Osborn, Norman

Norman Osborn is an Industrialist and founder and Chief Executive Officer of Oscorp. He is also a psychopathic criminal known as the Green Goblin and father of Harry Osborn.

## Norman Virgil Osborn

### Relatives

Harry Osborn (son), Gabriel Stacy (son), Sarah Stacy (daughter), Emily Lyman-Osborn (wife, dead), Ambrose Osborn (father, dead), Unnamed mother (dead), Cher Osborn (paternal half-sister), Alton Osborn, Junior (paternal grandfather, dead), Alton Osborn (paternal great grandfather, dead)

## Biographical information

### Place of birth

Hartford, Connecticut, New York City, New York, United State of America

## Physical description

### Species

Homo sapien meta (Human mutate, Metahuman)

### Eye color

Blue (formerly), Green (after Green Goblin mutation)

## History

### Early Years

Norman and his half-sister Cher were born to Ambrose Osborn but unknown mothers. As a child, Norman Osborn became obsessed with gaining wealth and power. His father, a failed business inventor who claimed that he was swindled out of his inventions and personal fortune, took out his rage on Norman.

### Teen Years

Norman would not allow himself to become a failure like his father, he realized that he could not depend on him for financial security, thus began working after school.

### College Years

Norman studied chemistry and electrical engineering at Empire State University, and also took a number of courses in business administration. However, he had a cheating apparatus which was reported by one of his friends, Ned Tobolowski, causing him to lose his scholarship and nearly getting expelled.

### Adult

One of his teachers was Professor Mendel Stromm. They became good friends and later formed a business partnership. Since Norman put up the bulk of the financing, they called their company Osborn Chemical, a.k.a. Oscorp.

#### Marriage

He married his college sweetheart; Emily Lyman and they had a son, Harry Osborn. Unfortunately, his wife became ill. After she seemingly died, he buried himself in his work and rarely had time for young Harry.

#### Oscorp

When he was about to go bankrupt on account of his debts and would eventually have his company taken over by his partner, Mephisto approached him in the guise of an "acquisitions" investor and offered Norman a deal to make his financial life more successful in exchange for his son's soul. Norman initially refused the deal, but after the devil explained to him that if he accepted, he would not even remember their encounter, he agreed. With the deal closed, Mephisto made Norman's business life immensely successful both financially and in status but made him relentless in the process - ultimately leading to his madness. This reality-warping deal greatly affected Norman's life, not only as his soul was corrupted that he became so obsessed with wealth and power, but it also affected his son, that would suffer great misfortunes until his death.

But Mephisto honored his part of the deal, as Norman's business partner, Mendell Stromm, was eventually arrested after he discovered he was committing embezzlement, granting Norman complete control over the company as he always wanted, thereby making him the official CEO of Oscorp. While going through Stromm's notes, he found a secret formula that would make him superhumanly powerful. However, his son, Harry, tired of always being ignored and rejected by his father, switched the chemicals in the serum, causing it to explode in his face. Later, at the hospital, Osborn found himself thinking more clearly than ever before, not knowing that he would slowly reach insanity.

#### Birth of the Green Goblin

Attempting to achieve power beyond his wildest dreams, Norman Osborn planned to become the most powerful gang-lord of all by uniting all the independent gangs under his leadership in an attempt to gain control over all of New York's crime. To prove his power and establish his reputation, he decided to choose Spider-Man as his victim of choice, and sent two criminals, Scorcher and the Headsman, after Spider-Man. The two were soundly defeated, and then Osborn decided to take matters into his own hands. Remembering a giant green goblin monster from childhood nightmares, he created a costume that resembled that monster, and he became the "Green Goblin".

The Green Goblin first battled Spider-Man with the help of the Enforcers, by getting Spider-Man to participate in a movie about him. Attempting to defeat him in New Mexico, he let Spider-Man battle the Hulk, after the Green Goblin, the Enforcers, and Spider-Man accidentally stumbled upon the Hulk's stomping grounds. Escaping the Hulk, Spider-Man attempted to capture the Green Goblin, but was too exhausted to prevent his escape. Returning to New York, the Green Goblin easily hid amongst New York's vast population.

Spider-Man and the Green Goblin fought a few months later at a fan club meeting for Spider-Man organized by Flash Thompson. However, when Spider-Man heard that his Aunt May was extremely ill, he was forced to retreat, giving him a sour reputation by most of New York's citizens, including several superheroes, super villains, citizens, and, of course, J. Jonah Jameson, and giving the Green Goblin an impressive reputation. Later still, the Green Goblin pretended to be helping the police by attempting to capture Lucky Lobo, a big gang leader, and, after seeing defeat by Spider-Man, attempted a partnership with the Crime-Master, which again ended in defeat.

With constant defeat, the Green Goblin became more determined. In time, Osborn became obsessed with Spider-Man and began directing all of his efforts to find a way to defeat his web-swinging adversary.

And he did. The Green Goblin managed to discover Spider-Man's secret identity, by utilizing a false gang that sprayed Spider-Man with a gas that nullified his spider-sense, allowing the Green Goblin to follow him without being detected. Capturing Spider-Man with ease, he brought him to his hideout and revealed himself to be Norman Osborn, the father of Peter Parker's friend. After revealing his past, he let Spider-Man escape, so as to prove his superiority. Spider-Man managed to defeat the Goblin by sending him into a bunch of disconnected, high-voltage wires that were drenched in chemicals. Suffering amnesia, Osborn lost all memory up to the years that his son was in high school. Spider-Man, content in this knowledge, burned the Green Goblin's costume, naively hoping never to see him again.

#### Insanity

During a visit to New York City, certain Gothamites convinced Peter that the true responsible thing to do would be to turn Norman over to the authorities. With the help of Martian Manhunter and others, Norman was sent to Ravencroft Asylum where he eventually tricked the staff that he had been cured.

### Split Personality

Probably thanks to the chemicals, the Green Goblin became a separate entity in Norman Osborn's brain. Norman's memories eventually returned, and the Green Goblin persona attempted to take over Norman and defeat Spider-Man once more, this time with a bomb that was filled with a gas that nullified his wall-clinging ability. Spider-Man defeated him this time by landing on his back and luring him to the hospital room of Norman's son, extremely ill from drug abuse. Snapped back to reality, Norman returned to normal.

Osborn was involved in a brief affair with Gwen Stacy while she was still in a relationship with Peter Parker during her time in Europe (believing her to be his dead wife Emily, while Gwen believed he was Peter). The affair resulted in the birth of twins, Gabriel and Sarah.

### Final Confrontation and Death (supposedly)

Norman eventually regained his Green Goblin memories and became more unhinged and obsessed with obtaining revenge against Spider-Man than ever. To torture Spider-Man, the Green Goblin kidnapped Gwen Stacy and threw her off the Brooklyn Bridge. Spider-Man managed to catch her with a webline, but the whiplash broke her neck, killing her instantly. Filled with rage, Spider-Man brutally attacked the Green Goblin, nearly killing him. He returned to his senses at the last minute, but the Green Goblin took the opportunity to attempt one final trick by remote controlling his goblin glider to impale the wall crawler. Spider-Man was able to dodge the glider which instead impaled the Green Goblin, seemingly killing him.

Harry Osborn had witnessed the final defeat of his father at the hands of Spider-Man and removed the Green Goblin costume before the authorities could arrive, thus preserving his secret identity. He even bribed the coroner so that further autopsies would show no trace of the "Goblin" formula in Norman's blood. And for many years, the world believed Osborn to be dead.

### Post-Mortem

Many tried to follow in the original Green Goblin's footsteps, including his first-born son Harry Osborn, therapist Barton "Bart" Hamilton, and millionaire Roderick Kingsley created his own variation on the goblin motif. Each subsequent Goblin variation were defeated, and Harry eventually died as a result of exposure to an untested experimental version of the formula that had given his father his abilities. Little did anyone know that Norman Osborn was in fact alive and devising a master plan that he hoped would ruin Spider-Man forever.

### Return of Norman Osborn

The same formula that had given Norman Osborn his heightened strength and intellect also gave him powerful regenerative abilities, allowing him to survive the impalement by his goblin glider. He had escaped the morgue, replacing his body with that of a drifter he had murdered (and impaled through the chest) and fled to Europe. There he joined the Brotherhood of the Scriers, eventually moving up in their ranks and completely taking them over. He also raised the children of himself and Gwen Stacy. They rapidly aged and developed superhuman strength and endurance thanks to the Goblin Formula in Norman's DNA.