 ✓
| ||
|
This Villain was proposed and approved by Villains Wiki's Pure Evil Proposals Thread. Any act of removing this villain from the category without a Removal Proposal shall be considered vandalism (or a futile "heroic" attempt of redemption) and the user will have high chances of being | ||
| NOTE: This page is only for the Green Goblin persona. For his other half, Norman Osborn, see here. |
| “ | How observant you are! No, I'm not the Hobgoblin, meddler! I'm the Green Goblin! Not that you'll live long enough for it to matter! | „ |
| ~ Green Goblin introducing himself to Spider-Man. |
| “ | The Goblin plays for keeps! | „ |
| ~ Green Goblin. |
| “ | Parker, you've been a thorn in my side for too long...it all ends tonight! | „ |
| ~ Green Goblin to Spider-Man before their final battle. |
The Green Goblin is a major antagonist in the 90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series. He is a split persona accidentally created by the CEO of Oscorp Industries, Norman Osborn, when one of his chemical weapons explodes, thus infecting Norman's brain and resulting in the Green Goblin's birth. He is also one of Spider-Man's greatest adversaries.
Like Norman Osborn himself, he was voiced by Neil Ross, who also voiced his alternate reality counterpart in the same series, the Cyclops in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Grandfather in Operation: Z.E.R.O., Morhurl in Forestia, the Mad Bomber in the Spider-Man 3 video game adaptations, Colonel Volgin in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and CatNap in Poppy Playtime.
Personality[]
While Norman Osborn was a tragic figure who resorted to crime to protect his son, the Green Goblin was an evil mastermind who sought to destroy all of New York City. He was not above starting a gang war when he had Harry supply Silvermane and Smythe with the necessary weapons to take on Kingpin. Even though he claims to have cared for Norman and his son Harry, this is all a lie. He continues to overtake Norman against his will and belittle him, and while stuck in limbo he completely takes over Norman's body. He was also responsible for breaking Harry and driving him to become the new Green Goblin.
Goblin was so obsessed with being the "one true goblin", that he tried to murder the Hobgoblin to gain this mantle. He became Spider-Man's greatest and most personal foe, considering he was indirectly responsible for his love, Mary Jane, being trapped in limbo.
He was also shown to be incredibly ungrateful. This is most demonstrated in two of his interactions with Spider-Man: when Norman was hanging onto the George Washington Bridge as he was about to fall, Spider-Man saved him, yet Goblin still tried to kill him despite the fact that Spider-Man saved his life as well by doing so. The other is that as Spider-Man was about to save Norman from being sucked into the unstable portal, Goblin overtook Norman's psyche again and tried to use his glider to knock Spider-Man into limbo with him.
Biography[]
The Green Goblin persona was born when Norman Osborn was subjected to a chemical explosion containing one of his formulas at Oscorp. Norman was presumed dead, while the Green Goblin took over his mind, and Norman remained dormant for a while. He stole one of Oscorp’s gliders and began his crime spree. He had the combined dangers of Norman’s scientific intelligence and superhuman strength and speed from the chemicals, making him a powerful foe.
The Green Goblin begins kidnapping the board of directors who had threatened Norman’s job, including J. Jonah Jameson. Upon kidnapping Jameson, Spider-Man catches up to him, believing him to be the Hobgoblin. However, he soon discovers otherwise once he meets the fiend face-to-face on his glider. The Goblin then engages in a fight with Spider-Man in which he crushes his web-shooters using his super-human strength. He manages to escape by splitting his glider in two, with the other half carrying Spider-Man and taking him far enough away in time for the Goblin to escape and merge his gliders once the Spider is off.
The next night, the Goblin kidnaps one of the last of the board of directors in order to complete his “collection”. Spider-Man later deduces that Goblin will kidnap the last of them, Anastasia Hardy. He arrives at her building to save her but is thwarted by the Green Goblin, who gets there before he does. The Goblin manages to kidnap Anastasia, but when Spider-Man jumps him, the Goblin takes her daughter, Felicia, with him and throws them both off his glider to toy with Spider-Man. Spider-Man manages to save Felicia, but her mother is taken by the Green Goblin.
The Goblin then moves on the Kingpin and ambushes the crime lord in his helicopter with one of his pumpkin bombs before kidnapping him. Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson begin to suspect that Norman’s son, Harry Osborn, is the Green Goblin and has been kidnapping the board of directors to avenge his father’s “death”. Mary Jane arrives at what is left of the abandoned Oscorp building, but not before Peter puts his spider trackers on her. Once she arrives, she is kidnapped by the Green Goblin who takes her to his underwater lair where he is keeping all 6 of his previous victims. Thankfully, Spider-Man follows them. He and the Goblin then engage in a fight which results in the Goblin drowning his lair out after destroying it with pumpkin bombs.
He manages to escape while his hostages are all saved by Spider-Man. After allowing them to escape, Spider-Man returns for the Goblin and subdues him long enough to discover his true identity as Norman Osborn, not Harry, to his surprise. Goblin tries again to kill Spider-Man but passes out and goes dormant once the effects of the chemicals begin to wear off. Spider-Man then takes an unconscious Norman and manages to escape with the help of Harry, before the Goblin’s entire lair collapses. Once Norman recovers, he has no memory of anything he did as the Goblin.
The Green Goblin remained dormant in Norman’s psyche until the events of “Goblin War”. Once Hobgoblin poses a threat to Wilson Fisk, the kingpin goes to Norman Osborn for information on his true identity. Norman avoids the topic and tries to leave, but agrees to meet with Kingpin to give him info once the latter threatens to kill Harry. Norman goes alone into Oscorp, but he's haunted by the Green Goblin whispering into his mind. He goes to the bathroom to calm down but sees the Goblin in his reflection, speaking to him and manipulating him into believing he is his “friend”. Norman tries to resist, but the Green Goblin manages to take him over.
The Goblin later ambushes Spider-Man, Hobgoblin, and Kingpin at the latter’s lair, where he tries to kill Hobgoblin. The two engage in a fight, and Green Goblin chases Hobgoblin through New York City. However, Hobgoblin manages to escape by entering a portal he creates with the missing Jonathan Ohnn's Time Dilation Accelerator. The portal closes before Green Goblin can enter, and Spider-Man jumps on him. The wall-crawler tries to appeal to the Goblin’s better half, but the Goblin proves to be the dominant personality. Goblin manages to fight Spider-Man off before deciding to move on with his plans to track down Hobgoblin, as well as the rest of Norman’s enemies.
Green Goblin tracks Hobgoblin to his mansion, where he kidnaps him alongside his fiancé, Felicia Hardy. He uses the Hobgoblin’s Time Dilation Accelerator to take them to the Oscorp building via a portal. Once there, he hangs them both by a rope above a vat of acid. Once Spider-Man arrives and destroys his glider, the Goblin lowers his two victims closer to the vat and uses the accelerator to his advantage in fighting Spider-Man. However, Spider-Man fights him and saves both the Hobgoblin and Felicia before he nearly destroys the accelerator. While the machine is dying, Goblin uses it to open another portal and escape, ignoring Spider-Man’s warnings that he could be stuck in limbo due to the machine being too low on power. Green Goblin escapes to the Oscorp building with the intent of fixing and improving on the accelerator, and Hobgoblin is arrested.
Goblin succeeds in perfecting the accelerator, ignoring Norma’s warning about its stability. He then ambushes a truck full of money with his pumpkin bombs to lure Spider-Man to him, which proves to be a success. He tries to kill the spider but fails and manages to escape without a trace. Goblin continues to use the accelerator to move from dimension to dimension so he can toy with Spider-Man’s spider sense. As Spider-Man takes off his mask, Goblin watches from the top of a building, excited to see his foe’s identity, but is enraged and insulted to find out he is Peter Parker. Norman is hesitant to take on Parker due to him being Harry’s friend, but Goblin manipulates him into believing that Parker used Harry to get to him.
The Goblin comes up with a plan to take over Norman’s psyche while posing as Norman himself, throw a dinner party at his mansion, and insist that Harry invite Peter. Both Peter and Mary Jane arrive, but Peter is already suspicious of “Norman’s” odd behavior. As they have dinner, the Goblin subtly implies that he knows Peter’s identity as Spider-Man and intends to expose it. Peter manages to leave momentarily to throw some of his web cartridges into the fireplace in hopes of creating a diversion. This plan works and results in a fire taking up the mansion. All of the guests leave, but Peter goes back into the mansion to take down Green Goblin. Green Goblin knocks him out into the back yard and Peter tries to retaliate but doesn't have his web shooters on. Peter is outclassed by Green Goblin and is tied up to be dragged behind the Goblin Glider. He then takes Peter to the George Washington Bridge, however, Peter manages to pull one of his web shooters out and crashes the glider on top of one of the towers. He then uses the glider's thruster to cut the rope tying him up and finally manages to change into Spider-Man. Green Goblin decides he hasn’t made Parker “suffer enough” and intends to use the accelerator to ambush his Aunt May.
Spider-man and Green Goblin both make it to Aunt May’s room at the same time as she’s sleeping, but Goblin decides to kidnap Mary Jane instead. Spider-Man tracks him down to the top of the George Washington Bridge where he holds Mary Jane hostage. The two engage in a fight in which Goblin blows up the top of the bridge, which causes the accelerator to open a portal that Mary Jane falls into. Unable to find her, an enraged Spider-Man attacks Goblin who creates an unstable portal due to the accelerator malfunctioning. A black hole is created and sucks Green Goblin into it, but he manages to grab onto a ladder to hold himself. As Spider-Man tries to save Norman, Green Goblin tries to use his glider to kill Spider-Man, but his spider-sense kicks in and he manages to avert its impulse, only to knock Goblin straight into limbo.
4 months later Green Goblin manages to communicate with Harry Osborn from limbo, and tricks him into subjecting himself to the same formula that made Norman the Green Goblin, in exchange for revealing where his father is. Harry takes up the Green Goblin mantle and attempts to kill Spider-Man so he may see his father. However, Spider-man escapes and Goblin belittles Harry for his failure. When Peter breaks into Osborn's mansion, he discovers the Green Goblin's secret hideout. He then hacks into his computer where he discovers that Goblin has various tech arsenals hidden across the city, thus revealing that he had intended to be a "one-goblin crime wave", thereby discovering his plans to destroy New York. He uses these addresses to track down Harry. As Harry continues to fail in his attempt to kill Spider-Man, Goblin tells Harry to collect a more advanced glider from Oscorp. Spider-Man tracks him down to talk some sense into him, but Goblin continues to manipulate him and breaks the boy even further when he reveals himself as Norman Osborn, as well as the fact that he has taken Norman's body over completely.
As they engage in one last fight across the city, both Spider-Man and the Punisher overpower Harry, and Punisher takes him to Aunt May’s house. Goblin is enraged that Harry has failed him but is even more shocked and confused to see that Mary Jane has arrived on Earth. Unbeknownst to him, she was merely a clone of the real Mary Jane created by Miles Warren. When the clone visits Peter at Aunt May’s house, Harry is relieved to see her and is stable enough for Spider-Man to take him to get some help.
As time goes on, Harry seems to be making progress with his mental state at the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane. However, he once more turns to the Goblin for guidance once he finds out “Mary Jane” and Peter are getting married. At night, the Goblin convinces Harry to use his super strength to escape the institution. Once he escapes, Goblin orders Harry to hand over his technology to Alistair Smythe and Silvermane. Harry then has Smythe build an army of robots for him to destroy Spider-Man with. The New Goblin, alongside his army and the Scorpion, ambushes Peter at his wedding, endangering several guests in the process. With the help of Black Cat, Spider-Man manages to fight off Harry’s army. Before Harry can force MJ to marry him, Liz Allan manages to talk some sense into him by confessing her love to him. Harry is then redeemed, and the Goblin’s plans are thwarted. It remains unknown as to whether or not the Goblin died in limbo or remained imprisoned.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Green Goblin (90s Cartoon).jpg (17 KB)")
Trivia[]
- This version of the Green Goblin inspired the Sam Raimi movie's version of the Green Goblin, from his split personality disorder (which was practically nonexistent in the original comics) to his origin.
- The battle at George Washington Bridge is taken out of the iconic comic, The Night Gwen Stacy Died, with Mary Jane Watson replacing Gwen Stacy and being sucked into a portal replacing death.
- Originally Green Goblin wasn't supposed to appear in Spider-Man: The Animated Series at all and Norman Osborn was supposed to become a Hobgoblin. However, this idea was rejected by Stan Lee.
- This is the only version of the Green Goblin who appears after The Hobgoblin's introduction, while in the comics, Hobgoblin appeared after the death of the Green Goblin.
- The Green Goblin/Norman Osborn would've returned in Season 6 of the show, had it continued on, returning from limbo to take back the mantle of the Green Goblin from his son Harry, and would have further confrontations with Spider-Man.
- John Semper Jr., the producer, writer, and story-editor of the series, considers Green Goblin as his favorite Spider-Man villain.
- Additionally, Semper wanted the Green Goblin to appear before the Hobgoblin, but was overruled by Avi Arad because the Hobgoblin toy was already made.
- The DVD, Spider-Man: The Return of the Green Goblin, contained a trivia game entitled "The Rogues' Challenge" about four of Spider-Man's villains. Green Goblin was the last of these, his questions involved how he crashed Spider-Man's wedding with Scorpion, considers the Hobgoblin to be an imposter (despite him appearing first in the cartoon), and Harry becoming the second Green Goblin. Funnily enough, each of the other villains' (the Chameleon, Mysterio, and Doc Ock) questions involved one only appearing the comics, but the last question is something that happened in both the show and the comics.
External Links:[]
- Green Goblin on the Pure Evil Wiki
