Originally Posted by
Revolutionary_Jack
Norman Osborn has advantages in that he's practically the only American villain who can really be a Marvel-wide threat. So when he stepped up he wasn't taking anyone's place so much as carving one for himself.
If you look at most of Marvel's Earth-based villains they are usually European -- Doom, Zemo, Red Skull, Magneto -- and in the case of Mandarin, you have someone who's Asian. So if you want to do a big crossover event in the Marvel Universe but with a more grounded scale for some variation (i.e. not a battle that goes cosmic and is fought on some dumb planet or another) you don't have too many choices in terms of a villain who has star power, who has abilities and skills, and who has resources on top of that to play that role. Kingpin for instance has star power but he's largely a gangster of Hell's Kitchen and he does most of his stuff behind a board-room and so on, he wouldn't work as a Marvel-wide villain. Iron Man villains like Justin Hammer have resources but don't have abilities, and most important of all don't have star power.
So Norman Osborn is best placed to take that niche. He's got star power, he's a superhuman, he's brilliant in chemistry and gadgets, he's also really rich. So he's able to play that role well.
I will say that Green Goblin becoming a Marvel-Wide villain could have been executed better in DARK REIGN and Thunderbolts, if
A) Bendis didn't make jokes about the Goblin costume and so on. Respect the Ditko. Respect the costume, and have the Goblin be the scariest, meanest, best version of Osborn.
B) Goblin being elevated as a Marvel-Wide Villain should also be accompanied by a parallel elevation in Spider-Man. And ultimately it should be Spider-Man who takes him down.