--Green Goblin on TV--

I remember how excited I was when I learned that Fox was going to do an all new animated series of the Amazing Spider-Man. And I remember just how happy I was when they showed a preview of the series, which was "The Night of the Lizard." It was a rather good little piece I thought. The animation was fluid and fresh, Peter and Jameson's voices were perfect and the setting was just pure Spider-Man. I couldn't wait to see Mysterio, Dr. Octopus, Chameleon, Venom, Hobgoblin, Vulture and most of all, the Green Goblin make their appearences.

And when they did, oh how did it suck.

"Spider-Man the Animated series" had the potential to be a really, really good show. But with idiotic censors (I mean, c'mon, Spidey couldn't even throw a punch at someone, no one could die and no real guns) and the writer apparently directing the scripts at audiences about five or younger, the show was more of pain than a pleasure to watch.

And of course, the thing that bothered me most was the absolute lack of not just the Green Goblin, but GOOD Spidey villians! The first season introduced a number of classic bad guys: Doc Ock, Lizard, Mysterio, Chameleon, Kraven etc...but after that...everything went downhill fast. It seems that Morbius got more episodes than Venom or the Goblin. Yes, you read that correctly. Frickin' Morbius!!! Hell, even the Spot got an episode! I mean, what the hell were they thinking?!?

Anyway, let's get down to business. Norman Osborn was introduced early in the series as the funder of the Spider-Slayers. As all you fanboys know, J. Jonah Jameson funded them, not our lovable Norm. But anyway, from the get go, this is a much different Norman Osborn than in the comics. First off, he's a whiny little bitch who toadies to the Kingpin and tries to backstab everyone. Not the stone cold, doesn't fear anyone, badass we've come to love in the comics. No, this Norman Osborn has someone trying to kill him every five minutes and then Spidey has to come and save his sorry ass. This isn't my Norman Osborn!

One of the major changes was that the Hobgoblin came before the Green Goblin. A rather pointless change, but it's tolerable. On "Shades of Green", the author revealed that the Green Goblin's memory had somewhat faded and the younger generation was much more familar with the Hobgoblin than his green predecessor. Frustrated about being under the Kingpin's thumb, Osborn decides to hire a hitman and equip him with all kinds of neat Goblin gizmos and doohickeys to whack the Kinpin. Sounds interesting, but Norman still acts like a bitch in these two episodes where Hobby kidnaps his son and Norman has to resort to working with Spidey AND the Kingpin! Ouch.

Osborn disapears for a while in the second season until he tries a hostile takeover on Adrian Toomes who is really...the Vulture! (Another classic villian that the writers took their sweet ass time getting on screen) And guess what he tries to do? Kill Norman Osborn! Twice! And then he tries to go for Harry! Damn, in this series, those Osborn's are prone to danger.

The Green Goblin finally made his appearence halfway through the series. Damn, what took you so long, Gobby? I have to admit, the Goblin's first episode was actually very good. I fell in love with Neil Ross' Goblin voice, which is the epitome of the Green Goblin. The first plot was amusing, which had Norman Osborn missing in an explosion (yep, the big one) and resurfaced as his alter ego. He then went on a kidnapping spree of his board of directors, whom he believed had led him into ruin. In the final scene, the Goblin puts on a mock court hearing, (judge's robe and all) and unveils the Justice statue to now have a Goblin head screaming "For justice, is blind no longer!"

Now I have to admit, that's pretty cool. Too bad it didn't last. The next Goblin episode comes in the same season that pits him against his creation, the Hobgoblin. Having no super powers (how'd he stand up to Spidey?) Gobby easily beats him and steals from him, the Time Dialation Accelator. This was so forced into the series so that no one would have to die. In case you don't know what it was, think of a little machine that opens swirling black portals that you can walk through. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyhoo, the Goblin uses it to find out Spidey is Peter Parker and cooks up an evil scheme to destroy that web spinning do gooder once and for all! In the episode "Turning Point", which is really just a cut up story with scenes stolen from old Spidey comics, nothing original, the Goblin ends up knocking Mary Jane (not Gwen) into one of those portal thingies. Spider-Man doesn't see this and assumes she drowned in the water. Of course the censors don't let him say this and he has to replace 'dead' with 'gone'.

The Goblin's classic death scene is also toned down for the kiddies, with him getting knocked back into a portal by his glider. All in all, this episode could have been perfect, good animation, good voice acting, but with those silly puritanical censors, it was like they did "The Death of Gwen Stacy: FOR KIDS!" Ugh.

Something very interesting to note her though. This is the first time that there is very distinct Goblin and Osborn personalities. The Goblin has his own voice and Osborn has his. It was somewhat like this in the comics, but Osborn invented the guise of the Goblin as his alter ego. This Goblin/Osborn Green Goblin was also used in the movie as well.

Next Installment: I plan to show you the horrors Fox unleashes when they make Harry into the Goblin and the two very similar Goblin episode from the 1980's series. Regards!

BTW, all these images came from Matt's Spider Man Unlimited and Animated Series Page Thanks a lot!