Something very strange happened in the Autumn of 1975. A number of the comics I'd been getting week-in and week-out for several years disappeared without trace from my local newsagents. The Mighty World of Marvel, The Avengers and Spider-Man Comics Weekly all vanished at around the same time. If not for Planet of the Apes, what would I have had to keep me going? Fortunately, within a few months they were all back. But when Spider-Man Comics Weekly returned, it was in a whole new form.
It had been Titanised.
Like that other Marvel UK comic, Spider-Man's weekly mag was now printed sideways. This was good. Thanks to it allowing them to print two pages of artwork side-by side on every physical page, this meant you got twice as many pages for your money.
So what did you get?
You got trauma.
No sooner had the comic reappeared than this happened; Gwen Stacy died.
According to Steve Ditko, the Green Goblin, as we know him, was entirely his creation. He claims:
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.[3]
The Green Goblin debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #14.[4] At this time his identity was unknown, but he proved popular and reappeared in later issues, which made a point of his secret identity. Apparently, Lee and Ditko disagreed on who he should be. According to one theory, Lee always wanted him to be someone Peter Parker knew, while Ditko wanted him to be a stranger, feeling this was closer to real life.[5] Ditko has refuted this rumor, however, claiming:
So I had to have some definite ideas: who he was, his profession and how he fit into the Spider-Man story world. I was even going to use an earlier, planted character associated with J. Jonah Jameson: he [was to] be [revealed as] the Green Goblin. It was like a subplot working its way until it was ready to play an active role.[3]
Ditko left the series with issue #38, before he could reveal the Goblin's identity, and Lee subsequently unmasked him in the next issue as Norman Osborn, a character who had been introduced two issues earlier as the father of Harry Osborn.John Romita, Sr., who replaced Ditko as the title's artist, recalls:
Stan wouldn't have been able to stand it if Ditko did the story and didn't reveal that the Green Goblin was Norman Osborn. I didn't know there was any doubt about Osborn being the Goblin. I didn't know that Ditko had just been setting Osborn up as a straw dog. I just accepted the fact that it was going to be Norman Osborn when we plotted it. I had been following the last couple of issues and didn't think there was really much mystery about it. Looking back, I doubt the Goblin's identity would have been revealed in Amazing #39 if Ditko had stayed on.[6]
After the Green Goblin killed Peter Parker's girlfriend Gwen Stacy, writer Gerry Conway decided that the Goblin had to pay a heavy price. Osborn accidentally caused his own death in the course of a fight against Spider-Man. Others, such as Harry Osborn, later adopted the Green Goblin identity, and writer Roger Stern later introduced the Hobgoblin to replace the Green Goblin as Spider-Man's archenemy.[7
Now, I managed to miss the issue where she went but I sure as shooting heck had the next one, in which I discovered that in my absence Gwen had bought it. This was terrible. Gwen was blonde. She wore nice boots. She wore an Alice band. How could they kill such a creature? On top of that, by the end of this issue, the Green Goblin was gone too.Well,for the next twenty so years.He had stands in's-like his son,as the Green Goblin II,The Hobbgoblin I,II,III,IV,V,VI,VII,VIII,and so on.
For his grandson, see Normie Osborn.
| Norman Osborn | |
|---|---|
Art by Mike Deodato. Background art by John Romita, Sr.
| |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | as Green Goblin: The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964) (unnamed): The Amazing Spider-Man #23 (April 1965) named as Norman Osborn: The Amazing Spider-Man #37 (June 1966) as Iron Patriot: Dark Avengers #1 (March 2009) |
| Created by | Stan Lee Steve Ditko |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Norman Virgil Osborn |
| Team affiliations | Dark Avengers H.A.M.M.E.R. The Cabal Oscorp Thunderbolts Sinister Twelve Commission on Superhuman Activities Daily Bugle Hellfire Club[1] |
| Notable aliases | Goblin Lord Overlord Scrier Iron Patriot |
| Abilities |
|
Norman Osborn is a fictional character, a supervillain who appears in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964). Although many characters have taken up this identity, Norman Osborn is the original and most well-known Green Goblin. Originally an amoral industrialist head of Oscorp and father of Harry Osborn, he took a serum which enhanced his physical abilities and intellect but also drove him to insanity. He adopted a Halloween-themed appearance, dressing in a goblin costume, riding on a bat-shaped "Goblin Glider", and using an arsenal of high-tech weapons, notably grenade-like "Pumpkin Bombs", to terrorize New York City. He is one of Spider-Man's most persistent foes, and many consider him to be one of the archenemies of Spider-Man,[2][3][4] being responsible for numerous tragedies in Spider-Man's life, such as the death of Gwen Stacy and the Clone Saga. However, Osborn has also come into conflict with other superheroes in the Marvel Universe. He was also the focus of the company-wide Dark Reign storyline as the original Iron Patriot.
Willem Dafoe played Norman Osborn and his Green Goblin alter ego in the 2002 film Spider-Man as the main antagonist. The character will be portrayed by Chris Cooper in the upcoming 2014 film The Amazing Spider-Man 2. In 2009, Norman Osborn was also ranked as IGN's 13th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.[5] He also placed #11 on GuysNation's Top Villains of All Time.
To say this was powerful stuff for a twelve year old would be no matter of hyperbole. Seeing Spider-Man clutching the corpse of his long-time girlfriend was quite the most moving thing I'd ever read in my life. This story and the ones that followed, as Peter Parker tried - and sometimes failed - to come to terms with the death of Gwen Stacy had a potency I'd never seen before in a comic and left an impression on me that remains to this day. I still regard the events of the next couple of years on that strip as the greatest era Spider-Man ever had. One that only dissipated when Ross Andru left the mag and Peter Parker graduated.
During the Clone Saga storyline, the Spider-Man writers were met with a massive outcry from many readers after the decision to replace Peter with his clone Ben Reilly as the true Spider-Man. Eventually, the writers decided to reveal that one of Spider-Man's arch-enemies had been manipulating events from behind the scenes. The initial plan was to use Mephisto, but they felt a more down-to-earth character was needed.[10] It was then suggested that the semi-zombified cyborg known as "Gaunt" be revealed as Harry Osborn, who was killed in Spectacular Spider-Man #200. Gaunt was a late entry to the controversial storyline, created mainly as a plot device to return Harry to life; the plan for the character included Harry regaining his humanity, taking credit for tricking Peter Parker into thinking he was a clone, and resuming his identity as the Green Goblin full-time. However, the plotline was changed by newly promoted editor in chief Bob Harras, who disliked the Harry Osborn character, and instead chose Norman be the mastermind, revealing Gaunt as Mendel Stromm.
Editors Note;Figures.Only an idiot,who gave us Heroes Reborn and Spider-Man Clone Saga,would stupidly bring a character everyone-including Marvel thought dead.
Osborn would return in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #75, revealing himself as the mastermind behind the clone saga as revenge for his son's death. Though Osborn was blown up at the end of the issue, he recovered and returned to his life but without the Goblin identity. The character instead would attack Spider-Man through minions and smear campaigns designed to make him seem to be a monster. However, he would still wear the Goblin costume in battle.
Norman Osborn appears in the first arc of the comic series "The Pulse". In "The Pulse" #1-5, Luke Cage confronts Norman Osborn after he murders a reporter investigating a series of murders committed by the villain. In the ensuing struggle, Norman kills more than a dozen police officers and nearly kills Cage's pregnant fiancé Jessica Jones before being brought down by Cage. In the process, Osborn is once again exposed to be the Green Goblin, having sued writer Phil Ulrich after his return over a book he wrote during the period he was presumed dead.
 |
| Two into one will go. The landscape format that showed us a whole new way of looking at comics. See the guy in the shadow?Could it Luke Cage?Flash Thompson?Elvis? No turns out it"s Harry Osborn_the scewed up-sick in the head Harry Osborn,who went all the trouble disguise himself,bribe the coriner, to skip any medical examination and the funeral director to skip emballming procedures on his father Norman Osborn. |
Fictional character biography[edit|edit source]
Pre-Goblin years[edit]
Norman Osborn, the son of industrialist Ambrose Osborn, was born in New Haven, Connecticut. Although Ambrose was a brilliant student in the fields of science, he was also an alcoholic who lost control of his company and was abusive toward his family. In one incident, Ambrose locked Norman in one of the Osborn family's empty estates in an attempt to toughen him. It was in that darkened mansion that Norman felt haunted by a "green, goblin-like" creature that was "waiting to pounce on him."[24] All of these events had a severe impact on Norman, planting the seeds of the megalomaniac he would eventually become. Norman would stop at nothing to regain the wealth that his father had lost.
In college, where he studies chemistry and electrical engineering, Norman Osborn meets his sweetheart Emily, gets married, and eventually has a son whom he names Harry. In his adulthood, he co-founds a major firm with his former professor Mendel Stromm called Oscorp Industries, of which he is owner and president. However, Emily becomes ill and dies when Harry is barely a year old.[25] This tragedy pushes Norman Osborn to work harder, leading him to emotionally neglect Harry. Hoping to gain more control of Oscorp Industries, Norman accuses Stromm of embezzlement and has him arrested. Norman Osborn then searches Stromm's possessions, discovering an experimental strength/intelligence enhancement formula.[26] When Osborn attempts to create the serum, it turns green and explodes in his face. The accident greatly increases his intelligence and physical abilities, but also drives him to destructive insanity.
Enter the Goblin[edit]
Osborn adopts the bizarre identity of the Green Goblin with the goal of becoming boss of the city's organized crime. He intends to cement his position by defeating Spider-Man. As the Green Goblin, he would bedevil Spider-Man many times but fail to achieve his goal.[27] Stromm soon returns and attempts revenge with an army of robots, but apparently dies of a heart attack after Osborn tries to shoot him through the window.[28] Osborn discovers that college student Peter Parker, a classmate of Harry's, is Spider-Man after exposing Spider-Man to a gas that weakens his spider-sense with the aid of a gang of ordinary crooks, and allows him to be observed. Osborn captures Parker after knocking him out with an asphyxiation grenade, catching him off-guard at home and concerned for Aunt May. The Green Goblin bound Peter with a steel rope and took him to his waterfront base. He then ties him to a steel chair with the intention of torturing Peter with suspense, revealing his identity to the world, and killing Peter while he is completely helpless and at his mercy. He reveals his true identity and origin to Peter, who stalls Osborn long enough to free one hand. Seeing this, The Green Goblin releases Spider-Man for what he intends to be their climactic battle. Spider-Man defeats Osborn, who loses his memory after being knocked into a mass of electrical wires, and destroys the Goblin costume in the resulting fire.[29]
Osborn is troubled by repressed memories of the Green Goblin and Spider-Man. A presentation on supervillains by NYPDCaptain George Stacy restores Osborn's memory, but after a brief return to his Green Goblin persona, in which he abducts Parker's friends and threatens Parker's elderly Aunt May, he is exposed to one of his own "psychedelic bombs", inducing another amnesia spell.[30] In The Amazing Spider-Man #96, Osborn stumbles upon an old Green Goblin hideout which again restores his memory. The Goblin battles Spider-Man in this and the following two issues, until Spider-Man leads Osborn to see his son Harry Osborn hospitalized, overdosed on drugs. The shock causes Osborn's amnesia to return yet again.
In issue #121 (June 1973), his memory having been regained, the Green Goblin throws Parker's love, Gwen Stacy, from a tower of either the Brooklyn Bridge (as depicted in the art) or the George Washington Bridge (as given in the text).[31][32] She dies during Spider-Man's rescue attempt; a note on the letters page of issue #125 states: "It saddens us to say that the whiplash effect she underwent when Spidey's webbing stopped her so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her."[33] The following issue, the Goblin appears to accidentally kill himself in the ensuing battle with Spider-Man when he is impaled by his Glider.
Years after Gwen Stacy's death, it is revealed that Osborn had a one-night stand with Gwen after she's overwhelmed by his charisma which in turn leads to her pregnancy with his twin children, Gabriel and Sarah.Very often clones of dead women,save sex with their boyfriends worste enemy and twines with them.Right ?Oh,this can only happen at Marvel Comics. Norman Osborn thus has three motives for killing Gwen; revenge against Spider-Man, to prevent her talking of their affair and creating a scandal, and to take their children to raise by himself thus becoming his ideal heirs.What ?When the frack was this introduced?I read the comic.He just wanted get bake at Spider-Man.All that clone can in later.Or was this with Clone of Gwen Stacy.If the fracking writer at Wikipedea had some brains and writting talent,I'd get this. The only person who knew of their liaison and the existence of their children was Mary Jane Watson, who despises Osborn for his immoral behaviors long before discovering he is the villainous Green Goblin.[34]. ...
Return[edit]
The Green Goblin formula endowed Osborn with a healing factor that allowed him to circumvent his otherwise certain death-a correners examination and embalming. Osborn, no longer suffering from bouts of amnesia, escapes from a morgue and goes to Europe, where he can move freely and unnoticed. He becomes the leader of the Scrier cabal, which he utilizes to carry out revenge on Parker using Seward Trainer, Judas Traveller, the Jackal, and Mendel Stromm, who is now the cyborg-like Gaunt, as his pawns. It is this group of individuals who become crucial in duping Parker during the controversial[35] 1990s storyline the "Clone Saga", in which a clone of Parker, created in 1970s comics by the Jackal and dubbed Ben Reilly, returns to New York City. Osborn reemerges in Parker's life, and initially convinces Peter Parker that Parker is the clone and Reilly the original. When Parker learns the truth, Osborn kills Reilly, the real clone.[36] It is later revealed that he also raises his illegitimate children, Gabriel and Sarah, while in Europe and tells them that Peter Parker is their father and murdered their mother as Spider-Man.[37]
The returned Norman Osborn regains control of his business.Ofcourse,he did.Only comics and Soap Operas,can a dead guy,get away with this.In real world,dead guys generally stay dead and guys,who fake their deaths,don't risk going public,because duh-somebody might arrest their ass.But in Soap Opera fashion,Norman Osborn uses a Goblin stand-in so as not to be suspected of being the Green Goblin. He also crosses paths with Roderick Kingsley, the original Hobgoblin, and initiates a hostile takeover of the latter's corporate empire in retaliation for raiding the Goblin arsenal and identity. Osborn joins a cult hoping to receive great power but instead goes further into madness.[38] Osborn comes to see Parker as the son he had always wanted and attempts to have Parker take on the Goblin mantle using physiological torture but ultimately fails.Norman Osborn's next plan involves using a drunken Flash Thompson to drive a truck into Midtown High School, resulting in an accident that causes Thompson brain damage.Some might say,Flash had no brain to damage,but I'll let fans debait that one. This successfully enrages Parker into what Norman Osborn anticipates will be a climactic battle. During this confrontation, an emotionally weary Parker tells Osborn he is tired of this roundelay, and declares a truce.
Osborn's identity as the Green Goblin is revealed to the public through an investigation by the Daily Bugle after Osborn murders one of its reporters. After a battle with Spider-Man and Luke Cage, Osborn is arrested and sent to prison for the first time.[41] Regardless, Osborn masterminds a plot that forces Spider-Man himself to help him escape.[42] Osborn escapes to Paris but is apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.Yeah faking his death.Screwing the Gwen Stacy clone and tons of other crazy crap.
Fortunately there was more. After that Spider-Man classic, the issue gave us a Gene Colan Dr Strange story. I don't remember if I could make sense of the tale at the time but, looking at it now, I don't have a clue what's going on. Dr Strange and Clea are in Dormammu's Dread Dimension but Strange has lost his powers and is having to rely on Clea to do "pagan" magic to achieve something or other. It's a bit of a surprise to discover Dr Strange's normal magic wasn't pagan. Now I'm left not at all sure what kind of magic it was. There's some sort of junkie in it, a man who seems to be Clea's father, Dormammu, Umar and various others and, frankly, I'm left bewildered by it all. It does though end with a giant Dormammu climbing up out of a huge crack in the Earth, ready to perform some evil deeds or other. So, if it leaves you bamboozled, at least it makes you want to read the following issue.
Next we get a centre-spread poster featuring Luke Cage and Mace. Like virtually all artwork produced specially for Marvel's UK comics, it has to be said it's not great.
Nor is the specially produced splash page for the George Tuska Iron Man tale that follows it. Shell-Head's up against The Controller who I think turned up in the pages of Jim Starlin's Captain Marvel. The presence of this tale baffles me. Up until now I was under the impression Marvel UK's Iron Man reprints ended when the comic switched to landscape format. Now I've discovered they didn't. This means I must've read years of Iron Man stories from that point on, with no recall of them at all. Essential Iron Man Vol 3 clearly beckons, as I try to find out what happened in all those tales I've forgotten.
Next it's a Thor adventure as he sets out to tackle Dr Doom after rescuing a protesting girl from a mini-riot. He soon finds out Doom's kidnapped her father in order to get him to build him some missile silos. In the flashback, the girl's clearly aged at least ten years since he was abducted, which implies he's taking an awful long time to build those silos and that Doom blatantly kidnapped the wrong silo scientist. In order to lure Doom out into the open, Don Blake plants a story in the papers that he's developed a cosmetic surgery technique that can cure any disfigurement. This seems rather thoughtless of him, as the hopes of disfigured people the world over will be built up and then cruelly dashed for no good reason. Aww but who cares? It's drawn by John Buscema, so every panel's a thing of simple beauty.
We finish off with a Thing/Black Widow team-up that I assume comes from the pages of Marvel Two-In-One. Much as I love the Thing - and the Black Widow - I'm not convinced Two-In-One was always the greatest comic Marvel produced, and this tale does little to change that. The story's pretty silly, with the Widow at one point whipping off her top to reveal she has the parts for a disruptor cannon attached to her back, hidden in a strip of fake skin. Let's own up, we've all done it. Meanwhile, the Thing spends half the story hauling in a three mile long stretch of cable to stop a bomb going off. As well as the somewhat lame story, the art looks terrible. Either Klaus Janson's inking doesn't suit Bob Brown's pencils or Janson's habitually lavish use of ink suffers unduly from being shrunk to half normal size.
Of course it was.
As said before, the great thing about it was you got twice as much story for your money. Where else would you get an entire 20 page Spider-Man story, plus seven to nine pages each of Dr Strange, Iron Man, Thor and the Thing, and a double-page pin-up, all for 9 pence? The downside isn't really the small size of the artwork. Apart from the Thing story, it really doesn't suffer. The main downside is the small size of the letters page which only has room for two letters. As it's clear from one of those letters that the comic's only recently switched to the new format, it would've been nice to see more room for fan reaction to the switch.
No comments:
Post a Comment