The Best Spider-Man Character Isn’t Peter Parker

Spider-Man is generally considered Marvel’s best hero. Peter Parker gained superpowers on a school field trip, gaining the proportionate strength and speed of spider, heightened durability and healing, and his spider-Sense. Peter Parker was finally more than a nerd and decided to use his powers to make his life better. After letting a thief run free, he learns that thief killed his uncle Ben and Spider-Man was truly born, learning that with power comes great responsibility. Since then, Spider-Man has become one of the most relatable heroes in comics, his saga enthralling readers for over 60 years now. However, I’m here to say something that is going to be very controversial. Spider-Man isn’t the best character in the Spider-Man world; instead, it’s Norman Osborn, the villain known as Green Goblin.

Spider-Man has some great villains, characters who have kept readers coming back for decades and have challenged Spider-Man in amazing ways. Spider-Man is often considered to have some of the greatest villains in comics, right up there with Batman’s rogues gallery. Even among these fantastic villains, however, the Green Goblin is the best. Norman Osborn’s history reveals a character that is just as complex as the best heroes, and easily outstrips modern Spider-Man by a far margin.

Norman Osborn’s Tenure as the Green Goblin Has Seen Him Grow Past Spider-Man

Green Goblin was first introduced as a mysterious villain, a powerful crime lord that menaced Spider-Man. He was armed with powerful technology, and had superhuman powers to use against the Web-Slinger. It would soon be revealed that he was the father of Peter Parker’s best friend Harry Osborn, and it was off to the races for the villain. Norman discovered Peter’s origin and went after him on a personal level, costing the life of Peter’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy. The death of Gwen Stacy has echoed through the history of Spider-Man; it’s still a major moment and it defined the kind of monster that Green Goblin could be.

Green Goblin died, accidentally killing himself, but would come back in the ’90s, revealed as the mastermind of the Clone Saga. Sine then, Green Goblin has gone through a lot of changes, but his hatred and obsession with Spider-Man has always been the hallmark of the character. He got a chance to join the ranks of Marvel’s A-list villains during Civil War, a path that took him to Thunderbolts as the team’s government representative, which led to Osborn’s “Dark Reign”, a year and a half story arc that put him in charge of the superhero national security apparatus. Since then, we’ve seen some changes to Osborn; he went back to menacing Spider-Man, even becoming the Carnage symbiote-powered Red Goblin, and in recent years has become the ally of Spider-Man. All of this has been possible because of the dichotomy that exists at the center of Norman Osborn.

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Can The Amazing Spider-Man Really Be Good Again?

Norman Osborn was first introduced to readers as the genius corporate titan head of OsCorp. He was driven mad by his experiments with the Goblin formula, which gave him his superpowers, but the seeds of madness were always there, as Osborn was obsessed with his own success and would destroy anyone in his way. However, Norman wasn’t completely a monster; he loved his son Harry and was willing to use his inventions to help the world. Osborn cares about things; while his hate is overwhelmingly powerful, it’s not the whole of him. Osborn was given a new facet during the days of Civil War. He wanted to help the world, as much as a way to aggrandize himself as anything else.

This has always been the main difference between Norman and Peter; both of them will help people, but Norman does it to make himself greater. There’s a somewhat good person inside of Norman, but there’s also a ravening monster. This is why his more heroic actions in the last few years of The Amazing Spider-Man actually makes sense. Green Goblin has had all of the evil removed from himself by the Sin-Eater, and all that is left is the man who wants to help people in order to help himself. It’s not exactly altruistic, but that doesn’t matter to the people who Norma Osborn helps; he still saved them. Spider-Man has gotten stale as a character, but Osborn actually hasn’t. Writers could have kept the insane villain version of Green Goblin and fans would have loved it. However, instead of doing this, they’ve allowed him to grow and change as a character. It’s honestly made Green Goblin more interesting to read than Spider-Man, because there’s actually room for growth with Green Goblin.

As Long as Regression Is the Name of the Spider-Man Game, Green Goblin Will Be a Better Character

Marvel has something of a problem with Spider-Man. The publisher’s editors keeps insisting that fans want the static sadsack, poor Spider-Man who never wins at anything in life, despite all evidence to the contrary. However, the same thing can’t be said about Green Goblin. Green Goblin has grown from the calculating insane villain of the Silver Age into something unlike what he was before. There’s still the mania, but there’s also many other aspects and these have allowed the character to grow into something else.

Right now, it’s more interesting to see the way that Norman Osborn is being taken than Spider-Man. Osborn has always been an interesting opposite of Spider-Man. They were two people changed by science; one of them chose to use their powers for good and to help others, while the other went in the opposite direction. It’s always been interesting to see the directions that Marvel has taken the character, and since Spider-Man has become a shadow of himself, Norman Osborn has become the best character in the Spider-Man mythos.