Of Goblins And Duality

Well, I'm going to try and be more deep today than I was yesterday, so we'll see how that goes. To be specific, I've been wondering about Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin versus Harry, and the way they were handled. That's a lousy intro, so I better just start explaining.

As I understand it, when the Green Goblin was first revealed to be Norman Osborn, it was also established that the Goblin was a split persona from Norman. So you had the Green Goblin, deranged villain who knew Spider-Man's identity and was determined to destroy this obstacle to his plans of a criminal empire, and you had Norman Osborn, the often brusque businessman/inventor, who despite his gruffness could at times demonstrate real concern for his son, though usually not until after it would have done Harry some good.

By contrast, Harry and the Green Goblin have always been one and the same. It was always Harry putting on the costume, whether to destroy Spider-Man to avenge his father, or to rescue his family, or to be the hero and redeem his father's name. It wasn't a case of a mental "switch" being hit and a different person emerging, it was Harry - even if stressed - making the decision to use the Goblin costume and weaponry, the same way that Peter chooses to put on the Spider-Man costume. Peter may act differently under the mask (more confident, for example), but he's still the same person.

After Harry's death, Norman returned, and he was mentally whole. Well, sort of, he was still nuts and obsessed with ruining Parker, but there wasn't a divide between the "Green Goblin" and "Norman Osborn". Norman, like Harry, was the Goblin now. I suppose it was necessary for the story to work, if the writers are going to say Norman didn't really die, and instead was in Europe plotting to ruin Spider-Man, but if you want to look at it from within the Marvel Universe, you could argue that even with the regenerative powers granted by the formula (funny how the even better formula Harry used didn't have that same advantage, and instead killed him), the only way Norman could return from however close to death he must have been is if his two disparate parts became one, and combined their will to live. It's a little hokey and metaphysical, I suppose, but it's the best response I can come up with off the cuff.

So what can this mean? Well, I'm of the opinion that since the Green Goblin gradually became Spider-Man's #1 arch-nemesis, that the state of the Goblins reflects their enemy. I'm going to be talking a little bit out of my depth here, since I'm very spotty on '60s Spidey history, so correct if I'm off-base.

When Norman was the Goblin without realizing, Peter was still in the relatively early stages of his superhero career, and there was still very much a divide between Peter and Spider-Man. There always is a divide, but over time, Peter Parker has become more confident, more willing to speak his mind, and not just take garbage from Flash, or Jonah, the way he often (but not always) did back in his glasses-wearing days. At the time prior to Gwen's death, Peter had never confided in anyone that he was Spider-Man; The Goblin knew by defeating and unmasking him, and Captain Stacy had figured it out because he's a smart cop, and supposedly MJ's known all along, but Peter had never actually gone to someone and said, "I'm Spider-Man", the way he did with MJ in Ultimate Spider-Man #13. His life was still basically segmented into two parts, with the closest bridge being that Peter Parker made a living (such as it was) off taking photos of Spider-Man. The two halves were certainly more connected for Peter than the oblivious Norman, but the divide was still there.

Norman killing Gwen (but not having children with her, no sir, never happened) altered the playing field. As so many have pointed out, this was the point where Peter being Spider-Man directly lead to the death of someone close to him, since they were targeted to hurt Spider-Man (And not because Gwen wouldn't let Norman near their kids. Which they never had). The gap between the two parts lessened, since "Spider-Man" had now wreaked considerable havoc on "Peter Parker". That included the damage it ultimately did to his relationship with his best friend, Harry Osborn. Now Harry knew Peter was involved in the death of Harry's father, and a girl Harry cared deeply for. Faced with that situation, Peter had a harder time keeping his two parts separate, and it showed. Anger from something in one part of his life (say relationship troubles, or Jonah being stingy), would leak over into the other part of his life, leading to frequent Angry and Out of Control Spider-Man moments by the early '90s. More people came to know Peter was Spider-Man. The Puma, Venom, Daredevil, Mary Jane telling Peter she knew, the line was getting blurrier, and J.M. DeMatteis' work on Spectacular Spider-Man with Harry only served to heighten that.

Once Harry decided to embrace the Goblin, he didn't really seem any different whether in costume or not. He'd see Peter on the street, and fly right up to him on the glider, as if he was just out for a stroll. He abducted his own family to bring them together, and talked about how this 'Green Goblin isn't going to hurt the people he loved', all while wearing the costume without the mask. When he was dressed as the Goblin, he was still Harry, and when he was dressed as Harry, he was still the Goblin. The costume was just something worn for appearance sake, to honor a family tradition. The whole situation was a funhouse mirror for Peter, because where he tries to keep his lives separate to keep people safe, Harry seemed to feel the two parts needed to be together to do the same. Eventually, neither one could really separate the two halves. Peter never felt good about fighting his friend, but he couldn't just let Harry endanger other people to mess with him. Harry could never completely forget that Peter was his friend, and that Peter loved Gwen too, but at the same time, Harry was certain Peter was involved in Norman's death, and that's not something that passes easily. Still, I think it was the fact that Harry could never just become the Goblin, just flip a switch and change that saved Peter. The Green Goblin would have left Spider-Man to die, but it was still Peter, his best friend, and when it's all said and done, Harry just couldn't kill him.

Give me a minute. I get a little sad every time I think of the end of Spectacular Spider-Man #200.

The Norman returned, to give us all the answer to the Clone Saga mess. Peter really was the real Peter Parker. He wasn't the clone, poor Ben Reilly was. Norman was, as I said earlier, whole. He knew who and what he was, and he wanted his arch-foe in the same place mentally, so that his destruction would be that much sweeter. Looking at it, Norman returned as a theoretically greater threat than ever. In combat, the Goblin had always been dangerous to Spider-Man, but now Peter didn't have the advantage of an accident causing the Goblin to revert back to "amnesiac Norman Osborn". Norman could, and would, bring down all the weight of his financial empire on Peter and Spider-Man. Frame him for murder, frame him for kidnapping, take over the Bugle, apparently fake the death of Peter's beloved aunt, kidnap his child (maybe?), the Green Goblin could strike at every part of Spider-Man's life now, and the hero was more or less powerless to strike back, because Norman had the money and the connections to skate by, again and again.

Even so, Peter should (I emphasize should, because I haven't read many comics from that time to see whether it happened or not) have been in a strong place himself. Now he knew he was the true Peter Parker, that all the memories he had weren't just transplanted from another being. And he knew, that even when he thought he was just a clone, even when his powers weren't working consistently, that he had still done the right things. Even if that had meant taking MJ and getting out of New York for awhile (which also gave Ben a chance to settle in an establish himself, without always looking over his shoulder at Peter), he was doing the responsible thing. That should have really solidified his sense of who he was, and what he was all about, making him perhaps more whole than he had ever been.

So that's what I've got on the Goblin/Spider connection. It's iffy, since I don't have a lot of history for the first and third parts, so you know, correct me where I'm wrong. That's what science is supposed to be about, finding new information and adapting your ideas to accommodate it. Granted this isn't science, but it's close enough to use the same rules.