran TV writer Darin Henry (Futurama) and is tailored for audiences used to "bingeing" their favourite content.
You can read more about that here, but when we were recently presented with the chance to chat with Roger over email, we took this rare opportunity to pick his brain about creating the Hobgoblin alongside John Romita Jr. in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #238 back in 1983.
Here's an excerpt from our conversation:
Hobgoblin is one of my all-time favourite Spider-Man villains ("Hobgoblin Lives" was the first Amazing Spider-Man arc I read). Are you surprised he hasn’t made his big screen debut yet, and how does it feel to be associated with a character who has become as iconic as those early villains created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko?
Well, thank you. When John Romita Jr. and I created the Hobgoblin, we were mainly just trying to introduce a new, interesting villain for Spider-Man, building on the legacy of the Green Goblin. I suppose the Hobgoblin could become part of the MCU canon, but there would have to be some tweaking here and there to make him fit.
And I don't know that I'd consider the Hobgoblin as iconic as, say, the Vulture or Mysterio. I'm just happy that people still remember him after all these years.
Your Amazing Spider-Man run is among my favourites (the Black Cat, Juggernaut, and Hobgoblin stories all instantly spring to mind). Did you ever expect at the time that those stories would resonate with fans in such a significant way?
With Spider-Man, I was just trying to be faithful to the character I had read ever since my mid-teens. And, of course, to deliver stories that were interesting and entertaining enough that readers would come back and buy the next issue. I truly never gave it much thought beyond that. I was too busy meeting my next month's deadlines. I never dreamed that I'd still be asked about those stories all these years later.
In case it isn't already clear, Roger is an extremely humble man, but a writer who made a massive impact with this title and many, many others (don't forget, he also dreamed up Monica Rambeau). As for Hobgoblin's big screen debut, it's rumoured to be in the works for Spider-Man: No Way Home, albeit with an alternate version of Jacob Batalon's Ned Leeds instead of Roderick Kingsley.
With that in mind, we're beyond excited to see what Roger does with Binge Books this summer.
The Heroes Union #1 reunites Stern and Frenz, the creative team behind the iconic Amazing Spider-Man story, "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man" and will be the first comic in over a decade to feature the official Comics Code Authority Seal. Each copy will also be uniquely numbered for collectors, with some of the numbered variants potentially opening the door to future, yet to be revealed, perks.