Foreigner (comics) - Publication History

Publication History

Writer Peter David created the Foreigner as a master assassin character to be a nemesis for Spider-Man. According to David, the character was designed to bear a strong resemblance to Patrick McGoohan. The character's voice was first heard on a telephone in a scene in Web of Spider-Man #15 (June 1986), which was written by David Michelinie, but did not make a full, visual appearance until later that year in The Spectacular Spider-Man #116 (July 1986).

That year, at a meeting spearheaded by editor Jim Owsley in which the writers on the various Spider-Man titles discussed the upcoming revelation of the identity of the Hobgoblin, another Spider-Man villain, and who the unmasked villain would be. Although the consensus was that it would be supporting character Ned Leeds, and the various clues planted in The Amazing Spider-Man by Tom DeFalco went in that direction, DeFalco's acrimonious departure from that book, and the fact that many readers had correctly guessed Leeds as the Hobgoblin's alter ego provoked reservations on the part of the writers, who considered changing the revelation of his identity. Owsley suggested the Foreigner, but David was opposed to this, arguing that the Foreigner's signature identity was that he was "low profile" and that he did not engage in easily seen crimes while wearing gaudy, conspicuous costumes. David also pointed out that the Foreigner first appeared after Hobgoblin, and that attempting to establish that they were one and the same would "cheat" the reader. Owsley relented, and it was eventually decided that Hobgoblin would be Ned Leeds, and that he would be assassinated by agents of the Foreigner. (This would later be retconned in the 1997 miniseries Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives, in which Roderick Kingsley was revealed as the true original Hobogoblin.)