Green Goblin (Marvel)

""The cunning warrior attacks neither body nor mind...the heart, Osborn! First, we attack his heart!""

- Norman's Goblin conscience speaking to him

The Green Goblin is a supervillain from Marvel comics and Spider-Man's archenemy.

Origin
The Green Goblin was born of an experimental formula created and used by scientist and industrialist Norman Osborn. The formula greatly enhanced his strength, speed, reflexes, and intelligence, but also slowly drove him insane. Using his newfound power, Osborn plotted to become a powerful crime lord by uniting all the smaller crime rings together. Wanting to get Spider-man out of the way, he sent two supervillains, Headsman and Scorcher after the web-slinger, but they were defeated.

Then Osborn decided to take matters into his own hands. He made a rubber suit and a bat-shaped glider equipped with many deadly weapons, including razor-bats, electric gloves, knockout gas, and his signature Pumpkin Bombs. Enlisting the help of the Enforcers, who had fought Spider-man before, he went to Spider-man and tricked him into acting in a movie with him about the web-head. At the set in New Mexico, the Goblin and the Enforcers battled Spidey, forcing him to flee to a nearby cave, which, unbeknown to any of them, was occupied by the Hulk. While Spider-man was busy fending off the Jade Giant, the Goblin made his escape. Green Goblin later reappeared several times in attempts to deface Spider-man and boost his reputation, despite always being connected to the crime ring.

After all of these defeats, the Goblin became obsessed with destroying Spider-man, and Osborn put all of his time into focusing on conquering the web-slinger.

The Unmasking of ?
A turning point came when Green Goblin figured out a way to find out Spider-man's identity. He made a special gas that nullified Spidey's spider-sense, and followed him without detection back to Peter Parker's house. He then easily captured Spider-man and brought him to his lair, where he revealed himself as Norman Osborn. After making the mistake of untying Spider-man so as to gloat and prove his superiority, Spidey fought and beat him by sending him into some electric wires that were covered in chemicals. Osborn lost all of his memory of the Goblin, and Spider-man, satisfied with that, burned the Green Goblin costume.

"Death" of the Green Goblin
Norman's memories eventually returned somehow, and as the Green Goblin he kidnapped Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's love interest, and forced Spider-man to battle him on a bridge. The Goblin then threw Gwen off the bridge, and Spider-man, desperate to save her, shot his webbing down and grabbed her, but it was too late. The force of the webbing snapped Gwen's neck, and Peter brutally attacked the Goblin, nearly killing him. But Osborn had one last play to make, and he remote-controlled his glider to come up behind Spider-man and attempted to impale him from behind. But Spidey's spider-sense warned him and he dodged out of the way. The glider blade instead was driven into the Green Goblin's middle, and he was seemingly killed.

After his "death", several other people took on his identity, including his son Harry, who become Green Goblin II. Another goblin-themed villain, the Hobgoblin, was born after Roderick Kingsley stumbled upon one of Osborn's hidden Goblin lairs and took his basic weapon set, using a different costume and name.

The Return
He returned alive in the Clone Saga, after his resurrection due to a chemical in his goblin formula which regenerates fatal injuries he murdered a man who looked enough like him and placed him in his coffin, he then formulates a plan to get revenge on Peter Parker, he causes a series of problems for Spiderman including hiring assassins to try and kill him, he hires a woman to poison Mary Jane who was pregnant at the time forcing her into labor and seemingly giving birth to a stillborn baby whom is later revealed to be alive, he also has Peter convinced that his clone Ben Reilly is the real Peter Parker, he also drugged Flash Thompson and caused him to get into an automobile accident giving him brain damage.

After a series of events he eventually reveals himself to Spiderman who is shocked that he's alive, they have a battle and like before he attempts to kill him once again with his goblin glider, Ben Reilly dives in front of him taking the hit and dying, in response Spiderman hurls a web full of pumpkin bombs at him, seemingly killing him again.

The Spectacular Spider-man




In the Movies
(Article from the Main wikipedia)

The Green Goblin's first live action appearance (beyond a 1982 television commercial for the Atari video game) was in the blockbuster feature film Spider-Man (2002) as the main antagonist, which starred Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn. Dr. Norman Osborn is a brilliant scientist and businessman/industrialist who is known for his contributions to nanotechnology. As in the comics, he has a distant relationship with his son, Harry (James Franco), who resents his father's apparent favoritism toward his friend Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire). Norman takes an immediate liking to Peter when he is informed that Parker can understand his work, and later admires Parker's desire to make his own way in the world, rather than accepting Osborn's help. He is the head of OsCorp, a company contracted by the United States military to create a new supersoldier. Osborn's colleague, Dr. Mendel Stromm, feels it important to reveal to the military official overseeing the project that some of the test subjects have gone insane. Hearing this, Osborn is threatened with a tight deadline. Needing to prove his formula can succeed, Osborn experiments on himself and becomes the Green Goblin after the experiment fails. The process drives him insane however, and he kills Stromm. The military decides to give the supersoldier contract to another company, Quest Aerospace, and in revenge, the Green Goblin kills several high-ranking military officers and Quest scientists who were present at the test. Although Quest Aerospace's prototype was destroyed, the company decides to expand and, in doing so, assumes control of OsCorp on the condition that Norman Osborn step down as CEO.

In retaliation, the Goblin kills the board of directors during a festival in Times Square, thus removing the last threat to his takeover of OsCorp, and inadvertently almost killing Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). His appearance at the festival also marks the beginning of his animosity towards Spider-Man. Instead of hating his new enemy, however, Norman views Spider-Man as the son that he always wanted, and attempts to recruit him to his side.

The Goblin next leads an attack at the Daily Bugle to question J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons) for the identity of the photographer who takes pictures of Spider-Man. Peter is at the office during the attack and soon shows up as Spider-Man. The Goblin gasses him and takes him to a rooftop, where he offers Spider-Man a partnership and belittles his choice to become a hero, warning that eventually the city will turn against him. This starts to become true when the Bugle in response to the attack prints a story claiming the Goblin and Spider-Man are allies.

A few days later the Goblin baits Spider-Man into a burning building and asks him if he's decided to join him. When Spider-Man refuses, the Goblin attempts to kill him with razor bats and eventually slips away. Norman finds out Spider-Man's identity when, while visiting his son Harry (who is Peter's roommate) for Thanksgiving, he discovers that Peter has an identical wound to one he had inflicted on Spider-Man in the earlier fight. After deducing Spider-Man's identity, he decides to leave though Harry tries to stop him. Norman tells Harry to do what he wants with Mary Jane and then dump her fast, as he believes she is only interested in his money, as his own wife was. After hallucinating that his other persona informs him to attack Spider-Man's heart, he attacks and seriously injures Aunt May, then kidnaps Mary Jane and tells Spider-Man that he must choose either to save her or to save a group of children in a cable car. Both are thrown off the Queensboro Bridge, yet Spider-Man saves both the children and Mary Jane.

After saving the children and Mary Jane, Spider-Man is lured into an abandoned building. Goblin then throws a pumpkin bomb and it explodes in Spider-Man's face, sending him through a brick wall. As the Goblin brutally beats Spider-Man, he tells him how he will kill Mary Jane slowly. Enraged, Spider-Man attacks him, and gains the upper hand. After being defeated in their final battle and with his own personality apparently resurfaced, Norman removes his Goblin helmet to reveal himself to Spider-Man, and begs the hero to forgive him and protect him from the Goblin persona. At the same time however, Norman (with the Goblin still controlling him) secretly directs his glider to impale Spider-Man from behind. Norman states he was like a father to him and begs him to be a son to him, to which Peter retorts that he had a father: his late uncle, Benjamin Parker (Cliff Robertson). The Goblin responds by launching his glider equipted with a harpoon attachment.

Spider-Man senses the attack with his spider-sense and dodges, and the glider kills the Green Goblin by impaling him. Just before dying, Norman begs Spider-Man not to tell his son about his second identity. When Spider-Man takes Norman's corpse back to his mansion, Harry sees him placing his father’s dead body on a bed. Not knowing that his father was the Green Goblin, Harry holds Spider Man responsible for his death. At the funeral, Harry swears revenge on Spider-Man.

In the film, the Green Goblin pilots a high-tech Goblin Glider, armed with seeking missiles and machine guns. He also wears green armor that cybernetically connects him to his glider and weapons. He is seen using three varieties of his signature "pumpkin bombs": one which is a simple explosive; one that releases a bright, radioactive flash which reduces people to skeletons; and one that splits into flying, razor-bat blades. Rather than carrying a shoulder "bag of tricks", the weapons are contained in the glider and are ejected individually out of their storage compartment when desired. His suit is armed with knockout gas that is released from the wrists. His suit is also linked to the Goblin Glider, allowing him to control it remotely.

[edit] Spider-Man 2
Willem Dafoe reprised his role of the Green Goblin briefly in Spider-Man 2. In the movie, Harry Osborn, obsessed with defeating Spider-Man, forms a brief alliance with Doctor Octopus, which leads him to the discovery of Peter's secret identity. A vision of Norman, in his Goblin persona, subsequently speaks to Harry from inside of a mirror, demanding that Harry avenge his death. When Harry shatters the mirror, he discovers his father's hidden Goblin lair.

[edit] Spider-Man 3
In Spider-Man 3, Harry Osborn, still obsessed with taking revenge on Spider-Man, has finally taken up the mantle of the New Goblin. When Harry suffers from amnesia and briefly forgets his vendetta, the vision of the Green Goblin returns in a successful attempt to sway him back to destroying Peter/Spider-Man by one purpose: "Attack his heart." After their confrontation, Harry's butler Bernard reveals to him the true circumstances of Norman's death, which convinces him to help Peter rescue Mary Jane from the Sandman and Venom. Mary Jane is saved in the end, but at the cost of Harry's life.

Willem Dafoe has a very brief cameo in the third film, sitting behind Peter and Gwen when they visit the Jazz bar. This is presumably a different character. However, if this actually is Norman in the background, this would support the theory that he might have survived his death in the first movie, like his original comic counterpart. But, because that the Spider-Man movie reboot will cancel out any future sequels, Norman would not return as the Green Goblin, and thus, he can be safely assumed dead.