The Green Goblin: The Long Road to Relevance

The Green Goblin is Spider-Man's arch-enemy. Five year olds know this, let alone those of us who could be called fans. It's a pop culture cachet, like Lex Luthor and Superman or Batman and the Joker.

It's a fact.

The problem is that the moment that cemented the Goblin as Spider-Man's penultimate foe, out of a whole reel of contenders, including the Kingpin, Doctor Octopus and the like, was the very moment that the Goblin crossed the moral event horizon and was summarily disposed of.

The moment Gwen Stacy's neck snapped, the Goblin's fate was sealed. That story only has one ending, and the Goblin got it. Simultaneously disposed of and enshrined.

As the story continued along new paths, the Goblin's previous relevance (or lack thereof) was coaxed into something monstrous. He became THE symbol of Spider-Man's guilt-the image of the Goblin, laughing triumphantly as Gwen Stacy fell appeared in practically every issue that dealt in some way with Spider-Man's internal turmoil. Too, the image of the Goblin dangling from the end of his own weapon became the central facet around which Harry Osborn's deteriorating personality revolved. In a single moment, the Goblin had destroyed not one, not two, but three lives and damaged the lives of all those they connected.

For a villain, that's not a bad way to go out.

And later writers only added to this...Harry's perennial descents into the Goblin Madness only served to further illustrate the satanic damage wrought by a dead man. His eventual demise was just one more wound, and the passing along of his madness-his father's madness-to his own son made it seem positively supernatural. The Goblin went from being a goon in a mask to being the spectral curse which haunted the lives of those whom he had assaulted. Almost half of Spider-Man's supporting cast would have moments where that curse set their wheels spinning in dangerous directions.

Slowly, but surely, the Green Goblin became something other than just another colourful would-be crime-boss-he became the symbol for all that was wrong in Spider-Man's world. The chance mistake that led to a war with losses on both sides and final, blazing pyrrhic victory that would forever stain a hero's life with ashes.

Then, they brought him back. And the whole thing fell apart.

In death, the Green Goblin was a demon. In life, he was a nut-case. Jack-the-Ripper syndrome at its finest-as an unknown monster, uncaught and mysterious, the Ripper can be as bad as we want him to be-a savage, a nobleman, a sorcerer. As a man, he was a pathetic butcher. Nothing special about him, nothing to make him unique from any other sexual predator. The same goes for the Green Goblin.

His legend, and his relevance, grew in the aftermath of his death to epic proportions within the confines of the overall story. But by bringing him back, he is revealed as nothing more than a tougher-than-average maniac. A beast no different from Carnage or Venom, his only ace in the hole being his awareness of Spider-Man's alter-ego. By enabling Spider-Man to once more come to grips with the author of so much pain, the curtain was jerked back, and Mighty Oz at last revealed as sad Norman Osborn, failed business man, schizophrenic and psychopath.

In effect, when Norman Osborn returned, the Green Goblin died and whatever relevance he had, died with him.

Now, this isn't to say that Norman Osborn as he is now hasn't been compelling at some points. Warren Ellis' depiction of him was intriguing, though it veered into Joker-territory at times, and the current status-quo makes little sense, given that Osborn was outed as a murderer and psychopath in the international press before he became head of HAMMER (though, considering that many of Marvel's events of late have been, on the surface, little more than forced political jokes, that may make sense), still it's interesting.

But, the Green Goblin, as a symbol of Spider-Man's guilt and impotence in the face of evil, is done, perhaps permanently. In spreading the Goblin Curse to 616 as a whole, it has been rendered less potent. And even if Osborn once more dons the green and purple, will he have the same relevance he enjoyed as a dead man, or will he be overshadowed by newer threats?

Time will tell, I suppose.