Green Goblin
| Green Goblin | |
|---|---|
Norman Osborn as Green Goblin. Interior artwork from Marvel Fanfare vol. 1, 45 (August 1989 Marvel Comics). Art by Paul Smith.
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964) |
| Created by |
Stan Lee Steve Ditko |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego |
Norman Osborn Harry Osborn Bart Hamilton Phil Urich |
| Notable aliases | Goblin King, Goblin Knight |
| Abilities |
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The Green Goblin is the alias of several fictional supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first and best known incarnation is Norman Osborn, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko to be the archenemy of Spider-Man. The Green Goblin is a Halloween-themed supervillain whose weapons resemble bats, ghosts and jack-o'-lanterns. Comics journalist and historian Mike Conroy writes of the character: "Of all the costumed villains who've plagued Spider-Man over the years, the most flat-out unhinged and terrifying of them all is the Green Goblin." The Green Goblin has appeared in several films including 2002's Spider-Man as Norman Osborn, and 2007's Spider-Man 3 and 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as Harry Osborn.
According to Steve Ditko: "Stan's synopsis for the Green Goblin had a movie crew, on location, finding an Egyptian-like sarcophagus. Inside was an ancient, mythological demon, the Green Goblin. He naturally came to life. On my own, I changed Stan's mythological demon into a human villain."
The Green Goblin debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #14. At this time his identity was unknown, but he proved popular and reappeared in later issues, which made a point of his secret identity. According to both Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr., who replaced Ditko as the title's artist, Lee always wanted the Green Goblin to be someone Peter Parker knew, while Ditko wanted his civilian identity to be someone who hadn't yet been introduced. Lee elaborated: "At some point we had to tell the reader who The Green Goblin really was. And Steve wanted him to turn out to be just some character that we had never seen before. Because, he said, in real life, very often a villain turns out to be somebody that you never knew. And I felt that that would be wrong. I felt, in a sense, it would be like cheating the reader. ... if it's somebody you didn't know and had never seen, then what was the point of following all the clues? I think that frustrates the reader. So that was a big argument we had." However, Ditko's account contradicts Lee's: "So I had to have some definite ideas: who he was, his profession and how he fit into the Spider-Man story world. I was even going to use an earlier, planted character associated with J. Jonah Jameson: he [was to] be [revealed as] the Green Goblin. It was like a subplot working its way until it was ready to play an active role."
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