I’m not too worked up over this. Maybe once upon a time, I would have mustered some righteous comic fan anger about one of my all-time favorite comic book characters getting killed…but eh. Death is meaningless in comics these days, for one thing. And for another, Phil Urich has been dragged through the mud for awhile now. It was foolish to hold on to hope that he could be redeemed.

I mostly just want to mark this occasion.

For those who don’t know, Phil Urich was introduced to Spider-Man comics in the 1990s as a heroic Green Goblin. He was a teenage kid in the classic Peter Parker vein, and had a 13-issue series about his attempts to use stolen goblin gear to be some kind of free-wheeling 90s superhero. I loved the comic. It was the first comic book this burgeoning young comic book fan bought continuously, rushing to supermarket comic book stands in search of the newest issue.

Phil Urich was my Peter Parker.

The series didn’t last and Phil went into comic book limbo, popping up now and again, like all good limbo characters do. At one point he was turned into a bad guy.

Then Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott turned him into a badass new Hobgoblin, of which I own the action figure.

Sadly, the badass Hobgoblin phase didn’t last and Phil was reduced to the knock-off Goblin Knight role. When that storyline ended, he became an even more pathetic Goblin King and basically just became a total loser villain to the upteenth degree. It was not a good time.

And in the new issue of Amazing Spider-Man, Dan Slott finally drives the final nail into the coffin and has Phil jobbered to the newly re-villainous Norman Osborn.

Just like that, my favorite superhero from my childhood is dead…

…At least until Marvel Comics hires me to write something and I establish that Phil escaped Norman and rushed to the hospital! Or, since he’s a goblin, then he survives by whatever means kept Norman alive or Harry back from the dead or even that time Roderick Kingsley came back. And considering Dan Slott once killed another favorite character of mine, the Prowler, only to bring him back shortly thereafter, maybe there’s some kind of hope.

What’s with Dan Slott killing all my favorite Spider-Man supporting characters? I’ve always been a huge supporter of his!

Anyway, just wanted to mark the occasion. Felt like somebody should.

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