Norman Osborn's Death in Spider-Man 1

[Godzilla2014]

I was thinking about this the other day and some stuff doesn't add up about what follows Norman Osborn's death in S-M1:

1. What does the general public of NYC think happened to the Green Goblin? Do they know that he died?
2. Was there no autopsy done on Norman's body following his death? As SM3 showed, Harry didn't know that cause of his own father's death. If an autopsy found that Norman was impaled or any result for that matter, wouldn't he be one of the first to know?

There's probably more, but that's what I can think of now.

Were these ever explained?

 

[The Joker]

1. In Spider-Man 2, you see a Daily Bugle newspaper headline on Harry's desk that says Spidey is suspected in the death of Norman Osborn.
2. The autopsy would have revealed that Norman died from being stabbed with something large and sharp. But somehow the butler of all people magically knew it was his own glider that did it.

 

[Godzilla2014]

1. In Spider-Man 2, you see a Daily Bugle newspaper headline on Harry's desk that says Spidey is suspected in the death of Norman Osborn.
2. The autopsy would have revealed that Norman died from being stabbed with something large and sharp. But somehow the butler of all people magically knew it was his own glider that did it.

1. But the public at large doesn't know that Norman was the Green Goblin, right? Do they know that the Green Goblin is dead, or do they think he disappeared?
2. Good point. The butler may have known that Norman was the Goblin and inferred that it was his own glider.

 

[The Joker]

1. Obviously nobody knew Norman was the Green Goblin, except for the butler and Peter. The Green Goblin was seemingly just forgotten about by everyone.
2. The butler said there was no question that Norman died by his own hand with his own glider. There's no way he could have known with certainty that Norman killed himself.

 

[Godzilla2014]

1. Obviously nobody knew Norman was the Green Goblin, except for the butler and Peter. The Green Goblin was seemingly just forgotten about by everyone.
2. The butler said there was no question that Norman died by his own hand with his own glider. There's no way he could have known with certainty that Norman killed himself.

1. That just doesn't seem right. The Green Goblin killed many people and terrorized the city, and New Yorkers just forgot about him?
2. Keep in mind that the wound was also produced by a high-velocity impact with a large sharp object. I'm no forensic science expert, but that should produce a different wound from a low-velocity impact with the same object.

 

[The Joker]

That just doesn't seem right. The Green Goblin killed many people and terrorized the city, and New Yorkers just forgot about him?

Just because he wasn't mentioned, doesn't mean he was forgotten. It was 2 years later. I think they knew he wasn't coming back by then.

Keep in mind that the wound was also produced by a high-velocity impact with a large sharp object. I'm no forensic science expert, but that should produce a different wound from a low-velocity impact with the same object.

Spider-Man has the strength to hold up a tram full of people, stop a train etc. He could produce the same kind of damage as a glider if he stabbed Norman with a sharp object using his super strength.

 

[Hobgoblin]

I think a detective would put the events as: Spider-Man and the Green Goblin seen in a life or death struggle by many New Yorkers at the Queensboro Bridge. An undetermined amount of time later, Harry sees Spider-Man with the body of his father at the mansion. Autopsy revealed an impalement scar and toxicology finds a strange chemical in Norman's system, possibly a kind of steroid. Clearly the coroner would have figured out that Norman had somehow been exposed to something at OsCorp. A further investigation into his records may have been attempted but who knows how far NYPD could get into the records of a man that worked on military experiments. The feds likely wouldnt like that.

Actually, it would likely make the powers that be nervous about how much Spidey knows about the Goblin. They would probably have him under surveillance.

 

[GRangerPrimeNYC]

Or it's just a big plot hole D:

or Norman might've survived due to the serum, switched bodies, and baled to Europe.

 

[Nave 'Torment']

I don't necessarily believe in plot-holes since most of it goes back to a rational "what if" and most of these characters are not, by the time the plot-hole emerges, really acting rationally. In any given story it's not about what should have happened but rather what really did happen instead...

As for Goblin, yeah as you guys have said, it's still explainable. I think Harry didn't want to go into a full-fledged autopsy, and since he was influential he might've just foregone the entire process; but even with an autopsy the link wouldn't be direct. Goblin and Spidey were figures of mystery, no body knew how they worked, it wasn't until SM2 that the public really saw that this guy is a human being like everyone else, and so he was embraced for that. The public didn't know that Goblin was dead, like the Joker or even the Zodiac killer, he simply "disappeared" -- his reappearance in SM3 could've made a solid story.

But as for Harry and the Butler, well first off people think that Spidey's a bad-guy; both Harry and the butler probably thought that fighting spider-man is something that "Stormin Norman" would've wanted Harry to do anyway, and in some twisted logic, seen that as a good, altruistic thing to do. So in their twisted rationale, even if you could explain that Norman and Gobby were the same guy, his son and confidante would be considering that as something positive. After all how many people did the Goblin publicly kill? Those people at the festival? Board members, people that (admit it) you were kinda hoping would be killed by Gobby anyway :P Harry would be lauding that anyway; the evil military people? Also potentially "bad guys" to a vengeful son; those kids he threatened? Well it was all to get at the "Menace known as Spider-Man." If movie-Norman existed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe he'd be fitting candidate for the Iron Patriot lol.