Ah ha, see Kingsley wasn't revelead to be the true hobogoblin until 1997's Hobgoblin lives, back in my day he was nothing more than a Fashion Designer who shot a dummy of Spider-man in an issue of Spectacular.
In my day, Ned Leeds was the original Hobgoblin, and he had been known as that for almost 10 years. However when his identity was discovered, he was already dead. Killed in a pretty pathetic assasination attempt, by a bunch of goons hired by the Jack O' Lantern.
Ned Leeds, did make sense as a choice though. He hated Spider-Man for all the heartaches he caused Betty over her brothers death, he disliked Peter Parker for his history with Betty, and possible relationship they had while he and Betty were married. Ned was present at the battle between Reilly and Peter in ASM 149, he helped Peter investigate the Gwen Stacy double, and the majority of all the Clone research. He was captured by Miles Warren, off panel in ASM 148, who knows what dialouge could have occured there. Ned was blindfolded in ASM 149, but he could have eaisly heard Jackal call Spider-Man by his first name, which happened quite a few times. If you don't like that explanation, Ned would've easily overheard/saw Peter and freaking Wolverine talking in their hotel room. It would've fixed all the errors the plauged the reveal of the Hobgoblin in the first place. Why was the Hobgoblin killed by five grunts so easily? Answer: he let them. the healing factor(which was so important in Normans return) simply healed his slit throat after he had been buried. The purpose?: To lull Pete into a false sense of security, and later use the knowledge of everything he attained in Clone Genesis against him.
