10 Things Marvel Wants You To Forget About Green Goblin
6. That He's JUST A Spider-Man Villain
Marvel Comics
For the vast majority of fans the Green Goblin is a villain to Spider-Man and Spider-Man alone. However (and this only applies to Norman Osborn, by the way), that isn't actually the case; for the last decade, Norman Osborn has tormented the Avengers as much as he had the web-slinger.
It's a matter of opinion as to where the villain works best of course, but it would seem as though Marvel are keen on reminding everyone that Norman is as much a villain to the wider Marvel Universe as he is to Spidey specifically. That'll no doubt take some adjusting to from casual readers, but Osborn has been at the forefront of the Marvel Universe for years now, even founding his own group of Evil Avengers and ousting Tony Stark from S.H.I.E.L.D. at one point in time.
Perhaps surprisingly, it's been rumoured for a while now that Osborn will take a leading role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's fourth phase as an overarching antagonist for both Spider-Man and the Avengers. Given the bulk of the character's most recent material has repositioned him to fill that role, it would seem as though Marvel want to erode the notion that the Goblin is a Spidey villain and a Spidey villain alone.
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.
