It's pretty much a fact of life concerning superhero movies these days that certain aspects of the original stories will be embellished, retooled, or downright scrapped in the transition from page to screen. But there are still a number of constants that each one seems to retain in the interest of consistency and maybe a little tradition. Superman is an alien from Krypton, Batman's parents die, and Spider-Man has a cool aunt. Comic book fans love the classics, after all.
But there's one element of the latter's various retellings that seems to come and go with each variation. This refers to the idea of Peter Parker's best friend eventually becoming a villain. In the comics, that best friend was Peter's fellow science geek and child of privilege, Harry Osborn. But things took a turn with the current Spider-Man continuity, which depicts Tom Holland's version of the hero palling around with his buddy Ned Leeds (played by Jacob Batalon). While Ned appeared in the comics, he was a much different character and never became the villain that Harry devolved into. But what if their stories were a bit more parallel?
That's where Hungarian Photoshop artist and comic book fan m.design34 comes in. They took their talents to Instagram for an alternate universe take depicting Batalon's character as classic Spider-Man villain Hobgoblin. While Ned himself is often more of a comic relief character in the movies (though he still has his moments to shine), this artwork looks surprisingly menacing with a snazzy costume to boot. Colorful combat armor and a dashing hood give Ned's usually upbeat expression an oddly intimidating look, only enhanced by the slight red tinge in his eyes.
Oddly enough, this idea wasn't necessarily just plucked from thin air. Sure, the movie version of Ned is a nerdy and snarky kid like Peter. But in the comics, he's more often shown as a reporter at the Daily Bugle and even ended up marrying Betty Brant (notably played by Elizabeth Banks in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy). However, he also donned the Hobgoblin mantle briefly, which only happened due to his being brainwashed by the real Hobgoblin into becoming a scapegoat. As a result, he was tragically killed by a mercenary who mistook him for the actual villain.
So on that note, hopefully the current movie version of Ned won't meet a similar end. The funny thing is, Spider-Man: No Way Home is apparently going to be dealing with multiple universes itself, so it would technically be possible to see an alternate Ned who more closely resembles his comic book counterpart. After all, if Alfred Molina can return as Doc Ock and both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield can reprise their respective Spider-Man roles, then this would be child's play.
As unlikely as it is to actually happen, m.design34's artwork is still an impressive little piece of work. Since the current phase of Marvel movies seems to be going all-in on the multiverse idea, maybe fan art like this will end up being more and more relevant. If nothing else, more art of Captain Carter and Captain America just being happy together would be most welcome.
Source: m.design34|Instagram