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In 1973, Marvel Comics did the unthinkable and killed Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man #121 (1973). One issue later, the Green Goblin met his demise in Amazing Spider-Man #122 (1973). Today it’s not uncommon for a major comic book character to die (and get resurrected), but in 1973 this was revolutionary. Not only had Amazing Spider-Man writer, the late Gerry Conway, killed Spider-Man’s girlfriend, but he also killed a longtime member of his rogues’ gallery, a character who had been around since Amazing Spider-Man #14 (1964).

As Conway explains, the Green Goblin’s death became necessary after he had killed Gwen Stacy.

“I did want to kill off the Goblin because I felt if you raise the stakes by killing off Peter’s girlfriend, you have to punish the man who did it, whether Spider-Man does it or not. Also, I thought it would have been unsatisfying to just throw him in jail, because then he could get out,” Gerry Conway says during a spotlight panel at San Diego Comic Con 2013.

There was no ambiguity with the Green Goblin’s death. Norman Osborn was impaled with his own glider on panel, and a corpse was seen. One issue later, we see paramedics dragging out his dead body. Despite this the character would turn up alive in Amazing Spider-Man #418 (1996). It turns out the formula he used to become the Green Goblin also had healing properties.

Gerry Conway felt the Green Goblin needed to be punished for killing Gwen, and while he did return from the grave, spending 23 years dead has to count for something.

Marvel's most reliable superhero has proven he can do a whole lot more than just 'whatever a spider can.' Swing into Spidey's history with Popverse's...

• Best Spider-Man comic books 
• The best Spider-Mans (or is it Spider-Men?)
• Spider-Man movie watch order
• Spider-Man's actors, ranked
• The best Spider-Man suits
• and the Spider-verse explained!

Just watch out for that radioactive blood.