Universe
Marvel Universe

Real Name
Unrevealed

Aliases
Shapeshifter, Shifter

Identity
Secret

Citizenship
Shi'ar

Place of Birth
Unrevealed planet in the Shi'ar Empire

First Appearance
X-Men #107 (1977)

Hobgoblin was a member of the Imperial Guard, a multi-ethnic group of super-powered alien beings who act as enforcers of the laws of the Shi'ar Empire. Under his original Guardsman name of Hobgoblin, he was amongst the first of the Imperial Guard encountered by the team of superhuman mutant adventurers known as the X-Men who sought to rescue the Princess-Majestrix Lilandra from her insane brother, then-Majestor D'ken. Following the orders of their emperor, the Guard clashed with the X-Men and were on the verge of winning when the band of interstellar freebooters known as the Starjammers arrived to turn the tide of battle in the X-Men's favor.

Later, after the formerly-exiled Deathbird had usurped the Shi'ar throne from her sister, Lilandra, Hobgoblin was amongst those Imperial Guard members who clashed with the British team of costumed adventurers known as Excalibur and the Starjammers over the fate of the then-bearer of the cosmic Phoenix Force, the alternate future daughter of the X-Man Jean Grey named Rachel Summers.

During the war between the Shi'ar and Kree Empires, Hobgoblin was one of a small contingent of Guardsmen that were dispatched by then-Empress Lilandra to retrieve both the famous Nega-Bands of the Kree warrior Captain Mar-vell as well as the powerful device known as the Omni-Wave-Projector. These devices were needed to create the Nega-Bomb - the weapon that ended the war by killing 90% of the Kree population.

Months later, the Imperial Guardsman named Delphos foresaw a planned assassination attempt on Empress Lilandra, and it was decided that Hobgoblin would impersonate the Empress at an official ceremony on the planet Kritnah welcoming the Spartoi race into the Shi'ar Empire, just as he had done numerous times before. Even with all possible precautions taken, the act was carried out by Black Bolt - a member of the royal family of the Earth race known as the Inhumans under the control of the Kree soldier named Ronan the Accuser who sought revenge on the Shi'ar - and Hobgoblin was killed in the line of duty, sacrificing his life so that his Empress may live.

Soon after his death, another member of Hobgoblin's race - the changeling named Mistur - was seen as one of a group of intergalactic bounty hunters that sought to claim the bounty that had been placed on the Inhuman Black Bolt's head.