Norman Virgil Osborn is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964) as the first and best-known incarnation of the Green Goblin. He has since endured as one of the superhero Spider-Man's most prominent villains and is regarded as one of his three archenemies, alongside Doctor Octopus and Venom.
Norman Osborn is the amoral industrialist head of science conglomerate Oscorp and the father of Harry Osborn, the best friend of Spider-Man's alter ego Peter Parker. Osborn, in part due to the death of his wife, is obsessed with attaining as much power as possible and maintains a cold disposition towards Harry, openly favoring Peter for his intellect. In his origin story, Osborn is exposed to an experimental formula that enhances his physical abilities and intellect at the cost of his sanity. He becomes a criminal mastermind known as the Green Goblin and uses an arsenal of advanced, Halloween-themed equipment, including grenade-like Pumpkin Bombs, razor sharp bats, and a flying Goblin Glider, to terrorize New York City.
Osborn has been part of defining Spider-Man stories, including the murder of Gwen Stacy—Peter's love interest—in "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" (1973) and the orchestration of the "Clone Saga" (1994–1996). While his primary foe is Spider-Man, Osborn has often come into conflict with Iron Man, Captain America and other superheroes in the Marvel Universe. Although Osborn sometimes works with other supervillains such as Doctor Doom and Loki and groups like the Sinister Six and the Dark Avengers, these relationships often collapse due to his obsessive desire for unbridled power. Osborn's largest overarching story came during the line-wide "Dark Reign" and Siege comic book events, during which he originated the persona of the Iron Patriot. On being stripped of his "sins" by Kindred on behalf of A.I. Harry Osborn as revenge for selling human Harry's soul to Mephisto, the forcibly-repentant Norman becomes the superhero Gold Goblin, starring in Gold Goblin.
The character has been in various top villain lists as one of Spider-Man's greatest enemies and one of the greatest comic book villains of all time. The character's popularity has seen him appear on a variety of merchandise, inspire real-world structures (such as theme park attractions) and be referenced in a number of media. He has been adapted to serve as Spider-Man's adversary in live-action, animated, and video game incarnations. Willem Dafoe played the character in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy and reprised the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), while Chris Cooper played the character in the film The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014).
