When the Hobgoblin realizes Ned is present, Ned is captured and brainwashed as a scapegoat in case of being unmasked. When Spider-Man battles the Hobgoblin, Ned follows the Hobgoblin to a hideout. However, the couple's marriage is often strained. Leeds and Brant are married shortly after. Jonah Jameson was attacked at the Daily Bugle by the Scorpion. He would win outright when Betty went into stress induced shock after J. He and Peter Parker compete for the affections of Daily Bugle secretary Betty Brant, but Parker drops out of the running due to realizing that Brant will not be able to accept Spider-Man's double identity. Ned Leeds was a reporter for the Daily Bugle. He kept it a big secret until we felt screwed. I can't speak to why he did it, but I can speak to the way he did it. Wolverine came out that Ned Leeds was killed in that story. Owsley let Tom and I continue with our plans without telling us in advance that he was going to kill Ned. Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, and Peter David (of the creative teams on the ongoing Spider-Man books) found this objectionable, saying that Owsley gave them no warning that he was going to kill Leeds, then a regular cast member in the Spider-Man books. Wolverine, written by then Spider-Man editor Jim Owsley. His character is killed off in the 1986 one-shot Spider-Man vs. Jacob Batalon portrays Ned Leeds in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), appearing in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home (both 2019), and The Daily Bugle and Spider-Man: No Way Home (both 2021).Ĭreated by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Ned Leeds made his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #18 (November 1964). The character was revived in a 2018– 2021 storyline where he was revealed to have been a willing Hobgoblin, faking his death to seek revenge on the Foreigner for having attempted to kill him, and using the brainwashing story to convince Betty to take him back and impregnate her. Leeds is the third character to take on the Hobgoblin mantle as a supervillain ten years following his assassination, he is retroactively established to have been willingly brainwashed to serve as a stand-in for the true first Hobgoblin and mastermind, and killed before he could give them up to the authorities for a lesser sentence: prior to this, from 1987 to 1997, Ned was originally depicted as having been the true identity of the first Hobgoblin. A supporting character in stories featuring the superhero Spider-Man, he has been a reporter for the Daily Bugle, and the abusive husband of Betty Brant. Use of goblin-themed weapons and paraphernaliaĮdward " Ned" Leeds is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.Master deductive reasoner and investigator.The Amazing Spider-Man #18 (November 1964) Ned Leeds, in The Amazing Spider-Man vol.