--Norman Osborn: A Life, a Death and a Rebirth--
Looking back, it's hard to believe that the guest villian of "Amazing Spider-Man" 14 would grow into the most evil, cruel and manipulative powerhouse of a villian who has affected Spidey's life like no one else. After all, I will be the first to admit, the Green Goblin was awful goofy when he first appeared. We first are introduced to Gobby in the story titled "The Grotesque Adventure of the Green Goblin". A shadowy figure is in the background, working on some sort of device. Interesting that from the beginning, we know that the Green Goblin is wearing a costume and not undergoing some transformation because we see the Goblin costume hanging up in the background. Anyway, with a triumphant shout, the shadowy figure hops aboard his, "famous flying broomstick" and goes off to meet the Enforcers, a group of second string Spider villians that got fewer and fewer guest villian appearences later on.
Anyway, the Goblin convinces them to help him destroy Spider-Man and that he has the perfect plan to do it. He convinces a big time movie producer, BJ Cosmos, to make the "Spider-Man movie", and the Green Goblin would play the villian. Somehow Gobby also convinces Spider-Man and then everyone flies all the way out to Hollywood, just to fight. Eventually, Spider-Man webs up all the Enforcers and as he and the Goblin do battle inside a cave, the Incredible Hulk shows up, with a strong desire to smash. And that, brings their first battle to a close. All in all, it's not a memorable first encounter. In fact, looking back, it's pretty stupid. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back further than this.
Norman Osborn's childhood was a miserable one. His father, Amberson Osborn, was apparently at one time a successful businessman. However, when we first meet him, he is a abusive drunk as he beats his wife and screams about how he was cheated out of his "invention". His abuse on Norman was plentiful from smacking him around, to locking the young boy in a pitch black room in order to make him a "man". From an early age, Norman learned to be hard and loathe weakness. There is no indication of what happens to Amberson Osborn, but more than likely, he wasn't missed by Norman.
Later on in life, Norman enrolls in Empire State University where he meets a girl named Emily. Eventually, the two fell in love and married soon after they graduated college. For one of the first times in his life, Norman Osborn was happy. However, with the birth of their child, Harry, Emily fell ill to birth complications. She died soon afterward. Norman, it appears, never forgave Harry for taking his wife from him.
A few years later, Norman came across a man named Mendell Stromm. Already making a substaintial ammount of money from his business, Norman decided to start up a business with Stromm. Osborn put up the capital and Stromm brought along his keen knowledge of science and inventions. The two had created, Osborn Industries Incorporated.
Osborn Industries soon became the leading chemical plant in the city of New York. It made Osborn one of the richest men in the city, however, even that did not satisfy him. In Osborn's own words "I had to ruthless in business! I allowed no one to stand in my way...not even my partner!" Sure enough, when Norman found out Stromm had embellezzed money from their account, Osborn hastily called the police, despite the pleas from Stromm that he would pay it back. Swearing revenge, Stromm was carted off to prison, leaving Osborn full ownership of the company.
Greed overtook Osborn, and he began tinkering with Stromm's old notes in an effort to make more profit on them. One night, after passing up an offer from Harry to go to a Parent/Teacher conference, Norman stayed locked in his lab, working through the night on a secret formula. Just before dawn, the formula was finished and the solution turned a strange shade of green. Seconds later, the chemicals exploded into Osborn's face. Doctor's worked around the clock to save his life, but could not reach damage deep within his brain. Content that they had saved his life, Norman Osborn was released.
However, no one knew the terrible secret that the explosion had caused. The formula raised Osborn's strength to superhuman proportions. His intellegence, speed and stamina was also increased. Yet, there was a slight downside. Norman was now easily angered, which he usually took out on Harry, more ruthless in business and was now completely insane.
Norman Osborn lusted for more power, more power than he could ever obtain legally. Armed with weapons created at his chemical plant, Osborn set about creating an identity. There was one vision that kept haunting him night and day. It would appear that the explosion awoke some inner personality deep within Osborn's mind. Eventually, that personality took full control and presented itself as the Green Goblin.
Osborn had come up with a somewhat silly persona of a Halloween theme gone evil. The reason for this new identity was so Osborn would be able to take an active role in New York's crime underworld. Having power legally through a legitamate business, Norman craved power through illegal means.
However, at this time, super powered beings in colorful costumes were not that rare. To distinguish himself from all the other nutjobs in tights, the Goblin decided that if he defeated and killed Spider-Man, he would gain enough credibility become New York's new Kingpin of crime. It was a completely random choice the Goblin made. If Stan Lee wanted him in another comic, he could have become Dare Devil's greatest enemy.
Like mentioned before, the Goblin's first appearence is quite lighthearted and not what you'd except to be the beginning of what was to become a blood hatred for the two men. Gobby's next appearence was much better though, where he ambushed the wall-crawler at a meeting of the 'Spider-Man fabclub'. After the Goblin throws out all of his new fangled trinkets, (pumpkin bombs, gas ghosts, sparkle blasts and his new improved jet glider!) the Goblin apparently makes Spidey run off in absolute fear of him. In fact, as we all know, Spidey was worried only about Aunt May's heart, which happened oh so often.
The Green Goblin's reputation was pumped up quite a bit which probably made him very cocky. So cocky, that he tried to muscle in on mafia boss Lucky Lobo's gang, which would have gone according to plan...if Spider-Man hadn't interferred. The next time the two enemies met, was at ESU itself when the Goblin tried to steal a new weapon called the SRD. The battle ended in a draw, with Spidey nearly killing both of them to save a group of 'worthless rubberneckers', according to the Goblin.
The Green Goblin was still hungry for a slice of New York's crime business and formed a brief alliance with a gangster known as the Crime Master who was actually Nick Lewis. The two soon became bitter enemies, with each trying to rally the mobs in their each respective favors. Crime Master had the upper hand for a while, but Green Goblin stole his thunder when he showed up with a beaten and battered Spider-Man, whom he had recently defeated. The mobs would have fallen under the Goblin's leadership, if A) Spidey hadn't gotten loose, and B) the Police hadn't busted everyone, save Green Goblin and Crime Master, who eventually died in a gun fight with the cops the next day. Seething with hatred, the Goblin vowed to lay low for a while until his Spider-Man had totally forgotten about him, then he would return to destroy his greatest enemy.
After so many defeats, Norman decided to end the war between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. He stayed out of Spider-Man's sight for a few months, then struck when our hero least suspected. He hired a gang of thugs to spray Spidey with a chemical mist. It appeared harmless and the thugs were easily webbed up. However, unknown to Spidey, the mist had blocked out his spider sense, leaving him helpless as he changed his clothes back into Peter Parker, as the Goblin watched from afar. The Green Goblin was the first villian to know that Spider-Man was really Peter Parker.
Gobby ambushed Peter as he was walked home and taunted him with his secret identity. Enraged, Parker lunged at his enemy, only to suffer a point blank sparkle blast. The Goblin tied Peter up with steel cables and flew off to his secret warehouse near the waterfront. When the now helpless Spider-Man awoke, the Green Goblin revealed his true self to be Norman Osborn and told his tale.
Eventually, the Goblin let Spidey loose for one last battle to the death. It was not to be however, for the Goblin was knocked into a mixture of chemicals and live wires. The electro-chemical shocked robbed Osborn of any knowledge he had of his alter ego, which also saved Spider-Man's secret...for a while.
Norman Osborn was hospitalized and the papers claimed "Green Goblin dies in fire!". However, twice more, Osborn's memory returned to torment Peter Parker. Each time Spidey had to think of a new way to shock him back to his other personality of Norman Osborn. Yet, with every encounter the Goblin's hatred of Spider-Man only grew. He was determined to hurt Spider-Man, to take something from him that would leave him a broken man.
When Norman's son, Harry, overdosed on drugs, Norman's mind once again collasped and the Green Goblin returned. Deciding to destroy Parker emotionally, he kidnapped his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy and took her to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge. Spidey showed up as usual and after a short fight between the two, Osborn managed to knock Gwen off the bridge toward the waters below. Spider-Man caught her with his webbing, however created a whiplash affect which broke her neck, killing her instantly.
The Goblin taunted Spider-Man for his loss, thinking his foe would be easier to crippled to fight. However, Spider-Man became filled with rage and lunged toward Osborn, vowing to kill him. After a short scuffle, the Goblin made a hasty getaway, with Spidey right on his heels. In one of the greatest battles in all of Spidey's history, Spider-Man and the Green Goblin battled in one of Norman Osborn's town warehouses. Yet, all of the Goblin's many weapons couldn't save him from getting pummeled by a fully enraged Spider-Man who came uncomfortably close to killing Osborn for what he had done. In the last second, Spidey came to his senses and restrained himself, however, the Goblin took the oppurtunity to try and kill his greatest enemy by using his jet glider to stab him from behind. Spider-Man's danger sense saved him yet again and the Goblin took the glider's spear straight in his heart.
Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, Spider-Man's greatest foe, was dead.
For a while at least. In the immediate aftermath, Harry, who had been watching the entire battle from afar, stripped his father of the Green Goblin costume. Thinking that the world would be outraged over Norman Osborn's death, the distraught son decided to protect his father's reputation. Thinking it was his destiny to carry on the war against Parker, Harry Osborn became the Green Goblin himself and planned his revenge.
It came when Harry kidnapped Mary Jane Watson, Flash Thompson, and Peter's own Aunt May. Telling Spidey that one of them had a bomb strapped to them and would detonate unless Peter could figure out which of them was his "Most Dear". Harry began taunting Peter by saying "I told you I would have justice, Peter: An eye for an eye, a life for a--" Harry's gloating was abruptly cut short by Spider-Man punching his lights out. Parker rescued his "most dear", who turned out to be Aunt May, and sent Harry to an aslyum.
Years passed and the Green Goblin had become simply a bad memory. Yet, he was reborn in the form of the Hobgoblin! It turns out that a robber named George Hill stumbled upon Osborn's old hideouts and sold the information to businessman, Roderick Kingsley, whom promptly killed George to show his graditude. Changing the color scheme on the Green Goblin's old costumes, he adopted a new identity as the Hobgoblin, quickly becoming Spidey's new greatest enemy. However, Kingsley became bored with his dual life and hung up the orange tights and let one dimensional punk named Jason Philip Macendale play Hobgoblin. It seems Norman Osborn's legacy would become all but forgotten.
For over twenty years (our time, not Spider-Man time), Norman Osborn remained quite dead. Then our friends at Marvel got themselves in one big pickle. They had totally screwed up Spider-Man comics with the hideously melodramatic, out of continuity and complicated Clone Saga. (I'm not going to go into it, this page is long enough as it is) In short, Marvel desperately wanted to forget about Ben Reilly and the revelation that he was the "true" Spider-Man. Yet, to do this would have meant forgetting about a year's worth of Spidey comics. (which actually, wouldn't be such a bad idea!) Anyway, Marvel decided the only way they could weasel their ways out of it would be to make the entire Clone Saga one giant, overblown scheme by Norman Osborn.
Marvel explains to us (with a straight face) that Stromm's formula which gave Norman his super powers, also had an accelerated healing factor in it. The spear to Osborn's heart nearly killed him, however his heart began repairing itself and he finally woke up in the morgue. Sneaking around, he found Harry bribing the coroner to fake an autopsy report, keeping Osborn's secret safe. Not ready to reveal himself to alive just yet, Norman strangled a bum with similar facial features and placed him in his morgue drawer.
With everyone assuming Norman Osborn was dead, he decided what better time to strike against Spider-Man. Yet, when he returned to retrieve his Green Goblin equipment, he discovered Harry was already about to use it to destroy Parker himself. Watching from the shadows, he decided to let Harry carry on where he had left off for Europe to pursue other interests. Sadly, Harry died never finding out his father had truly been alive.
While in Europe, Norman came across a secret society known as the Cabal of Scrier. A centuries old cult, made up of men who shared a common goal, the acquisition of power and wealth. Needless to say, Norman was interested. He killed the Scrier's leader, taking full control of the organization. Manipulating Professor Miles Warren, aka the Jackal, Osborn sent up a plan to make Peter doubt his very humanity. Years after the Jackal had cloned Parker, Osborn pulled the right strings that brought him back to New York. Osborn was even able to convince Peter that he himself was really the clone, but to no avail.
Just so you know, I realize how absolutley stupid the entire "evil scheme" is, but hey, Marvel had dug themselves an awfully deep grave. Anyway, Norman finally decided to make his return in many years, where he 1) dawned the Goblin costume for the first time in years, 2) killed off Ben Reilly (Thank GOD!!!), 3) informed Peter that he was not a clone after all (thanks Norm) and 4) kidnapped Peter and Mary Jane's baby. The Goblin was caught in an explosion by his own pumpkin bombs, yet, it was pretty obvious that he was not dead and would return shortly.
Many believed (and still believe) that Norman's return was pointless. I remember when the Revelations story first came out, I glanced through the first issue (by then the clone saga had destroyed my interest in Spider-Man), and I was almost positive that either Gaunt or his mysterious employer was going to be revealed as Harry Osborn. So you can imagine my surprise when Gaunt was really Mendell Stromm returned from the dead and his employer was jolly old Norman Osborn! Needless to say, I was quite torn as to whether or not this one a good thing. Granted, my favorite villian of all time was back from the dead, providing a ton of new ground that could be visited. But on the other had, the character was killed before I was even born! Needless to say, I thought about it long and hard and only recently, I've come to the conclusion I'm happy that Norman is involved in the Spidey comics.
Anyway, I've gotten off track. Norman returns again and decides to do evil in a three piece suit rather than green tights. After making threats on J. Jonah Jameson's family, Osborn forced his "old friend" to sell him fifty percent of the Daily Bugle. Now, Osborn was tormenting Peter on a daily basis. He quickly became a reacurring character and even tried to convince the public that he was not the Green Goblin. He did this effectively by creating a stand in Goblin (and I do mean create, cause it was a clone or something stupid) to appear and destroy any suspicions left. He even tangled with Roderick Kingsley, aka the Hobgoblin who he felt had personally insulted with him by stealing his equipment.
For about two years, (our time, that is) Norman and Peter battled outside of their costumes. Then, Marvel decided to relaunch Spider-Man and wanted to bring their little conflict to a close, temporaily at least. To do this the apparently threw together the story appropriatly entitled, "The Final Chapter".
Norman, along with four others, participate in 'The Gathering of the Five' and supposedly gets 'the power of a God'! (oooohhhh, deep stuff!) He then decides to turn the rest of the world into big blobs of gunk and then reconstruct their DNA as he sees fit. And why does Norman, who has always Spidey's sole tormentor and advesary want to do this? Well, he's a god....and that makes perfect sense! And speaking of dumb crap, look at his costume in this story. I mean...look at it! He's not wearing his traditional purple hat but rather a little diver's cap, a stupid tattered cape and is exposing his manly Goblin chest for the world to see! What the hell is this crap?! Thanks a lot Bryne.
Sorry about that, just needed that off my chest. Anywho, the Goblin also reveals that he had faked Aunt May's death and has had her in storage for quite a long time. It appears the Aunt May that died was nothing but a "genetically altered actress". Boy, that makes sense. So then Spidey manages to beat the Goblin down (of course we don't actually see this, but we are to assume it kicks ass) and then saves the day. It appears the Gathering of the Five gave Norman the gift of complete and utter madness rather than power and is sent to an asylum, babbling and laughing hysterically. The doctors pull off his mask and are shocked to learn that Norman Osborn is really the Green Goblin! (gasp!) They're so shocked, they don't see the Scriers enter the cell, snap their necks, and bail Norm out of the looney bin.
Norman was eventually cured of his madness and returned to running his corporate empire. He decided to strike back at Parker harder than ever. He captured Spidey and locked him in an isolated and pitch black room without any food are water. His goal was to make Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man, heir to the Green Goblin.
The Goblin almost succeeded in convincing Peter to carry on after him and offered him a vile which contained Stromm's formula. But at the last moment, Spidey came to his senese and splashed the formula right back in the Goblin's face. After a brief scuffle, the Green Goblin jetted off, but not before taunting Peter that while he had bested him in every other aspect, the Goblin still beat Spidey in spirit. Spider-Man, knowning he was right, said nothing.
In the latest story, Norman visits Harry's grave and tells his dead son that he will not come and see him after what happens between Parker and him. Osborn then goes to intoxicate Peter's friend Flash Thompson, send him driving and getting him sent to the hospital and into a coma.
In perhaps what is perhaps his most shameless moments, the Green Goblin sends out a tape in which he blames Spider-Man for the death of Gwen Stacy. Using faked footage, he even goes so far as to claim he never intended to kill her and planned on saving the girl's life until Spidey's webbing snapped her neck. This is the Green Goblin at his absoulte worst, with no morals or humanity when he says "If I were that young lady's husband or boyfriend, I would never forgive that masked maniac for what he did. Spider-Man killed that poor girl..."
This story entitled "A Death in the Family" made me glad that Norman Osborn had returned from the dead. It ends on a powerful note, right at the climax of their battle, the two begin to act like old friends, as if they are the only two people on earth that truly understand the other. In tears, Peter tells Norman about how much he loved Gwen and that if he had gotten to know her as well, he never would have killed her on that fateful day. The story ends with Spider-Man saying that he doesn't truly hate the Goblin, even though he knows he should and with that, he's already triumphed over him. Osborn returns to his corporate office, defeated and humilated. Contimplating suicide, he reaches for a pistol but then puts it back at the last moment.
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