Ned Leeds was a reporter for the
Daily Bugle. 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. He would win outright when Betty went into stress induced shock after
J. Jonah Jameson was attacked at the Daily Bugle by the
Scorpion. Leeds and Brant are married shortly after. However, the couple's marriage is often strained, eventually becoming abusive. When Spider-Man battles the Hobgoblin, Ned follows Hobgoblin to a hideout. When Hobgoblin realizes Ned is present, Ned is captured and brainwashed as a scapegoat in case of being unmasked. Wanting to find out about the
Kingpin, Ned approaches
Richard Fisk. Discovering that Richard hates the Kingpin, Leeds helps create Richard's secret identity as Rose. Hobgoblin manipulates Ned to remove the Kingpin from the scene. Ned's regular brainwashing causes his marriage with Betty and professional relationships to fall apart. Increasingly mentally unstable, Ned drives Betty to seek solace in
Flash Thompson. While Flash makes statements about Hobgoblin and events are staged so Flash is revealed as the enigmatic villain, Ned and Richard reach a disagreement and Ned decides to turn in the Rose to the Kingpin, and thus Ned is no longer needed as Hobgoblin. After Flash is cleared of being framed, the New York underworld empire is known that Ned is actually Hobgoblin and that he would soon be traveling to
Berlin. Ned and Peter go on an assignment in Berlin, and Leeds is murdered by the
Foreigner at
Jason Macendale's request as a replacement Hobgoblin. The Kingpin presents photos of Ned in Hobgoblin costume (which was obtained via Foreigner) to Spider-Man in an attempt to get Spider-Man to go after Foreigner. Peter reflected on Ned's death years later, believing Ned must have been framed as Hobgoblin as Foreigner's non-superhuman operatives would never have been able to defeat the real Hobgoblin. Around this time, the original Hobgoblin returns to eliminate Macendale. Spider-Man and Betty subsequently provoke
Roderick Kingsley into confessing to Ned's framing on tape. The clone is revealed to have survived the end of the event and disguised himself as a hobo to continue watching over Betty. It is shown that Betty still cares for Ned. While still unaware of his survival, Ned feels that he is proud of Betty's accomplishments. The clone later dies during a conflict between Spider-Man,
Rhino,
Taskmaster and
Black Ant and tries to warn Spider-Man of something after Betty in the near future, revealed to be the real Ned Leeds, apparently revived. In
Symbiote Spider-Man: Alien Reality, set before Ned's death, Ned is revealed to have become the sorcerer apprentice of
Baron Mordo while serving as Hobgoblin, training under him in the art of
reality-altering chaos magic. On assisting Mordo in reshaping reality to make Mordo
Sorcerer Supreme, Ned also makes himself Spider-Man's main
archenemy, before luring the wall-crawler to the
Sanctum Sanctorum to do battle with him, killing his
Aunt May in front of Peter's
newly resurrected uncle. Swearing revenge, Peter retreats into his own body, with
Venom taking over his functions to train for years in a pocket dimension with
Doctor Strange to defeat Ned, beating Hobgoblin to a pulp as his girlfriend
the Red Cat flees, before travelling into the realm of
Nightmare to return reality to its normal state, with both Peter and Ned losing their memories of the "alien reality" as a result. In spite of this, Ned is revealed to have been alive all along, his body having resurrected immediately following his assassination due to him having ingested
Norman Osborn's Goblin Formula beforehand. After spending years in hiding, stalking Betty, he reveals himself to her and convinces her to let him back into her life, getting back together with her and eventually even having a child together. In "The Hobgoblins' Last Stand", both Ned and Kingsley are both turned into Hobgoblins again by the
Queen Goblin, serving as her enforcers. ==Powers and abilities==