DACrowe
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They are the greatest rivals and enemies so I strung together some of their greatest encounters here, take a look:
Amazing Spider-Man #14: Green Goblin first appears and tricks Spider-Man into a desert to "shoot a movie" to boost his reputation. There he and the Enforcers tag team Spidey and if the Hulk hadn't gotten involved the GG might've killed old web-head then and there.
Amazing Spider-Man #17: Convinced he is better than Spider-Man and all superheroes and needing to prove it to the world Gobby jumps in and surprises Spidey at Fash's Spider-Man concert party....thing. Gone is the stupid broom from his first appearence and in enters the glider They battle and the Human Torch gets in the act. Gobby is overwhelmed but when hearing that Aunt May had a heart attack or stroke from two muttering security guards, Spidey ditches the fight and leaves in the publics' eyes that he is a coward and Gobby is victorious.
Amazing Spider-Man #26-#28: Green Goblin vs. Crime Lord. Gobby vs. Crime Lord with spidey in the middle.
Amazing Spider-Man #39-#40: Gobby does the very thinkable, he figures out Spidey has a spider-sense and dounces him with a chemical that dulls it. He follows Spidey after a battle and discovers Spidey is Peter Parker, Harry's supposed friend. Goblin laughs with intensity at this as the day is his.. He quickly and easily ambushes Spider-Man as Peter Parker and tears him a new one taking him to a chemical plant at Oscorp at which he reveals at, he is Norman Osborn, Harry's father! The two fight and a chemical explosion goes off giving Norman amnesia causing him to forget he is the Green Goblin. Spider-Man thinks Gobby is gone for good when Peter Parker interrogates Norman at the hospital.
Amazing Spider-Man #96-#98: Thre dreaded and feared: drug issue(s). In it Norman breaks down from chemicals and remembers his alter-ego and has an identity crisis and gives in to the Goblin. Meanwhile his son Harry Osborn is tripping off LSD and pills he bought and goes trippy. He overdoses just as Green Goblin attacks his and Peter Parker's apartment in an attempt to kill both of them! AT which point he reveals himself to be truly far gone by almost blowing up his own son but in the end losing the battle to amnesia yet again.
Amazing Spider-Man #121-#122: The dreaded turning point. Norman is back and meaner than ever. This time he goes too far as the Goblin trails Peter Parker to find him dating Gwen Stacy. In a crude move he kidnaps Pete's girlfriend and takes her to the George Washington (or Brooklyn, take your pick) bridge for an ultimate showdeown. In the hey frey Goblin tosses Gwen off the top of the bridge and when spidey tries to save her, accidentally snaps her neck from the impact of the webline. Hence SPIDER-MAN KILLED GWEN STACY AT THE HANDS OF THE GREEN GOBLIN. Oh the irony. Peter goes on a rampage to find Norman even blowing off his best friend Harry when he overdoses on LSD again leading him right back to a warehouse where Norman is planning. They battle and Spidey nearly beats GG to death but pulls the last punch and will take Norman to jail instead. But GG pulls a remote to the glider to kill Spider-Man instead, but Spidey ducks and the glider impales GG instead. And to quote the book "And so the proud man dies not on a ring of gold but a piece of tin."
Amazing Spider-Man #135-#137: The Green Goblin is back! But this time he is in the form of Harry Osborn. Having tailed Spider-Man to the warehouse drugged up, Harry found out his father was the Green Goblin. He had hid the body away from the costume to make it look like Norman was not the Green Goblin. But it drove him mad and in dispair and in these issues when he finds the Spidey costume in Pete's room while Pete's in teh shower he goes over the edge. He takes the goblin formula and goes ape**** on Spidey almost beating him. He then plants a bomb over Aunt May's head after missing his oppurtunity to kill the webhead in the warehouse his father died. But Spidey defeats Harry and difuses the bomb. He takes off Harry's stuff and lets the police cart him away to the loony bin. He screams that he knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man and he is the Green Goblin, but no one believes him because he is too young to be the Green Goblin that first showed up years ago.
Amazing Spider-Man: #178#180: The **** hits the fan here. Harry has gone missing and Liz has had enough. Aunt May is in the hospital and needs Peter to sign her to have surgory but only MJ is there with Aunt May as Spidey is stuck battling a returned Green Goblin who is crazier than ever. he captures Spidey ready to sell him to the mob but a rival gang frees Spidey. In this series GG nearly kills Silvermaine and defeats Spidey only unable to kill him because his masked prisoner escapes....HARRY OSBORN. A second Green Goblin appears and it is Harry Osborn and it is revealed that this is a third generation Green Goblin, Harry's institution psychatrist who followed harry's claims and was going to use it to write a field book but goes mad with power instead and becoems the Green Goblin, ready to kill Harry and Peter. He unfortunately loses a one-on-one for Harry and blows himself up. Harry vows never to put the costume on again and retires with Peter back to Liz Allen and finally an apparently happy ending.
Amazing Spider-Man #314: Nearly 20 years later (our time) the happy ending wasn't so happy afterall. Harry is awoken to his true Goblin self by the dispicable Hobgoblin II (Jason Mendale(sp?) who is after the Goblin formula that the first Hobby had and all the Green Goblins did. He gets more than he bargins for though when he wakes the Green Goblin out of slumber.
Spectacular Spider-Man #177-#184: Ah the meloncholy of Harry finally sets in, in the Child Within. Unfortunately it is 7 issues long and way too long to describe (and I don't have all the issues) so suffice to say Harry goes too far gone to come back. It is revealed he has been depressed all his life and we see how far his father has screwed him up all his life and why he is such a cruel person imself deep within. There is no going back for Harry at this point and he gets away at the end, like any good goblin should.
Spectacular Spider-Man #189: The return of Harry in possibly his most poignant story. Here he kidnaps his wife, son little Normie and brother-in-law Mark (the former MOlten Man) into his old Osborn Estate (a home that scared him too much as a sane Harry Osborn to live in) and there tortures his family. He literally beats Mark for being band abuses his wife mentally as she goes on the verge of a mental breakdown of seeing her husband reduced to a madman who is pretending to be his father dressed in a Halloween costume. Always around him pictures of he and his father painted and mounted. He even sets the seeds of maddness in his son as he forces his to side against his mother. And then of course you got him living an exploding Spider-Man in MJ's bed and Peter trying to stop it and being the guest of honor at the cooky dinner party that ends Harry as the GG finally being caught and carted off in chains taunting he knows who Spider-Man is and soon he will reveal it to the entire world.
Spectacular Spider-Man #200: The Goblin has another last stand. Here Harry is maricoulously (or lazily written) released where he tries to turn over a new leaf. He scares MJ as Gobby but won't hurt her, meanwhile scaring his wife into accepting him as "normal." He then makes plans to kill all of his father's old friends calling them "snobs" who tried to keep his father down. He does it in the guise of a charity building but not before Spidey has anything to say about it. But as Peter enters this world he enters it when MJ and little Normie are in the building (little Normie is getting ****ed up and enjoying destroying Spider-Man dolls). In this time GG actually defeats Spider-Man. But he can't kill him because he breaks his promise to MJ if he lets her die, much less his son. In a moment of identity crisis, he chooses to be a hero and saves them. He comes back for Peter at MJ's urging puts his ailments (from an overdose on Goblin Formula) to its limits and dies from an O.D. Spider-Man rides with him in the ambulance to the hospital. He is D.O.A. once he is there though.
Peter Parker Spider-Man #75: The end of revelations. It is Halloween night and Spider-Man is out (Ben REilly) as Peter rushes to the hospital to see his baby. There is a sense of carelessness from the hospital staff who can't help him find his wife and daughter. He is then drugged and kidnapped and wakes up in the original Spider-Man duds in the hands of....NORMAN OSBORN. Back from the dead as it were. He reveals that the Goblin Formula gives you an advanced healing factor and his body mended itself hours after Spider-Man left him for dead. He was then to seek revenge but found his son trying on the Goblin gear so instead put a "lookalike" in the coffin and went to attend shady tidings in Europe over the last years leaving Harry to make him proud. But no....Peter Parker killed his son and Norman came back wanting revenge. He is now one personality, evil son of a *****. He has gathered all of Peter's friends over the years (Betty, Flash, Liz, JJJ, Robbie, Gloria, the whole gang) inside the Daily Bugle for a "Halloween Party" but locked them there to blow up. He reveals he has tortured Peter from Europe. Having blackmailed Ben's friend into saying Peter was the clone. But Peter was too damn resilent, he had already beaten Ben to a pulp. He then taunts JJJ and reveals his (JJJ knowing Norman Osborn's voice) return before Spidey keeps him from dropping him to his grave. In a very personal battle on top of the Daily Bugle explosions abound. Ben saves everyone inside and brings the booby trapped bombs in the news room to Peter who is struggling with Norman. When all seems won the remote control glider goes after Peter but Ben jumps in the way as it sends him off a building, killing Ben Reilly. Spidey turns in a huge rage against Norman. Spidey tries to blow GG up and kill him for good but he taunts he will be back and he has already won, taking from Peter what Peter took from him. When he gets to the hospital he discovers GG stole his baby May and in all liklihood killed her.
Spectacular Spider-Man #251-#255: Norma nOsborn has returned to the grave saying he hid back in Europe to avoid public scrutiny faked his own death. The public seems convinced he is the Green Goblin because of a book Ben Urich with the help of Spider-Man wrote about the Osborn family. However, Norman buys the Bugle and makes it all pro-slush and tries to get Urich to write his type of stuff. Only Peter, MJ, Liz and Urich (and JJJ, ironically) look at him as dirt as even Betty and Flash fall for his **** once a new Green Goblin (IV by my count) who kidnaps Norman's grandson, Little Normie. As it turns out Norman has made Spider-Man a dead man by having him framed for murder by killing a low level thug and sufficating him with webbing. He uses JJJ's money (who hates Norman) to produce a 5 million dollar bounty on Spidey's head. The world tries to save Normie as the new Goblin threatens and belittles Norman Osborn, all are convinced but a few. Spidey ends up having to save NOrman Osborn from the green Goblin after a business deal goes sour for Normie's life on the Brooklyn Bridge. Norman Osborn begs Peter Parker for his help. He then allows Normie to be saved by some civilian while Spidey does battle with Goblin IV who seems to die. Norman seems thankful and even Peter and MJ wonder if maybe he had no part to play....but of course he does as he pulled the strings all along and has a new apprentice to the Goblin thrown. And he has finally cleared his name too.
Spectacular Spider-Man #259-#261: Goblin kidnaps Roderick Kingsley, the original Hobgoblin from prison. It is Goblin vs. Goblin, the originals this time though. As it turns out Kingsley claims to have Osborn's journal that proves he is the GG. Norman and the new Gobby kidnap him and make him spill the beans. But Hobby takes them on a detour as he in fact does not have the book. The two Goblins work together and capture Spidey while looking for the book, but Norman refuses to let Hobby unmask Spidey. Once Norman realize Hobby has been lying to him, it is world war III in a warehouse over this ****. Spidey esscapes and defeats the fourth Green Goblin as Norman and Hobby are set to fight each other to death in a burning warehouse, but Peter reluctantly gets in the middle, NOrman gets away hiding his face and good ol' Hobby escapes out of the country too.
Spider-Man: The Final Chapter: Why would you vote for this? Screw the issues. Suffice as to say that Norman becomes mystically charged and more evil than ever. He reveals that Aunt May is not really dead (ugh!) but he hired an actress with plastic surgery he drugged to play her in #400 and that she is really alive with a drug in her head that will blow up the world or some ****. GG is finally defeated (again) and webbed by Spidey in front of the Daily Bugle which he has blown up the foundation of. Spidey holds up the building while the occupants escape before it crumbles. GG goes to prison where the guards who unmask him are promptly murdered by the Gathering and Norman's true identity is safe again.
Trick of Light (Amazing and Peter Parker Spider-Man #25, Volume 2): In this we get a great little psychological story. Norman goes back to the house that his father drove him mad with. Locked alone in the dark as a boy during a stormy night by his father he learns to love the dark and it warped his mind ever since. He intends to make an heir witih this house. Peter Parker has been drugged by Norman into pretending he is the Green Goblin (I guess Peter is Goblin V? Then that's right) and he kills or tries to kill his own friends anyway at the time. Spidey then comes nad saves him. Peter figures it out and is drugged up the wazhooe and has hallucinations of his parents, Uncle Ben and you name it. Norman takes Peter to this house and will make Spidey an heir to the Goblin and Osborn legacy. Peter thinks Norman is nuts but after weeks of torture where if he chooses light he is electricuted Peter continues to fight, even as the drugs make Norman into Uncle Ben. While at first resilent by the end of three weeks Peter is a bearded, broken cowering man scared of light. Norman gets Peter about 5 inches away from drinking the Goblin formula and turning into a Goblin himself permanently when he remembers what his aunt said and throws it in Norman's face. They have their most graphically drawn grapple on the buildings roof in a rainstorm with blood flying. Norman decides to leave this for another day where their next fight will end with one killing the other.
Peter Parker Spider-Man (Volume 2) #44-#38: An arguable good conclusion to the saga (though Marvel can't leave a good story dead, as we all know) as Goblin and Parker prepare for the final shodown. Goblin visits his son at the graveyard who he calls weak and refuses to visit ever again. He laments that he is a father without a son and Peter is a son without a father. He makes one last offer for Spidey to join and continue the Osborn legacy, when Peter refuses, he captures Flash Thompson, who is trying to recover and fills him with enough whiskey that he is like 8 times over the legal limit. He then puts him in a semi and drives it into Peter's school (killing Peter's hamster for the record). Flash is in a coma and peralyzed as Norman escapes despite Peter's spite in public of Osborn. He mocks Flash along with Harry to Peter's face. They have a final showdown at a chemical plant where after televising to the world that it was Spider-Man's fault that Gwen Stacy died and GG tried to save her, mocking Gwen's boyfriend should hate Spider-Man, the **** hits the fan. When Spidey has the upperhand GG mocks he will have another wife and child, a true heir and he'll just kill the weak little Normie (too much like Harry) to keep the bad genes out. Spidey beats Goblin to the point of killing him. But stops. The two sit there, enjoy a conversation. Lament the past and GG reveals he almost called himself Mr. Coffee which they share a laugh over. Peter misses Gwen and decides that he loves her taht in her memory he won't be a monster like Norman and will not kill Norman. He won't even put Norman in jail, because being Norman is life without parole. He challenges Norman to kill his aunt or wife, he won't stop him because in the end he is resilent and Norman is alone. Spidey wins. Norman goes to his office, pulls a gun out of his desk and puts it in his mouth. Seemingly committing suicide over this sad truth.
Mark Millar's 12 issue run: Despite seemingly committing suicide in Paul Jenkins' great character study, in the first 12 issues of Marvel Knights: Spider-Man Norman is back. After seemingly being anti-climactically defeated by Spidey in the first issue GG is finally arrested by the police and anti-climtically revealed to be Norman Osborn. In prison he convinces one of his guards to help his sick wife with a potion that cures her but days later puts her in a coma and kills her. He then promises to reveal where Pete's kidnapped aunt is if Peter will spring him from prison (Scorpion is now working for GG and knows who Spidey is). Peter agrees but brings Black Cat along to try and keep things in order. Once they free NOrman, he unleashes the Sinster Twelve don't ask, where many of Spidey's best enemies are given the role of background lackies as the Avengers and FF show up to the rescue. Spidey also bests Scorpion Venom in this run to find GG has kidnapped MJ and taken her to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge, there GG is about to drop her like Gwen. But Doc Ock shows up to try and kill Norman. In the crossfire, Peter saves MJ and Norman escapes to see another day. He sends a letter to Peter saying he'll be back and until then he'll keep Pete in his prayers.
Woo, there you go, the most memorable Goblin storyllines with some synopsis I found and some I wrote. Took too long but choose.
They are the greatest rivals and enemies so I strung together some of their greatest encounters here, take a look:
Amazing Spider-Man #14: Green Goblin first appears and tricks Spider-Man into a desert to "shoot a movie" to boost his reputation. There he and the Enforcers tag team Spidey and if the Hulk hadn't gotten involved the GG might've killed old web-head then and there.
Amazing Spider-Man #17: Convinced he is better than Spider-Man and all superheroes and needing to prove it to the world Gobby jumps in and surprises Spidey at Fash's Spider-Man concert party....thing. Gone is the stupid broom from his first appearence and in enters the glider They battle and the Human Torch gets in the act. Gobby is overwhelmed but when hearing that Aunt May had a heart attack or stroke from two muttering security guards, Spidey ditches the fight and leaves in the publics' eyes that he is a coward and Gobby is victorious.
Amazing Spider-Man #26-#28: Green Goblin vs. Crime Lord. Gobby vs. Crime Lord with spidey in the middle.
Amazing Spider-Man #39-#40: Gobby does the very thinkable, he figures out Spidey has a spider-sense and dounces him with a chemical that dulls it. He follows Spidey after a battle and discovers Spidey is Peter Parker, Harry's supposed friend. Goblin laughs with intensity at this as the day is his.. He quickly and easily ambushes Spider-Man as Peter Parker and tears him a new one taking him to a chemical plant at Oscorp at which he reveals at, he is Norman Osborn, Harry's father! The two fight and a chemical explosion goes off giving Norman amnesia causing him to forget he is the Green Goblin. Spider-Man thinks Gobby is gone for good when Peter Parker interrogates Norman at the hospital.
Amazing Spider-Man #96-#98: Thre dreaded and feared: drug issue(s). In it Norman breaks down from chemicals and remembers his alter-ego and has an identity crisis and gives in to the Goblin. Meanwhile his son Harry Osborn is tripping off LSD and pills he bought and goes trippy. He overdoses just as Green Goblin attacks his and Peter Parker's apartment in an attempt to kill both of them! AT which point he reveals himself to be truly far gone by almost blowing up his own son but in the end losing the battle to amnesia yet again.
Amazing Spider-Man #121-#122: The dreaded turning point. Norman is back and meaner than ever. This time he goes too far as the Goblin trails Peter Parker to find him dating Gwen Stacy. In a crude move he kidnaps Pete's girlfriend and takes her to the George Washington (or Brooklyn, take your pick) bridge for an ultimate showdeown. In the hey frey Goblin tosses Gwen off the top of the bridge and when spidey tries to save her, accidentally snaps her neck from the impact of the webline. Hence SPIDER-MAN KILLED GWEN STACY AT THE HANDS OF THE GREEN GOBLIN. Oh the irony. Peter goes on a rampage to find Norman even blowing off his best friend Harry when he overdoses on LSD again leading him right back to a warehouse where Norman is planning. They battle and Spidey nearly beats GG to death but pulls the last punch and will take Norman to jail instead. But GG pulls a remote to the glider to kill Spider-Man instead, but Spidey ducks and the glider impales GG instead. And to quote the book "And so the proud man dies not on a ring of gold but a piece of tin."
Amazing Spider-Man #135-#137: The Green Goblin is back! But this time he is in the form of Harry Osborn. Having tailed Spider-Man to the warehouse drugged up, Harry found out his father was the Green Goblin. He had hid the body away from the costume to make it look like Norman was not the Green Goblin. But it drove him mad and in dispair and in these issues when he finds the Spidey costume in Pete's room while Pete's in teh shower he goes over the edge. He takes the goblin formula and goes ape**** on Spidey almost beating him. He then plants a bomb over Aunt May's head after missing his oppurtunity to kill the webhead in the warehouse his father died. But Spidey defeats Harry and difuses the bomb. He takes off Harry's stuff and lets the police cart him away to the loony bin. He screams that he knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man and he is the Green Goblin, but no one believes him because he is too young to be the Green Goblin that first showed up years ago.
Amazing Spider-Man: #178#180: The **** hits the fan here. Harry has gone missing and Liz has had enough. Aunt May is in the hospital and needs Peter to sign her to have surgory but only MJ is there with Aunt May as Spidey is stuck battling a returned Green Goblin who is crazier than ever. he captures Spidey ready to sell him to the mob but a rival gang frees Spidey. In this series GG nearly kills Silvermaine and defeats Spidey only unable to kill him because his masked prisoner escapes....HARRY OSBORN. A second Green Goblin appears and it is Harry Osborn and it is revealed that this is a third generation Green Goblin, Harry's institution psychatrist who followed harry's claims and was going to use it to write a field book but goes mad with power instead and becoems the Green Goblin, ready to kill Harry and Peter. He unfortunately loses a one-on-one for Harry and blows himself up. Harry vows never to put the costume on again and retires with Peter back to Liz Allen and finally an apparently happy ending.
Amazing Spider-Man #314: Nearly 20 years later (our time) the happy ending wasn't so happy afterall. Harry is awoken to his true Goblin self by the dispicable Hobgoblin II (Jason Mendale(sp?) who is after the Goblin formula that the first Hobby had and all the Green Goblins did. He gets more than he bargins for though when he wakes the Green Goblin out of slumber.
Spectacular Spider-Man #177-#184: Ah the meloncholy of Harry finally sets in, in the Child Within. Unfortunately it is 7 issues long and way too long to describe (and I don't have all the issues) so suffice to say Harry goes too far gone to come back. It is revealed he has been depressed all his life and we see how far his father has screwed him up all his life and why he is such a cruel person imself deep within. There is no going back for Harry at this point and he gets away at the end, like any good goblin should.
Spectacular Spider-Man #189: The return of Harry in possibly his most poignant story. Here he kidnaps his wife, son little Normie and brother-in-law Mark (the former MOlten Man) into his old Osborn Estate (a home that scared him too much as a sane Harry Osborn to live in) and there tortures his family. He literally beats Mark for being band abuses his wife mentally as she goes on the verge of a mental breakdown of seeing her husband reduced to a madman who is pretending to be his father dressed in a Halloween costume. Always around him pictures of he and his father painted and mounted. He even sets the seeds of maddness in his son as he forces his to side against his mother. And then of course you got him living an exploding Spider-Man in MJ's bed and Peter trying to stop it and being the guest of honor at the cooky dinner party that ends Harry as the GG finally being caught and carted off in chains taunting he knows who Spider-Man is and soon he will reveal it to the entire world.
Spectacular Spider-Man #200: The Goblin has another last stand. Here Harry is maricoulously (or lazily written) released where he tries to turn over a new leaf. He scares MJ as Gobby but won't hurt her, meanwhile scaring his wife into accepting him as "normal." He then makes plans to kill all of his father's old friends calling them "snobs" who tried to keep his father down. He does it in the guise of a charity building but not before Spidey has anything to say about it. But as Peter enters this world he enters it when MJ and little Normie are in the building (little Normie is getting ****ed up and enjoying destroying Spider-Man dolls). In this time GG actually defeats Spider-Man. But he can't kill him because he breaks his promise to MJ if he lets her die, much less his son. In a moment of identity crisis, he chooses to be a hero and saves them. He comes back for Peter at MJ's urging puts his ailments (from an overdose on Goblin Formula) to its limits and dies from an O.D. Spider-Man rides with him in the ambulance to the hospital. He is D.O.A. once he is there though.
Peter Parker Spider-Man #75: The end of revelations. It is Halloween night and Spider-Man is out (Ben REilly) as Peter rushes to the hospital to see his baby. There is a sense of carelessness from the hospital staff who can't help him find his wife and daughter. He is then drugged and kidnapped and wakes up in the original Spider-Man duds in the hands of....NORMAN OSBORN. Back from the dead as it were. He reveals that the Goblin Formula gives you an advanced healing factor and his body mended itself hours after Spider-Man left him for dead. He was then to seek revenge but found his son trying on the Goblin gear so instead put a "lookalike" in the coffin and went to attend shady tidings in Europe over the last years leaving Harry to make him proud. But no....Peter Parker killed his son and Norman came back wanting revenge. He is now one personality, evil son of a *****. He has gathered all of Peter's friends over the years (Betty, Flash, Liz, JJJ, Robbie, Gloria, the whole gang) inside the Daily Bugle for a "Halloween Party" but locked them there to blow up. He reveals he has tortured Peter from Europe. Having blackmailed Ben's friend into saying Peter was the clone. But Peter was too damn resilent, he had already beaten Ben to a pulp. He then taunts JJJ and reveals his (JJJ knowing Norman Osborn's voice) return before Spidey keeps him from dropping him to his grave. In a very personal battle on top of the Daily Bugle explosions abound. Ben saves everyone inside and brings the booby trapped bombs in the news room to Peter who is struggling with Norman. When all seems won the remote control glider goes after Peter but Ben jumps in the way as it sends him off a building, killing Ben Reilly. Spidey turns in a huge rage against Norman. Spidey tries to blow GG up and kill him for good but he taunts he will be back and he has already won, taking from Peter what Peter took from him. When he gets to the hospital he discovers GG stole his baby May and in all liklihood killed her.
Spectacular Spider-Man #251-#255: Norma nOsborn has returned to the grave saying he hid back in Europe to avoid public scrutiny faked his own death. The public seems convinced he is the Green Goblin because of a book Ben Urich with the help of Spider-Man wrote about the Osborn family. However, Norman buys the Bugle and makes it all pro-slush and tries to get Urich to write his type of stuff. Only Peter, MJ, Liz and Urich (and JJJ, ironically) look at him as dirt as even Betty and Flash fall for his **** once a new Green Goblin (IV by my count) who kidnaps Norman's grandson, Little Normie. As it turns out Norman has made Spider-Man a dead man by having him framed for murder by killing a low level thug and sufficating him with webbing. He uses JJJ's money (who hates Norman) to produce a 5 million dollar bounty on Spidey's head. The world tries to save Normie as the new Goblin threatens and belittles Norman Osborn, all are convinced but a few. Spidey ends up having to save NOrman Osborn from the green Goblin after a business deal goes sour for Normie's life on the Brooklyn Bridge. Norman Osborn begs Peter Parker for his help. He then allows Normie to be saved by some civilian while Spidey does battle with Goblin IV who seems to die. Norman seems thankful and even Peter and MJ wonder if maybe he had no part to play....but of course he does as he pulled the strings all along and has a new apprentice to the Goblin thrown. And he has finally cleared his name too.
Spectacular Spider-Man #259-#261: Goblin kidnaps Roderick Kingsley, the original Hobgoblin from prison. It is Goblin vs. Goblin, the originals this time though. As it turns out Kingsley claims to have Osborn's journal that proves he is the GG. Norman and the new Gobby kidnap him and make him spill the beans. But Hobby takes them on a detour as he in fact does not have the book. The two Goblins work together and capture Spidey while looking for the book, but Norman refuses to let Hobby unmask Spidey. Once Norman realize Hobby has been lying to him, it is world war III in a warehouse over this ****. Spidey esscapes and defeats the fourth Green Goblin as Norman and Hobby are set to fight each other to death in a burning warehouse, but Peter reluctantly gets in the middle, NOrman gets away hiding his face and good ol' Hobby escapes out of the country too.
Spider-Man: The Final Chapter: Why would you vote for this? Screw the issues. Suffice as to say that Norman becomes mystically charged and more evil than ever. He reveals that Aunt May is not really dead (ugh!) but he hired an actress with plastic surgery he drugged to play her in #400 and that she is really alive with a drug in her head that will blow up the world or some ****. GG is finally defeated (again) and webbed by Spidey in front of the Daily Bugle which he has blown up the foundation of. Spidey holds up the building while the occupants escape before it crumbles. GG goes to prison where the guards who unmask him are promptly murdered by the Gathering and Norman's true identity is safe again.
Trick of Light (Amazing and Peter Parker Spider-Man #25, Volume 2): In this we get a great little psychological story. Norman goes back to the house that his father drove him mad with. Locked alone in the dark as a boy during a stormy night by his father he learns to love the dark and it warped his mind ever since. He intends to make an heir witih this house. Peter Parker has been drugged by Norman into pretending he is the Green Goblin (I guess Peter is Goblin V? Then that's right) and he kills or tries to kill his own friends anyway at the time. Spidey then comes nad saves him. Peter figures it out and is drugged up the wazhooe and has hallucinations of his parents, Uncle Ben and you name it. Norman takes Peter to this house and will make Spidey an heir to the Goblin and Osborn legacy. Peter thinks Norman is nuts but after weeks of torture where if he chooses light he is electricuted Peter continues to fight, even as the drugs make Norman into Uncle Ben. While at first resilent by the end of three weeks Peter is a bearded, broken cowering man scared of light. Norman gets Peter about 5 inches away from drinking the Goblin formula and turning into a Goblin himself permanently when he remembers what his aunt said and throws it in Norman's face. They have their most graphically drawn grapple on the buildings roof in a rainstorm with blood flying. Norman decides to leave this for another day where their next fight will end with one killing the other.
Peter Parker Spider-Man (Volume 2) #44-#38: An arguable good conclusion to the saga (though Marvel can't leave a good story dead, as we all know) as Goblin and Parker prepare for the final shodown. Goblin visits his son at the graveyard who he calls weak and refuses to visit ever again. He laments that he is a father without a son and Peter is a son without a father. He makes one last offer for Spidey to join and continue the Osborn legacy, when Peter refuses, he captures Flash Thompson, who is trying to recover and fills him with enough whiskey that he is like 8 times over the legal limit. He then puts him in a semi and drives it into Peter's school (killing Peter's hamster for the record). Flash is in a coma and peralyzed as Norman escapes despite Peter's spite in public of Osborn. He mocks Flash along with Harry to Peter's face. They have a final showdown at a chemical plant where after televising to the world that it was Spider-Man's fault that Gwen Stacy died and GG tried to save her, mocking Gwen's boyfriend should hate Spider-Man, the **** hits the fan. When Spidey has the upperhand GG mocks he will have another wife and child, a true heir and he'll just kill the weak little Normie (too much like Harry) to keep the bad genes out. Spidey beats Goblin to the point of killing him. But stops. The two sit there, enjoy a conversation. Lament the past and GG reveals he almost called himself Mr. Coffee which they share a laugh over. Peter misses Gwen and decides that he loves her taht in her memory he won't be a monster like Norman and will not kill Norman. He won't even put Norman in jail, because being Norman is life without parole. He challenges Norman to kill his aunt or wife, he won't stop him because in the end he is resilent and Norman is alone. Spidey wins. Norman goes to his office, pulls a gun out of his desk and puts it in his mouth. Seemingly committing suicide over this sad truth.
Mark Millar's 12 issue run: Despite seemingly committing suicide in Paul Jenkins' great character study, in the first 12 issues of Marvel Knights: Spider-Man Norman is back. After seemingly being anti-climactically defeated by Spidey in the first issue GG is finally arrested by the police and anti-climtically revealed to be Norman Osborn. In prison he convinces one of his guards to help his sick wife with a potion that cures her but days later puts her in a coma and kills her. He then promises to reveal where Pete's kidnapped aunt is if Peter will spring him from prison (Scorpion is now working for GG and knows who Spidey is). Peter agrees but brings Black Cat along to try and keep things in order. Once they free NOrman, he unleashes the Sinster Twelve don't ask, where many of Spidey's best enemies are given the role of background lackies as the Avengers and FF show up to the rescue. Spidey also bests Scorpion Venom in this run to find GG has kidnapped MJ and taken her to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge, there GG is about to drop her like Gwen. But Doc Ock shows up to try and kill Norman. In the crossfire, Peter saves MJ and Norman escapes to see another day. He sends a letter to Peter saying he'll be back and until then he'll keep Pete in his prayers.
Woo, there you go, the most memorable Goblin storyllines with some synopsis I found and some I wrote. Took too long but choose.
