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Norman Osborn

The Green Goblin is a Marvel Comics supervillain who is the greatest enemy of Spider-Man. The Green Goblin dresses in a garish green costume resembling a goblin and uses an arsenal of high-tech weapons, notably grenade-like "pumpkin bombs", and rides on a personal flying device. The Green Goblin was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in Amazing Spider-Man #14.

The Green Goblin in comic books

The original Goblin was Norman Osborn, a corrupt industrialist who cofounded a major technology firm with partner, Dr. Mendel Stromm. To seize total control, Osborn had Stromm framed for embezzlement and then searched his possessions, discovering a experimental intelligence enhancement formula. When Osborn attempted to create the serum, it turned green and exploded in his face. The accident changed Osborn, greatly increasing his intelligence and strength, but also drove him insane.

In his new madness, Osborn adopted the bizarre identity of the Green Goblin with the goal of becoming the Boss of organized crime. This was intended to be complemented by defeating Spider-Man, a notorious, but relatively low powered, opponent whom he was confident he could defeat to enhance his reputation. To this end, Osborn created a personal flying device, which started in a broomstick-like shape and evolved into his Goblin Glider, and personal weapons like grenades shaped as pumpkins, bladed projectile weapons called razorbats, and glove blasters which fired energy blasts from his fingers. Thus equipped, Osborn set out to achieve his twin goals, only to be frustrated at every turn by Spider-Man.

Frustrated, Osborn decided to lie low until he was sure his enemy's guard was down. When he was ready, Osborn arranged to have Spider-Man exposed to a special gas designed to suppress his spider sense. With that done, Goblin shadowed him until he learned Spidey's real identity of Peter Parker and then captured him. In turn, Osborn revealed his own identity to Peter and ranted about his origin and his intentions of killing his greatest enemy, before releasing Peter to do battle. Peter defeated Osborn, who lost his memory and had his costume destroyed by Spider-Man to eliminate his menace.

For a long while, the Goblin personality periodically re-emerged in Osborn to bedevil Spider-Man, only to be forced down in turn when he was defeated. Finally, the Goblin took control one final time and threatened Spider-Man's love, Gwen Stacy, by kidnapping her and taking her to the top of a bridge in New York City. In the resulting battle, the Goblin let Gwen fall and Spider-Man's attempt to save her failed. With blood in his eyes, Spider-Man pursued The Goblin for revenge, but managed to control himself after defeating him in battle. In one final attempt to kill him, the Goblin tried to spear Spider-Man with his remote control glider, only to find himself impaled when Spider-Man avoided the attack. The Goblin was presumed dead for years.

As it turned out, Harold "Harry" Osborn, Norman's son and Peter's friend, saw the battle and took pains to cover up his father's Goblin identity and manner of death. Already mentally weakened with a serious bout with narcotics, he blamed Spider-Man for his father's death, and upon learning Peter's identity, planned his revenge as the second Green Goblin. Peter managed to subdue him in battle that left Harry in police custody where his claims of Peter Parker being Spider-Man were dismissed along with his claims of being the Green Goblin as the ravings of a man who was obviously insane. He was put under the medical care of Dr. Barton "Bart" Hamilton who managed to make Harry bury his vendetta and Goblin memories in his subconscious. Unfortunately, Dr. Hamilton gained the insane ambition of using Harry's secrets to gain the same power the Osborns had as the third Green Goblin. Eventually in his attempt, the underpowered amateur was killed and the Goblin menace was buried yet again.

Later, fashion designer Roderick Kingsley discovered an abandoned secret lair of Norman Osborn's and set about to discover the rest of Osborn's equipment and records. With much of that accomplished, Kingsley created a variant of the Goblin identity as the Hobgoblin, who plagued Spider-Man for months while manipulating innocents to hide his identity.

Still later, Harry's insanity relapsed and he became the Green Goblin again on numerous occasions until he died from the side effects of a modfied Goblin serum. His equipment and the identity of the Green Goblin was then briefly used by Philip Benjamin "Phil" Urich, who tried to gain a reputation as super-hero - though he sometimes seemed to be as maniacal as his villainous predecessors. When his equipment was damaged during a battle against a Sentinel in the Onslaught Crossover, Phil was unable to repair or replace it and the fourth Green Goblin had to retire.

Soon after that it was revealed that Norman Osborn is still alive and is determined to plague Spider-Man's life still more, but with a more subtle approach. For a while a genetic construct acted as the fifth Green Goblin, following Norman's orders, but it proved unstable and died. Currently, Norman still acts as the Green Goblin. Of all the Goblins, he has proved to be the most formidable and the most resourceful.

The Green Goblin in Other Media

Animated Series

The 1960s animated television series had first depiction of the Goblin. Fans have criticized it for getting the character completely wrong. For instance, the Goblin is depicted as a dimwitted robber who is obsessed with magic and the supernatural. Those were fields of expertise that Norman Osborn in the comics was never interested in, considering his preference for high technology and bigger plans for criminal power.

The 1980s series depicted Osborn as something closer to The Lizard with a serious medical problem of physically and uncontrollably changing into the Goblin ala Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The 1990s series had Osborn as an unwilling minion of The Kingpin who bankrolled The Hobgoblin long before the laboratory accident affected his mind to become the Green Goblin.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Live Action Feature Films

While the Green Goblin has appeared numerous times in the various animated series, the first live action appearance was in the blockbuster feature film Spider-Man (2002), which starred Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn. Gwen Stacy is not in the movie, and instead, Mary Jane Watson is threatened by the Green Goblin.

His son, Harry Osborn feels resentful towards him as the father seems to favor Peter Parker, his friend. Norman Osborn is the head of Oscorp, a company that has a contract with the United States Military. Osborn becomes Green Goblin during tests of his device, and kills a co-worker. When a man dies in the test of a flight machine, the military decides to hand over the contract to another company, the Green Goblin appears and kills higher-ups in the military who were present. Osborn is later ejected out of the company by the board of directors.

The Goblin kills the board of directors at a World's Fair, and inadvertantly almost killed Mary Jane Watson. When Spider-Man finds that he is vilified in newspapers and that Mary Jane is going out with Harry, the Green Goblin tries to get Spider-Man on his side, but Spider-Man refuses.

The enraged Green Goblin finds out Spider-Man's identity and he proceeds to injure Aunt May in an attack against her. He then kidnaps Mary Jane Watson and tells Spider-Man that he must choose either to save her or to save a group of children in a cable car. Both are thrown off the Queensborough Bridge, yet Spider-Man manages to save the children and Mary Jane, as opposed to the bridge scene in the comic book, which ended in the death of Spider-Man's sweetheart.

The Green Goblin gets into a final battle with Spider-Man after telling him that he plans to torture and kill Mary Jane. After being defeated, the Norman personality came in, asking Spider-Man to forgive him while at the same time secretly directing his flying machine to impale Spider-Man from behind. Spider-Man sensed the attack and dodged, and the machine killed the Green Goblin instead. His death caused Harry Osborn, his son, to hate Spider-Man.

In Spider-Man 2, Harry's obsession with defeating Spider-Man lead him into a brief alliance with Doctor Octopus, an alliance that lead to Harry's discovery of Peter's secret identity. Harry subsequently hallucinated his father in a mirror, echoing a similar scene from the first film; when Harry shattered the mirror, he discovered his father's hidden Green Goblin costume and arsenal.