Originally Posted by
Revolutionary_Jack
Osborn's time as "top cop" was interesting in parts. But ultimately it felt impersonal and too much of a stunt. Fact is, the only way it could have worked as a personal story if it led to an elevation of Spider-Man alongside him, and it was Spider-Man who brought him down, instead it's the Avengers who beat him up. So the finale is three heroes - Iron Man, Cap, Thor -- having a big crossover showdown with a bad guy against whom they have no personal stakes. Having said that, some great stuff came out of it (like Kelly Sue DeConnick's OSBORN miniseries, Hickman's Dark Reign:Fantastic Four mini which was the start of his epic run).
To return on topic, Osborn as top villain was a role that only he could have played. Because Spider-Man villains in general, and Norman Osborn in particular, have Marvel's most notable US Civilian Villains.
If you look at Avengers villains and FF villains they are mostly international -- Baron Zemo is Nazi, Red Skull is Nazi, Namor is Atlantean (when he's feeling like a villain), Doom is Latverian, HYDRA is Nazi. Mandarin is a little interdiminate these days, but he was Chinese. The big X-Men villains -- Magneto is stateless but he was German Jewish by birth, Israeli by immigration, and eventually vaguely European, these days he's Krakoan. Then you have Apocalypse who is Ancient Egyptian (literally). So a lot of the big Marvel-wide villains tend to be foreigners. If you want to do a story where you have a villain in charge of, or empowered by the US government, it makes no sense to have it be Zemo or Doom. Among the civilian villains, Wilson Fisk is too street level and it's always a stretch to make him work as a villain against superpowered people, so Norman Osborn fits the bill.
Fundamentally, Norman Osborn's time as "top cop" was about a supervillain in charge of State Power against superheroes. It was about making the Avengers feel like the X-Men for a while or as Bendis put it, "making the Avengers feel like Spider-Man does". It's a good concept but it was probably not fully executed well.
I wouldn't be too sure about that...especially these days.
I don't know if Osborn's time as "top cop" was well done or that it could have been done better. But I think the concept underneath it is sound, and Norman Osborn/Green Goblin (Marvel's third most recurring villain after Doom and Magneto) fills a niche nobody else did at the time.