Green Goblin

The Green Goblin is a fictional character, a supervillain who appears in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964). Although many characters have taken up this identity, Norman Osborn is the original and most well-known Green Goblin. Osborn was originally an amoral industrialist head of Oscorp and father of Spider-Man's best friend, Harry Osborn, who took a serum which enhanced his physical abilities and intellect but also drove him to insanity. He adopted a Halloween-themed appearance, dressing in a goblin costume, riding on a bat-shaped "Goblin Glider", and using an arsenal of high-tech weapons, notably grenade-like "Pumpkin Bombs", to terrorize New York City. He is one of Spider-Man's most persistent foes, and many consider him to be one of the archenemies of Spider-Man, being responsible for numerous tragedies in Spider-Man's life, such as the death of Gwen Stacy and the Clone Saga. However, Osborn has also come into conflict with Iron Man and other superheroes in the Marvel Universe. He was also the main character and lead antagonist of the company-wide Dark Reign storyline.

Willem Dafoe played Norman Osborn and his alter ego the Green Goblin in the 2002 film Spider-Man as the main antagonist. Dafoe made cameo appearances in both Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3 as Harry's hallucinations. In the Spider-Man film reboot series, Chris Cooper was officially announced to be portraying Norman in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the follow up to The Amazing Spider-Man. In 2009, Norman Osborn was also ranked as IGN's 13th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time. He also placed #11 on GuysNation's Top Villains of All Time. Comics journalist and historian Mike Conroy writes of the character: "Of all the costumed villains who've plagued Spider-Man over the years, the most flat-out unhinged and terrifying of them all is the Green Goblin."