Stern was unhappy with the Hobgoblin's civilian identity revelation was Leeds and wrote the three-issue miniseries "Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives" in 1997, with the retcon that Kingsley was the original Hobgoblin while Leeds was brainwashed into serving as a fall guy, Macendale is killed off, and Kingsley returned. According to Stern, initially he had not known how to resolve the situation of having two Hobgoblins, and it was at the suggestion of the editorial staff that Kingsley kill Macendale and return to operating as the Hobgoblin.