"He's pure power and doesn't even know it. He's the best of us."-Matt Murdock
"I need a reason to take the mask off."-Peter Parker
"My heart half-breaks at how easy it is to lie to him. It breaks all the way when he believes me without question." Felicia Hardy
Speaking of that last part, considering that his time as Ravencroft's head was masterminded by a clandestine organization called J.A.N.U.S. that cleaned him up reputationally and perhaps psychologically after Absolute Carnage, I'm still wondering whatever became of that relationship after he was forcibly reformed by getting his sins shotgun-blasted out of him.
The spider is always on the hunt.
I mean, in Norman’s case he didn’t even turn himself around because of it being something he wanted but because the evil was literally shot out of him. The whole thing was always a forced gimmick rather than actual character evolution. While people seem to have liked it, I’ve always hated it because of the fact that nothing of it was earned and everyone involved just ignored that it happened because of supernatural means.
Let’s be real, Norman’s too iconic of a villain to ever stay as a good guy for long. That’s why I was never a fan of the good guy Norman plot. Because it was always gonna amount to nothing.
Norman as a good guy was copying what Dan Slott did with Otto. Peter has two arch enemies: Norman and Otto, everyone knows that they somehow, some way they would return to being villains. Only differences. 1: Otto was more of an original idea. 2: Otto is more sympathetic then Norman because: 1: He did not mess up his family like Norman did. 2: Otto tried to do good. Norman had his sins taken away.
Given how Doc Ocks return hadn't lead to anything new and in fact they're bringing back superior, I wouldn't hold my breath. Maybe one of the twists is that it won't be Norman somehow....still not holding my breath. For every time I've complained about Marvel doing something like this, the only time they've surprised me was with Venom. Thought going back to Eddie would lead to same old same old and it totally didn't.
Hopefully Peter will end up with a sizeable share of stock in OsCorp, gifted by Norman before the madness takes over his mind again.
Protect the stock with your life, Peter. Start building some secret Spider-Hideouts in parts of New York state.
I wasn’t on board with Norman’s redemption arc at first, but I’ve come around to think it’s literally the only positive that’s come out of the Wells run. It was an interesting take at least, more so than his umpteenth revenge scheme. Now we are going to back to the boring status quo. Peter should have let Chasm kill him.
Ever since that happened, whenever Sandman appears he either seems to be psychologically messed up, or a verrrrry reluctant “bad guy.” Once these villains like Sandman and Doc Ock go good, Marvel finds it difficult to put the toothpaste back in the tube when it’s time to make them bad again.
"He's pure power and doesn't even know it. He's the best of us."-Matt Murdock
"I need a reason to take the mask off."-Peter Parker
"My heart half-breaks at how easy it is to lie to him. It breaks all the way when he believes me without question." Felicia Hardy