Green Goblin (Norman Osborn)

Norman Virgil Osborn

• Enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes as a result of exposure to a potent, imperfect replica of Abraham Erskine's Super-Soldier Serum.
• Osborn is remarkably intelligent, having discipline in the fields of biochemistry, physics, and engineering.

• Osborn's dual personality with the Green Goblin makes him easily distracted when the two "argue" with one another.

Norman Osborn could be classified as the true, living embodiment of a sociopath. Cold, calculating, and remorseless, his reputation as a ruthless businessman has given him a sort-of quasi-legendary status in the business community. He is more than willing to employ pawns under false pretenses, only to dispose of them once they outlive their usefulness to him.

Many of Norman's antisocial tendencies derive from his past, hostile relationship with his own father, Amberson Osborn. His father's abuse shaped how he viewed others; in Norman's eyes, life was a constant, never-ending game of survival of the fittest. Anyone who can't match his near-impossible standards, such as his own son Harry, is weak in his eyes and should be discarded in favor of benefitting the "strong." Norman's delusions cause him to see himself as the "apex" in this so-called game.

Osborn also has an unusual fixation on masks, keeping an assorted collection in his penthouse from pieces procured all over the world, sometimes illegally. His father's abuse caused this, and Norman's obsession with masks gradually developed into an obsession with the very concept of duality on its own. This also helped shape the dichotomy between the individual personas of both Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin. Make no mistake, however; the Green Goblin is Norman's TRUE personality, rather than it being the other way around.

Norman Virgil Osborn is the son of Amberson Osborn, a leading industrialist who built a reputation on being a reliable source of cheap, affordable equipment for his clients, who mostly consisted of factory managers. When Norman was eleven, Amberson became embroiled in a scandal where it was revealed that he was paying the mob handsome amounts of money in exchange for "quietly" eliminating Amberson's business rivals. The Osborns lost almost their entire fortune overnight as a result of Amberose spending it to fight off the charges and avoid prison.

The next decade of Norman's life was an endurance, as he had to suffer the drunken beatings of his father who needed a scapegoat to take his frustrations over his own failures out on. One incident saw Amberson lock Norman in the basement of their house, ostensibly to "face real darkness" and "test his mettle." The ordeal traumatized Norman, especially when he came upon an old, frightening ghoul-like mask. This imagery haunted Norman for the rest of his life.

Throughout high school, Norman worked extensively. He saved every penny he earned through part-time and odd jobs. In college, Norman befriended Mendel Stromm, a student only a few years older than himself nearing the end of his post-graduate degree. The two became partners, eventually dropping out of college in favor of their own startup company, Osborn-Stromm Innovations.

Norman married his college sweetheart, Emily Lyman, shortly before he turned thirty. After the birth of their only son, Harry, Norman divorced Emily after he discovered she was having an affair with Daniel Kingsley, brother of Roderick Kingsley, a business rival of his. At around the same time, he learned that Mendel was embezzling funds from their company. Turning these records over to the police, Mendel was arrested, and Norman seized full control of the company, renaming it to the simpler "OsCorp."

When Harry was a teenager, he suffered a drug overdose caused by a need to cope with his father's insane pressure to perform in school, socializing, and preparing to take over for the company. In a rare moment of compassion, Norman pulled Harry out of school and sent him to Europe for rehabilitation. The United States government soon approached him about a possible contract to develop a successor to Abraham Erskine's Super-Soldier Serum that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America in World War II. Eventually, there was an accident, and Norman was never the same again...