MTG Players Confused About One Small Spider-Man Detail

Last updated on March 6, 2025

Green Goblin, Nemesis | Illustration by Dan Dos Santos

A surprising amount of uproar has been heard over one doctor's lack of octopus status! Doc Ock is many things; a human, a scientist, and a villain, but he is apparently not an octopus. But was anyone actually expecting Wizards to stoop so low as to put “doctor octopus” in the card's typeline? No, that would be just silly, right?

Well, contrast him with another Spider-Man villain… Green Goblin! This Spidey nemesis is indeed a goblin, so perhaps you can understand the uproar!

The Community Reacts

This topic was popular enough to generate a full 20-minute video by content creator Pleasant Kenobi! In it, he went over the character Green Goblin, fantasy goblins in general, and what makes something an actual bonafide “goblin.” One point he focused on was that while he didn't believe the card cleared the flavor of being an actual goblin, goblins are popular enough in MTG that making him a goblin had utility.

Of course, this video alone generated more than enough conversation (600+ comments within a day), and Reddit's been having a field day with this creature typeline since it was previewed. “It's almost like slapping non-Magic characters into existing worlds causes practical issues. Weird,” says gartho009, clearly taking a jap at the hotly contested Universes Beyond line-up for MTG.

An Official Response

Head Designer Mark Rosewater gave a full response to the question, which had been popular enough to merit him weighing in:

“This seems to be a popular question, so let me explain how we reached the decision we did.

Many characters in Marvel are metaphorically connected to various creatures. Spider-Man, in particular, is known for having an animal-themed rogue’s gallery. The question came up early when does a character get a creature type that is thematically connected to them?

The line we decided to draw was does the character have any elements of that creature type within them physically? For example, Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man because a spider bite infuses him with some spider DNA. He has spider powers because he is, from a genetic level, part spider. Dr. Octopus, in contrast, is not part Octopus. He has eight appendages, like an Octopus, but he is not, in any way, part Octopus.

Which brings us to to the Green Goblin. Norman Osborn becomes the Green Goblin because he takes a potion that alters his DNA. In the Ultimate version of the story (The Ultimate comics tackled familiar characters, but took a different spin on them), he literally becomes a Goblin. So, the big question was does the Green Goblin have Goblin DNA?

It’s a hard question to answer, because the Marvel Universe is built on the real world, and Goblins don’t exist in the real world. But Marvel has many fantastical elements. What does it mean to be a Goblin in the Marvel universe? The Green Goblin is such a big character, that his mere existence has warped what being a Goblin means. In some ways, the concept of what a Goblin is, in the Marvel universe, is shaped by the existence of Green Goblin.”

Well played, Rosewater. But now for an even more pressing question: Why isn't Green Goblin green?

Response to the Response

This all led to a massive reddit thread with nearly 1,000 upvotes and lots of discussion. Comments were largely positive to Maro's response, which gave us a coherent framework as to why the Goblin was indeed a goblin. Players will have to see if WotC sticks with this framework for Marvel sets, as there are quite a few characters that could go either way in terms of creature type! One of the top comments by AporiaParadox digs into other characters in the Spiderverse that might pose a similar issue.

Will Lizard actually be a lizard? Will Black Cat actually have the cat creature type, or just be a literal reprint of Black Cat? What about Scoprion? Or Vulture? Time will tell, but for now the question remains: Is Green Goblin supposed to be a goblin?