10 Things Marvel Wants You To Forget About Green Goblin

Is Norman Osborn basically Spider-Man's Joker?

by Ewan Paterson
Marvel Comics

Spider-Man possesses potentially the greatest rogues gallery going over at Marvel, and the most famous individual to feature within it is the Green Goblin.

Norman Osborn first burst onto the scene in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 all the way back in 1964, and quickly carved out a reputation for himself as Spider-Man's most embittered rival, more-so than the likes of Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, and later Venom. He tormented Spidey for years, discovered his true identity, and was the principle antagonist during The Night Gwen Stacy Died, an arc that is commonly believed to have heralded the end of the Silver Age of comics, and opened up the floodgates to more mature storylines.

The Green Goblin thus boasts a formidable legacy, but there's a whole lot more to the character than his most iconic depictions let on. In fact, there are some aspects of the villain that Marvel would probably want you to just forget about completely, while there are others that, despite being pervasive across Osborn's history, most simply refuse to dwell on.

He's a great character, bones and all, but he's not perfect. That’s fine of course, and even though Gobby still remains Spidey’s greatest adversary, there are some things that could tarnish that perception...

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.