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 Spider-Man Encyclopedia  - Spider-Man Villains - Green Goblin

The Green Goblin was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964). There are more than one version of the Green Goblin, but Norman Osborn was the original and most well known. While he was thought to be dead his son Harry Osborn took up the mantle. There has even been a superhero named the Green Goblin.

The Return of Norman
Norman Osborn returned years later in the very controversial "Clone Saga" where he came up with a plan to make Peter Parker question whether or not he was the real Parker or a clone. For a time Parker's Clone became took up the role as Spider-Man. In the beginning of the saga the Clone was the hero the Scarlet Spider, but eventually died when the saga came to it's end.

Civil War
After escaping to Paris, Osborn was apprehended by SHIELD agents and taken into their custody.

While in SHIELD custody, Osborn watches in shock as Spider-Man publicly reveals his identity as Peter Parker (also confirming Osborn's identity as the Goblin and his role in Gwen's death in the process), railing that Peter "broke the rules!" He's then approached by SHIELD agents who are seeking his aid.

The Goblin confronts and attacks Ben Urich in an alley, but SHIELD's nanomachines cause him to stop, involuntarily making him collapse and foam at the mouth.

Later he makes a deal with a shadowy figure from the pro-registration side who gives him a serum to override the control nanomachines implanted by SHIELD. The figure is indicated to be highly trusted by the superhero community, though whether he is himself a superhero is unspecified. In the next two issues, he attacks a group of Atlanteans in his Goblin gear, killing and wounding many. Later, when one of an Atlantean ambassador attempts to give a speech, Norman appears and shoots at him, wounding but not killing him. As he is being taken away by security, Norman says he is 'sick' and is not in control of his actions. While being interrogated by two officers, Norman becomes increasingly agitated when they question who gave Norman access to the press conference AND assisted in smuggling a weapon there. At first, Norman becomes angry, threatening to kill the two officers' families, then he becomes more and more afraid until a government figure interrupts the interview (assumed from Norman's comments to be the man who neutralized his nano-machines) at which point Norman begs the officers not to let him go, even promising to reveal all he knows to them.

Norman Osborn is now the government appointed new director of the Thunderbolts and has been prescribed medication to stabilize his personality. He remains unbalanced, however, and prone to maniacal laughing fits.

Animated series

1994 animated series
The Green Goblin was a long-term recurring villain in the Spider-Man series, voiced by Neil Ross. However, though Osborn had been present almost from the beginning, the Goblin himself was a relative latecomer to the series, with Osborn not becoming him until Season 3, despite almost all other villains appearing in Season 1 (including the Hobgoblin). In the series, in the Goblin's debut episode, Enter the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn and his partner, Mendel Stromm, were coerced into creating a formula for the Kingpin that grants superhuman strength. Also, he is one of the few characters in the series who knew that Wilson Fisk is Kingpin. Unlike his comic counterpart, Norman Osborn here was never a corrupted businessman, neither a megalomaniacal, and had instead developed a multiple personality disorder. His other side was the Green Goblin, who acted on destroying everyone who had hurt Osborn throughout his life, thus, Osborn never truely was responsible for his actions, however, in later the episodes Osborn accepted the Goblin persona and they became 'one', determined to destroy everyone who had hurt him. Also, unlike the comic book version, who considered his son Harry weak, Norman Osborn here deeply cared for Harry with his life.


In the 1990s Spider-Man animated series in an unstable reaction during one experiment, Norman disappeared in the explosion, presumed dead. His son, Harry blamed the Oscorp stockholders, J. Jonah Jameson, Anastasia Hardy, and Wilson Fisk (the Kingpin) among others, for the death of his father.

Soon a mysterious airborne figure, identifying himself as the Green Goblin, began kidnapping the stockholders one by one.

Harry quickly became the main suspect and was followed by a wary Mary Jane who became kidnapped herself. Tracking her down, Spider-Man uncovered an underwater base where the Goblin intended to kill everyone he had kidnapped. Fighting the Goblin, Spider-Man unmasked him, only to discover that the Green Goblin was Norman Osborn. Amnesia ensued and Norman was unable to remember his dual identity. The following morning at OsCorp, he announced that he will no longer build chemical weapons.

In Goblin War!, Norman Osborn became the Green Goblin again, after being pressured by the Kingpin to reveal the identity of the Hobgoblin, who he had hired before to kill Fisk. The Goblin persona tricks Osborn into thinking that Spider-Man, Hobgoblin, and the Kingpin are trying to hurt him. With the Goblin in control of his body, he then tracks down the Hobgoblin in Jason Phillip Macandale's home, because he knew that villain lived there as Macandale. The Goblin kidnaps him and his fiancé, Felicia Hardy, who had just figured out who Macandale was. He took the Hobgoblin's Time Dilation Accelerator, a machine which can create portals from anywhere around the world or in other worlds, and nearly killed Macandale and Felicia by almost melting them in a pool of acid at OsCorp. Spider-Man battled the Goblin, knocked him out, saved Felicia and Macandale from certain death and nearly destroyed the Accelerator using one of the Goblin's boomerangs. However, the machine had enough energy to create another portal and Spider-Man warned him not to go in because the Accelerator is too low on power and he'll be trapped in limbo. The villain stated he wanted to take his chances in limbo than be defeated by him and jumped in. Later after the Hobgoblin's arrest, the Goblin returned as the Accelerator still had enough energy to get him back to OsCorp and began plotting the downfall of his enemies.

In the next episode Turning Point, the Green Goblin finds out Spider-Man's secret identity with the Time Dilation Accelerator. Spider-Man and the Green Goblin fight atop the George Washington Bridge. At the end, the Goblin gets stuck in another dimension, after his glider pushes him through a portal when he wanted to also push Spider-Man in as well, but not before he propels Mary Jane into a wormhole, never to be seen again except for the appearance of a clone that took her place in several episodes in the fourth and fifth seasons.

In The Return of the Green Goblin, the Green Goblin chooses Harry Osborn as the new Green Goblin, because Norman wanted to leave the other dimension in which he was stuck. Harry had difficulties being the new villain, but like the original Goblin, he wanted Spider-Man dead because the original Goblin, who he contacted with a spiritual link because both Harry and Norman/the Goblin were related as father and son, promised Harry that if he kills Spider-Man, then he will see his father again, despite the fact that the Goblin was Harry's father and ironically, Harry didn't know who he was. When Spider-Man tracked him down, the hero revealed to Harry his father was the Goblin and just when Harry thought the hero was lying, the original Goblin revealed himself to his son. This event drove Harry insane and caused him to embrace his role as the new Green Goblin. The new villain battled Spider-Man and the Punisher at the George Washington Bridge where it ended with Spider-Man jumping on Harry and both of them fell into the New York City river. Harry was knocked unconscious and the Punisher took his body, brought it to Peter Parker's house and realized who Harry was. After the clone of Mary Jane appeared, Spider-Man took Harry to the Ravencroft mental hospital.

In The Wedding, Harry Osborn becomes the Green Goblin again, because he hears that his friends, Peter Parker and Mary Jane are going to get married. At the church, Harry tells the priest to make Mary Jane marry him or he will blow up the church with everyone inside it. In the end, Harry lets Mary Jane go and returns to Ravencroft after Liz Allan reveals her love for him and convinces Harry that his real friends are Mary Jane and Peter, not the Green Goblin. With his connection to Harry broken, Norman Osborn remains trapped in limbo.

The Green Goblin makes his final appearance in I Really, Really Hate Clones, the first part of the first part of the two-part series finale, in which he was working for Spider-Carnage and the Kingpin in an alternate reality. It is not clear if this is the same Norman Osborn that was stuck in limbo, but it is likely that it is simply a parallel version of the character in this other universe, as there was nothing that implied of the previous Norman Osborn. When the Green Goblin was confronting the Spider-Men from different realities who had joined forces to stop Spider-Carnage, all of them used their webbing to stick him to a floor of the Kingpin's tower. In the next episode, although he didn't appear in it, the Green Goblin likely dies in an explosion that destroys the tower.

Before Norman Osborn becomes the Green Goblin, his episode appearances are:

The Spider Slayer
Norman Osborn has hired Spencer Smythe to kill Spider-Man, and Osborn employed the Spider Slayer robots. It was revealed that Osborn thought that Spider-Man was a criminal, who only wanted to capture him.

Return of the Spider Slayers
When Norman is attacked by one of the Spider Slayer robots, Spider-Man proceeds to save his life.

The Hobgoblin, Part 1
Norman Osborn hires the Hobgoblin to kill Wilson Fisk, also known as Kingpin, but Hobby switches sides, after he got fired by Osborn. At Oscorp, Norman Osborn points a gun at Hobgoblin, and Hobby tells Norman that he will offer to side with Osborn, if Osborn builds better weapons for him.

The Hobgoblin, Part 2
Norman Osborn asks Spider-Man to save his son. At Oscorp, when Harry Osborn is conscious, Norman feels glad that his son is ok.

Shriek of the Vulture
Norman rejects all of Adrian Toomes' ideas at OsCorp and causes Toomes to become the Vulture.

The Final Nightmare
Norman Osborn gets captured by the Vulture.

Norman did make one appearance after he was the Green Goblin but this was not a Goblin appearance. Here is the episode:

The Ultimate Slayer
While Norman is presenting his son's engagement party with Mary Jane Watson, the party is soon crashed by a robot version of Alistair Smythe who blames Osborn for his father's "death", as well, as accidentally taking Mary Jane and Harry. Osborn is the first to know by the Kingpin that Spencer Smythe did not die in the OsCorp explosion that occurred in The Spider Slayer but that Kingpin found him alive and well and placed him in cryogenic suspension. After Alistair figured out about
this and quit working for the Kingpin, Spider-Man saved Norman, M.J. and Harry.

Before Harry Osborn becomes the second Green Goblin, his episode appearances are:

The Spider Slayer
Harry Osborn joins J. Jonah Jameson's party.
The Return of the Spider Slayers
Harry is attacked by one of the Spider Slayer robots, and Spider-Man saves his life.
The Hobgoblin, Part 1
Harry is kidnapped by the Hobgoblin.

The Hobgoblin, Part 2
Spider-Man saves Harry's life.

Duel of the Hunters
When Peter is missing, he goes to Mary Jane's home to comfort her in Peter's disappearance. He tries to protect her from the monstrous Man-Spider and although he fails in a short fight, Mary Jane
is still safe.

Blade the Vampire Hunter
When Mary Jane believes that Peter is cheating on her with Felicia Hardy, Mary Jane decides to date Harry.

The Immortal Vampire
Spider-Man sees Harry and Mary Jane kiss and Spidey blames himself for losing M.J. to Harry.

Tablet of Time
Peter sees Harry dating Mary Jane in a coffee shop or restaurant.

Shriek of the Vulture
The Vulture attempts to kidnap Harry during Mary Jane's play of McBeth but Spider-Man ultimately saves Harry.

Doctor Strange
Harry is seen in a flashback scene which also debuts M.J.'s Aunt Anna Watson. After Mary Jane was mysteriously kidnapped in the second season finale, Peter tries to calm down Aunt Anna and Harry is infuriated on the question why Mary Jane didn't tell him that she wanted to see her father with him
instead of Peter.

Enter the Green Goblin
Harry feels angry against the Oscorp stockholders for the death of his father and becomes bitter. At Oscorp, Harry is emotionally distraught over his fathers' death and acts severely foul tempered.

The Man Without Fear
Harry tries to comfort Mary Jane when Peter has been framed for stealing top secret government information by the Kingpin of Crime.

The Ultimate Slayer
Harry and Mary Jane get engaged but during their engagement party, a robotic version of Alistair Smythe crashes the party and kidnaps Harry's father, as Smythe blames Norman for his father's false death. Harry tries to save his father with Mary Jane trying to stop him from getting himself hurt but all four of them are knocked unconscious by the Kingpin's knock-out gas. After Alistair realizes his father was not dead but merely placed in cryogenic suspension by the Kingpin, he quits his employment with the crime boss and Spider-Man saves Harry, M.J. and Norman.

The Spot
When Peter and Mary Jane begin to date again, Harry blames Peter for "stealing M.J. away from him."

Goblin War!
Harry is invited for the engagement of Felicia Hardy and Jason Macendale. Norman has a relapse after being threatened by Wilson Fisk to expose the Hobgoblins' true identity, as the Green Goblin once more, Norman battles Spider-Man and The Hobgoblin with the aid of the Spot's Time Dilation Accelerator (a plot device in every sense of the word that would become a favorite du ex machina of fans)

Turning Point
Harry has a birthday party at the Osborn mansion. Osborn uses the Time Dilation Accerlerator to discover Spidey's true identity, and terrorizes him and Mary Jane, eventually abducting Mary and knocking her off the bridge and into an inter-dimensional wormhole. The Goblin is then sucked through another one when the Accelerator malfunctions, he is sent through it completely by his own glider in an attempt to use it to propel Spider-Man into him so that both would be lost forever.
Turning Point is the famous homage episode to the "Night Gwen Stacy Died" comic strip classic, only in the animated series, Mary Jane falls through a wormhole, this episode also inspired a scene in the Ultimate comics, as well as the 2002 Spider-Man movie, Mary Jane, not Gwen, is again captured by Osborn, but this time she is saved by Peter.


Other animated media
The 1960s animated television series featured the first depiction of the Goblin outside of the comic book, although the Goblin here is depicted as a dimwitted robber who is obsessed with magic and the supernatural - fields of expertise that Norman Osborn in the comics was never interested in (save for one incident in the late 1990s), preferring to use technology to commit crimes.

The 1980s Spider-Man cartoon, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends show depicted Osborn as something closer to The Lizard, with a serious medical problem of physically and uncontrollably changing into the Goblin, a kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the episode Triumph Of The Green Goblin.
 

Green Goblin this was taken from the very first Spiderman and his Amazing Friends episodes.

A Counter Earth version of the Green Goblin appeared in the Spider-Man Unlimited animated series voiced by Rino Romano, who also plays Spider-Man. This version is actually a good guy instead of a villain, also making a mistake Spider-Man was a villain at their first encounter. By the end of his first appearance, after saving Naoko and Shayne Yamada-Jones from one of Venom and Carnage's plans with the help of Spider-Man and after the Goblin lets Naoko and Shayne go, he whispers to himself about calling Naoko his love. It is revealed in the next episode, whom the Goblin himself doesn't frankly appear in, that Naoko had a jealous ex-husband who worked for the rebellion against the High Evolutionary and Naoko's ex-husband, who was standing in the shadows by the end of the episode, that he is jealous, suspecting Naoko and Peter Parker, the man who pays the rent while living at Naoko's home, are having an affair and he punches a wall that bricks fall down and the Goblin has super strength, confirming the Goblin is Naoko's ex-husband. The Goblin's next appearance was when he found out that both Spider-Man and Peter Parker are the same person! He also learned that Spider-Man was from the original Earth, and his intentions on Counter-Earth are to rescue John Jameson, who was also from the regular third rock from the sun. But since Jameson, who is working with the rebels against the High Evolutionary, doesn't agree to come and lets Spider-Man go off on his own, the Goblin decides to help by getting a ship the High Evolutionary has, which was originally Spider-Man's. Spider-Man and the Goblin team up with the Rejects, a group of Beastials that the High Evolutionary gotten rid of since they proved useless, and they got to Solaris II, the ship Spider-Man once had. But Spider-Man had more heart and had Solaris II crash into one of the High Evolutionary's towers, which presumably killed the Goblin in the explosion. However, by the series finale, it was revealed he survived the explosion and joined the Rejects. But he left them to help Spider-Man and the rebels against the High Evolutionary fight against the Evolutionary. By the end of the episode, he was one of the characters who ran off when thousands of symbiotes sprung to Counter-Earth by Venom and Carnage's plans.


Ultimate Green Goblin
Norman Osborn is a corrupt industrialist and scientist who is trying to perfect the Super Soldier drug for SHIELD. He neglects his wife and son, Harry. In Ultimate Spider-Man #1, an OZ-injected spider bites Peter Parker on a field trip. Peter develops amazing powers, and Norman theorizes that since the OZ combined with spider DNA gave Parker the abilities of a spider. Therefore, if Norman were to receive OZ combined with his own DNA he could become a heightened version of himself. The experiment goes wrong and an explosion occurs, affecting Harry and Dr. Otto Octavius. Norman, however, is transformed into a muscular, grotesque, demonic-looking monster. In an attempt to destroy all evidence of his existence, Norman kills his wife and attempts to kill Harry, who manages to escape while the house is burning down. The next day, he attacks Harry's school but is stopped by Spider-Man. During the fight, Osborn plummets off a bridge into the river, seemingly dead.

However, Norman survived and has, in his words, "evolved". He can now control his transformations into an intelligent incarnation of the "Green Goblin" via OZ injections. Due to overdosing on OZ, Osborn suffers from hallucinations. These include seeing everything through a blood-red filter, objects such as the Spider on Spider-man's chest moving around, and creatures called "plasmids" tormenting him.

Taking Harry back, Norman moved back into the city, blaming rival Justin Hammer for the explosion. He reveals himself to Parker, telling Parker to give up the life as Spider-Man and work for him, or suffer the deaths of Parker's loved ones. Osborn tells Parker to kill Nick Fury, the Head of SHIELD. When Parker refuses, Norman kidnaps Mary Jane Watson, Peter's girlfriend, and attempts to kill her by hurling her from the top of a bridge. Spider-Man is able to save Mary Jane, and joins SHIELD operatives in attacking Osborn. The battle continues at Osborn's Manhattan penthouse, where Osborn transforms even further after taking several more OZ injections and begins to choke the life out of Parker. Harry discovers the scene, picking up a shattered window pane and jamming it into his father's back, reverting him to his human self. Osborn is taken into custody by SHIELD.

In the Ultimate Six limited series, Osborn and his old assistant, Dr. Octavius, devise a plan to escape from prison which uses Norman's new ability to transform into the Goblin at will. They kidnap Spider-Man and force him to join them. Norman considers Parker to be his 'true' son and believes Parker belongs with him. In a battle between the Ultimate Six and the Ultimates at the White House, Harry is used as a trump card by Nick Fury. Harry pleads with his father to stop. Norman is about to change back when a trigger-happy Iron Man blasts him from behind, severely altering Norman's genes and causing him to lash out at the SHIELD personnel before being shot down to Harry's horror. He is again taken into custody. At the end of the issue, he is revealed to be in cryogenic suspension, with half of his face in goblin form on account of Iron Man's reckless genetic-disordering shooting.

In the Ultimate Spider-Man video game the Beetle, a Latverian mercenary, breaks him out to provide samples for Latverian experiments in creating super-soldiers. Osborn rampages around New York city but is stopped by Spider-Man after a confrontation in the UN Conference Building.

No character uses the name "Green Goblin" in Ultimate Spider-Man to refer directly to Osborn; however, when the X-Men's Kitty Pryde uploads a hologram of the Ultimate Six into the Danger Room, the Osborn hologram refers to itself as the Green Goblin. Also, several student friends of Peter Parker recalled what they saw as a 'Green Goblin Monster' to Johnny Storm in the "Superstars" arc.

Ultimate Green Goblin has superhuman strength greater than Spider-Man's, enabling him to leap great distances, superhuman reflexes, stamina and durability. He appears to also be pyrokinetic, as he can throw flaming balls of destructive energy and (in the Ultimate Spiderman videogame) surround himself with flames.


 Spider-Man The Movie
The Green Goblin's first live action appearance (beyond a 1982 television commercial for the Atari video game) was in the blockbuster feature film Spider-Man (2002), which starred Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn.


Green Goblin, redesigned for the 2002 Spider-Man film.Norman Osborn is a brilliant scientist and businessman who is known for his contributions to nanotechnology. His son, Harry, resents his father's apparent favoritism toward his friend Peter Parker. He is the head of Oscorp, a company contracted by the United States military to create a new super soldier. Osborn, needing to prove his formula is the new technology the military is seeking, experiments on himself and becomes the Green Goblin. The process drives him insane however, and he kills his partner, Dr. Mendel Stromm. The military decides to give the supersoldier contract to another company, Quest Aerospace, and in revenge, the Green Goblin kills several high-ranking military officers and Quest scientists who were present at the Quest test. Although Quest Aerospace's prototype was destroyed, the company decided to expand and, in doing so, assumes control of Oscorp on the condition that Norman Osborn step down as CEO.

In retaliation, the Goblin kills the board of directors during a festival in Times Square, thus removing the last threat to his takeover of Oscorp, and inadvertently almost killing Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). His appearance at the festival also marks the beginning of his animosity towards Spider-Man. Instead of hating his new enemy, however, Norman finds that Spider-Man is the son that he always wanted, strong and intelligent, and attempts to recruit him to his side. Spider-Man does not return the Goblin's feelings of respect and rebuffs Osborn's offer of alliance.

The enraged Green Goblin finds out Spider-Man's identity when, while visiting his son Harry (who is Peter's roommate), he discovers that Peter has an identical wound to one he had inflicted on Spider-Man in an earlier fight. He attacks and seriously injures Aunt May, then kidnaps Mary Jane 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 Queensboro Bridge, yet Spider-Man manages to save both the children and Mary Jane (a marked difference from the source story, "The Night Gwen Stacy Died", which ended in the death of Spider-Man's sweetheart).

After being defeated in their final battle & with his own personality resurfaced, Norman removes his Goblin helmet to reveal himself as the Green Goblin's alter-ego to Spider-Man, and asks Spidey to forgive him, while at the same time, he secretly directs his glider to impale Spider-Man from behind.

Spider-Man sensed the attack with his "spider-sense" and dodged, and the machine killed the Green Goblin by impaling him in the lower waist, internally bleeding him to death. Just before dying, Norman pleaded Spider Man not to tell his son about his second identity. When Spider-Man takes Norman's corpse back to his mansion, Harry sees him keeping his father’s dead body on a bed. Not knowing that his father was the Green Goblin, Harry assumes that Spider Man had killed him in cold blood. At the funeral, Harry swears revenge on Spider-Man. Spider-Man respects Norman's last wishes, but it was only a matter of time before Harry found out himself.

Though the film's version of Osborn does not completely understand and is rarely there for his son, he loves him. His Goblin personality is not yet completely dominant, and he vacillates between the two, as in the character's earliest comic book appearances.

In the film, the Green Goblin pilots a high-tech Personal Aerial Combat Platform (PACP) - the Goblin Glider, armed with seeking missiles, machine guns & razor-sharp spears. He also wears a green armour, instead of a green & purple costume (like in the comics), that cybernetically connects him to his glider and weapons. He is seen using three varieties of his signature "pumpkin bombs": one which is a simple explosive; one that flashes with a bright, radioactive flash & reduces people to skeletons; and one that splits into flying, razor-sharp blades. Rather than carrying a shoulder "bag of tricks", the weapons are typically contained in the glider and are ejected for the Goblin as he requires them. His flight suit is armed with some sort of sedative gas that is released from the wrists, and is linked to the Goblin Glider, allowing him to control it remotely. The fearsome Goblin mask, while seemingly a hindrance to such a finely-tuned fighting machine, may serve as the frightening face of an unstoppable military system, striking fear into the hearts of enemies and victims.

Norman appears in Spider-Man two in Harry's hallucinations.