The Marvel Cinematic Universe is chock full of some fantastic villains, with the likes of Thanos, Killmonger, and Arthur Harrow managing to wow audiences with their drive and complexity, while the small glimpse we’ve gotten of Kang the Conqueror enraptured us through charismatic gravitas alone.
But very few of the MCU’s villains have managed to claim a spot among the very best using nothing but their ability to induce fear in the hearts of heroes and audiences alike, and one such villain didn’t even debut in the MCU originally.
Indeed, the people of r/MarvelStudios are singing the praises of Green Goblin, who made his MCU debut with Spider-Man: No Way Home, and whose spine-chilling facial ticks and pitch-black heart could make us forget all about the typical world-threatening stakes that tend to plague the MCU.
Many responders attributed the fear factor of Willem Dafoe’s Goblin to the character being an extremely familiar threat for many; it’s easy to shrug off genocidal aliens on account of them not existing, but a psychopath hellbent on making your life miserable is an infinitely more plausible experience for the average moviegoer.
Other users gave the credit to Dafoe himself, who has proven to be one of Marvel’s greatest casting choices since he first appeared in 2002’s Spider-Man opposite Tobey Maguire; the deftness with which he switches between states of mind and his pitch-perfect Goblin growl simply cannot be overlooked.
It lead to one user contemplating what Green Goblin would do if he were pitted against the likes of Captain America or Iron Man, since one of his trademark tactics is psychological torment.
Indeed, we may never see an MCU villain that can terrify us quite as much as Green Goblin did. For those of you that missed out on Dafoe’s chilling performance in theaters, Spider-Man: No Way Home — The More Fun Stuff Version, an extended cut of the film, is set to begin a worldwide theatrical run on August 31, landing in the United States on September 1.