10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Green Goblin

10. He Wasn't Meant To Be Human

Spider-Man was horrified when he learned the Green Goblin was none other than Norman Osborn - the father of Peter Parker's best friend, Harry. Up until this point, none of Spidey's supervillains had a personal connection with the Wall-crawler so this was a monumental moment in comics. It also inspired the creation of many other villains that were personally attachment to the heroes they faced.

But the character's creators, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, never intended the Green Goblin to be Norman Osborn. Originally, Lee wanted the Goblin to be an ancient creature that was discovered in an Egyptian sarcophagus. Ditko talked Lee out of this idea on the grounds that it was... pretty stupid.

Although he convinced Lee to make the Goblin a human, Ditko wanted the supervillain to be a brand-new character. Lee refused, insisting it would be a neat twist if the pumpkin-chucking rogue was someone Spider-Man knew. This argument got so out of hand, Ditko stopped writing the series after Amazing Spider-Man #38. In the very next issue, Norman Osborn was revealed as the Green Goblin.