Just wanted to see what the general opinion is on the era from the '00s up to the early-mid '10s where Norman Osborn got upgraded from Spidey rogue to big bad to the wide Marvel Universe?

I wasn't sure to post this in the Spider-Man board or here, but it pertains more heavily to the General MU, so I thought this was a better place.

For the longest time, Norman Osborn aka the Green Goblin was one of the few examples of an "exclusive villain" in Marvel (known for their willingness to having heroes fight each others' villains). Unlike his contemporaries, such as Doc Ock, Electro, Rhino, Mysterio, Scorpion, Sandman and so on, Goblin never ventured outside the Spider-Man titles and was strictly a villain to Spider-Man, tied solely to his legacy and mythology. Of course, he was dead from 1973 to 1996, where it was retconned, so that might have to do with it not happening sooner.

That changed in the '00s, thanks to Brian Michael Bendis, who over the course of his writing (and Bendis' push to being everywhere himself), built up Osborn as being a Lex Luthor-like figure -- a corrupt and amoral businessman given too much power. He was pushed him away from the Spider-titles and into the center of the MU itself. During this time, he went on to antagonize just about everyone, both directly and indirectly, and was the biggest driving force of villainy in this period, culminating with Dark Reign. However, he still remained a general force even after, and it wasn't until mid-'10s where he returned to being a true Spider-Man villain

So what's the general opinion on it?

I have mixed thoughts. I do think it's cool that Spider-Man's mythology affected the entire universe on an unprecedented level, and I think cool things came of it, but it was flawed. That, and Osborn himself as mentioned was more like Post-Crisis Lex Luthor rather than his previous characterization as a mad man obsessed with killing Spider-Man. It's an interesting take, if a bit jarring when you consider everything. What's funny is that Lex Luthor was inspired by Frank Miller's take on Kingpin, so this is an example of going full circle.

Let me know what you think, and discuss.