Real Name: Norman Osborn II
Occupation: Professional criminal, owner and president of Osborn Industries
Identity: Revealed following his assumed death
Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record
Place of birth: Hartford, Connecticut
Group affiliation: None
Base of operations: New York City
First appearance: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #14

History: Norman Osborn was the ruthless co owner of a leading New York chemical manufacturing firm, which also had research divisions that dealt in other areas including robotics. Osborn was obsessed with gaining increasing amounts of wealth and power, even by unethical means. When he discovered that his partner, Prof. Mendel Stromm, had taken a sum of money from the company for his personal use. Osborn seized the opportunity: although he knew that Stromm intended to pay beck the money, he had Stromm arrested and jailed for theft.

With Stromm gone, Osborn began going through the notes of Stromm's private research, Osborn thus stumbled upon a formula that Stromm was developing with the intention of using it to increase a person's intelligence and physical strength. That night Osborn tried to re-create the chemical from Stromm's notes. He watched as the solution turned green, and then exploded. Osborn was hospitalized for weeks as surgeons labored round the clock to save his life. They did so, and Osborn was finally released. Only he knew that the chemical had indeed increased his intelligence dramatically, but what Osborn did not realize was that it had also driven him insane. He decided to become a costumed criminal, and to use his increased intelligence to build upon his company's scientific devices and chemical discoveries and turn them into weapons. He designed a costume for which he colored green, after the solution, and named himself the Green Goblin.

The Goblin decided to begin his criminal career by killing Spider-Man, had only recently become a crime fighter. Having thus made a tremendous reputation for himself, the Goblin would then attempt to organize a worldwide crime syndicate with himself the head. The Goblin first hired the criminal Enforcers, and then, recalling Spider-Man's early ambitions in show business, contacted film producer B. J. Cosmos (born Kozmojian) of Cosmos Productions, a studio known for its low budget action films. The Goblin was then able to approach Spider-Man with an offer from Cosmos to star in his own film. Both Spider-Man and b. J. Cosmos believed the Goblin to be simply another new costumed adventurer, and Spider-Man agreed to the deal in order to make money for his aunt. However, once out on location in the New Mexico desert, the Goblin and the Enforcers attacked the unsuspecting Spider-Man. The attempt on Spider-Man's life failed and the film was cancelled.

The Goblin next ambushed Spider-Man at a meeting of a Spider-Man fan club, but again failed to kill him. So the Goblin resumed his plans to become the head of his own syndicate. His first step was to intimidate the members of the Lucky Lobo gang into making him their leader. The Goblin again ran afoul of Spider-Man, and the police arrested the Lucky Lobo's gang.

Neat the Goblin entered a short-lived partnership with another masked criminal, the Crime-Master in order to organize all of the New York City area's independent crime gangs under their joint leadership, and thereby provide an effective counterforce to Maggia domination at the area's crime. The Crime-Master soon ended the partnership and made his bid to organize the gangs himself. The Goblin captured Spider-Man and brought his prisoner to the underworld meeting where the Crime-Master hoped to be named leader of the independent gangs. The mobsters then decided to make the Goblin their leader, but withdrew the offer after Spider-Man broke free and he and the police began fighting the assembled gangsters. The Goblin escaped, and the police in a gun battle killed the Crime-Master.

The Goblin was now determined to destroy Spider-Man before making another try for underworld power. After exposing Spider-Man to a gas which temporarily weakened his spider-sense, the Goblin was able to follow him undetected and learn his secret identity of Peter Parker. Then the Goblin easily captured Parker and brought him prisoner to one of his hideouts, where he boastfully revealed to him his true identity of Norman Osborn, the father of Parker's friend Harry. In the ensuing battl, the Goblin knocked live electrical wires into vials of chemicals which he fell against. The resulting shock blanked out Osborn's memory of theyears during which he had been the. Deciding that Osborn should not be punished for actions he committed while insane, and that Harry would be better off not knowing his father was the Goblin, Spider-Man decided not to expose Osborn's other identity.

Twice during the following years the Goblin's personality and memory resurfaced in Osborn's mind, but each time Spider-Man managed to induce Osborn into repressing his Goblin self and returning to his normal state of mind, in which he had no memory of being the Goblin. However, when Osborn relapsed the third time, he kidnapped Parker's girlfriend Gwen Stacy and threw her off the George Washington Bridge. Even though Spider-Man caught her, the shock of the long, rapid fall had killed her. In a battle with Spider-Man that followed, the Goblin was accidentally impaled upon the sharp point of his own jet-glider and died.

Only recently did Spider-Man discover Osborn had survived, kept alive by the mysterious Goblin formula. Secretly moving to Europe, the villain built a sprawling, secretive criminal empire. But the death of his son Harry, Norman's successor as the Green Goblin, brought him back to the States for one final act of revenge against his nemesis. Wielding his evil influence to convince Peter Parker he was a clone, the Goblin eventually killed Ben Reilly, himself a cloned version of Parker who taken over as Spider-Man.

Hoping to acquire unlimited power, Norman participated in the Gathering of the Five. Instead, his gift was madness. Cured of his insanity, Osborn went into hiding in Europe. There, he fell in love with his Swiss nurse while continuing his never-ending plot to destroy Spider-Man.

Recently, Osborn's plans came to fruition as he attempted to make Parker heir to the Osborn legacy.

Height: 5 ft. 11 in.
Weight: 185 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Reddish brown

Known Powers: An untested, experimental formula gifted Norman Osborn with super-human strength, a heightened intellect and a regenerative healing factor -- at the cost of his sanity.

Weapons: The Green Goblin employs a variety of weapons of his own design -- including incendiary and concussion grenades, constructed in the form of miniature jack o' lanterns; smoke- and gas-emitting bombs, each surrounded by a light plastic mantle that flutters like a wraith when thrown; and gloves capable of channeling pulsed discharges of 10,000 volts of high-frequency electric power. The Green Goblin also has developed a gas that can neutralize Spider-Man's Spider-Sense for a limited period.

Note: Williem DaFoe played him in Spider-Man the movie.