Merry Christmas, Crawlspacers! Nothing like a new Overlooked Gems article to spread that holiday cheer!
Today we will be taking a look at Citizen Osborn in SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN vol. 1 #250 by J.M. DeMatteis and Luke Ross from 1997.
When it comes to Spider-Man villains, you can’t get any better than Norman Osborn a.k.a. The Green Goblin. Doctor Octopus and Venom perhaps? Not even. No one in Spidey’s entire roster of baddies is as sinister, deplorable or menacing as Norman. I mean, this is the guy who murdered Peter Parker’s first love, turned his best friend against him, tricked him into believing he was nothing more than a genetic duplicate, murdered his unborn child, murdered his clone after forming a brotherly bond with him, kidnapped and tortured him for days trying to convert him, gave his friend severe brain damage, held his aunt hostage for months and…okay, you probably get the picture by now. Norman Osborn is one seriously twisted guy.
“But Doctor Octopus killed Spider-Man and took over his body!”
Yes he did. And who was it that caused Otto to give his body back to Peter because he couldn’t defeat him?
Norman.
Bottom line, Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin is Spider-Man’s single greatest foe bar none. So now let’s address the elephant in the room:
Should Norman have remained dead?
As we Spidey purists are keenly aware of, Norman met his grisly end (or so we believed for more than two decades) in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN vol. 1 #122 shortly after murdering Gwen Stacy.
It was a shocking yet fitting end for the madman. He had just taken Spidey’s greatest love (at the time) from him and would never stop coming for him as long as he knew his secret identity. Since Spider-Man doesn’t kill and the writers couldn’t have The Goblin keep losing his memory over and over again, death really did seem to be the only option.
Besides, Norman’s demise opened up a slew of new story possibilities and characters; the two most famous being his son Harry taking up the mantle and Roderick Kingsley a.k.a. The Hobgoblin.
Oh and let’s not forget about Bart Hamilton, Jason Macendale, The DemoGoblin, Phil Urich…on second thought, please do forget about them. You’ll be better off.
Anyway, with such great initial replacements, it seems pretty pointless to resurrect the original, right? Wrong.
As we Spidey purists are also knowledgeable of, Harry Osborn eventually met his end at the conclusion of J.M. DeMatties’s superb and heart-breaking Best of Enemies arc in SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN vol. 1 #200.
Around this same time, Roderick Kingsley was out of the picture (long, convoluted, frustrating story) and Jason Macendale was the current Hobgoblin. But speaking rather bluntly, Macendale sucked.
Naturally, there was a bit of a hole in the Spider-Man titles at the time. One Goblin was deceased and the other was a bumbling loser. Plus, Marvel was still trying to find a sensible way to end the debacle known as The Clone Saga.
Long story short, Marvel editorial decided to resurrect Norman Osborn.
Many fans still argue to this day that bringing Norman back was a desperate move that only served to cheapen a classic story. However, I am not one of those fans.
In my humble opinion, resurrecting Norman was a great creative move that led to many top-notch tales; Citizen Osborn being one of the prime examples.
With that long introduction finally out of the way, let’s dive right into the story at hand.
Our tale begins with our favorite Goblin (stand aside, Hobby) spying on the Parker residence.
Before the night is over, Mary Jane Watson-Parker will have plenty more nightmare fuel.
Later, Norman Osborn (out of costume) decides to pay his daughter-in-law, Liz Allen-Osborn, a visit. As you might expect, it’s not to give her a hug.
Something tells me that Liz’s evening has just been ruined.
Stormin’ Norman then decides to hold a press conference to explain (or rather lie about) where he has been for the last seven years during his supposed “death”.
How exactly did Norman get J. Jonah Jameson of all people to go along with his sick charade? The answers don’t come easy.
Naturally being unable to ignore something like this, Peter and Mary Jane enter the scene. Bad idea.
Not one to waste such a rich opportunity, Norman approaches the couple with the intent of twisting the knife. And twist the knife he most certainly does.
Unable to take much more of Norman’s smug taunting and him leading people around like puppets, Peter and Mary Jane eventually leave the conference and head home. But once there…
Has Norman finally pushed our hero too far? How will Peter retaliate? And what exactly does Noman have in store for him? I’m getting chills just talking about it.
J.M. DeMatteis absolutely excels with Norman Osborn’s characterization here. Norman truly proves that he doesn’t need to be in his Green Goblin getup to strike at Peter Parker as he constantly torments, threatens and one-ups him at every turn, all the while remaining in his civilian identity. The sheer delight Norman takes in provoking Peter throughout the issue is truly sinister and really exemplifies the heated rivalry between the two men. The ending proves that Norman will always possess the upper hand over Spidey as long as he keeps giving into his rage.
Also unsettling is Norman’s interactions with the supporting cast. From Liz Allen-Osborn to J. Jonah Jameson, Norman plays them like violins throughout the entire story. In spite of their hatred of him, they remain unable to do anything about it due to fear of Norman’s wrath befalling themselves and their loved ones.
Despite never being collected, the individual issue is easy enough to track down. Citizen Osborn truly represents the Peter/Norman rivalry at its finest and most heated, making it a comic that no fan of The Green Goblin, J.M. DeMatteis or just good superhero stories in general should miss.
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@William
Very well said, sir. Norman’s extended absence definitely made his return that much more powerful. And again, some of my favorite Green Goblin stories (“Night of The Goblin”, “Citizen Osborn”, “Free Fall”, “Revenge of The Green Goblin”, “Return of The Goblin”, “Down Among the Dead Men”, ect.) have occurred since his resurrection.
@Andrew C
I always try to avoid spoiling too much in these articles because I want people to seek out the stories and read them for themselves. But yes, the confrontation between Spidey and Norman at the end of this issue is great. It’s made even better by the fact that Spidey unwittingly played right into Norman’s hands.
For me personally, Norman Osborn is one of the few villain resurrections that worked in nearly every way.
Speaking of “overlooked”, I don’t know how I missed this, but it’s also one of my favorite issues of the post clone saga era. You could cut the tension with a knife. I guess you didn’t want to spoil it, but the confrontation at the end (which isn’t in this post) is the highlight for me. Peter is in pure savage beast mode.
And yes, I agree bringing Norman back was the right move (something I can’t say about Harry, Aunt May, Kraven, etc).
I feel like Norman staying dead for so long is what allowed him to return in such spectacular fashion. All those years of influencing stories after his death and being an abstract terror haunting our protagonists gave him so much more power as a character than he ever had prior. If he had stayed alive after killing Gwen, I’m not sure where he’d have went, probably just cycled through the Jekyll and Hyde dynamic over and over again. The added weight he was given in the years between his death and return meant that the magnificent bastard he became felt like the most logical interpretation. People always say they made him into a Lex Luthor ripoff, but he’s frankly so much more twisted and terrifying than the Luthor interpretations I’ve seen, and he can hurt Spider-Man in ways Luthor could only dream about with Superman.
Doc Ock is my favourite Spider-Man villain, but it’s pretty much impossible to deny that Norman deserves the top spot as his greatest enemy.
@André L. Santana
Norman Osborn’s resurrection was definitely one of the best things to happen to the Spider-titles in the 1990s.
I actually really like Ross’s art and think his work is underrated.
I really liked the “Revelations” story (specifically the fourth part) and think it is easily one of the best things to come out of “The Clone Saga” (which isn’t that impressive a feat all things considered).
Cheers to you as well!
I am not one of those fans either; the whole ‘Osborn Reborn’ idea put sense and meaning to end the Clone Saga mess.
JMD’s profile on Wacko Osborn is well-done. It’s shame Luke Ross’ pencils couldn’t match the impact that Sal Buscema provided for his previous stories in the title, but it’s ok; that was the 90’s.
Your review made me want to revisit the “Revelations” storyline and this issue.
Spider-History sometimes can be painful, but it’s always worth it.
Cheers!
@hornacek
It’s funny you should mention that Howard Mackie issue because I actually plan on covering it some day.
With these JMD issues, it quickly became apparent that Marvel didn’t resurrect the Green Goblin – they resurrected Norman Osborn. Norman during this time was a much greater villain as just Norman than he could be as the Goblin.
Especially liked the Mackie (?) issue during this era where Peter and Norman are trapped in a elevator together.