Dr. Octopus is the Spider-Man villain with resonance. The Goblin is honestly just a garden-variety psychopath with a silly costume and a lot of power; there’s never been anything special about the Goblin himself. One of the most overrated villains in comics and always has been.
Now, if we were talking about Harry Osborn rather than Norman, this would be a different thing entirely; Harry Osborn is fascinating, and his gradual, sometimes unwilling collapse into villainy and final redemption is one of the truly great Spider-Man stories, both for his own descent and Peter’s reaction to it.
Goblin was a great villian. He should have just stayed dead.
Charles Williams
I'll never understand why people say Spider-Man 2 is better than Spider-Man 1. Willem Defoe as Norman Osborn is THE superhero movie performance. Only one that can compete with it is Ledger's Joker.
Chase Reed
Goblin and Ock serve different roles as threats to Spider-Man. While Ock is the more evil bad guy, he's not as personal as, unlike Goblin, he has a sense of honor. He is a human being after all, and acts like one that hasn't gone insane. The Green Goblin is Spidey's most personal threat. Any time he appears, none of Peter's loved ones are safe. This makes a large difference as the Goblin, unlike more insane characters like Joker, is actually smart enough to fuck with Peter where it truly hurts. Unlike Ock, who couldn't care much about who Peter is under the mask, the Goblin would weaponize it to make him suffer. This works too with Venom and Carnage, which do add a bit to Peter. Venom acts as a threat to keep Parker paranoid, one that's just as powerful as him and fast, but with the added ability of being able to bypass his Spidey Sense. When Peter's sound asleep Venom could be stalking him, waiting to crush Parker like the insect he is. And that's what makes him such a good villain. Carnage, despite being what some might call a ripoff of the Joker (and also mostly not even Peter's arch-nemesis), adds a little bit to it too. Unlike the others, Peter can't beat him in a one on one duel at all, and Carnage's personality defines it. While Peter will be serious against the Goblin, Venom, and Ock, with Carnage his life just comes crumbling down due to the fact that he actively kills, something Uncle Ben would never want. And Peter can never stop his rampages alone, to the point where upon seeing the Green Goblin with the Carnage symbiote, he noped the fuck outta there as fast as he could.
It seems clear to me that Doc Ock, Green Goblin, and Venom are Spider-Man top 3 nemeses (in some order). Who would be to 4th and 5th to round out a top 5?
Hunter Peterson
Jameson and the Hobgoblin.
Dylan Parker
>Jameson kek >Hobgoblin Feels wrong having 2 goblins in the top 5. I'd rather see Kraven and Kingpin. If you want to argue that it's wrong to have Kingpin because he's become primarily a Daredevil nemesis over the years, then Sandman in his place
Elijah Flores
Goblin is the themed-gadget making plotting, plotting schemer villain Doc Ock is the evil genius villain that builds robots and doomsday machines Venom is the evil twin doppelganger
They all fit in their own way, but are not exactly unique. If anything Goblin does a little better than the standard maniacal laughing jokster type since he knows Peter personally and has history with him. And Otto is the mad scientist that is pretty good in a fight when his plans fall apart and he fights Spidery head on in the final act. Venom is a pretty standard dark reflection type though.
Benjamin Campbell
OP has never seen Norman try and hold onto his sanity while he slowly slips back into his old habits? Damn man, you need to read some more comics with Norman in them.
Jameson isn't really a nemesis, he's just some guy who really hates Spider-Man
Angel Diaz
Deodato's Tommy Lee Jones version of Norman will always be how I see the character in my mind
Parker Lewis
Homecoming was so-so, but Keaton was fucking great.
Christopher Foster
Kraven and Hobbie.
Wyatt Harris
Honestly? I preferred when Green Goblin was a split personality of Norman Osbourne instead of simply Norman being his true self behind the mask. Could've been far better than what we had before that retcon. A Jekyll and Hyde villain feels much more interesting.
Daniel Hernandez
Sandman and/or Mysterio and/or Electro
Thomas Green
They maybe two goblins, but they have two very different methods to them. The moment a Green Goblin is a personal villain who targets Peter specifically, while the Hobgoblin target is larger and usually affects those around Pete.
Add to that Pete is the reason the Hobgoblin exists. Those factors alone add him to the top tier of Spidey villains.
See I was hoping for Vulko to have a heel turn and be the real villain of Aquaman but I still like what we got.
Benjamin Clark
Fair point
Lucas Bailey
I mean, I know what you meant, but the point of the jekyll and hyde story is that IS your inner self behind the mask of politeness, and by trying to remove it, all you really do is push it somewhere dangerous. If a split personality isn't your true self, then where the hell does it come from? (i mean in real life it's usually completely manufactured)
Joseph Ortiz
Well, first there’s the retreading of things we as the audience already know, namely the death of Uncle Ben, the bite, etc. It’s not really a problem for me, but some get tired of seeing the same origin story again and again.
Second, I think most people just relate to Doc Ock better than Gobby. Doc Ock at the end isn’t all bad, just temporarily deranged. And at the beginning, Doc Ock is a charming person, unlike Gobby who always seemed a bit off already. Also, Norman is a dick to Harry, basically, so that doesn’t earn him favors. Doc Ock on the other hand, seems strangely approachable.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Defoe’s performance, but there’s more humanity in Doc Ock through the script than the other allows. Especially at the end where the theme of dreams comes full round again.
Also that fight scene on the train is pure kino. But I’d say Spider-Man is the second best film after 2, with them being interchangeable depending upon taste.
That just makes him another Lizard, and even then, I never cared about that approach. Norman was always a bastard, though. He framed his lab partner for embezzlement just so he could completely own the formula that turned him into the Goblin.
Luke Howard
This. Other answer is wrong
Aaron Allen
Zdarsky really nailed Osborn's character on Life Story #1
Green Goblin is more than that. He represents the sociopathic CEO, and how thin the line between self-interest/ambition and evil is. He just ends up dipping into psychopath territory and it's great. I kind of hated how they turned Netflix's Kingpin into that. He should be intimidating but he didn't need to be insane.
Alexander Hernandez
Mysterio and Kraven. I think the movie did an okay job with Vulture without including the lifesteal stuff though.
Xavier Gonzalez
Electro is an overrated villain and I have no idea why. I even prefer Rhino and The Lizard to him.
Thomas Edwards
After reading The Real Clone Saga, and being annoyed they threw Harry's Spectacular Spider-Man #200 death and development under the bus. I realized that you could tack another level of cloning onto it.
Have Spider-Man retort that the evil Harry standing before him could be a clone for all he knows. Maybe Harry sacrificed himself in a moment of lucidity or maybe he didn't.
