Is there some deeper lore reason why Norman chose a green Goblin as the thing to base his super villain identity on?
Is there some deeper lore reason why Norman chose a green Goblin as the thing to base his super villain identity on?
Elijah Davis
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Liam Allen
He had a cheapo halloween mask on hand
John Green
Goblin Force
Angel Wilson
He wanted to use a Donald Trump mask but he decided he didn't want to look THAT evil
Lincoln Peterson
Asher White
When Norman was a child he was attacked by a theatre performer dressed as a green goblin
Also, The theatre performer was a young uncle Ben, who’d accidentally ingested a dangerous amount of LSD and thought Norman was a giant spider
Josiah Adams
Norman is living the dream. There's a lot you can do with money, power, and supervillain ambition. Osborn instead just relaxes and gets off throwing live grenades into a crowd
Nolan Carter
he played WoW
Gabriel Gray
What's his endgame?
Anthony Peterson
Here you go
Camden Ward
It is pretty ridiculous.
All the other Spider-Man villains are pretty straight forward in why they look and act the way they are, as well as their names
Norman just woke up one day and was like “I’m a goblin lmao”
Elijah Thompson
Wow, what a dumb retcon
Wyatt Sanchez
Green was an easy color to produce for comics.
Cooper Morales
>tfw Norman respects Peter and could have been a huge positive influence in his upbringing
>If he wasn't crazy
Justin Collins
IIRC Norman’s original motivation was just to take over the organised crime in New York, and obviously didn’t want them to know it was him doing it. So he just chose a random costume idea to disguise himself that worked with the equipment he had.
Then as his madness got worse he just began developing the Green Goblin as a completely separate entity like Jekyll and Hyde
Oliver Clark
His madness from the serum and injuries probably led to him drinking his own koolaid and believing all the retcons he made about his origins
Anthony Gray
>Norman never learned what a changeling was
>Decides to call himself the green goblin
I mean
Ian Flores
Well, at one point he was going to be an ancient demon released from an Egyptian sarcophagus, if that matters.
Connor Ortiz
Interesting, source? Tell me more
Hunter Gutierrez
Well now I want to know the story behind Mister Coffee
Ayden Rivera
It's what we got
Hudson Cook
>According to Steve Ditko:
>Stan's synopsis for the Green Goblin had a movie crew, on location, finding an Egyptian-like sarcophagus. Inside was an ancient, mythological demon, the Green Goblin. He naturally came to life. On my own, I changed Stan's mythological demon into a human villain.
>Murray, Will (July 2002). "Spider Time". Starlog and Comics Scene present Spider-Man and other Comics Heroes
Parker Myers
Because Norman Osborn is an ugly goblin that will rape anything that walks.
Christian Phillips
I feel like you could do a Norman, Harry and Peter story around the theme of Changelings.
Overall I'd love more Osborn stories that lean into the idea of the fair folk.
Dylan Rogers
>Egypt
>Goblins
That would have bugged me too much.
Juan Jackson
And all he had to do was become a "Silent shareholder" for Fisk. majority shareholder.
Michael Gomez
I want a horror AU story about the Green Goblin as a halloween special.
Nolan Rivera
so from what we can gather, Norman had everything together, realized at the last minute he didn't have a name or gimmick and panicked.
Jordan Carter
yeah, higher contrast for greater readability. green is the opposite of red.
Owen Foster
This is pasta, but still:
My take on the Goblin involves the character as an ultimate corrupting force that, depending on where you look at it, either exists separately of Osborn and possesses him when it feels like it, or is simply a way for Norman to rationalize his own evil by giving it the persona of a mythological creature.
Sort of like Leland Palmer and BOB from Twin Peaks where they are clearly two different personas (one a man prone to pedestrian villainy but not incapable of empathy and the other a demonic and playful monster comprised of evil and destruction) and it gradually becomes difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins.
Maybe the Goblin is a old creature from Viking mythos who used to play with worshippers of the bear cult and turn them into shapeshifting berserkers, and who found a recipient for all it's malevolence in young Norman Osborn (after all, the name Norman comes from the normans, the "north men", and Osborn translates to "god bear").
Maybe it's haunted the Osborns for ages purely because it thought it would be funny to latch on to those who carried a surname related to it's old "playmates", and maybe it took a subtle hold over Norman's father, and grandfather, and it's been a sickness plaguing the Osborns for so long, Norman might as well have become the sickness itself.
Maybe it was gradually manufactured into existence by repeated exposure to abuse and nightmares as a child, a protective persona and frustration outlet to Norman Osborn like Spider-Man is to Peter Parker.
Maybe Norman actually wanted to be a good, noble person and supporting father figure at some point, and when he found himself unable to do so, he found it easier to blame it all on a childhood monster and a supposed other self than to admit culpability.
Maybe the Goblin didn't really have to do much at all to corrupt Norman and all it took for it to take shape was for Norman to come up with a costume to fight Spider-Man.
Grayson Turner
He was really high at the time
Leo Rodriguez
Ayden Cooper
I like that.
Xavier Gonzalez
What story is this from?
Anthony Thompson
that art makes me want to vomit
Xavier Smith
I like the mask fetish in raimi movie.
it's simple, and it's not the "muh childhood trauma" cliche
Robert Robinson
I always thought it was JJJ who named him, and by extension many of Spider Man's villains
Cameron Rodriguez
jenkins is trash
Adrian Carter
Except the Green Goblin literally referred to himself as the green goblin in his first appearance
Plus, you know, it’s not like he’s Doc Ock where he isn’t literally an octopus, but just shares qualities like the multiple arms, Green Goblin literally looks like a green goblin
Leo Nelson
Mask fetish?
Adam Lee
He also used to ride a broom
Gabriel James
Kind of off topic, but does anyone else wish we could see a green goblin with a samurai mask like pic related?
Jace Perry
If I recall Hobgoblin 2099 had an Oni thing going
Hunter Richardson
Mangaverse probably would have done it, eventually. Alas.
Jonathan Diaz
Was Norman a victim of his own insanity, or circumstance?
I mean was he pre-insane before the goblin serum, or was he a normal man driven to insanity by circumstances?
Brandon Rogers
He was an asshole before he went insane.
Mason Carter
I want to know too.
Owen Gray
Bad man made worse
Wyatt Campbell
I decided to look it up myself. It's called Death in the Family, and it's actually great
Carson Lee
Even before he was the goblin he treated his son like shit, and was a ruthless businessman.
Hell, the main reason he became insane is due to abusing the goblin serum so he could have powers/abilities to help him take over New York’s organised crime
Lucas Butler
You know, talking about his son...
I don’t think I’ve ever read a comic where Normans wife and Harry’s mom was mentioned, let alone seen
I assume she died years before the story?
Samuel Harris
even before he was insane, he had a god awful haircut.
Seriously who at marvel decided norman NEEDED shitty cornrows? I seriously thought he wore a hairnet for the longest time
Connor Cook
>Even before he was the goblin he treated his son like shit
But he cared about Harry.
Jayden Mitchell
Abusers often care about the people they abuse, doesn’t mean they arent abusing them
Grayson Morgan
>implying you’d fuck with a man who has hair like this
Dylan Allen
It doesn't matter who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you.
Jason Foster
The only one I know of that 'showed' her was in Ult Spider-Man where we see her hand as she burned to death due to Norman. Other than that she seems to have died years before the story starts
Dylan Roberts
This is the first appearance of the Green Goblin, from amazing Spider-Man issue 14
Adrian Taylor
>"I made the controls simple enough that there's no chance of a fatal error!!"
youtube.com
Austin Johnson
Joshua Moore
Ayden Johnson
to be fair it's a different glider
Jason King
bruce ?
Noah Young
Kevin Rodriguez
Levi Jones
Isaiah Reed
It was always that Emily Osborn had been the only person Norman ever truly loved, and her death turned him into a worse person.
Then Slott retconned in his red goblin story that actually she was alive and she'd faked her death to escape Norman because he was so evil. Anyway, fuck Slott.
Connor Turner
Jayden Garcia
Parker Edwards
Thomas Young
Jace Sullivan
Samuel Hernandez
Andrew Gonzalez
This is an astonishing level of hackery
Colton Hill
Matthew Gray
Christopher Ortiz
Charles James
Andrew Scott
HULK OUTTA NOWHERE
Christian Johnson
Brandon Wright
If i was him I would rape spidergwen
Andrew Cox
Hunter Howard
Robert Cruz
That was a real hairstyle at the time. Luckily people still wore hats.
Brody Roberts
>stylized BAD
Simpletons
Owen Anderson
Evan Cox
The explains why Goblin, Sandman, Mysterio, Electro, Scorpion, Vulture and Lizard are all so green. Even classic Doc Ock. You can literally compose a Sinister Six of entirely green villains
Ayden Mitchell
Isaac Taylor
I never realized the Osborns and Goblins are about generational curses passed down. The fucked up shit your great grandfather went through and did that passed onto his son, then his son, and then you - and the cycle has to end somewhere or consume the entire family into oblivion - or worse, spread outside the family unit.
Adrian Peterson
Actual Mind Goblins
Ian Powell
it goes a bit deeper too In the old days printing colors wasn't easy and everything was basically the 3 primary colors (red, blue, yellow) and 3 secondary colors (green, orange, purple) People quickly figure out primary colors worked better for heroes and secondary colors worked better for villains.
Grayson Phillips
Goblins are typically depicted a good with tools/engineering. But that's more a product of D&D since the Green Goblin came out in the 60s. Or I could be wrong
Connor James
That's it, the Goblin is the symbol for "sins of the father". The vices and values we think make us strong, but actually make us monsters. You either let go of the pain, the curse, and start over - vunerable, and weak, but with a chance at redemption - or you hold onto that pain and choose power over compassion and love. The pain is all Goblin knows. He identifies with the power and without it he's afraid that he is nothing.
Andrew Carter
I assume Green being complimentary colors with Red also played a role in that decision
Connor Butler
some day
Samuel Robinson
Very nice
Liam Mitchell
Zachary White
I always took it as a Micheal Meyers thing, its not important to him he just walked into a costume shop and grabbed the first thing he saw
Tyler Stewart
When Green Goblin was originally introduced he was a mystery villain and it wasn’t revealed he was Norman until some time later. I wonder if Stan Lee knew who the Goblin was when he introduced him or just wanted a mysterious villain and decided later on that it would be Norman. I know a popular fan theory at the time was that Green Goblin was actually Jameson. Lots of letters from fans in the old comics saying how obvious it is and that they should just reveal it. Wonder how they felt when they realised they were completely wrong.
Jace Allen
>1960's Yea Forums
Caleb Phillips
Hobby definitely had him beat in the mystery department
Dylan Gutierrez
True but that’s partly because Roger Stern got kicked off the book before he could reveal his identity and the next writer didn’t know who it was supposed to be.
Justin White
I thought Spectacular Spiderman did this great as well. Norman in that show has a huge mask fetish and it leaked into his dialogue as GG.
Isaac Gray
Ditko always had it planned how that Norman would be revealed as the Goblin, that’s why if you read early issues he’s sort of stuck in certain issues for a page or two for no real reason
Steve Ditko from his essay “The Ever Unwilling” (The Comics, Mar 2009)
“Now digest this: I knew from Day One, from the first GG story, who the GG would be. I absolutely knew because I planted him in J. Jonah Jameson’s businessmans club, it was where JJJ and the GG could be seen together. I planted them together in other stories where the GG would not appear in costume, action.”
“I wanted JJJ’s and the GG’s lives to mix for later story drama involving more than just the two characters”
“I planted the GG’s son (same distinctive hair style) in the college issues for more dramatic involvement and storyline consequences”
“So how could there be any doubt, dispute, about who the GG had to turn out to be when unmasked?”
Parker Morris
Read the Revenge of the Green Goblin, they cover her.
Kevin Jackson
i love the power of chest expansion
Josiah Bell
Here’s Norman Osborn as a background character before he was revealed as the green goblin
Cameron Jenkins
And again talking to JJ before being revealed
Mason White
And then with his first dialogue the next issue
Carson Clark
I always thought the way Norman’s hairline resembled his goblin cap was cool
Jaxson Hall
Ditko’s last issue on Spider-Man was around ten issues later, the issue where Norman was officially introduced and established as Harry’s father (although the fact they have the exact same hair was a bit of a giveaway)