50 Greatest Super Villains In Comic Book History

5. Green Goblin

(Write-up by Daniel Wood, Whatever a Spider Can Editor)

Every super hero has an archenemy. One true villain that is a constant thorn in their side. Batman has the Joker, Superman has Lex Luthor and Spider-Man has Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin, who is number five on our list.

There’s absolutely no denying that Norman Osborn and his super villain alter ego is one of the greatest villains Marvel ever create. As the Green Goblin, he’s more than a fitting match for Spider-Man for several different reasons.

First, as Norman Osborn, he’s the head of a shady company that, depending on which universe you’re in, is responsible for creating most of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery — with Norman himself having a deliberate hand in many new super villain inceptions.

However, it’s Norman’s unhinged alter ego that has truly earned him a place in the top five. As the Green Goblin, Osborn finds out Spider-Man’s secret identity, becomes mob boss of New York several times, and constantly battles Spidey and other heroes.

He also has a propensity for faking his own death or outright coming back from the dead. The Goblin has also revealed himself as the mastermind behind most of Spider-Man’s worst moments, such as the “Clone Saga.” During that time, Osborn killed fan favourite Ben Reilly and may or may not have killed Peter’s newborn daughter.

As evil as all of that is, none of that really matters compared to the one action that made the Green Goblin famous, the one thing the villain did that made him synonymous with Spider-Man and will forever make the Green Goblin Spider-Man’s greatest ever opponent. To talk about it, we need to go back to the night Gwen Stacy died.

It was a truly shocking, genre-defining moment that had comic book fans in uproar. The Green Goblin abducted Gwen Stacy, and ultimately caused her death during a confrontation with Spider-Man on a bridge. It’s a moment that propels the Green Goblin head and shoulders above most other super villains, and it’s for that reason why he deserves his place in the top five.

Next: No. 4: The ultimate trickster