With overweening pride, Green Goblin revels in chaos. He destroys and transforms everyone in his orbit. Without Green Goblin, how could Peter Parker be Spider-Man? The Goblin is the dark trickster of myth - the stranger that appears without warning. Before he takes his leave, the world for those around him has changed irrevocably. Bringer of chaos and confusion, the Goblin’s visits are dreaded by all.
Bringer of Chaos
Green is the color of magic. Masks carry magic. Putting on a mask transforms the wearer to the world of magic and gods. Norman Osborn decorates his green den, his inner sanctum, with masks of darkness. Outside he is the pragmatic scientist and businessman, inside he is an initiate into the world of magic. Why else would the masks be there? What do they tell him?
Goblins live beyond human comprehension. This Green Goblin seduces Norman Osborn with promises of greater power, even supreme power. Norman fears the being that lives within him, but is drawn to him. More and more, Norman surrenders to the dark Trickster whispering promises in his ear.
The trickster archetype has been with us from the beginning. Human stories are full of the One (snake, coyote, bogeyman) who disrupts the status quo and brings death to life. The Trickster is lightening and thunder. Who can control that? Not the scientist Norman Osborn nor the pragmatic Aunt May nor the heroic Spider-Man. All are transformed when touched by the trickster’s magic.
Norman Osborn, working in his laboratory, tries to unlock the secrets of human DNA. Using his super-soldier formula, he unleashed instead the dark trickster, the Goblin inside of himself. After he breathes the formula, Osborn is split into two.
Fatal Experiment
Let loose, the Goblin wrecks havoc in Spider-Man’s world. Before the Green Goblin, Peter Parker did not have to ask himself basic questions about his Spider power. What is responsible use of his power? Whose life is he to save? Uncle Ben taught Peter: "With great power comes greater responsibility." But what does that really mean? The Goblin plunged Peter into the fire, and forced him to think. The Goblin was both hammer and anvil that forged Peter into the superhero of Spider-Man. What the Goblin does is to make Spider-Man find out the heart of his own reality.
Like all tricksters, the Goblin never dies but is always reborn again.
Pictures of "Green Goblin" and "Norman Osborn" copyrighted by "Spider-Man", the Movie, Sony Pictures. Marvel Comics own the copyrights to the characters of Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, Aunt May and Uncle Ben Parker, Spider-Man, and Peter Parker.
Va. Carper
June 29, 2004