About Green Goblin Character Review
The Green Goblin 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 (July 1964). Although many characters have taken up this identity, Norman Osborn is the original and most well-known Green Goblin. Osborn was originally an amoral industrialist head of Oscorp and father of Spider-Man's best friend, Harry Osborn, who 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, being responsible for numerous tragedies in Spider-Man's life, such as the death of Gwen Stacy and the Clone Saga. He was also the main character and lead antagonist of the company-wide Dark Reign storyline.
Willem Dafoe played Norman Osborn and his alter ego the Green Goblin in the 2002 film Spider-Man as the main antagonist. Dafoe made cameo appearances in both Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3 as Harry's hallucinations. In the Spider-Man film reboot series, Chris Cooper was officially announced to be portraying Norman in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the follow up to The Amazing Spider-Man. In 2009, Norman Osborn was also ranked as IGN's 13th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time. He also placed #11 on GuysNation's Top Villains of All Time. Comics journalist and historian Mike Conroy
writes of the character: "Of all the costumed villains who've plagued
Spider-Man over the years, the most flat-out unhinged and terrifying of
them all is the Green Goblin."
Looking for the Green Goblin Life-size Bust (product size 60 X 25 X 22 cm)...??
Powers, Abilities and Weaknesses
Norman Osborn was turned into the Green Goblin by a chemical solution
he had devised based upon a formula originally conceived by Professor Mendel Stromm. The process granted Osborn superhuman agility, strength, speed, stamina, and dexterity.
In addition to these physical advantages, the serum also greatly
enhanced Norman's already-above average intellect, making him a bona
fide genius capable of making breakthroughs in advanced areas of genetics, robotics, engineering, physics and applied chemistry.
The Goblin formula is also said to have driven Osborn insane; defects
in his personality were strongly augmented by the serum, resulting in
dangerous mood-swings and hallucinations.
Weapons of the Green Goblin
The Green Goblin is armed with a variety of bizarre devices. He travels on his bat-shaped
"Goblin Glider", an incredibly fast and maneuverable rocket glider
equipped with various armaments. Other weapons the Goblin uses include
incendiary Pumpkin Bombs, smoke- and gas-emitting grenades resembling
ghosts and jack-'o'-lanterns, razor-edged boomerang-like
throwing weapons, resembling bats, and gloves woven with
micro-circuited filaments which channel pulsed discharges of electricity
at nearly 10,000 volts. He wears a green costume underneath bulletproof chainmail with an overlapping purple tunic. His mask has a built-in gas filter to keep him safe from his own gasses.
Goblin Glider
The Goblin Glider's controls and microprocessor are located behind the head of the glider. The pilot is attached to the glider via electromagnetic
clasps on the wings of the glider. It has great maneuverability and is
steered mostly by leaning, but manual controls are available behind the
head of the glider. The Green Goblin later added radio-linked voice
controls to his mask. Its top speed is 90 miles per hour (140 km/h), and
it can support about 400 lb (180 kg), though it could lift far more for
brief periods. Flying at top speed with a full load and a full fuel
tank would deplete its fuel supply in about an hour.
The glider possesses a wide array of armaments, including
heat-seeking and smart missiles, machine guns, extending blades, a
flamethrower and a pumpkin bomb dispenser/launcher.
Pumpkin Bomb
A grenade used by the Green Goblin, the Pumpkin Bomb resembles a miniature Jack-o'-lantern
and, when thrown ignites almost soundlessly and produces enough heat to
melt through a 3-inch (76 mm) thick sheet of steel. The Goblin carries
these and a variety of other weapons in a shoulder bag he calls his "Bag
Of Tricks". The Green Goblin has a range of other "Pumpkin Bombs" at
his disposal, including smoke-and gas-emitting bombs. Some release hallucinogenic gases, while others emit a specially created mixture that neutralizes Spider-Man's
spider-sense for a limited period of time. All of these are covered in a
light plastic mantle that flutters like a ghost when thrown.
Looking for Green Goblin's Statue Character..? click here
Weapons as the Iron Patriot
During the events of the "Dark Reign", Osborn created a new identity, the Iron Patriot (an amalgam of Captain America and Iron Man), to cement his standing as a hero. As the Iron Patriot, he utilized a version of Iron Man's armor
painted in the colors of the American flag. The armor featured
superhuman strength, enhanced durability, flight, magnetic impact
blasts, heat seeking missiles, miniaturized lasers, flamethrowers, and a
communications system housed in his helmet which allowed him to
interface with any U.S.-controlled satellite or computer network. While
the original Iron Man armor utilized repulsor technology, Osborn's
design does not; Stark destroyed all but one repulsor, and stated that
"Oz is too stupid" to make his own repulsor-based weapons system. The
star shaped Uni Beam projector on his chest, because of its shape, also
has a less powerful output than that of the original Iron Man model.
Powers and Weaknesses as the Super-Adaptoid
Following his time in prison, A.I.M scientists converted Osborn into a Super-Adaptoid,
capable of absorbing the abilities of any mutant, mutate, alien,
android or other such super powered being by touching them. In this form
he possessed considerably increased strength and durability; where he
was once approximately as strong as Spider-Man, he now possessed
sufficient strength to overpower and throw Luke Cage a significant distance away from him. He could also levitate, and he was able to defeat the Vision in an aerial conflict between the two.
He is known to have absorbed the abilities of Luke Cage, Vision, Red Hulk, and Protector, and it is suggested that he also absorbed the abilities of his current Dark Avengers.
In his final form, his body grew to the Hulk's size, and like Hulk he
was capable of creating shockwaves by hitting the ground or smashing his
hands together. His durability was sufficient to withstand the combined
attacks of all the Avengers, and he demonstrated remarkable healing
abilities, recovering in seconds after Daisy Johnson used her powers to
make his heart explode. He could also turn intangible by manipulating
his density, as the Vision does.
However, Osborn had no control over his Super-Adaptoid abilities; he
would automatically absorb the powers of any superhuman he touched, even
if he didn't consciously want to. He was also limited in how many
powers his body could hold, as the A.I.M. scientists warned him that
absorbing too many powers at once could overload his systems. In the
end, he inadvertently absorbed the abilities of all the Avengers and New
Avengers when they all touched him at once, and the unstable
combination of their multiple different powers caused significant damage
to his body chemistry, resulting in him becoming comatose.
Mental Illness and Other Weaknesses
Norman Osborn has consistently been depicted with several unusual
weaknesses related to his psychosis and to his personality. He suffers
from manic depression. He has a pronounced narcissistic personality disorder co-morbid with severe anti-social psychopathic traits, and in some depictions, multiple-personality disorder (for some of his
early appearances he and the Goblin were separate personalities, his
Goblin side disdaining his human weaknesses while his other side was
primarily motivated by his concern for Harry, although his anger over
his son's failing health as 'Norman' helped to provoke his
transformation back into the Goblin, his other side never reappearing
after he was believed dead). He is also highly sadistic, showing a complete lack of empathy for the
lives of innocent people who stand between him and his objectives. These
weaknesses have often been referenced in stories featuring him and
exploited by his enemies.
In Thunderbolts, Norman Osborn is shown to be severely manic depressive. This has been referenced several times in a myriad of Spider-Man
stories. When he is not under the direction of a psychiatrist and taking
medication, he has dangerous mood swings. At the apex of his mania, he
is paranoid, delusional, and suffers from visual and auditory
hallucinations, including hearing the voice of his Green Goblin persona
and seeing its face in the mirror rather than his own. Previously,
Osborn's arrogance caused him to refuse to submit to psychiatric
treatment unless forced to; he viewed mental illness as an imperfection
and therefore would not admit that he is mentally ill. In later
conversations with the Sentry, Osborn revealed that he had come to
accept his own mental illness.
Superhuman psychologist Leonard Samson
says of Osborn: "In clinical terms, the words psychotic and
psychopathic are far from synonymous... but in Norman Osborn's case,
both apply. I'd characterise him as a bipolar psychotic with concurrent
aspects of psychopathic megalomania and malignant narcissism. In
layman's terms, a lethal cocktail of intersecting personality disorders
that makes him one of the most dangerous human beings on the planet."
There are many examples of Osborn's pronounced superiority complex,
to the point that he will rarely, if ever, admit that he has made
mistakes, transferring blame for his shortcomings to others or claiming
that he was better than he was; even before his accident, he spent more
time providing Harry with gifts or outings rather than actually being
there for his son or trying to listen to his problems, and nevertheless
claims that he was still a good father. Having become the Goblin, he
generally views other people as dim-witted pests, lacking in creative
vision, unworthy to be graced by his presence. He goes out of his way to
remind others of their personal failures and shortcomings and to remind
those in close relationships with him, such as his son, that they are
incapable of measuring up to his achievements. When he first learned
Spider-Man's identity, he claimed that when Spider-Man had defeated him
in their previous battles, none of those victories counted because
Spider-Man had only beaten his lackeys or been rescued by the
intervention of other super powered beings such as the Human Torch,
despite the fact that he always departed the battles after Spider-Man's
victories rather than trying to defeat his foe himself. He also missed the opportunity to lead the original Sinister Six because he felt that joining the group would mean admitting he needed the help of others to rid himself of Spider-Man.
Although he later formed the 'Sinister Twelve' when Spider-Man sent him
to prison, he expressed anger at Mac Gargan for acquiring the Venom symbiote rather than using the new Scorpion suit provided for him simply
because Gargan wasn't doing what he wanted despite Venom being more
powerful than the Scorpion. When he participated in the mystical ritual known as the Gathering of
Five, he appeared convinced that he would automatically receive the gift
of power from the ritual – which would bestow upon the participants
power, immortality, knowledge, madness and death, respectively – only to
receive the gift of madness instead, subsequently requiring an elaborate cocktail of drugs to restore
himself to a semblance of sanity. During his time in charge of
H.A.M.M.E.R. he was provoked into attacking Asgard by his Goblin side
because his ego couldn't allow himself to consider the possibility that
the Asgardians wouldn't threaten his power Later events revealed that Loki at least slightly influenced Osborn's decision to further Loki's own goals. During his attempted takeover of Earth's superhuman security defenses,
he was shown reflecting that humans are all barbarians who require the
strong like him to control them, dismissing the Avengers as no better
than him despite the obvious distinction between Osborn's demands for
power and the straightforward respect that the general public have for
the Avengers.
It has been shown that since having suppressed the rampaging Green
Goblin personality and becoming the more dominant personality, Osborn
has proven to be just as (if not more) evil and cruel. Osborn has
demonstrated a high degree of sadism. While he was in prison, a guard
once asked him for his advice in helping his critically ill wife;
Osborn's advice led her to a quicker and more agonizing death. As
director of the Avengers, he allowed Bullseye to continue to function as
an Avenger, even after Bullseye allowed over thirty innocent bystanders
to be killed during a skirmish with a supervillain. As director of H.A.M.M.E.R. he directed his officers to shoot down an
airplane full of innocent people just to see whether his enemy, Pepper Potts, was powerful enough to rescue the passengers with her Rescue variant of the Iron Man armor. Because these actions threatened the hero persona he had carefully
crafted some in the media began to see him for what he really was, and
many of his highly-credible former enemies spoke out against him. His
Goblin persona vied for control of his body, as depicted in the January
2010 issue of Dark Avengers,
where he is shown writhing on the floor and imploring, apparently to
himself, "Why won't this face come off...?", and finally took over when
Osborn's Iron Patriot armor was defeated by Captain America and Iron Man
at the end of the "Siege" arc.
In Other Media
The Green Goblin has appeared in many Spider-Man related media, such as movies. television series and video games.
Looking for Green Goblin (Spider-Man) Legendary Scale Bust from Sideshow Collectibles!
Click here..
