Who do you conisder to be Spider-Man's Arch Enemy?

[Scott Taylor]

Comparing the two of these guys, Norman is the one who is most obsessed with Spider-Man/Peter. He's a psychotic guy who pretty much always factors Spider-Man into his plans.

Ock is more of a scientist/megalomaniac who has periods of time when he gets pissed at Spidey. He can completely ignore Spider-Man if needed.

To me, this gives Norman the edge.

[David Walton]

Comparing the two of these guys, Norman is the one who is most obsessed with Spider-Man/Peter. He's a psychotic guy who pretty much always factors Spider-Man into his plans.

Ock is more of a scientist/megalomaniac who has periods of time when he gets pissed at Spidey. He can completely ignore Spider-Man if needed.

To me, this gives Norman the edge.

Yeah, with Norman it's personal. And he also functions as the anti-Uncle Ben, corrupting Harry Osborn and Roderick Kingsley from beyond the grave.

I mean, when we thought he was dead and all. Now he's just a weird guy with a bad haircut.

[jimishim12]

Ock is a more succesful villian and gets his enemy to fail in the long term. Norman has yet to hinder Spiderman for a long peroid of time.

[Arfguy]

The poll results kind of killed me a little. I hate all the Goblins so much, especially Green Goblin.

[Huntsman Spider]

The poll results kind of killed me a little. I hate all the Goblins so much, especially Green Goblin.

I can understand hating the Goblins for their overexposure, but they're up there because they've pretty much always been Spider-Man's most personal of enemies. Norman started it all by swearing to destroy every inch of Spider-Man's life when he discovered Spider-Man's true identity of Peter Parker, and in the name of doing that, he's murdered one woman Peter loved (Gwen Stacy), murdered a man Peter loved like a brother (Ben Reilly), attempted to murder two more women Peter loved (Mary Jane and Aunt May), driven his own son, not-entirely-incidentally Peter's best friend and a complete disappointment in Norman's eyes compared to Peter, to madness and villainy by years of constant emotional and psychological abuse, and yes, kicked off a long line of psychotics and mercenaries taking up his iconography for one dark purpose or another. All the Goblins ultimately tie back to Norman, some more directly than others, and it is that legacy of evil that Norman established that has continued to haunt Spider-Man even in times Norman has been presumed dead or otherwise been out of the picture. As of recently, we have the War Goblins, mercenaries equipped with Goblin weapons to disrupt Peter Parker's efforts to build a better world with the resources of Parker Industries, creating chaos in already-troubled nations so that those nations' desperate leaders will be easily duped into accepting Goblin weapons to protect themselves from the War Goblins that Norman has armed himself, a racket that can and most likely will increase global instability. Oh, and back in New York, even though Norman's long gone, the Goblin Nation is still active in the city's criminal underworld with Phil Urich as its new Goblin King.

[The Negative Zone]

Norman Osborn will find ways to torture Peter far worse than anything Otto did in Superior Spider-Man.

[KCJ506]

I guess you could say that Green Goblin is Peter Parker's greatest enemy, while Doc Ock is Spider-man's greatest enemy.

[Von]

Norman Osborn, not the green goblin.

Yeah, his relationship with the Osborns and that whole history carries the most emotional weight and has caused the most aggravation for Peter imo.

I mean, getting your mind swapped into a decaying old body and having your old body in the control of somebody else is kind of traumatic too lol,
granted. Also having this evil guy turn up out of nowhere to marry your beloved poor old Aunt May etc etc ... its a lot of stuff also.

But the relationship with the Osborns - and especially Norman - seems, somehow even more personal than the hell Otto put him though over the years.
But maybe not by that much ...

[Huntsman Spider]

Yeah, his relationship with the Osborns and that whole history carries the most emotional weight and has caused the most aggravation for Peter imo.

I mean, getting your mind swapped into a decaying old body and having your old body in the control of somebody else is kind of traumatic too lol,
granted. Also having this evil guy turn up out of nowhere to marry your beloved poor old Aunt May etc etc ... its a lot of stuff also.

But the relationship with the Osborns - and especially Norman - seems, somehow even more personal than the hell Otto put him though over the years.
But maybe not by that much ...

Probably because as traumatic as Otto trying to marry Aunt May was for Peter, it was to accomplish an objective. Even the body-swap, as personally violating as that can be argued to be, was for an objective --- survival. Revenge, too, but largely survival coupled with poetic revenge. Osborn on the other hand? The objective is strictly to make Peter suffer. Peter's suffering isn't incidental to whatever else Osborn wants to accomplish, Peter's suffering is what Osborn wants to accomplish. That's probably what makes Osborn Spider-Man's archenemy --- that his entire goal in life is for Spider-Man to suffer, much like Reverse-Flash for the Flash at DC and in the current TV series based on him.

Hell, if Osborn had time-traveling powers like Reverse-Flash, knowing Spider-Man's true identity and everything, he'd probably go back in time just to wreck or erase every single good thing Peter ever had happen to him, just like the Reverse-Flash did to Barry Allen in both the original comics and to a lesser extent in the TV series. By contrast, when Otto thought about going back in time in the "Arms of the Octopus" crossover between All-New X-Men, Indestructible Hulk, and Superior Spider-Man, he thought about doing so to be a mentor to his younger self and help him do better in life so that maybe he wouldn't turn into a super-villain. That's the key difference between Otto Octavius and Norman Osborn; Spider-Man is an intensely aggravating obstacle to Otto, but he's ultimately just that, an obstacle, while Norman makes Spider-Man the be-all, end-all of his existence as a super-villain.

[Von]

Osborn on the other hand? The objective is strictly to make Peter suffer. Peter's suffering isn't incidental to whatever else Osborn wants to accomplish, Peter's suffering is what Osborn wants to accomplish.

Exactly ..

Spider-Man is an intensely aggravating obstacle to Otto, but he's ultimately just that, an obstacle, while Norman makes Spider-Man the be-all, end-all of his existence as a super-villain.

Yup, that's the heart of it right there, well put.

It was really revealing - and differentiating - about Otto during the arc where he became super-paranoid and phobic about Spider-man. Otto is the suffering picked on smart nerd that grew up to be a supervillan,
and is always motivated by an inferiority complex deep down (ala .. "I am ... SYNDROME!!") . Norman is an obsessed psychopath that gains pleasure from destroying everything Peter loves.

[Mauled]

For me I gotta go for Venom. He is the Spiderman version of Moriarty, what with having the same powers and knowing everything Peter knows, to not having his Spidersense work on him either.

But if it's just the choice of above then for me it would be the Goblin, despite the Goblin overload in both the comics and movies.

[boots]

i'll go the gobs on this, only because of the interpersonal tragedy of it all. very pp.

[John Ossie]

I guess you could say that Green Goblin is Peter Parker's greatest enemy, while Doc Ock is Spider-man's greatest enemy.

That's one way of looking at it I suppose.