The nephew of Ben Urich of the Daily Bugle, Phil stumbles upon one of Harry Osborn's old Goblin hideouts.
[5] His intentions are pure, but he accepts funds from a secret benefactor to rescue the Runaways during the "True Believers" story arc.
The groups vows to only don their uniform one last time and help the Runaways defeat Ultron's clone.
The team vows not to use their powers again, but Mattie Franklin secretly uncovers a MGH drug ring.
[7] Urich is next seen in the Big Time storyline in New York helping out his uncle at the new Front Line offices.
Bella Fishback, one of the workers at the think tank, is able to disrupt the sonic waves to save Spider-Man, but Urich escapes with the Reverbium he had come to steal.
[11] Spider-Man and the Black Cat fight Urich and the Kingpin to retrieve the experimental metal.
During the fight, Urich's Lunatic Laugh causes the building to collapse, but he saves the Kingpin from falling to death.
Urich's jealousy of Randy also causes him to break a support beam when Alistair Smythe's Spider-Slayers attack the Front Line offices.
[17] Urich infiltrates a prisoner transport headed to The Raft to kill the Human Fly for stealing money from the Kingpin.
Although it initially appears to have failed, Peter Parker later realizes that it has intensified the spider-sense, causing it to react to the most minor of threats.
Both Hobgoblins end up fighting Spider-Man but ultimately give up as Kingsley decides to just kill Urich instead.
[23] Following the assault on Shadowland, the Hobgoblin goes to Tinkerer and requests upgrades to his gear in order to survive Superior Spider-Man's aggressive campaign.
He escapes, but not before Superior Spider-Man manages to put tracers deep enough into Urich's skin to hear his name over the transmitters.
[24] With his Hobgoblin identity revealed to the public, Urich desperately makes excuses as his Daily Bugle co-workers turn against him.
[28] Learning of his nephew's identity, Ben attempts to arrange a meeting to talk Phil down and convince him to accept a cure for the Goblin formula.
He meets with Mister Negative where they wait for Eel to show up in order to divide the criminal underground following Osborn's defeat.
Black Cat mentions to Goblin King and Mister Negative that Spider-Man had outed them and wants a share in their plans.
Following the attack, Missile Mate is convinced by Urich that the Hobgoblin would soon abandon the heroes that were trained.
Goblin King is reluctant, but Missile Mate shows him that he has also gathered all the supervillains that the Hobgoblin had "abandoned" (consisting of 8-Ball III, Killer Shrike II, Melter III, Tiger Shark II, and Unicorn IV) after becoming a good guy.
[34] Due to ingestion of a modified version of Norman Osborn's "Goblin Formula", Urich gains superhuman strength (able to lift upwards of 9 tons), stamina, durability, speed, and reflexes.
He also possesses a so-called "Lunatic Laugh" capable of creating sound waves disorienting to most people.
Other weapons Urich typically uses are incendiary Pumpkin Bombs capable of melting through 3 inches (76 mm) of steel, smoke and gas-emitting bombs with an appearance like a ghost, razor-edged bat-shaped boomerangs and gloves woven with micro-circuited filaments capable of discharging nearly 1,000 volts of electricity.
[10] He still retains his "Lunatic Laugh" from when he was the Goblin and he also has superhuman strength, speed, durability, stamina, reflexes and senses, and enhanced intellect.
[12] In the MC2 timeline, Phil Urich marries his girlfriend Meredith Campbell and becomes a forensic scientist and friend of Peter Parker.