GREEN GOBLIN

 

GREEN GOBLIN

Real Name: Norman Virgil Osborn

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #14, July 1964

Powers: Norman Osborn became the Green Goblin after experimenting with a bio-chemical formula originally conceived by his business partner, Mendel Stromm. Osborn's manipulations of the formula caused it to turn green and explode in his face, giving him superhuman abilities. Osborn developed the vitality of a man in his prime, Class 10 strength, and increased agility, endurance, reflexes, and resilience. In times of extreme stress and trauma, he also manifested a healing and regeneration factor capable of restoring him to health despite suffering lethal injuries. The full extent of his healing abilities haven't been catalogued. The effect of the later-termed Goblin Formula on his mind has never been fully determined. Certainly, the merely unscrupulous Norman Osborn became outright insane as the Green Goblin. Norman occasionally claimed the formula gave him superhuman intelligence, but that may have just been the madness talking. A question remains as to whether the trauma of the explosion alone triggered Norman's insanity, or if it was an inherent instability in the formula itself which brought about his madness.

As the Green Goblin, Norman employed a variety of weapons and paraphernalia. His gloves contained "sparkle-blast" projectors, firing high-voltage electrical discharges from his fingertips. The discharge could be merely distracting or outright lethal to normal humans, depending on the power setting. He used razor-bats as throwing weapons, either as simple projectiles or with computer guidance systems, designed to swarm around a target while slicing at them with their razor-sharp wings. The Green Goblin carried a number of different pumpkin bombs and goblin grenades, including fragmentary explosive, concussion-type, magnesium flare, incendiary, smoke and gas types including sleep gas, tear gas, anaerobic, regurgitant, hallucinatory, and sensory-deadening. The last gas can be formulated specifically to cancel out Spider-Man's danger sense. Primarily used as throwing weapons, they all could be triggered by impact or proximity sensors. Norman also occasionally set pumpkin bombs in place to go off on a timer or remote signal. Other weapons he has used include the ear-splitting sonic toad and a constricting snake that coiled around his opponent's throat. Norman's original flying device was a rocket "broomstick", a long tube that he straddled for propulsion. Early redesigns turned the broomstick into the patented Goblin Glider. The Green Goblin stood on a set of "wings" attached to the rocket tube, steering the glider primarily by body english at first. Later designs included cybernetic command signals, enabling Norman to mentally control his speed and direction, hovering in mid-air, shooting straight up or sideways, etc. The Goblin Glider's exhaust can be used to release smokescreens or different kinds of gas. After Norman was "killed" when the Glider's front was bent forward to penetrate his chest, he began incorporating deliberate spikes onto later versions. The spikey bat-head motif would either fold forward, or fall off entirely to reveal a hidden spear beneath it.

As the Iron Patriot, Norman Osborn has taken one of Tony Stark's armors and modified it for his own use. It's unclear exactly how much of the armor's capabilities come from Osborn's redesigns and how much was there originally. The suit is designed to break down piece-by-piece and store itself in Osborn's belt buckle, allowing him to armor up or down in mere moments. How the armor stores itself like this is unknown, it could involve tesseract space, unstable molecules, magnetically polarized armor components, etc. When operational, the Iron Patriot duplicates most of the basic features of Iron Man. The suit generates a virtual environment for Osborn's senses, allowing him to perceive multiple directions at once alongside screens feeding him data and remote video feeds. An on-board computer monitors his sensors and power output, and can link up to other electronic systems to share data or override control of them. The suit grants him at least Class 80 strength, probably higher, and the armor itself is reinforced with magnetic fields, making it nearly as durable as damantium. Offensive weapon systems include repulsor rays, ion bolts and electrical discharges from the gauntlets, a chest-mounted uni beam, and mini-rocket launchers that pop out of the shoulders. The Iron Patriot can also create negative energy shields -- force fields which can be used for personal defense or ranged containment. Rocket jets in the boots also enable him to fly.

Despite his insanity, Norman Osborn is a college graduate with genius-level intelligence. His aptitudes include genetics, robotics, engineering, and applied chemistry. He is a genius in concocting chemicals and inventing weaponry. A capable businessman, he is the co-owner of a leading New York firm, Osborn Industries, which specialized in chemical manufacturing via Osborn Chemicals, as well as other areas of research and development, including robotics.