| Adaptations of Green Goblin in other media | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Stan Lee Steve Ditko |
| Original source | Comics published by Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964) |
| Films and television | |
| Film(s) | Spider-Man (2002) |
| Television show(s) |
Spider-Man (1967) Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (1981) Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994) Spider-Man Unlimited (1999) The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008) |
| Games | |
| Video game(s) | Spider-Man (1982) |
Green Goblin is a Marvel Comics fictional character; he has appeared in a range of media, in particular Spider-Man media, most notably recently in the Spider-Man films, played by Willem Dafoe.
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Green Goblin appears in the 1960s animated television series, voiced by Len Carlson. The Goblin here is depicted as a dimwitted robber who is obsessed with magic and the supernatural - fields of expertise that Norman Osborn in the comics is never interested in (save for one incident in the late 1990s), preferring to use technology to commit crimes. A new weapon he uses is gremlin dust, which briefly blinds people. He appears in the episodes "The Witching Hour", "Magic Malice", and "To Catch a Spider". In his last appearance the invisible scientist Dr Noah Boddy breaks him out of jail along with Electro and Vulture. There he uses a special pumpkin bomb with a formula created by Dr Noah Boddy to weaken Spider-Man's senses. He is defeated finally with the other villains when they have a showdown at midnight with Spider-Man when Spider-Man uses ventriloquism to make them fight each other, and knocks him out by deflecting one of his own pumpkin bombs, then webs him up and the Green Goblin is jailed along with the other villains.
Green Goblin appears in the 1980s Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends cartoon show, which depicts Norman Osborn, voiced by Neil Ross, as something closer to the Lizard, with a serious medical problem of physically and uncontrollably changing into the Green Goblin, voiced by Dennis Marks. This version of the character has a niece by the name of Mona Osborn, who had no knowledge of her uncle's double identity. When she was held captive by the Green Goblin so he could discover the location of a formula, she stated that he looked familiar. She appears in the episodes "The Triumph of the Green Goblin" and "The Quest of the Red Skull".
The solo Spider-Man series' version, which ran around the same time, is truer to the original comic book (in which Osborn suffered from amnesia and wore a Goblin costume instead of physically transforming into the Goblin), with the Goblin appearing in "Revenge of the Green Goblin".
The Green Goblin appears in the 1990s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, again voiced by English actor Neil Ross. The actor used a high, giggling voice for the Goblin, and his normal, gruff voice for Osborn. Unlike his comic counterpart, Norman Osborn here is not an insane version of himself, and has instead developed a multiple personality disorder. His other personality is the Green Goblin, who acts on destroying everyone who has hurt Osborn throughout his life. In this incarnation, Osborn is a responsible father and inventor, though ruthless businessman, who gets caught up in the Kingpin's affairs. Also, unlike the comic book version, who considers his son weak, the animated series' Osborn cares deeply for Harry, but said him nothing about his crime relationship.
For the first two seasons of the show, Norman Osborn appeared as a corrupt industrialist, pressured into supplying the Kingpin with weapons and chemicals against his will. In the Goblin's debut episode, "Enter the Green Goblin", Norman Osborn is exposed to a toxic gas that greatly increases his physical strength but also drives him insane and awakens the evil inside him. The gas also somehow alters the Hobgoblin's equipment into green-color equipment (who in the animated series came before the Green Goblin, unlike the comics), which had been created at OsCorp and Norman dons it, becoming the Green Goblin. He then kidnaps various OsCorp stockholders (including Wilson Fisk (Kingpin), Jameson, and the mother of Felicia Hardy) that had tormented Norman. After the fight with Spider-Man, Norman Osborn lost his memory.
In "Goblin War!", once again tormented by Kingpin, Norman see the Goblin in all reflection and becomes him again, defeating the "Imposter" Hobgoblin and stealing his Time Dilation Accelerator, a machine capable of generating portals. In the next episode "Turning Point", the Green Goblin finds out Spider-Man's secret identity, kidnaps Mary Jane, and fights Spider-Man atop the George Washington Bridge. In the end, the Goblin gets stuck in another dimension, after his glider pushes him through a portal.
In "The Return of the Green Goblin", the Green Goblin appears in nightmare to Harry Osborn, and lures him into becoming the new Green Goblin. Among the promises to kill Spider-Man, he promised the boy to reveal what happened to his father. In "The Wedding", Green Goblin appears again to convince Harry Osborn to become the Green Goblin again when he hears that Peter Parker and Mary Jane are going to get married, but Liz Allan in the end convinces Harry that his real friends are Mary Jane and Peter, not the Green Goblin. With his connection to Harry broken, Norman Osborn remains trapped in limbo.
The Green Goblin and Hobgoblin make their final appearance in "I Really, Really Hate Clones", the first part of the two-part series finale, in which they are working for Spider-Carnage and the Kingpin in an alternate reality.
A Counter Earth version of the Green Goblin appears in the Spider-Man Unlimited animated series, voiced by Rino Romano, who is portrayed as a hero, mistaking Spider-Man for an enemy during their first encounter. Instead of a glider, he wields a backpack that sprouts wings. By the end of his first appearance, after saving Naoko and Shayne Yamada-Jones from one of Venom and Carnage's plans with the help of Spider-Man and after the Goblin lets Naoko and Shayne go, he whispers to himself about calling Naoko his love. It is revealed in the next episode, which the Goblin himself does not appear in, that Naoko has a jealous ex-husband who works for the rebellion against the High Evolutionary. Naoko's ex-husband, who is standing in the shadows by the end of the episode, reveals that he is jealous, suspecting that Naoko and Peter Parker, the man who pays the rent while living at Naoko's home, are having an affair. He punches a wall that bricks fall down thus confirming the Goblin, who has super strength is indeed Naoko's ex-husband.
The Goblin's next appears when he finds out that both Spider-Man and Peter Parker are the same person. He also learns that Spider-Man is from the original Earth, and his intentions on Counter-Earth are to rescue John Jameson. Since Jameson, who is working with the rebels against the High Evolutionary, does not agree to come and lets Spider-Man go off on his own, the Goblin decides to help by getting a ship the High Evolutionary has, which was originally Spider-Man's. Spider-Man and the Goblin team up with the Rejects, a group of Beastials that the High Evolutionary got rid of since they proved useless, and they get to Solaris II, the ship Spider-Man once had. Spider-Man has more heart and has Solaris II crash into one of the High Evolutionary's towers, which presumably kills the Goblin in the explosion. However, by the series finale, it is revealed he survived the explosion and joined the Rejects. He leaves them to help Spider-Man and the rebels fight against the High Evolutionary. By the end of the episode, he is one of the characters who run off when thousands of symbiotes spring to Counter-Earth according to Venom and Carnage's plans.
Though neither the Norman Osborn or the Goblin directly appear in Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (which supposedly follows the same canon as the Spider-Man films), the latter was mentioned in the show on a number of occasions.
The Green Goblin appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man, voiced by Alan Rachins as Norman Osborn and by Steven Blum as the Green Goblin. Norman is the charismatic yet pompous spirited CEO of OSCorp. He expresses disapproval at his son Harry for not getting offered the ESU lab internship that was given to his friend Peter Parker and constantly tells him to man up to get what he wants. Bent on being the number one in weapons tech, Norman embezzled the designs of Adrian Toomes flight tech and later tipped off the crime boss known as the Big Man to the TRI-CORP technology shipment.
He appears as the Crime Lord in background, controlling some events in the show. His immense hatred for Spider-Man is briefly referenced in the episode "Subtext", when Mark Allen tells Goblin to destroy Spider-Man himself, to which he responds "Nothing would give me more pleasure, believe me. But, we'll stick to the plan".
Like many of his previous incarnations the Green Goblin was always well-prepared for combat, usually rigging his surroundings with hidden pumpkin grenades and automatic grenade launchers. His glider, which is shaped into a gargoyle-like bat, carries an assortment of weapons. These include his trademark pumpkin grenades (which make a distinct screaming sound upon detonation), high velocity razorbat-like pumpkins, lasers that shoot from his fingers; a cannon that fires globs of extremely strong restraining adhesives (which the Goblin calls a "Gob-Web Inhibitor though originally the prohibiter prototype"); and a forked tongue-shaped blade that extends from the glider's "jaws".
Actor Steven Weber will voice Norman Osborn in the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series.[1]
In the Stephen King movie Maximum Overdrive, the face of the Green Goblin is prominently displayed on the front of the movie's main villain, a murderous "Happy Toyz Co." truck.
He is also briefly mentioned in the comedy film Spider-Plant Man, where Peter Piper/Spider-Plant Man is confronted by the main antagonist hiding in shadow and Peter says "I know that voice, come out where I can see you, Green Goblin!"
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 but amoral 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 equipped 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.
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.
In Spider-Man 3, Harry Osborn, still obsessed with taking revenge on Spider-Man, has finally taken up the mantle of the Green Goblin like his father. 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.
OsCorp Industries is set to make an appearance in the reboot of the Spider-Man films, however it is unknown whether Norman Osborn or his son Harry will be even mentioned in the film.[3]