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| “ | The truth... Okay... The truth is, you were only ever worth a damn when you worked for me! The truth is you could never accept that I'm better than you! You're a failure, Otto. And you always will be. | „ |
| ~ Norman informing Doctor Octopus what he thinks of him. |
| “ | Why!? WHY!?! Get...the G-Serum ready...ASAP. | „ |
| ~ Norman ordering his men to bring the G-Serum, foreshadowing his turn into Green Goblin. |
Norman Osborn is the main antagonist of Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man video game series serving as the overarching antagonist of the 2018 superhero video game Marvel's Spider-Man, and its 2023 sequel Marvel's Spider-Man 2, as well as a minor antagonist in its 2020 spin-off Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales .
He is the CEO of Oscorp and the former mayor of New York City, as well as the husband of Emily Osborn and father of Harry Osborn, Peter Parker's best friend. Despite founding Oscorp with Otto Octavius, Norman fell out with him, resulting in Otto leaving Oscorp and founding his own industry.
He is voiced by Mark Rolston.
His Evil Ranking[]
Debated Validations[]
- He attended Jefferson Davis' funeral following the bombing and seemed saddened about his death. However, it's not elaborated whether this really is the case or if he was faking it in order to maintain a good image, especially when he chose to leave during the rally after being informed of what was coming. Though he does know what it’s like to lose a loved one tragically, so his condolences might’ve been at least partly genuine.
- In contrast to his confrontation with Doctor Octopus, he apologized to Mister Negative over what happened to him and his parents, insisting that he was only trying to help him. That being said, it's debatable over whether he's really being genuine or if he was just trying to save face since he hadn’t shown any remorse up until he was about to kill him. Additionally, he smugly took credit for Li’s arrest and didn't seem upset over his fate.
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General[]
- Gets away with all his heinous crimes, unlike other villains in the game that got karma for their crimes. This makes Norman a perfect example of a corrupt businessman being a Karma Houdini.
- In general, he's both directly and indirectly responsible for everything that's happened in the series.
Background[]
- Despite founding Oscorp with Otto Octavius, Norman stole Otto's ideas and took credit for them, causing friction between them and eventually turned Otto into Doctor Octopus.
- Demanded Curt Connors' arm to be shot off when the Venom symbiote starts attacking him, which would eventually lead to the creation of the Lizard and Connors' wife and son abandoning him. Though to be fair, it was a misguided attempt to save him on Norman's behalf and ordered it with Connors' consent.
- Despite Dr. Michaels's warning, Norman and Otto experimented on a young boy named Martin Li, causing him to develop superpowers and accidentally kill his parents, leading to Martin swearing vengeance on him and becoming Mister Negative.
- Forcibly made his son Harry bond with the symbiote before putting him in a stasis pod, which, if the flashback was anything to go by, was incredibly painful for Harry. However, similarly with Connors, it was done with good intentions (in this case curing Harry).
Marvel's Spider-Man[]
- In an obsession to save Harry from his terminal illness, Norman ordered the development of GR27 (also known as Devil's Breath) despite his chief scientist warning him that the serum is unstable. This very disease would later infect and kill May Parker, leaving Peter Parker with no family.
- Experimented on various rats to test GR27, which resulted in all of their deaths.
- Allied with Wilson Fisk and helped him maintain control over New York.
- Abused his mayoral powers by lying to the city whenever the opportunity was presented.
- After Harry's illness grew, Norman made him lie to Peter and MJ that he was going to Europe.
- Despite GR27 proving to be dangerous, Norman ordered Michaels to not destroy the serum due to his delusions of curing Harry, thus leading to Martin Li and his Demons stealing it.
- Ordered the dismantling of Octavius Industries so that he could work with Otto again as well as with Peter, despite their wishes to the contrary.
- Escaped from the City Hall after getting a call from Martin Li, all to avoid his retribution, which proved true after he bombed the City Hall.
- After Spider-Man stopped Li, Osborn took credit for his capture.
- Declared martial law in New York and allowed Sable International to harass and imprison civilians. He also accuses Spider-Man for the prison breakout despite having no evidence he did such, branding him a priority target to either be killed or captured by Sable and her agents.
- When Doctor Octopus tried to force him to tell the world what he did, Osborn refused and instead taunted him by saying he'll always be better than him.
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales[]
- In desperation to save Harry after Oscorp's involvement in Devil's Breath became public, Norman forced Harry out of stasis while bonded to the symbiote, which would eventually lead to the creation of Venom. This makes Norman indirectly responsible for the symbiote invasion that put the entire world at risk.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2[]
- Took the time to insult Otto when Peter arrived at the Emily-May Foundation despite having no reason to, showing that he's learned nothing from the events of the first game.
- Unfairly blames the Spider-Men for Harry ending up in a coma following the destruction of Venom, even though Miles was at least able to prevent him from dying. It's heavily implied he now will becomes Green Goblin and have plans to team up with Doctor Octopus in hopes of getting revenge on the both of them.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- Much like Martin Li and Otto Octavius he is also too tragic to be considered Near Pure Evil as he lost his parents in a car crash, making him fend for himself in his childhood as well as making him a sad orphan and alone. While it doesn't justify his actions, it is still played sympathetically.
- Norman genuinely loves his late wife, Emily and his son, Harry. The main reason why he initially begun the GR27 experiments all so that Emily could be cured. When that failed and she died regardless, he still insisted on making the experiment so Harry wouldn't suffer the same fate. Furthermore when Harry went berserk after re-bonding to Venom, he pleaded with his son to stop and ordered security to separate the symbiote from him using non-lethal methods.
- Despite forcibly putting Harry in stasis and making him lie to his friends, Norman did this because Harry developed the terminal illness which killed Emily, only wanting to keep him alive.
- Another reason why he experimented with GR27 was so that he could bring about the cure for many terminal illness and lead the world on a breakthrough. However, it's heavily implied that he most likely would have done so for profit, which even Peter acknowledges is something that he would do, so this is a rather small prevention in the grand scheme of things.
- Despite putting him out of a job by pulling his and Otto's funding, he is genuinely affable and care to Peter Parker due to his friendship with Harry and even admits that he sees him as a second son. It's also worth noting that he's offered him a job at Oscorp several times because of his talents and part of his reason for his hostile takeover of Octavius Industries was so he could work with Peter.
- He seems to care for Dr. Connors as he asked Harry and Peter where he was seemingly concerned for his safety and while he made his security shoot off his arm, it was to save him from being bonded with Venom.
- He has a Pet the Dog moment in an optional phone call with Miles as Spider-Man, where the two briefly sympathize with each other over what it's like to lose someone.
Trivia[]
- While currently Inconsistently Heinous, it's possible that Norman Osborn's status will be affected in the upcoming third Marvel's Spider-Man game, especially when it's heavily all but confirmed that he'll become the Green Goblin as a means of getting revenge on the Spider-Men.
External Links[]
- Norman Osborn on the Villains Wiki
[]
 Inconsistently Heinous
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