Ace

Jun 11 2009, 12:19 AM

It's really not that unbelievable at all. Norman has had more than a few instances where he's been seen in public while the Goblin attacked him. Most he set up himself. And in fact there have been many Goblins over the years, all of which could easily have been behind the mask for the majority of the instances. The general public have no way of knowing it was really Norman (and Harry) for most of it.

In fact, Norman has only been publicly seen as the Goblin on two occasions, and they weren't even that terrible. Once when Luke Cage smashed his car and he flew out in full Goblin gear and was arrested (in The Pulse). And again not long after that when he escaped police custody and Spider-Man kicked the ever-luvin' crud out of him (In the first issue of Marvel Knights: Spider-Man).

Outside of those two instances, he can write off the other Goblin appearances as different people (and he in fact alludes to this in his recent Dark Avengers interview, which actually isn't far from the truth some of the time).

And this isn't the first time he's gotten around this. Years ago Ben Urich wrote a book about the information he collected regarding the lives of Norman and Harry as Green Goblins. When Norman "returned from the dead" he sued Urich and the Daily Bugle for slander as they had no hard evidence to back that up.

Norman Osborn is a manipulator. All of his schemes are grandiose Machiavellian plots that have him pulling peoples strings from the shadows. He's an evil mastermind the likes of which most people in the Marvel universe have never seen. He has the money, the intelligence, and the influence to easily write off such charges. And he made the right move by confessing to a few instances while suggesting that the other times either weren't him, or he was being "taken advantage of".

No one can prove him wrong.

Ace

Jun 11 2009, 02:10 PM

Doom and Osborn actually aren't that far apart. They're both geniuses who've dabbled in magic, who generally focus on two things: their own wants and goals, and making the lives of their enemies miserable.

In the case of both Doom and Osborn most of their plans are designed purely to make Spider-Man (and the Fantastic Four, in Doom's case) suffer as much as possible. Both go to great lengths not merely to kill their respective foes, but to break them emotionally and psychologically. Each has plans on top of plans on top of plans for such things.

They've also both contributed to global superterrorism. Latveria was funding it and outfitting superhumans with the tech necessary to keep them running, and Osborn has been part of a movement within the government to manufacture superhumans in order to keep superheroes busy so they focus on fighting each other rather than moving on to things like politics. Which ironically he did himself, overstepping a system he helped create.

And finally, they both have empires. Osborn with his companies, cults, dark superhero teams, and HAMMER. And Doom with his kingdom, which speaks for itself. Both have wealth and power, clearly. So in that way they're generally on equal footing. The difference is where Doom is prideful, Osborn is merely insane.

The reason the Green Goblin doesn't make it to the top of a lot of villain lists is because while he is all of what I stated above, until recently he was just a Spider-Man villain. That's all that he was. He never attacked the Avengers, the Fantastic Four or the X-Men; just Spider-Man. With Dark Reign that has all changed. Now he's a global villain, everyone is his enemy. So in the future I suspect we'll see him ranked much higher on such lists. Previously he was an A-list villain to comic fans, but now he's also an A-list villain in the context of the Marvel universe and how they perceive him.