Is Osborn responsible for his actions?

[Celgress]

@Michael Watkins

The thing is Norman's behavior does not meet the legal threshold of clinical insanity, not once his personality merges with that of the Green Goblin. He knows what he is doing is wrong, or at least that other people would consider his actions wrong, he's even said so on different occasions. He simply does not care. There is thus no way a court would find Norman not guilty of his crimes thus he is responsible for his actions (post-personality merge).

[Huntsman Spider]

of course not. it's the motive that ultimately makes a hero a villain. yet there are several villains who see themselves as heroic. and there are heroes who act in villainous fashion because they've convinced themselves that what they are doing is right and just. remember when it was Carol Danvers' goal just to be the best? how different was inverted Iron Man from the one who created the recent virtual reality world? Pym's transition to Giant-Man was based (at least for the most part) in wanting more attention/to not be outshined by the other Avengers. and that's Bentley Wittman's motivation in becoming the Wizard. Hydra-Cap was just as devoted (with no malice or self-entitlement) to the dream as original Steve Rogers. it was the dream that was bad.

Those are good points, and like I said, the "heroes" can be flawed in that underneath their heroic actions and guises, they can be just as self-serving, self-entitled, and ego-driven as any other person, though I would again argue that it's a somewhat flawed premise that their own moral failings put them right on the same floor with someone who makes it a habit, if not a hobby or a vocation, to threaten, harm, and even murder innocent people by the dozens or scores or hundreds for nothing besides malice or greed.

[Michael Watkins]

@Michael Watkins

The thing is Norman's behavior does not meet the legal threshold of clinical insanity, not once his personality merges with that of the Green Goblin. He knows what he is doing is wrong, or at least that other people would consider his actions wrong, he's even said so on different occasions. He simply does not care. There is thus no way a court would find Norman not guilty of his crimes thus he is responsible for his actions (post-personality merge).

when was that? because the Osborn mini series that followed Siege made it seem like the justice system knew that they couldn't put Norman on trial. they put him in an underwater off-the-maps prison; to bury him in effect. they deprived him of a trial. and Norman was convinced of his own innocence throughout.

[Junco]

when was that? because the Osborn mini series that followed Siege made it seem like the justice system knew that they couldn't put Norman on trial. they put him in an underwater off-the-maps prison; to bury him in effect. they deprived him of a trial. and Norman was convinced of his own innocence throughout.

They kind of had to put him in an illegal underwater prison because his whole rise to power was a result of Tony Stark mind-controlling him to stage a false flag assassination attempt on some Atlantean guy and that stuff can't be made public.

Also they would have kept everyone dying on that illegal prison a secret after it sunk if Nora hadn't witnessed it. Hence he walks again.

It's amazing anyone ever goes to prison, the whole system is a sham.

[Michael Watkins]

They kind of had to put him in an illegal underwater prison because his whole rise to power was a result of Tony Stark mind-controlling him to stage a false flag assassination attempt on some Atlantean guy and that stuff can't be made public.

Also they would have kept everyone dying on that illegal prison a secret after it sunk if Nora hadn't witnessed it. Hence he walks again.

It's amazing anyone ever goes to prison, the whole system is a sham.

they really do give supervillains every single chance to escape justice. when i think about how many people die in the real world while imprisoned, i wonder how someone like Bullseye is still breathing (Hand resurrection ceremony aside). you'd think that there would be an agency working overtime to figure out how to kill people with powers (like they do with the mutants).

[Huntsman Spider]

when was that? because the Osborn mini series that followed Siege made it seem like the justice system knew that they couldn't put Norman on trial. they put him in an underwater off-the-maps prison; to bury him in effect. they deprived him of a trial. and Norman was convinced of his own innocence throughout.

They kind of had to put him in an illegal underwater prison because his whole rise to power was a result of Tony Stark mind-controlling him to stage a false flag assassination attempt on some Atlantean guy and that stuff can't be made public.

Also they would have kept everyone dying on that illegal prison a secret after it sunk if Nora hadn't witnessed it. Hence he walks again.

It's amazing anyone ever goes to prison, the whole system is a sham.

And since Tony rebooted himself with a pre-Extremis backup copy of his own brain at the end of Dark Reign, he probably doesn't even remember that part, so good luck holding him to account for that. Yeah, stuff like that, now that my memory's been jogged, makes me start to think that maybe Michael Watkins's point about the "heroes" not being that different from the "villains" was a better one than I was willing to credit at first. Even if their ends are diametrically opposed, considering that their means can both amount to trampling over laws and people alike and their motives can be equally self-serving . . .