Phil Urich had a secret: he was a superhero.
The story began about half a month ago when, like several others, he received a metallic sphere. A man named Conqueror Kang stated that in the future, Phil would become the superhero Green Goblin Knight by injecting the Green Goblin Serum, but in the far future, the serum's side effects would turn him into the great villain Hobgoblin. However, due to a deviation in history, his original fate had been altered, and thus, Kang had sent the metallic sphere.
At first, Phil, like the others, immediately called the police to explain the situation. But when the officers arrived, they said nothing, didn't even take the sphere, and simply told him he was imagining things and creating extra work for them.
So Phil was confused and kept the object. It wasn't until later that he encountered a robbery: a few knife-wielding thugs were looting a small convenience store. In that moment, Phil debated whether or not to intervene.
If you had the chance to become a superhero, but the cost was spending the rest of your life as an insane lunatic, what would you choose?
Phil didn't know. He only knew someone needed help, so he acted. In an unnoticed alley, he injected the serum, used the high collar and hood of his windbreaker to obscure his face, and stopped the robbery.
Afterward, he ran into the higher-ups of those robbers. They turned out to be subordinates of a certain New York gang. This gang was more powerful and more brutal, and while the super-powered Phil didn't fear them, what about his parents and Uncle Ben?
That's right, Phil's uncle was also named Ben—Benjamin Urich, the Daily Bugle's most distinguished investigative reporter.
Consequently, Phil Urich chose to keep his identity hidden from his family, and he dared not use the tell-tale Osborn technology, such as the pumpkin bombs and glider. Before today, he hadn't even used any of those terrifying, lethal weapons, not until he witnessed the Goblin King's goblin army.
Phil was terrified. He had only seen in Kang's video that he would turn into a villain named Hobgoblin, but he hadn't known what a terrifying enemy that was until today. He realized that the opponent was a complete and utter psychopath! Was he truly going to become like that?
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Phil made up his mind: he absolutely had to prevent himself from becoming that way. He wanted to talk to his Uncle Ben, and if absolutely necessary, he would go to the Avengers to see if the powers from the serum could be taken back.
With this heavy thought, Phil carried a box of materials back to the office. From a distance, he could hear Jonah's furious roar—he was railing against Spider-Man again. In Jonah's view, Spider-Man's violent capture of Roderick was unnecessary and only revealed the web-slinger's inherently aggressive nature.
"Anyone can see Roderick is a scoundrel, but he played it too well, almost as if he knew we were coming. Our investigation was going smoothly; we could have used Roderick's underestimation of us to draw out more information! Now look! I don't believe those vigilantes can interrogate anything useful out of Roderick's mouth!"
Jonah was yelling his dissatisfaction loudly. Benjamin Urich merely shrugged upon hearing this. "But they know telepaths. Perhaps they'll choose to read his mind to get enough information."
"Mind-reading? That's an infringement upon a citizen's right to privacy! And that kind of information can never be admissible as legal evidence in court!"
Jonah roared, and Benjamin just smiled. Phil said, "Excuse me," and carried his boxes in. "Sorry, Mr. Jameson, these are the materials you requested, concerning Roderick and that Mr. Hamilton. They are mostly magazines mentioning them."
"Excellent, Urich." Jonah simply nodded, then started grumbling about another matter. "Also, we need to thoroughly investigate why Roderick was so prepared for the Daily Bugle's surprise interview. There must be a mole in the Daily Bugle! I absolutely will not tolerate such an employee among my staff!"
Phil quickly nodded, but then he noticed the intern, Mary Jane Watson, was staring out the window, seemingly lost in thought.
But she didn't remain lost in thought for long.
"Mr. Jameson, there seems to be a... situation outside?"
Jameson asked dismissively, "What is it, Watson? Is it another superhero brawl?"
"No, it looks like... those look like goblins charging right at us!"
Goblins?
Everyone instantly thought of the psychos from the mad Goblin Army this morning. Jonah reacted almost immediately, yelling "Everybody down!" and diving under his desk, where he adopted the fetal position.
Unlike the Goblin King played by Hamilton, the AI Green Goblin didn't go in for grand gestures or intentionally cause a commotion. Therefore, before raiding the Daily Bugle, he hadn't appeared on TV or called ahead to give notice.
All he needed to do was snatch the right host body—one not currently under the Avengers' watchful eye.
Mary Jane quickly hid herself, first closing her eyes and waiting for the inevitable pumpkin bomb to drop. But the goblin seemed to be arriving a little later. Hiding behind a planter near the wall, Mary Jane opened her eyes and saw the approaching goblin, riding a glider, rushing toward them.
Then, she saw golden sparks appear before her, followed by a golden portal opening. Spider-Man, dressed in black, stepped out of it. After glancing at her, he strode to the floor-to-ceiling glass wall and smashed the entire pane with a single punch. At that very moment, the Green Goblin outside threw a pumpkin bomb inside. A web-shot snagged the bomb, making the fireball detonate harmlessly in mid-air outside the skyscraper.
Next, a strand of webbing lashed out, sticking to the goblin outside, and yanked him straight into the Daily Bugle office, slamming him against the wall before immediately binding him with more webbing.
"You're safe." Mary Jane saw Spider-Man say this to her before he walked to Jonah's desk and flipped it over. "Hello, Mr. Jameson."
"Oh, uh, Spider-Man? Why did you toss my desk?!"
"Sorry, I've been in a bad mood lately." Spider-Man clearly wasn't interested in explaining much. He simply asked, "Which one is Phil Urich? I need to take him to the Avengers Tower."
"That's my nephew." Benjamin Urich stepped forward first to question Spider-Man. "Why do you need to take him?"
"He also received the metallic sphere that can turn him into the Green Goblin. In fact, he's an adapter of the Green Goblin Serum, and he's the target of the Green Goblin."
Just as Peter was about to say the next sentence, he heard Jonah's roar.
"You're the mole! Urich!"