Spider-Man’s Huge Green Goblin Twist Makes Movie Moment Even Darker

Warning! Spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #72 below!

Spider-Man‘s latest Green Goblin twist makes a moment from Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man film even darker than before. A recent change made Norman Osborn’s transformation into the Green Goblin no mere accident, but actually the result of a deal he made with the malevolent Mephisto, the Devil of the Marvel Universe. This would make his attack on Aunt May in the 2002 film more than a personal attack on Peter Parker’s loved ones but now someone fending off the attack from an agent of true evil.

Norman Osborn and his psychotic alter ego have been a constant enemy of Spider-Man, both identities adding an abundance of pain, suffering, and conflict that other members of Peter Parker’s rogues’ gallery have barely accomplished. Recently both Norman and Peter have been under attack by the villain called Kindred, a sinister being whose machinations cause Osborn’s sins to be expunged from his body and his trademark villainy removed. While Spider-Man has found it hard to forgive Norman for the past, they are both shocked to learn that Kindred was somehow Harry Osborn, Norman’s son and Peter’s old friend and former roommate. While Norman tries and fails to help Kindred, Peter finds himself distracted with the multiple villains fighting in the Sinister War event, not knowing that Doctor Strange and Mephisto are meeting to discuss matters involving the famous wall-crawler.

In Amazing Spider-Man #72 by Nick Spencer, Federico Sabatini, Ze Carlos, Marcelo Ferreira and Carlos Gomez, we see via flashbacks a frustrated and unsuccessful Norman who is approached by a mysterious individual who promises him everything he’d ever want for a price. While Norman initially resists this Faustian agreement, his desperation and fear become too much and he meets with the man who reveals himself to be Mephisto. Marvel’s version of the Devil can’t help monologue and revel in this familiar scenario that makes proud men agree to deals with the Devil and promises Norman his fortunes reversed if he agrees to his terms. Norman complies and in exchange for his firstborn son Harry, Norman becomes a successful businessman and philanthropist who would eventually create the formula that helps create the Green Goblin. This means that the Green Goblin is Mephisto’s greatest accomplishment, one that would simultaneously destroy and taint Norman’s family and legacy.

With the Green Goblin now being Mephisto’s “legacy become flesh,” it essentially redefines Norman Osborn and the threat he represents to the Marvel Universe under either identity. He is no longer an unstable man driven to further insanity by an accident that created a supervillain, he’s a man who made a deal that remade him as an agent of the Devil in his likeness. This also puts an interesting twist on a scene in Spider-Man where Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin decides to strike a blow against Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man by striking at his loved ones. He attacks Peter’s Aunt May, wrecking her Forest Hills home while she is doing her daily prayers. As he lowers himself amongst the wreckage, the chuckling supervillain amusedly orders her to finish her prayer as the terrified woman bellows a plea for protection from the kind of evil she finds herself caught in.

With this recent change to the Norman Osborn’s backstory, it takes this scene in an even darker direction as he ironically has her finish the prayer to prove that her faith will not protect nor save her in this hour of need. Although that Peter Parker would pursue his enemy with extra vengeance following this attack, this change to one of Spider-Man‘s greatest enemies only makes him even more dangerous and unpredictable. The Green Goblin is no longer just a powerful supervillain, but a secret agent of absolute evil, the legacy of Mephisto and the very threat that Aunt May pleads God to protect her from.

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