Has Norman Osborn been utilized well since his return to the Spidey books??

[classicgmer]

I only ask because when he stepped away to be an Avengers/wider Marvel Universe villain it felt to me that the character needed a break from Spider-man because of how heavily the books leaned on him & it really didn't feel like there was a lot left to do with Spidey that was too interesting at the time.



You fast forward to Dark Reign/Dark Avengers and I got the sense during that time period quite a few Spider-man fans felt like it was time for the character to come back home so to speak. My question is how did you feel about his usage during Superior Spider-Man & are you excited/interested about what Slott is setting up for the character going forward???

[SuperiorIronman]

Not particularly excited about Osborn but I'm almost always game for something new to be done with him. Iron Patriot was a good idea and I would've liked to see that explored more with Osborn embracing some more heroic impulses, and at the same time have the goblin be a constant fear/escape for him. The guy has done some awful things (awful retcons aside) so I would've been interested in seeing what Osborn would be like if he was sane and saw his actions for what they are. Try to see him rationalize what he is doing and maybe make him right in some awful way which would make him scarier. We don't want to see the bad guy win so what happens if he is right?

I have a feeling he is just going to put on the goblin costume again at some point but whatever.

[oldschool]

Not at all. IMO, Norman has had exactly one excellent story (Revenge of the Green Goblin) since his return and a few good ones. That's not a great record considering he is back (20 years+) twice as than he was around the first time (less than 10 years). All the Lex Luthor wanna-be stuff doesn't work for me and Goblin Nation stunk; he is a very inconsistently written character and, if Marvel doesn't want him the green jammies and flying around tossing pumpkin bombs, then they could have left Hobgoblin as the main goblin villain or just had Harry take over the role; as it is now, they are all around with no one acting as the Goblin.

[TheCape]

Well i personally liked Death in the Family, Revenge of the Green Goblin, Marvel Knights, Citizen Osborn and some others. I dislike the Gathering of the Five and Final Chapther thought. But in general i think that from 1996 until 2006 he was mostly well utilized, after that, he has sucked sadly.
That being said, he wasn't overexposure as some people claim, honestly in the great scheme of things, he appered very little.

[AmazingFantasy]

IMO yes. He's always a big threat under Slott and when he shows up you know stuff is gonna do down. I actually wished he was used more.

Otto literally took down crime in NY and was portrayed as being one step ahead of everybody, but Norman completely toyed with him. He was teased from the beginning as the biggest threat and he was. I suspect that is possibly the same case here, but we'll see.

[BlitheringToot]

For the most part. I didn't care for "Sins Past," nor did I like it when he turned himself into a Super-Adaptoid, but overall I think Osborn's resurrection was one of the few that actually seemed justified. I enjoyed watching the resurrected Norman weasel his way into Peter's life, and I LOVED seeing him put in charge of the Thunderbolts (and ultimately S.H.I.E.L.D.), even though it made absolutely no sense to put him in charge of anything.

"Goblin Nation" fell flat for me simply because it seemed like a rushed, weak resolution to "Superior Spider-Man." If it had run a few issues longer, and if Otto and Peter could have actually worked together in one body instead of Otto throwing in the towel (with Peter vowing to help him find a new body after downloading him into the Living Brain), it would have been a much more satisfying conclusion. But instead it was just kinda "huh?".

[oldschool]

Well i personally liked Death in the Family, Revenge of the Green Goblin, Marvel Knights, Citizen Osborn and some others. I dislike the Gathering of the Five and Final Chapther thought. But in general i think that from 1996 until 2006 he was mostly well utilized, after that, he has sucked sadly.
That being said, he wasn't overexposure as some people claim, honestly in the great scheme of things, he appered very little.

I forgot about "Death In The Family"; that was a very good story.

[Scott Taylor]

Not fond of his resurrection, and I feel most of the stories told with him could have just as easily involved a new character than revamping an old character. To me he served his purpose until he died at the hands of Spider-Man. Involving him in clones and shadow governments was just too much.

[DVGamer7]

I think the evolution of Spider-Man and his enemies has been pretty good.

Since Spider-Man is now an Avenger and a global presence. His enemies have become bigger as well.

Green Goblin is now an enemy of the Avengers, not only Spider-Man. Doctor Octopus went up against the whole world and became undoubtedly #2 of Spidey's all time enemies. Electro destroyed the prison and started the Breakout events too.

Kraven is an unkillable hunter? lol like Deadpool only Kraven.

Im looking forward to more of Spider-man's villains becoming bigger and bigger threats.

[ViewtifulJC]

Death In The Family, Revelations Part 4, Revenge of the Green Goblin, and American Son were all good. I'd add that seeing Harry Osborn finally getting one over his father after years of neglect and abuse in American Son was the moment I felt Harry's resurrection was worth it, too.

[JTait]

I was totally in favour of his return and thought that his first few story arcs afterwards were excellent. Since then though it has gone steadily downhill. The decision to remove his knowledge of Spider-Man's secret identity was a woeful idea, that has been reflected in the poor quality of his appearances in the Spider-titles since then. Goblin Nation was a huge disappointment, and in my opinion a very poorly conceived story. It is very difficult to see where the character goes from here, and from Slott's treatment of him so far, I have no real faith in his plans for Osborn.

It's strange, because I think that Slott has tended to do a pretty good job with Spider-Man's classic villains on the whole.