Episode #31 - Enter the Green Goblin
Original Airdate May 18, 1996

Harry's father Norman Osborn disappears after an explosion at his chemical plant. Spidey's search for his friend's father one way or another meets with complications, namely an airborne fiend who calls himself the Green Goblin!

Credits
Story By: John Semper
Written By: Marty Isenberg and Robert Skir
Music Composed By: Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi
Animation Services By: Toyko Movie Shinsha (TMS)
Guest Starring: Christopher Daniel Barnes as Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Neil Ross as Norman Osborne/The Green Goblin, Ed Asner as J. Jonah Jameson, Roscoe Lee Brown as The Kingpin and Sara Ballantine as Mary Jane.

Review: This is where the purists thought the writers screwed up. There is the argument that the Green Goblin should have premiered before The Hobgoblin, after all, in the comics, Green Goblin premiered 20 years before Hobby, by the time Hobby showed up, Norman was long dead. Only not really, as Marvel, geniuses that they are, brought him back in the 90’s.

As faithful as this series liked to be with the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko/John Romita Jr. stories, I’m personally glad they didn’t here. Norman was already a well developed well before he put on those silly goblin boots; he was a titan of industry, and an overworked one at that. I thought this series absoloutly nailed The Goblin too. Given how bad his character would later become in the comics at the time, I was just happy to see that this version was throughly entertaining. Neil Ross also brought the perfect voice to the character. He could seemlessly transfrom from Osborne back to Goblin. The spilt personality version of The Green Goblin has always been my favourite even topping Mark Millar's awesome, ruthless Goblin in his run on Marvel Knights: Spider-Man. Highly recommended reading there, for those interested in the Spider-Man comics.

One of the things most noticeable about this episode is it’s pacing, it’s much slower than most of the episodes, especially the later season two episodes, which were told at a breakneck pace. The mystery is also well done, especially with Harry’s attitude throughout the episode. He actually showed backbone! Barely any of the annoying characteristics he has were displayed here. Unfortunatly, the same couldn't be said when he would become The Green Goblin.

The animation was gorgeous throughout; it almost matched Night Of The Lizard. Very little repeated animation was used here; it was obvious someone in charge wanted a better-looking episode. The majority of The Goblin episodes were above average both in writing and animation. It's odvious someone on the staff had great love for him.

On a final note, it was an exceptional episode, which stood out as one of the best the series ever did. If this type of quality control had been carried out on all the series, it would’ve been so much better.