History ComicBook / NormanOsborn

--> '''Peter Parker''' (thinks): "He was just a greedy, ruthless businessman before his accident...But the chemical changed him...for the worse! Now what do I do? How do you reason with a madman?!!"

--->'''Osborn:''' ''This is my country.''

--->'''Osborn:''' ''I want you all to listen very carefully. I'm not going to kill you. I'm not even going to arrest you. Because you work for me now. Not the Thunderbolts. '''Me'''. But know this: if you ever - '''ever''' - interfere with me again... [[KillEmAll I will murder your families, your friends, your loved ones]]. [[EvilerThanThou I'll kill them them in ways that will make even sociopaths like you weep]]. [[AxCrazy Then I will torture you to death. Slowly. And I will enjoy every last second of it]]. Now get out of here. Go back to the bars and brothels you people frequent, and take this message. '''You do not cross Norman Osborn'''.''

** Holy Cow, if he didn't deserve it before, he does for his actions in ''Superior Spider-Man''. [[spoiler:After coming back, instead of taking the fight to Otto, he waits and slowly builds power. Knowing that Otto created Spider bots to monitor the city, he hacked one of them and uploaded a program that ensures if someone has a Goblin appearance, either by wearing a mask or having a Goblin tattoo, the bot does not register that person, ensuring Otto stays out of Norman's hair. For everything Otto does, Norman somehow benefits. When Otto outed Phil Urich as the Hobgoblin, Norman took the chance to have Urich join his group. When Otto took down the Kingpin, Norman seized power making him the new Kingpin. Norman kidnapped Carly and found out that Otto killed Peter Parker, he simply adjusted his plans to torture Otto as well as Peter's loved ones. When he finally decides to step in the limelight, he has enough forces to keep even the Avengers busy trying to stop his forces or save everyone. Allowing him to focus on Otto, he simply destroys everything Otto has made. He destroyed Spider Island, stripping Otto of back up; destroyed everything that was ever related to Otto, laughing all the way; hacked into Otto's tentacles, nearly killing him; hacked into JJJ's Spider Slayers; kidnapped Otto's girlfriend and finally attempts a hit on everyone close to Peter. The only reason the murder of Peter's loved ones failed was because he underestimated [[BadassNormal MJ]]]].

-->'''Spider-Man''': Mister, are we living in the same universe? You killed my woman, Goblin, and you're raging about a ''blasted bargain-basement toy?!''

* EasyAmnesia: Formerly, he [[AlternateIdentityAmnesia couldn't remember his misdeeds as the Green Goblin]]. Now fully averted, since he remembers everything he's done and doesn't regret it. It seems to have come back in a way with the end of ''ComicBook/GoDownSwinging'' as [[spoiler:An interrupted rebonding with the Carnage symbiote and feeling its agony as it's burnt to death scrambled Osborn's brains, making him think he's Cletus Kasady.]]

** While bonded with the Carnage symbiote, Norman, never ''really'' one for utterly wanton and senseless hands-on slaughter, expressed surprising unease over the symbiote's bloodlust, something which the creature mocked him over, sarcastically asking when the Green Goblin grew a conscious. Norman called the symbiote out on murdering a pair of henchmen who had been nothing but faithful and reliable to him, and was sickened when the symbiote, who he had agreed to let murder someone who no one would miss to make it stop annoying him, went out of control and massacred an entire building full of people. He came to grin and bear it by the events of ''ComicBook/GoDownSwinging'' proper, though, at one point butchering a ton scientists, which shocked Spider-Man, as, previously, Norman, despite all of his faults, was not quite the type to do something like literally paint the walls with bystander's blood and bodyparts ForTheEvulz.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Norman specifically and not the Green Goblin, is such an asshole and abusive sociopath that no one really likes him. The people who work for him usually betray him when working for him has become an inconvenience. The members of his Cabal during Dark Reign all betrayed him at different points. His surviving family have all learned to hate him. At this point, if there is someone allied with him, you can expect them to vehemently change their mindds within that storyline.

Following his defeat, Osborn escapes from the hospital and resumes the identity of the Green Goblin, vowing to defeat [[ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan the new Spider-Man]]. To this end he dubs himself the "Goblin King" and takes over New York's criminal underworld, enlisting the help of Menace, Monster (Carlie Cooper after being splashed with the Gobin Formula), and Hobgoblin VII (renamed the Goblin Knight). Ultimately defeated by the good old Spider-Man, he still manages to escape. However, his escape wasn't clean as he had lost his powers thanks to a special nanotech vaccine created by the Superior Spider-Man. His search to restore his powers ultimately lead him to the Carnage symbiote, where Norman easily got the symbiote to realize the joy of slowly murdering people and convinced it to join with him. Its first order of business was purging the vaccine from his being, with Norman plotting to fuse the symbiote with the Goblin Formula. He ultimately did so, and became the '''Red Goblin''' - launching a new campaign to torment Peter in ''ComicBook/GoDownSwinging'', at the end of which Spider-Man managed to destroy the Carnage symbiote and induced severe mental backlash that scrambled Goblin's mind -- now believing himself to be Cletus Kasady, and Spidey to be Norman. Acknowledging that the Red Goblin's reign of terror is over, Spider-Man had simply left the now brain-dead Norman Osborn to his own leisure...this of course didn't last given that he later joined the Power Elite.

His [[LegacyCharacter evil legacy]] lived on with [[Characters/SpiderManGoblins several goblin-themed villains, including his own son Harry]]. At the conclusion of ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'', Norman was shown to be alive, having been orchestrating events from somewhere in Europe, and that it was he who had been behind the Clone Saga. It turned out that the Goblin Serum gave him a HealingFactor and that after being impaled by the glider, Norman's body woke up at the morgue and he quickly replaced his body with that of a vagrant he murdered and skedaddled to Europe, before returning at the conclusion of the Clone Saga. After that, Norman returned to his campaign of tormenting Peter Parker, through legal and illegal acts, until he was finally caught in ''ComicBook/ThePulse'' for the first time in his 40 year Publication History (the longest for any Marvel villain to evade in-page and on-panel justice). He was released by ComicBook/IronMan to help him in the ComicBook/CivilWar. [[ComicBook/DarkReign This proved to be a mistake]]. Where Lee-Romita showed that there was once some good in Norman, the new era showed Norman to be a malingering, gaslighting, scheming mastermind, obsessed with power and hampered only by a self-destructive streak. After ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'', Norman even loses knowledge of Peter Parker's identity albeit he retains his hatred for Spider-Man and cottons on very quickly whenever a new Spider-Man takes over from the old. After his day in the spotlight as the Top Cop of Marvel Universe, Norman Osborn was put into prison yet again, only to break out mere months later to unite the Goblin Cult, HYDRA, A.I.M, Hand and HAMMER into his own new organization. He revived the ComicBook/DarkAvengers and defeated not one but two teams of Avengers (directly with the Avengers; indirectly with the New Avengers) before his pride cost him everything yet again. As hype for the ''Dark Reign'', Marvel hired an actual psychologist who analyzed old Stormin' Norman and found out just how twisted he is. Suffice it to say, it's A LOT.

* DependingOnTheWriter: Creator/MarkMillar's version of the character is noticeably smarter -- bordering on OmnidisciplinaryScientist -- compared to most other takes on the character. In some versions, notably the film and animated series, he is almost more of a JekyllAndHyde figure, the Norman side being a well-meaning but stressed businessman who is taken over or lead by the Goblin persona.

** In a [[EvilVersusOblivion cross]] between this and PragmaticVillainy, Norman, who just wants power and control, assumed Hera was psychotic when she confided in him that she was an OminicidalManiac who planned on wiping out the entire universe just so that she could rebuild it [[InTheirOwnImage In Her Own Image]].
** While bonded with the Carnage symbiote, Norman, never ''really'' one for utterly wanton and senseless hands-on slaughter, expressed surprising unease over the symbiote's bloodlust, something which the creature mocked him over, sarcastically asking when the Green Goblin grew a conscious. Norman called the symbiote out on murdering a pair of henchmen who had been nothing but faithful and reliable to him, and was sickened when the symbiote, who he had agreed to let murder someone who no one would miss to make it stop annoying him, went out of control and massacred an entire building full of people. He came to grin and bear it by the events of ''ComicBook/GoDownSwinging'' proper, though, at one point butchering a ton scientists, which shocked Spider-Man, as, previously, Norman was not quite the type to do something like literally paint the walls with bystander's blood and bodyparts ForTheEvulz.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: During the ''Red Goblin'' story, even Norman himself was initially shocked that the Carnage symbiote took him over and made him slaughter his own loyal bodyguards.

* MadScientist: He created a cure for cancer for the sole purpose of weaponizing it for use against SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}}.

His comics appearances are mainly in the pages of ''Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker Spider-Man, Civil War, Dark Reign, New Avengers'', and others. He starred in his own miniseries, ''Osborn: Evil Incarcerated'', showing his time in jail after ''Dark Reign''. Norman Osborn has appeared in other media, including the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' (played by Creator/WillemDafoe) and ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'' (played by Creator/ChrisCooper), ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Ultimate Spider-Man}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/MarvelsSpiderMan''. He was also a playable character in ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'' 2 and a boss in ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance''. When stage musical ''Theatre/SpiderManTurnOffTheDark'' played in New York he was played by Patrick Page.

** He had one and was thoroughly horrible one to Harry.

* DirtyOldMan: A particularly dark version, Norman is nothing if not a misogynistic predator for young women despite being old enough to have a fully adult son. Two of his various infamous conquests include Gwen Stacy and his son's wife/his own daughter-in-law.

** He had one and was one to Harry.

His comics appearances are mainly in the pages of ''Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker Spider-Man, Civil War, Dark Reign, New Avengers'', and others. He starred in his own miniseries, ''Osborn: Evil Incarcerated'', showing his time in jail after ''Dark Reign''. Norman Osborn has appeared in other media, including the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' (played by Creator/WillemDafoe) and ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'' (played by Creator/ChrisCooper), ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Ultimate Spider-Man}}''. He was also a playable character in ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'' 2 and a boss in ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance''. When stage musical ''Theatre/SpiderManTurnOffTheDark'' played in New York he was played by Patrick Page.

His comics appearances are mainly in the pages of ''Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker Spider-Man, Civil War, Dark Reign, New Avengers'', and others. He starred in his own miniseries, ''Osborn: Evil Incarcerated'', showing his time in jail after ''Dark Reign''. Norman Osborn has appeared in other media, including the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' (played by Creator/WillemDafoe) and ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'' (played by Creator/ChrisCooper), ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Ultimate Spider-Man}}''. He was also a playable character in ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'' 2 and a boss in ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance''.