What do you think of Norman Osborn as a good guy?

[Ubauba01]

Was it a good or a bad plotline?

[xpyred]

It was too obvious that he would go back to being bad so I didn't care for it at all. I prefer the Norman Osborn we had from the ending of the Clone Saga up until just before the Gathering of Five. I don't like totally unhinged Norman Osborn that we got curtesy of the Gathering and how Bendis made him even more unhinged in The Pulse.

[bob.schoonover]

I've liked parts of it. Norman is functionally irredeemable absent some sort of deus ex machina (e.g. a sin-removing gun), so this is really the one time we can see this version of him (other than an AU). He'll obviously be reset to being the Norman everyone loves to hate soon enough, but it was a worthy enough experiment and a nice change of pace that kept Norman around without him becoming the big bad. It's probably lasted the right amount of time, too - it's not really a particularly interesting long-term status quo.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I was fine with it but I was more into Normie as Red Goblin.

[Frontier]

Conceptually I can see why it would be interesting but the attempt to have characters bend over backwards to be okay with it and re-writing relationships to make it work have turned me off, as well as the fact that it's not a genuine redemption story.

[Refrax5]

I've liked parts of it. Norman is functionally irredeemable absent some sort of deus ex machina (e.g. a sin-removing gun), so this is really the one time we can see this version of him (other than an AU). He'll obviously be reset to being the Norman everyone loves to hate soon enough, but it was a worthy enough experiment and a nice change of pace that kept Norman around without him becoming the big bad. It's probably lasted the right amount of time, too - it's not really a particularly interesting long-term status quo.

Pretty much my exact feeling. I think the supernatural angle is the only way to make Norman plausibly have a change of heart, but it was an interesting and fresh dynamic for him and Peter.

It also led to the excellent Gold Goblin miniseries.

I'm always interested in those existential questions of what makes us who we are, what good and evil really mean, etc. So this idea that this really despicable, hateful human being is suddenly purged of his cruelty and madness and is now a good man that has to face the enormity of his sins....I find that compelling. I actually felt bad for Osborn at times and, to some extent, was rooting for him to stay good and find peace.

Wells didn't do a lot of deep exploration of those ideas like Cantwell did, but it was the only part of his run that felt new or fresh.

[Huntsman Spider]

Pretty much my exact feeling. I think the supernatural angle is the only way to make Norman plausibly have a change of heart, but it was an interesting and fresh dynamic for him and Peter.

It also led to the excellent Gold Goblin miniseries.

I'm always interested in those existential questions of what makes us who we are, what good and evil really mean, etc. So this idea that this really despicable, hateful human being is suddenly purged of his cruelty and madness and is now a good man that has to face the enormity of his sins....I find that compelling. I actually felt bad for Osborn at times and, to some extent, was rooting for him to stay good and find peace.

Wells didn't do a lot of deep exploration of those ideas like Cantwell did, but it was the only part of his run that felt new or fresh.

Alas, yeah. The Clone Saga which ended with Norman's reintroduction to the Spider-Man comics was also very good for exploring those existential questions, even if the execution was botched, partly due to being more of an excuse by editorial to sideline or remove a married Peter Parker in favor of a single Peter Parker. Still, the question of what makes people, even fictional people, who and what they are at their core and how good and evil are defined, as well as who gets to make those definitions . . . that's always worth asking and examining.

[Xix25]

I think it would've been a better story arc a long time ago, and now is best suited for exploration in other AUs. Currently the writing is just really poor at acknowledging the general history of Norman and Peter, and using that to its advantage with this story.

[exile001]

A writer interested in exploring the complexities of a reformed Norman probably could have got a lot out of it. Sadly, we had Wells.

Cantwell's Gold Goblin series was really good, though. It's a real pity it wasn't a companion ongoing to do the heavy lifting.

I'll also throw a little shade at Spencer (or maybe editorial), as the story he was telling was building to Norman sacrificing himself for Harry. The other way around just makes no sense logically or thematically.

[marvelprince]

I hate how much I love it. I typically don't like when characters are made to be heroic or villainous due to outside means, and even worse when established characters just put that aside and still work with them. Case in point, when Sabretooth was inverted and joined the Uncanny Avengers. I get that he's a good guy now, but Victor has too much blood on his hands to ever be trusted by any of the X-Men. How any of the heroes could work alongside him never made sense. Here with Wells I get it. I feel I mirrored Peter a little here where I was just interested in observing Norman not really trusting him to to giving him a shot to now really loving the guy. Its glazed over how quickly he and Peter formed a relationship but remember Norman has been extending his hand to Peter from the start of the book, but even after needing his help to save MJ he still tried to keep him at arms length. He just won us (me and Peter) over. His fall is gonna break my heart.

And can't speak enough on the Cantwell series. I wish it had run longer.

[Kurus]

The worst thing about good guy Norman is how boring he is. Like wells could have given him an actual struggle to win Peter over. Instead Peter is just weirdly chummy with the guy who killed his girlfriend, baby and kidnapped aunt may on two separate occasions.

[Hurricane Billy]

I think it would've been a better story arc a long time ago, and now is best suited for exploration in other AUs. Currently the writing is just really poor at acknowledging the general history of Norman and Peter, and using that to its advantage with this story.

This is exactly it IMO. I think an arc exploring a repenting Norman Osborn and the tragic surrogate father-son dynamic that sometimes pops up between him and Peter can work with incarnations like the Raimi iteration or potentially the Insomniac Norman.

But 616 Norman? I'm sorry, but no. Peter properly met the man when he revealed himself as the Green Goblin and it wasn't long after that the man went on to murder Gwen Stacy. And if that wasn't an immediate dealbreaker, consider the first things that Norman did to the Parker family when he came back from the dead. Peter and MJ lost their baby because of the man.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

I think it's in poor taste to take Marvel's mascot for corporate greed and try to give him a redemption story.

[marvelprince]

I think it's in poor taste to take Marvel's mascot for corporate greed and try to give him a redemption story.

Normally I would agree, but the way they did lets you know its only temporary and the character himself knows and struggles with that and its actually been pretty compelling.

[ImOctavius]

I don't like disposable stories, and this is one of them. From the very beginning, everyone knows he's going back to be a baddy sooner than later. And this run is teasing us every two chapters that somehow someway that's gonna happen.

But even if it wasn't a disposable story, Norman has done way too many terrible things, it doesn't make any sense that he's a good guy now. And Peter is completely out of character (well, right now everyone is) to have a close relationship with him. He has destroyed Peter's life many times in many different ways. It's like Palpatine and Luke becoming friends.