The Doctor
12-20-2008, 07:01 AM
Dark times are here, Norman Osborn now has control of the Marvel Universe.
http://www.samruby.com/Spiderverse/NormanOsborn/NormanOsbornGoblin.gif
Spider-man’s personal nightmare now has the potential to cause headaches and heartache for every major Marvel hero. However Norman’s journey has not been an easy one, it has been filled with twists and turns and oh so much hatred. In my return to my semi regular articles we take an in-depth look at the man behind the monster, what his motivations are and how he’s risen to such powerful heights in the Marvel Universe
Young Norman
Like many super-villains Norman had a less than happy childhood. It may be a cliché but it’s a tried and tested one and in the end, it actually works especially with the cycle of hatred it drove Norman towards. Norman was the latest in a long line of successful men obsessed with money and power. Unfortunately Norman’s father didn’t have the business sense of his ancestors or his son and nearly ruined the Osborn family. Norman’s father was an abusive drunk full of rage who regularly beat his son and his wife and showing them minimal compassion. This damaging behaviour would damage Norman beyond comprehension and gave him a very odd understanding of what a father/son relationship should be which lead to his own son following his own path of addiction and destruction.
We are however getting ahead of ourselves. In his youth it appears Norman in spite of his father’s abuse and beatings was a creative gentle soul. He has mentioned many times he took up dancing and a desire to write but with his family’s fortune all but gone and having a drive to prove himself to a father who would never care (sound familiar?) Norman put his own goals and ideas aside and went to university. There he met Emily who would later became his wife and in all likelihood he also met Mendel Stromm at this point too. Given how much older Stromm is than Norman it is possible he was a one of his teacher’s and the two formed a friendship and later would set up a business together.
For a brief time it appeared Norman could be happy, he had an up and coming business, he was away from his abusive father and his lovely wife was pregnant. Then Emily died in childbirth and Norman was left alone with a son he blamed for his wife’s death. This single moment in his past may have been the exact point that Norman’s humanity died away, he put everything he had into his work and paid little to no attention to his young son. Not wanting a repeat of how his father treated him Norman spent minimal time with his son and instead bought his gifts and took him to ball games thinking this is what good fathers do. However like most children all little Harry wanted was to spend more personal time with his father who was less than interested.
Oscorp was becoming a success and was gaining a reputation, this was when the government first contacted Osborn about working for them.
Government boy
As revealed in Marvel Knight’s Spider-man Norman became employed to create super villains by the government. This was in an effort to distract all the new heroes that were showing up from delving too deeply into Government secrets and apparently Norman was damn good as his job. He created several villains such as the Scorcher and the headsman and got to work on a formulae that would create a whole new army of government operatives to fight superheroes.
At this time Norman promptly got rid of his long time partner and friend Stromm in an attempt to take all the credit for himself. Without Stromm’s help Norman was unable to perfect his formulae and it exploded in his face. The formulae worked, it gave Norman superior strength and intelligence but the cold hearted businessman became especially ruthless after this ‘accident’ and seemingly tired of manipulating behind the shadows sought to take on a costumed identity of his own.
Driven by a need for money and power that his father had all but lost Norman strove to become the head of the criminal underworld. However dressing up in a Green Costume and throwing exploding pumpkins wasn’t exactly the best way to go about this. Norman had to make a name for himself, he had to eliminate one of the new heroes showing all over Manhattan.
The choice he made would change his life forever.
Why Spider-man?
Norman could have easily picked anyone from Johnny Storm to Ant Man to Iron Man but he chose Spider-man. Why? Why Spider-man over anyone else? Firstly unlike most of the other heroes at the time Spider-man was very much on his own and Norman could easily take advantage of this. Spider-man was also known nationwide and eliminating him would give the Green Goblin more than enough influence to take over the New York Underworld.
However it wasn’t as easy as Norman imaged it would be. By defeating Norman’s creations such as the aforementioned Scorcher and Headsman Spider-man showed himself to be a worthy foe. However every time Norman tried to eliminate him something like the Hulk or the Crime Master or the Human Torch would get in his way. This made Norman frustrated and this only increased when he was saved by the man he was trying hard to kill when Stromm returned to take his revenge. The only way that Spider-man could be eliminated was if Norman learnt his true identity and he was caught by surprise.
Norman did find out Spider-man’s identity and attacked him outside his own home and revealed his own identity confident that his enemy wouldn’t live long enough to tell anyone. Wishing to taunt his foe Norman kept talking and talking and talking and Spider-man was able to overcome him which lead to the Green Goblin seemingly losing his memory and reverting to a nice as apple pie Norman Osborn.
What a perfect lie.
Lying to everyone, including yourself
Even before his fateful accident Norman wasn’t the nicest guy in the world but clearly the amnesia was able to give him a certain amount of liberation and the potential to become a nice guy. However Norman frequently returned to his costume and would confront Spider-man, he man he hated most in the world. Spider-man became the focus of Osborn’s rage as he saw young Peter Parker form a life for himself and have the potential to be truly happy.
This wouldn’t do as Norman decided to kidnap Gwen Stacy Peter’s girlfriend and place her in jeopardy. Of course Norman and Gwen had a relationship themselves briefly so this was an opportunity for Osborn to get rid of 2 major problems, his most hated enemy and the mother of twins he desperately wanted to control.
Norman succeeded in killing Gwen but it also resulted in his own death, well for a while anyway. Years later Norman returned and once again became obsessed with destroying Spider-man. He first tried to do this by creating a clone of Spider-man attempting to murder all the Bugle employees but this plan failed. Norman then took on a more subtle approach which lead Norman to the Gathering of Five and his eventual downfall.
The Downfall Of Norman Osborn
The Gathering was not one of Norman’s best ideas. He took a one in five chance to gain ultimate power and use this to both kill his long time foe but then try and destroy the planet. Slightly unconventional for the master planner but clearly as time was moving along Norman’s grip on reality was slipping. He was so focused on the revenge and power it lead him to losing his sanity in The Gathering of Five ceremony.
Despite help from patches that helped Norman regain his sanity he never quite recovered. Norman became more and more unbalanced and even lead him to believe that his long time foe and most hated enemy could become like a son to him. Unsuccessful in his attempt to recruit Peter Norman became self destructive. He tried to get Peter to kill him and then went on to murder a Bugle reporter which lead to his identity becoming public.
He did however use this to his advantage and created some horror in Spider-man’s life by kidnapping Aunt May but ultimately this plan also failed.
Norman soon found himself back in custody as he was about to renew his relationship with the Government and would lead him right where he had wanted to be since the beginning.
Thunderbolts
Norman had worked for the government before, they knew he was good at his job and in the changing world of registration for heroes maybe he was exactly who they needed. Norman was offered a deal of running his own superhero team in exchange for him behaving himself and providing the Government with a type of black ops superhero team they could use to hunt down rogue heroes. At this time Spider-man had turned his back to registration and Norman found himself in the ironic position of being paid to hunt down the man he hated more than anything in the world.
Life was good, it was only going to get better
Brand New Day
One night Norman went to bed planning the demise of his long time enemy Peter Parker, when he woke up he had no idea who Spider-man was. Despite this Norman still holds a large amount of resentment both towards Peter and Spider-man and there’s a slight possibility he knows something is missing but that remains to be seen.
Norman was given the chance to go to New York and use his team to try and hunt and kill Spider-man. Norman also appears to have mayoral candidate Crowne under his thumb giving him more power and influence than ever before.
Norman was then lucky enough to kill the Skrull Queen and for everyone to see it. Along with the Government telling the people how much they could trust Norman and despite having a murder list as long as most people’s arm he was given the keys to the kingdom. Norman was put in charge of everything and he achieved the pinnacle of power he had been seeking for so long.
Next For the Goblin?
Norman now has everything he could ever dream of and yet he had nothing. His wife he dearly loved is still dead, his own team hate him and his relationship with his son is strained at best. However being in charge has seemingly given Norman clarity and the opportunity to gather some of Marvel’s greatest villains together for something that probably will lead to bad news for the Marvel Universe as a whole and especially one of America’s Most Wanted: The Amazing Spider-man
http://www.samruby.com/Spiderverse/NormanOsborn/NormanOsbornGoblin.gif
Spider-man’s personal nightmare now has the potential to cause headaches and heartache for every major Marvel hero. However Norman’s journey has not been an easy one, it has been filled with twists and turns and oh so much hatred. In my return to my semi regular articles we take an in-depth look at the man behind the monster, what his motivations are and how he’s risen to such powerful heights in the Marvel Universe
Young Norman
Like many super-villains Norman had a less than happy childhood. It may be a cliché but it’s a tried and tested one and in the end, it actually works especially with the cycle of hatred it drove Norman towards. Norman was the latest in a long line of successful men obsessed with money and power. Unfortunately Norman’s father didn’t have the business sense of his ancestors or his son and nearly ruined the Osborn family. Norman’s father was an abusive drunk full of rage who regularly beat his son and his wife and showing them minimal compassion. This damaging behaviour would damage Norman beyond comprehension and gave him a very odd understanding of what a father/son relationship should be which lead to his own son following his own path of addiction and destruction.
We are however getting ahead of ourselves. In his youth it appears Norman in spite of his father’s abuse and beatings was a creative gentle soul. He has mentioned many times he took up dancing and a desire to write but with his family’s fortune all but gone and having a drive to prove himself to a father who would never care (sound familiar?) Norman put his own goals and ideas aside and went to university. There he met Emily who would later became his wife and in all likelihood he also met Mendel Stromm at this point too. Given how much older Stromm is than Norman it is possible he was a one of his teacher’s and the two formed a friendship and later would set up a business together.
For a brief time it appeared Norman could be happy, he had an up and coming business, he was away from his abusive father and his lovely wife was pregnant. Then Emily died in childbirth and Norman was left alone with a son he blamed for his wife’s death. This single moment in his past may have been the exact point that Norman’s humanity died away, he put everything he had into his work and paid little to no attention to his young son. Not wanting a repeat of how his father treated him Norman spent minimal time with his son and instead bought his gifts and took him to ball games thinking this is what good fathers do. However like most children all little Harry wanted was to spend more personal time with his father who was less than interested.
Oscorp was becoming a success and was gaining a reputation, this was when the government first contacted Osborn about working for them.
Government boy
As revealed in Marvel Knight’s Spider-man Norman became employed to create super villains by the government. This was in an effort to distract all the new heroes that were showing up from delving too deeply into Government secrets and apparently Norman was damn good as his job. He created several villains such as the Scorcher and the headsman and got to work on a formulae that would create a whole new army of government operatives to fight superheroes.
At this time Norman promptly got rid of his long time partner and friend Stromm in an attempt to take all the credit for himself. Without Stromm’s help Norman was unable to perfect his formulae and it exploded in his face. The formulae worked, it gave Norman superior strength and intelligence but the cold hearted businessman became especially ruthless after this ‘accident’ and seemingly tired of manipulating behind the shadows sought to take on a costumed identity of his own.
Driven by a need for money and power that his father had all but lost Norman strove to become the head of the criminal underworld. However dressing up in a Green Costume and throwing exploding pumpkins wasn’t exactly the best way to go about this. Norman had to make a name for himself, he had to eliminate one of the new heroes showing all over Manhattan.
The choice he made would change his life forever.
Why Spider-man?
Norman could have easily picked anyone from Johnny Storm to Ant Man to Iron Man but he chose Spider-man. Why? Why Spider-man over anyone else? Firstly unlike most of the other heroes at the time Spider-man was very much on his own and Norman could easily take advantage of this. Spider-man was also known nationwide and eliminating him would give the Green Goblin more than enough influence to take over the New York Underworld.
However it wasn’t as easy as Norman imaged it would be. By defeating Norman’s creations such as the aforementioned Scorcher and Headsman Spider-man showed himself to be a worthy foe. However every time Norman tried to eliminate him something like the Hulk or the Crime Master or the Human Torch would get in his way. This made Norman frustrated and this only increased when he was saved by the man he was trying hard to kill when Stromm returned to take his revenge. The only way that Spider-man could be eliminated was if Norman learnt his true identity and he was caught by surprise.
Norman did find out Spider-man’s identity and attacked him outside his own home and revealed his own identity confident that his enemy wouldn’t live long enough to tell anyone. Wishing to taunt his foe Norman kept talking and talking and talking and Spider-man was able to overcome him which lead to the Green Goblin seemingly losing his memory and reverting to a nice as apple pie Norman Osborn.
What a perfect lie.
Lying to everyone, including yourself
Even before his fateful accident Norman wasn’t the nicest guy in the world but clearly the amnesia was able to give him a certain amount of liberation and the potential to become a nice guy. However Norman frequently returned to his costume and would confront Spider-man, he man he hated most in the world. Spider-man became the focus of Osborn’s rage as he saw young Peter Parker form a life for himself and have the potential to be truly happy.
This wouldn’t do as Norman decided to kidnap Gwen Stacy Peter’s girlfriend and place her in jeopardy. Of course Norman and Gwen had a relationship themselves briefly so this was an opportunity for Osborn to get rid of 2 major problems, his most hated enemy and the mother of twins he desperately wanted to control.
Norman succeeded in killing Gwen but it also resulted in his own death, well for a while anyway. Years later Norman returned and once again became obsessed with destroying Spider-man. He first tried to do this by creating a clone of Spider-man attempting to murder all the Bugle employees but this plan failed. Norman then took on a more subtle approach which lead Norman to the Gathering of Five and his eventual downfall.
The Downfall Of Norman Osborn
The Gathering was not one of Norman’s best ideas. He took a one in five chance to gain ultimate power and use this to both kill his long time foe but then try and destroy the planet. Slightly unconventional for the master planner but clearly as time was moving along Norman’s grip on reality was slipping. He was so focused on the revenge and power it lead him to losing his sanity in The Gathering of Five ceremony.
Despite help from patches that helped Norman regain his sanity he never quite recovered. Norman became more and more unbalanced and even lead him to believe that his long time foe and most hated enemy could become like a son to him. Unsuccessful in his attempt to recruit Peter Norman became self destructive. He tried to get Peter to kill him and then went on to murder a Bugle reporter which lead to his identity becoming public.
He did however use this to his advantage and created some horror in Spider-man’s life by kidnapping Aunt May but ultimately this plan also failed.
Norman soon found himself back in custody as he was about to renew his relationship with the Government and would lead him right where he had wanted to be since the beginning.
Thunderbolts
Norman had worked for the government before, they knew he was good at his job and in the changing world of registration for heroes maybe he was exactly who they needed. Norman was offered a deal of running his own superhero team in exchange for him behaving himself and providing the Government with a type of black ops superhero team they could use to hunt down rogue heroes. At this time Spider-man had turned his back to registration and Norman found himself in the ironic position of being paid to hunt down the man he hated more than anything in the world.
Life was good, it was only going to get better
Brand New Day
One night Norman went to bed planning the demise of his long time enemy Peter Parker, when he woke up he had no idea who Spider-man was. Despite this Norman still holds a large amount of resentment both towards Peter and Spider-man and there’s a slight possibility he knows something is missing but that remains to be seen.
Norman was given the chance to go to New York and use his team to try and hunt and kill Spider-man. Norman also appears to have mayoral candidate Crowne under his thumb giving him more power and influence than ever before.
Norman was then lucky enough to kill the Skrull Queen and for everyone to see it. Along with the Government telling the people how much they could trust Norman and despite having a murder list as long as most people’s arm he was given the keys to the kingdom. Norman was put in charge of everything and he achieved the pinnacle of power he had been seeking for so long.
Next For the Goblin?
Norman now has everything he could ever dream of and yet he had nothing. His wife he dearly loved is still dead, his own team hate him and his relationship with his son is strained at best. However being in charge has seemingly given Norman clarity and the opportunity to gather some of Marvel’s greatest villains together for something that probably will lead to bad news for the Marvel Universe as a whole and especially one of America’s Most Wanted: The Amazing Spider-man