203-683: Norman Virgil Osborn is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko , he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964) as the first and best-known incarnation of the Green Goblin . He has since endured as one of the superhero Spider-Man 's most prominent villains and is regarded as one of his three archenemies , alongside Doctor Octopus and Venom . In his comic book appearances, Norman Osborn
406-487: A naturalistic style of superheroes with human failings, fears, and inner demons - heroes who squabbled and worried about the likes of paying the rent. In contrast to the super-heroic do-gooder archetypes of established superheroes at the time, this ushered in a revolution. With dynamic artwork by Kirby, Steve Ditko , Don Heck , and others, complementing Lee's colorful, catchy prose, the new style became very popular among teenagers and college students who could identify with
609-498: A tabloid -sized, 10-by-15-inch (250 mm × 380 mm), 36-page magazine with a card-stock, non-glossy cover. An anthology , it mixed humor features such as the funny animal comic "Pelion and Ossa" and the college-set "Jigger and Ginger" with such dramatic fare as the Western strip "Jack Woods" and the " yellow-peril " adventure "Barry O'Neill", featuring a Fu Manchu -styled villain, Fang Gow. Issue #6 (Oct. 1935) brought
812-728: A Brooklyn junior high school . Among his instructors were Howard Simon , a book illustrator, and Ben Clements, a magazine illustrator. Romita was deeply influenced by a variety of artists and illustrators. As a young reader of comics, he admired Noel Sickles , Roy Crane , and Milton Caniff . Caniff's Terry and the Pirates in particular was an early inspiration for Romita. Later in his career, he also drew inspiration from Sy Barry , Alex Toth , and Carmine Infantino . Beyond comics, he looked up to commercial illustrators such as Jon Whitcomb , Coby Whitmore , and Al Parker . On Romita's 17th birthday, he received his first artist work from
1015-498: A Siegel/Shuster creation from the slush pile and used it as the cover feature (but only as a backup story) in Action Comics #1 (June 1938). The duo's alien hero, Superman , was dressed in a cape and colorful tights. The costume, influenced by Flash Gordon 's attire from 1934, evoked circus aerial performers and circus strongmen, and Superman became the archetype of the " superheroes " that would follow. In early 1939,
1218-464: A behind-the-scenes role in Spider-Man's adventures since then. During the "Clone Saga", the Spider-Man writers were met with a massive outcry from many readers after the decision to replace Peter Parker with his clone Ben Reilly as the true Spider-Man. Eventually, the writers decided to reveal that one of Spider-Man's arch-enemies had been manipulating events from behind the scenes. The initial plan
1421-628: A botched attempt to finish this formula results in an explosion that douses Norman with the imperfect formula. The accident greatly increases his intelligence and physical abilities as intended, but also has the side-effect of driving him into self-destructive insanity, just like his father from years ago. Norman adopts the Green Goblin identity with the goal of being the leader of organized crime in New York City, and intends to cement his position by defeating Spider-Man . Acting on his own as
1624-484: A character he drew in the background of two panels in issue #23 was intended to be Osborn, seeded in advance of the reveal. Lending credence to Ditko's claim, this then-nameless character—a member of a businessmen's club and a friend of J. Jonah Jameson—reappeared in a scene in The Amazing Spider-Man #25, visiting Jameson at his office, then again in the businessman's club in #26 and #27, and when Norman
1827-735: A collection of English-language newspaper inserts originally published in Europe as the 1837 book Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois by Rodolphe Töpffer . The G. W. Dillingham Company published the first known proto-comic-book magazine in the US, The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats , in 1897. A hardcover book, it reprinted material—primarily the October 18, 1896, to January 10, 1897, sequence titled "McFadden's Row of Flats"—from cartoonist Richard F. Outcault 's newspaper comic strip Hogan's Alley , starring
2030-476: A cure for Lily Hollister's Goblin condition for their baby's safety, Lily reveals that it is a ruse to coerce Harry into taking the American Son armor, whom Norman had plotted would die in a tragedy to increase sympathy for Norman and his Dark Avengers. When Lily also reveals that the baby is not Harry's but in fact Norman's, Harry dons his American Son armor, and fights Norman in his Iron Patriot armor. During
2233-536: A flashback showed that Kindred had visited Norman Osborn in Ravencroft. He quoted that Norman looked down on the citizens of New York from his tower and states that he could have his centipedes rip him apart if he wanted them to. Kindred even made a reference to how he appeared in Mary Jane's nightmares and how he would not be able to kill Spider-Man as Kindred states that he "already won a long time ago." Back in
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#17327731569382436-427: A gas that nullifies his spider-sense. This allows Osborn to stalk Spider-Man until he learns that his nemesis is Peter Parker , a college student and his son's classmate and best friend. While Parker is going about civilian life, Osborn surprises and knocks Parker out with an asphyxiation grenade, taking the youth to his waterfront base. After unmasking himself to Parker, the latter goads him into recounting how he became
2639-582: A house in the Queens neighborhood of Queens Village . Some years later, the family moved to Bellerose, New York , on Long Island . Romita and his wife had two sons, Victor and John Jr. (born August 17, 1956), who followed in his footsteps to become a noted comic-book artist himself. At the time of his death, Romita had three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. Romita died in his sleep at his home in Floral Park, New York on June 12, 2023, at
2842-462: A machine that can extract the codex from former hosts, as the Maker is uncertain of potential side-effects. However, Dark Carnage attacks Ravencroft as they attempt to retrieve Osborn, transforming most of the patients into his drone soldiers and turning Osborn into another version of Carnage due to him still believing himself to be Kasady. As Spider-Man works to keep Normie Osborn and Dylan Brock safe,
3045-480: A means of relieving the stress of his father's abuse. In college, where he studied chemistry , business administration , and electrical engineering , Norman meets his college sweetheart , who eventually marries him and has their son Harold "Harry" Osborn . In his adulthood, with the help of his ESU/Empire State University college professor Mendel Stromm , he co-founds the chemical company Oscorp Industries and establishes himself as CEO and President. The company
3248-603: A million copies a month each; comics provided very popular cheap entertainment during World War II especially among soldiers, but with erratic quality in stories, art, and printing. In the early 1940s, over 90 percent of girls and boys from seven to seventeen read comic books. In 1941, H. G. Peter and William Moulton Marston , created the female superhero character Wonder Woman , who debuted in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941) and Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman in 1942. MLJ 's Pep Comics debuted as
3451-619: A murderous alien in the guise of a baby. That story saw print in Strange Tales #4 (December 1951), although the Grand Comics Database lists Romita's first identified published comic-book work as penciler and inker of the six-page story "The Bradshaw Boys" in Atlas' Western Outlaws #1 (February 1951)—published nearly a year earlier. This may refer to a ghosted Zakarin story. The Atlas Tales database lists both "It!" and
3654-637: A number of media . He has been adapted to serve as Spider-Man's adversary in live-action, animated, and video game incarnations. Willem Dafoe played the character in Sam Raimi 's Spider-Man film trilogy and reprised the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), while Chris Cooper played the character in the film The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). Marvel Comics editor and head writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko are credited with creating
3857-605: A page to pencil a 10-page story, possibly a crime comic about 1920s mobsters, for him as an uncredited ghost artist . Now making more money on two pages than his usual weekly salary, Romita accepted the story and continued to ghost for Zakarin on other work. The work was for Marvel's 1940s forerunner, Timely Comics , which helped give Romita an opportunity to meet editor-in-chief and art director Stan Lee . Romita ghost-penciled for Zakarin on Trojan Comics' Crime-Smashers and other titles, eventually signing some "Zakarin and Romita". The collaboration ended in early 1951, when Romita
4060-473: A pitched battle with several superheroes, Sentry causes Thor 's world to fall to Earth. Osborn fights with the recently resurrected Steve Rogers, however, Stark removes Osborn's Iron Patriot armor remotely, revealing Osborn used green facepaint to create a goblin-like look. Osborn screams that the Avengers do not know what they have done, only for Spider-Man to knock him down. He tells them they are all dead as
4263-457: A position at the large ad agency BBDO through his friend Al Normandia, one of the firm's art directors . "They were going to pay me $ 250 a week. I'd made just over $ 200 a week with the romance [comics] but only by killing myself" with long hours of work. Struggling to find new ideas for comics, Romita decided he would only do inking for comic work again. Marvel editor Stan Lee , however, had heard of Romita leaving DC, and asked to see him. At
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#17327731569384466-510: A profound impact upon the American comic-book industry. Their popularity, along with mainstream media attention and critical acclaim, combined with changing social tastes, led to a considerably darker tone in comic books during the 1990s nicknamed by fans as the "grim-and-gritty" era. The growing popularity of antiheroes such as Wolverine and the Punisher exemplified this change, as did
4669-442: A promotional item to consumers who mailed in coupons clipped from Procter & Gamble soap and toiletries products. The company printed 10,000 copies. The promotion proved a success, and Eastern Color that year produced similar periodicals for Canada Dry soft drinks , Kinney Shoes , Wheatena cereal and others, with print runs of from 100,000 to 250,000. Also in 1933, Gaines and Wildenberg collaborated with Dell to publish
4872-432: A real strength that would sustain him in years to come. His women were described as "fair of face but realistic rather than stylized" and displayed distinctive personalities through body language. Comic artist Alex Ross has stated, "For me, John's Spidey is a design of such perfection and beauty so as to be simply the greatest-looking character in comics, by his hand." While working on DC's romance comics, Romita, finding
5075-484: A scandal, and to take their children to raise by himself, thus being his ideal heirs. Mary Jane was the only person who knew of their encounter and their children's existence prior to Gwen's death, despising Osborn for his immoral behaviors long before discovering he's the villainous Goblin. Gabriel and Sarah (who rapidly aged to adulthood years because of the Goblin formula in their genes) return to attack Peter as Osborn has
5278-506: A second stint, doing full pencils for issues #105–115 and #119 (February–December 1972, April 1974), and providing occasional inking and most of the cover art through issue #168 (May 1977). Romita suggested to writer Gerry Conway that supporting character Gwen Stacy should die at the hands of the Green Goblin in " The Night Gwen Stacy Died " in issue #121 (June 1973). Her demise and the Goblin's apparent death one issue later formed
5481-533: A story arc widely considered as the most defining in the history of Spider-Man. In a June 2017 interview with SyFy Wire , Romita named The Amazing Spider-Man #108 and 109 as the two stories he was proudest of, explaining that by the time he did those issues, he was no longer invoking Steve Ditko, and was asserting his own style as an artist. Romita pointed to the Milton Caniff -inspired brushwork with which he rendered those pages, and lamented no longer owning
5684-484: A superhero boom that lasted until the end of World War II . After the war, while superheroes were marginalized, the comic book industry rapidly expanded and genres such as horror, crime, science fiction and romance became popular. The 1950s saw a gradual decline, due to a shift away from print media in the wake of television and the impact of the Comics Code Authority . The late 1950s and the 1960s saw
5887-403: A superhero revival and superheroes remained the dominant character archetype throughout the late 20th century into the 21st century. Some fans collect comic books, helping drive up their value. Some have sold for more than US$ 1 million. Comic shops cater to fans, selling comic books, plastic sleeves ("bags") and cardboard backing ("boards") to protect the comic books. An American comic book
6090-520: A superhero, science-fiction and adventure anthology, but after the title introduced the teen-humor feature "Archie" in 1942, the feature's popularity would soon eclipse all other MLJ properties, leading the publisher to rename itself Archie Comics . Following the end of World War II, the popularity of superheroes greatly diminished, while the comic-book industry itself expanded. A few well-established characters such as Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman continued to sell, but DC canceled series starring
6293-494: A ten-cent pricetag [ sic ] on the comic books". When Delacorte declined to continue with Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics , Eastern Color on its own published Famous Funnies #1 (cover-dated July 1934), a 68-page giant selling for 10¢. Distributed to newsstands by the mammoth American News Company , it proved a hit with readers during the cash-strapped Great Depression , selling 90 percent of its 200,000 print, although putting Eastern Color more than $ 4,000 in
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6496-402: A third of all North American sales in the early 1950s. Its 90 titles averaged a circulation of 800,000 copies per title for every issue, with Walt Disney's Comics and Stories peaking at a circulation of three million a month in 1953. Eleven of the top 25 bestselling comic books at the time were Dell titles. Out of 40 publishers active in 1954, Dell, Atlas (i.e. Marvel), DC, and Archie were
6699-643: A three-hour meeting over lunch, Romita recalled that Lee promised to match the agency salary if Romita would come work for Marvel. Lee also assured him the freedom to choose his work location, allowing him to work either from home or the office on any given day, based on Romita's own preference. Romita had also received an offer to work in advertising, but chose Marvel instead because Lee had promised consistent assignments. Though Romita felt he no longer wanted to pencil , in favor of being solely an inker, Lee soon enticed him otherwise: I had inked an Avengers job for Stan, and I told him I just wanted to ink. I felt like I
6902-435: A tracing paper what I would do, and then he asked me to do a drawing of Daredevil the way I would do it. I did a big drawing of Daredevil ... just a big, tracing-paper drawing of Daredevil swinging. And Stan loved it. Romita began a brief stint on Daredevil beginning with issue #12 (January 1966), initially penciling over Jack Kirby's dynamic layouts as a means of learning Marvel's storytelling house style. Sales perked; while
7105-452: A truck into Midtown High School, resulting in an accident that causes Thompson brain damage. This successfully enrages Parker into what Osborn anticipates will be a climactic battle. During this confrontation, the emotionally weary Parker tells Osborn of being tired of their constant battle, and declares a truce. Osborn's Goblin identity is revealed to the public once again through an investigation by Jessica Jones , after Osborn murders one of
7308-508: A true comic book. But it did offer all original material and was sold on newsstands ". The Funnies ran for 36 issues, published Saturdays through October 16, 1930. In 1933, salesperson Maxwell Gaines , sales manager Harry I. Wildenberg , and owner George Janosik of the Waterbury, Connecticut , company Eastern Color Printing —which printed, among other things, Sunday-paper comic-strip sections – produced Funnies on Parade as
7511-433: A two-part Daredevil story for issues #16–17 (May–June 1966) with Spider-Man guest starring, to see the character depicted by Romita. The reason for the tryout was the growing estrangement between Spider-Man co-creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko . When Ditko abruptly left Marvel after completing The Amazing Spider-Man #38 (July 1966), Lee gave Romita the assignment. This followed Romita's eight-issue Daredevil run,
7714-512: A vast network of criminals, spies, dupes and co-conspirators to help engineer what would be an almost impossibly complex and meticulously planned plot to destroy Spider-Man's life. To achieve this, he becomes the leader of the Scrier cabal, taking as his pawns Seward Trainer , Judas Traveller , the Jackal and the cyborg Gaunt/Stromm, all of whom he utilizes to carry out revenge against Parker. It
7917-418: A villain turns out to be somebody that you never knew. And I felt that that would be wrong. I felt, in a sense, it would be like cheating the reader. ... if it's somebody you didn't know and had never seen, then what was the point of following all the clues? I think that frustrates the reader". However, Lee prefaced this statement by admitting that, due to his self-professed poor memory, he may have been confusing
8120-777: A way to keep their presses running. Like The Funnies , but only eight pages, this appeared as a newsprint magazine. Rather than using original material, however, it reprinted in color several comic strips licensed from the McNaught Syndicate , the Ledger Syndicate , and the Bell-McClure Syndicate . These included such popular strips as cartoonist Al Smith 's Mutt and Jeff , Ham Fisher 's Joe Palooka , and Percy Crosby 's Skippy . Eastern Color neither sold this periodical nor made it available on newsstands , but rather sent it out free as
8323-482: A while. ... Then, when Don had finished the pencils, [Lee would] call me in to fix up anything ... that he didn't like. Even after it was inked, he'd have me changing what the inker had done. I told him, 'This was supposed to save me time, but it isn't!' ". Romita's initial run on the title, abetted by the three other artists, lasted through issue #95 (April 1971). Gil Kane succeeded him as Spider-Man's regular penciler through issue #105 (February 1972). Romita then began
Norman Osborn - Misplaced Pages Continue
8526-526: A year'. I was in uniform! She must've told him this GI ... wants to do some comics. She said, 'Stan said here's a four-page science fiction story'. I penciled it and struggled with my first inking. That was the first story I did on my own. I did Westerns and war stories then". The collection Marvel Visionaries: John Romita Sr. and former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas , in Alter Ego 9, each identify that four-page science fiction story as "It!", about
8729-410: A year-and-a-half (#57–75, February 1968 – August 1969). Romita then stepped back for six issues, drawing only covers while John Buscema laid out issues #76–81 (September 1969 – February 1970) for others to finish. These steps at reducing Romita's Spider-Man workload had mixed results, Romita recalled in 2001, saying, "Stan was always trying to speed me up. He had Don Heck pencil over my breakdowns for
8932-461: A year. In 1929, Dell Publishing (founded by George T. Delacorte, Jr. ) published The Funnies , described by the Library of Congress as "a short-lived newspaper tabloid insert" and not to be confused with Dell's 1936 comic-book series of the same name. Historian Ron Goulart describes the 16-page, four-color periodical as "more a Sunday comic section without the rest of the newspaper than
9135-405: A younger audience and created with help from child psychologists. The series had 57 comics produced between 1974 and 1982. Romita created another program called "Romita's Raiders", which allowed young artists to gain hands-on experience and learn from the art staff at Marvel. In 1976, Romita did uncredited art corrections on the large-format, first DC/Marvel intercompany crossover , Superman vs.
9338-572: Is Osborn while he himself is Kasady, with the latter's consciousness seemingly having overridden Osborn's own. When an undead resurrected Kasady starts hunting all former symbiote hosts to extract the samples of the symbiote codex left in them with the goal of awakening a symbiote god via the Grendel Symbiote (one of the aforementioned deity's many symbiotic-draconian vanguards) as seen in the " Absolute Carnage " storyline, Spider-Man and Venom attempt to retrieve Osborn from Ravencroft to test
9541-468: Is also known as a floppy comic . It is typically thin and stapled, unlike traditional books . American comic books are one of the three major comic book industries globally, along with Japanese manga and the Franco-Belgian comic books . The typical size and page count of comics have varied over the decades, generally tending toward smaller formats and fewer pages. Historically, the size
9744-557: Is apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in Paris. Following the Civil War story arc, Warren Ellis began writing Thunderbolts , and Osborn was brought into this title as the director of the eponymous team. He was one of several characters offered to Ellis, who picked him because, according to Thunderbolts editor Molly Lazer, "[t]here was something about Norman, his instability, and his fixation with Spider-Man that Warren liked, so he's in
9947-520: Is blown up at the end of the issue. It is shown in The Spectacular Spider-Man #250 that he has recovered, and he returns to his civilian life. Without the Green Goblin identity, Osborn would then go on to attack Spider-Man indirectly, through minions and via smear campaigns designed to portray him as a monster. However, Norman would still wear his Green Goblin costume when needed. When Spider-Man revealed his public identity, Osborn
10150-599: Is disbanded. After the Hobgoblin returns to New York, a nurse and doctor are called to Norman's hospital room, only to find him gone. When the children that work for the Vulture are discussing what to do after Superior Spider-Man (Otto Octavius's mind in Spider-Man's body) brutally defeats the Vulture, the Green Goblin approaches and tells the group that he will be the one that crushes Superior Spider-Man. The Green Goblin
10353-460: Is distracted, Osborn resolves to find a means of restoring his powers and resume his mantle of the Green Goblin, concluding that he has only ever held the edge against the webhead when allowing himself to draw on his inner demons. The apparent first step in this plan occurs with Osborn managing to steal the Carnage symbiote from an abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. storehouse while Spider-Man is occupied with
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#173277315693810556-557: Is exposed to an experimental formula that enhances his physical abilities and intellect at the cost of his sanity. As the Goblin, he becomes a criminal mastermind who uses an arsenal of advanced, Halloween -themed equipment, including grenade-like Pumpkin Bombs, razor sharp bats, and a flying Goblin Glider, to terrorize New York City . Osborn has been part of many of Spider-Man's defining stories, most notably " The Night Gwen Stacy Died " and
10759-437: Is later shown having gathered a new gang of followers together in the sewers formed from discarded members of other villains' gangs like Vulture, Owl , and the third White Dragon 's gangs. These henchmen escaped their organizations unharmed because Superior Spider-Man is more focused on the larger threats (where the original Spider-Man would focus on individuals). As he builds this army to attack Superior Spider-Man, he takes on
10962-411: Is rescued from custody thereafter by his cabal of henchmen. A few months later, the highly unstable Osborn has partially regained his sanity with the help of anti-psychotic drugs. He comes to see Parker as the son he had always wanted and attempts to have Parker take on the Green Goblin mantle using physiological torture, but ultimately fails. Osborn's next plan involves using Flash Thompson drive drunk
11165-464: Is taken symbolically as the beginning of a new era, although his success was not immediate. It took two years for the Flash to receive his own title, and Showcase itself was only a bimonthly book, though one which was to introduce a large number of enduring characters. By 1959, the slowly building superhero revival had become clear to DC's competitors. Archie jumped on board that year, and Charlton joined
11368-454: Is the amoral industrialist head of science conglomerate Oscorp and the father of Harry Osborn , the best friend of Spider-Man's alter ego Peter Parker. Osborn, in part as a reaction to the death of his wife, maintains a cold disposition and is obsessed with attaining as much power as possible. As a result, he treats his son harshly and openly favors Peter for his intellect, leading Harry to often try to compensate. In his origin story , Osborn
11571-411: Is this group of individuals who are crucial in duping Parker into believing that the youth is actually a clone of himself created by Jackal, while claiming that the clone – who comes to be known as Ben Reilly – is actually the original. Frustrated by Parker's perseverance despite everything that's been inflicted, Osborn publicly reveals that he's alive on Halloween . During the battle that ensues between
11774-497: Is too publicly known as a supervillain during his stint as Director of H.A.M.M.E.R. and the Iron Patriot. Spider-Man defeats and strips the villain's powers with Octavius' nanite serum, but Norman manages to escape through Liz Allan 's discreet aid. In hiding once again, he reflects that the various heroes will be unprepared for him when he returns with a new identity and approach as a businessman, seemingly no longer afflicted by
11977-667: The Flash and Green Lantern and converted All-American Comics and All Star Comics to Western titles, and Star Spangled Comics to a war title. The publisher also launched such science-fiction titles as Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space . Martin Goodman 's Timely Comics , also known as Atlas, canceled its three formerly high-selling superhero titles starring Captain America (created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby ),
12180-573: The Hobgoblin and is sighted by some of the Spiderlings. Upon Carlie Cooper being brought to his lair by Menace, he receives Carlie's journal from Menace which reveals to him that Otto's mind is in Spider-Man's body. Osborn douses Carlie with the Goblin formula, causing the woman to mutate into the new superhuman villain Monster. He demands to know Spider-Man's identity, but Monster first asks
12383-613: The Human Torch , and the Sub-Mariner , briefly reviving the characters in 1954 only to cancel them again shortly thereafter to focus on horror, science fiction, teen humor, romance and Western genres. Romance comics became strongly established, with Prize Comics ' Young Romance and with Young Love , the latter written and drawn by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby; those two titles' popularity led to an explosion of romance comics from many publishers. Dell 's comic books accounted for
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#173277315693812586-478: The Manhattan General Hospital . An anesthesiologist paid Romita $ 60 a week to create a medical exhibit on pneumatology medicine, which Romita completed in six months. Romita entered the comics industry in 1949 on the series Famous Funnies . "Steven Douglas up there was a benefactor to all young artists", Romita recalled. "The first story he gave me was a love story. It was terrible. All
12789-663: The New Avengers are forced to allow Osborn to capture Cage when needing medical treatment, the team uses a tracking device Osborn had planted in Luke to trick him into blowing up his own house after rescuing Cage from Osborn's custody. Harry is approached by Norman with the offer of a job within the Dark Avengers. Norman welcomes Harry into Avengers Tower, wanting to make his son into the American Son . When Harry finds
12992-685: The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency held hearings on comic book indecency from April to June 1954. In the wake of these troubles, a group of comics publishers, led by National and Archie, founded the Comics Code Authority in 1954 and drafted the Comics Code, intended as "the most stringent code in existence for any communications media". A Comic Code Seal of Approval soon appeared on virtually every comic book carried on newsstands. EC, after experimenting with less controversial comic books, dropped its comics line to focus on
13195-605: The Sentry into helping to further his cause. Osborn himself leads the Dark Avengers as the Iron Patriot, a suit of armor fashioned by himself after Iron Man's armor with Captain America's colors. Osborn simultaneously forms the Cabal alliance with Doctor Doom , Emma Frost , Namor , Loki and the Hood , but this 'alliance' quickly falls apart when Namor and Frost betray the Cabal to aid
13398-471: The Trapster to frame Spider-Man for murder, results in Spider-Man being a fugitive again. To get around this, Peter adopts four new identities , using two of these identities to convince Trapster to expose Osborn's scheme, and provide fake evidence that the individual that beat up Osborn was an impostor. For a time, Osborn retires his costumed persona and uses a stand-in so as not to be suspected of being
13601-576: The X-Men . Norman's attempts to exert his authority are increasingly jeopardized by various superheroes. After the Superhuman Registration Act records are deleted so that Osborn has no access to the information recorded about heroes after it was implemented, Osborn attacked the brain-damaged Tony Stark, thus showing Osborn brutally assaulting a physically and mentally incapable individual that was not even attempting to strike back. After
13804-663: The Yellow Kid . The 196-page, square-bound, black-and-white publication, which also includes introductory text by E. W. Townsend , measured 5 by 7 inches (130 mm × 180 mm) and sold for 50 cents. The neologism "comic book" appears on the back cover. Despite the publication of a series of related Hearst comics soon afterward, the first monthly proto-comic book, Embee Distributing Company's Comic Monthly , did not appear until 1922. Produced in an 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 -by-9-inch (220 mm × 230 mm) format, it reprinted black-and-white newspaper comic strips and lasted
14007-644: The " Civil War " over the Superhuman Registration Act , Osborn is appointed director of the Thunderbolts superhero team, now tasked to apprehend anyone who resists registering. While in this capacity, he directs the Thunderbolts to apprehend or kill Spider-Man, but after Mephisto changes reality , Harry Osborn is alive once more, and, with the exception of Mary Jane, no one (including Norman) knows Spider-Man's secret identity. In
14210-632: The " Clone Saga ". While his primary foe is Spider-Man, Osborn has often come into conflict with Iron Man , Captain America and other superheroes in the Marvel Universe . Although Osborn sometimes works with other supervillains such as Doctor Doom and Loki and groups like the Sinister Six and the Dark Avengers , these relationships often collapse due to his desire for unbridled power. Osborn's largest overarching story came during
14413-1003: The "Marvel Super Heroes" set of commemorative stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service on July 27, 2007. As of 2013, he served on the Disbursement Committee of the comic-book industry charity The Hero Initiative . Romita received an Inkpot Award in 1979, and was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2002. Romita was inducted into the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame in 2020. John Romita Sr. married childhood sweetheart Virginia Bruno in November 1952, who also worked on staff at Marvel as traffic manager from 1975 to 1996. They lived in Brooklyn 's Bensonhurst neighborhood until 1954, when they bought
14616-551: The 'Gathering of Five', which will grant the participants Power, Knowledge, Immortality, Madness or Death, but while he believes that he will receive Power, he is instead given Madness, which worsens his already mental instability, and threatens the world with genetic bombs. It is during this time that Peter learns May is alive and Osborn's actress died in May's place. Osborn's complete madness is evident, as he hallucinates unmasking and killing Peter; yet in reality Peter easily defeats him. He
14819-535: The 1960s, DC, and then Marvel, began to include writer and artist credits on the comics that they published. Other notable companies publishing comics during the Silver Age included the American Comics Group (ACG), Charlton , Dell , Gold Key , Harvey Comics , and Tower . Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll were featured, as the anti-authoritarian underground comix made waves in 1968, following
15022-457: The 1970s coincided with the appearance of comic-book specialty stores across North America. These specialty stores were a haven for more distinct voices and stories, but they also marginalized comics in the public eye. Serialized comic stories became longer and more complex, requiring readers to buy more issues to finish a story. In the mid-to-late 1980s, two series published by DC Comics , Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen , had
15225-542: The 1990s changing the format and distribution of their comic books to more closely resemble non-comics publishing. The " minicomics " form, an extremely informal version of self-publishing , arose in the 1980s and became increasingly popular among artists in the 1990s, despite reaching an even more limited audience than the small presses. The development of the modern American comic book happened in stages. Publishers had collected comic strips in hardcover book form as early as 1842, with The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck ,
15428-520: The 36-page Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics , which historians consider the first true American comic book; Goulart, for example, calls it "the cornerstone for one of the most lucrative branches of magazine publishing". Distribution took place through the Woolworth's department-store chain, though it remains unclear whether it was sold or given away; the cover displays no price, but Goulart refers, either metaphorically or literally, to "sticking
15631-588: The A.I.M.-rebuilt Ragnarok for Thor. In the team's first fight with the New Avengers , Osborn reveals himself as the Super-Adaptoid , declares himself the head of world security, and orders that the Avengers be arrested for war crimes. However, double agent Skaar betrays Osborn, allowing the Avengers to dogpile Osborn's body, overloading him with superpowers and sending him into a coma. A.I.M. and HYDRA pick up Osborn's leftover resources, and H.A.M.M.E.R.
15834-559: The Amazing Spider-Man , over the pencils of Ross Andru . Later that same year, Romita inked Jack Kirby's pencil work on Captain America's Bicentennial Battles , a one-shot story published in an oversized treasury format . Around 1980, Romita's art directing duties expanded from comic books to special projects. His duties included supervising and hiring other artists, providing corrections and cover sketches when needed, and drawing art for various merchandise. Romita inked
16037-598: The American comic book has been adapted periodically outside the United States, especially in Canada and the United Kingdom . While comics can be the work of a single creator, the labor of creating them is frequently divided between a number of specialists. There may be a separate writer and artist , or there may be separate artists for the characters and backgrounds. Particularly in superhero comic books,
16240-678: The CCA) stopped publishing crime and horror titles, which was their entire business, and were forced out of the market altogether, turning to magazine publishing instead. By 1960, output had stabilized at about 1,500 releases per year (representing a greater than fifty percent decline since 1952). The dominant comic book genres of the post-CCA 1950s were funny animals, humor, romance , television properties, and Westerns . Detective, fantasy , teen, and war comics were also popular, but adventure, superheroes, and comic strip reprints were in decline, with Famous Funnies seeing its last issue in 1955. In
16443-583: The Captain America work by Lee after Mort Lawrence's art was deemed unsatisfactory. The character was billed now as "Captain America, Commie Smasher" in the wake of the Cold War and faced enemies associated with the Soviet Union . The series was a commercial failure, and was cancelled after just three issues. Romita attributed the series' failure to the changing political climate, particularly
16646-530: The Goblin King directly confronts Superior Spider-Man, angry that he was cheated out of the opportunity to defeat his enemy, but offering Otto the chance to join him and Otto rejects the offer. When Otto finds being unable to win against Goblin's resources, having had various allies abandoned, and with faith in his own abilities gone, Otto sacrifices himself to restore the original Spider-Man's mind in order to save Anna Maria Marconi . When Spider-Man arrives for
16849-514: The Goblin being fatally impaled by its spikes. Since his presumed death, Osborn had been retroactively established as an unseen character . While he lies in the morgue, it is revealed that the Goblin formula gave him a previously unknown healing factor which restores him to life; he also murders a homeless man and plants the disfigured body in his costume to feign his death. No longer suffering from bouts of amnesia, Norman escapes to Europe, where he can move freely and unnoticed (as later revealed, he
17052-422: The Goblin formula to turn the whole country into Goblin-powered soldiers programmed to be loyal to him. However, in his final confrontation with Spider-Man, despite exposing his foe to a series of gases to temporarily neutralize all of his powers, and triggering an EMP to shut down all the gadgetry within his new Spider-armor, Spider-Man is still able to defeat Osborn as the two clash. Managing to escape while Peter
17255-572: The Goblin killing the Spider, but rather Carnage and Cletus Kasady , a vestige of whose consciousness still resides within his symbiote. The villain is enraged by this and when Peter removes the Venom symbiote and to challenge him, Norman takes off the Carnage symbiote to reveal his old Green Goblin persona. Spider-Man manages to take his foe down and when the villain begs the Carnage symbiote to help him,
17458-510: The Goblin to reveal his own identity. He assures Monster that he is Norman, but refuses to remove his Goblin mask until Carlie has proven a loyal follower and dispatches Monster and Menace on a mission. Osborn battles and kills Hobgoblin, although it is revealed to be a servant with Kingsley still in hiding abroad which Goblin Knight discovers. Having staged a coup of New York after spreading his resources by exploiting Otto's reliance on technology,
17661-524: The Goblin's identity would have been revealed in Amazing #39 if Ditko had stayed on. In the landmark story " The Night Gwen Stacy Died " ( The Amazing Spider-Man #121-122), the Green Goblin kills Gwen Stacy and later dies in a fight against Spider-Man. However, the story's writer, Gerry Conway , had Harry Osborn adopt the Green Goblin identity in the aftermath of "The Night Gwen Stacy Died", later remarking that "I never had any intention of getting rid of
17864-494: The Goblin, and uses the time to break free. In the ensuing battle, Spider-Man accidentally knocks Osborn into a mass of electrical wires, wiping out his memory . Feeling sorry for his nemesis, and wishing to avoid the shame that would befall the Osborn family (especially Parker's best friend Harry), Spider-Man destroys the Goblin costume in the resulting fire and tells the authorities that Osborn lost his memory while helping to defeat
18067-482: The Goblin, or through his employment of other super-criminals such as the Headsman , he would harass Spider-Man many times, but fail to achieve his goal. Soon, Stromm returns from prison, and attempts to exact revenge on Osborn using an army of robots, but Norman is saved by Spider-Man, and Stromm apparently dies of a heart attack. In order to discover his nemesis's secret identity, Osborn secretly exposes Spider-Man to
18270-555: The Goblin. Soon, Osborn is troubled by repressed memories of the Goblin and Spider-Man. After a presentation on supervillains by NYPD Captain George Stacy restores Osborn's memory, he experiences a brief return to his Goblin persona. While abducting Parker's friends and threatening Parker's elderly aunt , he is exposed to one of his own "psychedelic bombs", causing a relapse of amnesia . Later, Osborn stumbles upon an old Goblin hideout which, again, restores his memory. However,
18473-449: The Green Goblin as a concept". Harry Osborn's becoming the Green Goblin was mostly well received, with fans remarking that Harry was more menacing than his father had ever been. Writer Roger Stern later introduced the Hobgoblin to replace the Green Goblin as Spider-Man's archenemy . During the " Clone Saga ", a retcon was made, which determined that Norman Osborn survived the events of The Amazing Spider-Man #122 and had been playing
18676-412: The Green Goblin with a different character, and in an earlier essay he had said that he could not remember whether Norman Osborn being the Green Goblin was his idea or Ditko's. Ditko has maintained that it was his idea, even claiming that he had decided on it before the first Green Goblin story was finished. Though Osborn would not be introduced by name until The Amazing Spider-Man #37, Ditko has said that
18879-493: The Green Goblin, Jameson mentioned how he could not stop Spider-Man since even throwing Gwen off the bridge could not break his indomitable resolve. This statement allow Norman to remember that Spider-Man's true identity as Peter Parker, which in the past had always been the edge he held against the hero, as he now knew to target his loved ones and friends. Attacking the Daily Bugle in his familiar Goblin attire, Osborn gives
19082-461: The Green Goblin, had arranged for Harry's death to be faked, with help from Mysterio . In his final appearance in the storyline, Norman attempts to convince Harry to become a super-hero so that Norman can kill his son off and exploit said demise. It is also revealed that he was sleeping with the supervillain Menace (Harry's ex-girlfriend), with Norman believing that the villain's child she was carrying
19285-403: The Green Goblin. This fifth Goblin kidnaps Norman's grandson and clashes with the wanted and injured Spider-Man. Norman also crosses paths with Roderick Kingsley and initiates a hostile takeover of Kingsley's corporate empire, in retaliation for raiding the Goblin's arsenal and identity . While his stand-in is masquerading as the Goblin, Osborn joins a cult, hoping to receive great power from
19488-799: The Korean War. After declining comics sales in the late 1950s forced Atlas to let most of their artists go, Romita transitioned to work for DC exclusively in 1958. His first known work for the company is the tentatively identified penciling credit for the cover of romance comic Secret Hearts #58 (October 1959), and, confirmably, pencils for the seven-page story "I Know My Love", inked by Bernard Sachs in Heart Throbs #63 (January 1960). Other titles to which he contributed include Falling in Love , Girls' Love Stories , Girls' Romances , and Young Love . Romita's artwork for these stories followed
19691-469: The Marvel Universe and going on to restore the wider Multiverse piecemeal) and still planning on getting revenge on Spider-Man and his peers/allies. He is revealed to have played a part in the recent coup of Symkaria . He restores a semblance of his original features via a twisted form of plastic surgery but which also resembles the Green Goblin's facets, and intends to release a modified version of
19894-609: The Modern Horror age. But as of 2009 historians and fans use " Bronze Age " to describe the period of American mainstream comics history that began with the period of concentrated changes to comic books in 1970. Unlike the Golden/Silver Age transition, the Silver/Bronze transition involves many continuing books, making the transition less sharp. The development of the " direct market " distribution system in
20097-520: The Osborns and proves immune to Carnage's traditional weaknesses of Human Torch's fire and Clash's sound devices, Peter is forced to step back into action despite the injured leg, with Agent Anti-Venom sacrificing a chance to get back into action himself to heal Spider-Man's injury as Osborn merges a part of the Carnage symbiote with his grandson Normie turning into a miniature version of Red Goblin. Normie goes after May but she gets some unexpected help in
20300-546: The Romita-Esposito team continued through issue #66 (November 1968), establishing the new look of Spider-Man. The Amazing Spider-Man had been Marvel's second-best-selling title at the time Romita began drawing it. Within a year, it overtook Fantastic Four to become the company's top seller. Romita designed the look of Mary Jane Watson , a supporting character in the Spider-Man series who would later become
20503-458: The Spider-Man characters in the one-shot Spidey: A Universe X Special (2001), and penciled the final four pages of the 38-page story in the milestone The Amazing Spider-Man #500 (December 2003) together with his son John Jr. penciling the other pages. Romita drew one of four covers to the April 27 – May 3, 2002, issue of TV Guide to promote the release of the 2002 Spider-Man film . In
20706-557: The Void is released. Osborn knocks out Rogers and tries to escape, but is captured by Volstagg. Incarcerated in the Raft penitentiary, he blames his Goblin alter-ego for ruining his chance to protect the world. When transferred to a secret underwater government base, Osborn takes steps to ensure his release from prison. He uses a group of followers known as the "Green Goblin Cult" to break out with
20909-492: The age of 93. The news was broken by his son, John Jr., the following day. Romita has been credited with creating a new Spider-Man art style with romance and adventure influences that appealed to an even wider audience. He drew a more handsome Peter Parker and beautiful women, and depicted "beautiful suffering" that combined soap opera and fantasy themes. The Romita have been described as "The artist's line work became more rounded, and his depiction of women in particular became
21112-584: The aid of corrupt senators; he plans to turn himself in after killing his fellow escapees, setting him up as a 'champion' of the judicial system. After the breakout, he awaits his trial in a new prison, this one controlled by his cult members. Using his staged persona as a voice for the 'disenfranchised', Osborn plans to regain the Iron Patriot armor and creates a new team of Dark Avengers, this time substituting June Covington for Scarlet Witch , Ai Apaec for Spider-Man, Barney Barton for Hawkeye, Skaar for Hulk , Superia for Ms. Marvel, Gorgon for Wolverine and
21315-407: The angsty and irreverent nature of characters like Spider-Man , Hulk , X-Men and Fantastic Four . This was a time of social upheaval, giving birth to a new generation of hip and more counter-cultural youngsters, who found a voice in these books. Because Marvel's books were distributed by its rival, National, from 1957 until 1968 Marvel were restricted to publishing only eight titles a month. This
21518-555: The arrival of Punisher who reveals that since he cannot take them with him, he has to put his large supply of bullets somewhere; the Punisher then kills them all. A mysterious man with a bandaged face is soon shown to be selling Goblin-based weaponry globally to attack Parker Industries . This man reveals himself to be Norman alive again post- Secret Wars (following the Fantastic Four 's and Molecule Man 's restoration of
21721-408: The art may be divided between: The process begins with the writer (often in collaboration with one or more others, who may include the editor and/or the penciller) coming up with a story idea or concept, then working it up into a plot and storyline , finalizing it with a script . After the art is prepared, the dialogue and captions are lettered onto the page from the script, and an editor may have
21924-415: The bandwagon in 1960. In 1961, at the demand of publisher Martin Goodman (who was reacting to a surge in sales of National's newest superhero title The Justice League of America ), writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four for Atlas, which now re-named itself Marvel Comics . With an innovation that changed the comic-book industry, Fantastic Four #1 initiated
22127-461: The battle, Norman declares that Harry is no longer his son, and that he has bred a better child to replace the 'failure' of Harry. After further taunts from Norman, Harry lashes out and defeats his father, declaring "I was never your son!". When Harry has the option of killing Norman, Spider-Man says to decapitate him, since Norman's healing factor may repair a blow to the head. Spider-Man also cautions Harry that killing Norman will cause Harry to "become
22330-662: The bombastic mental illness associated with the Goblin Serum that he surmises wasted time on theatrics at the cost of practicality and thus less effective villainy. However, Osborn's Goblin King position was quickly usurped by Phil Urich. During the 2015 " Secret Wars " storyline, the Kingpin hosts a viewing party for the incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610 where his guests include Absorbing Man , Bullseye , Norman Osborn, Sandman , and Scorpion. Festivities are interrupted by
22533-535: The book while I was still laughing". Lazer confirmed that the new team was answerable to the Commission on Superhuman Activities , giving him the opportunity to do what he wanted: "He's a free man with a lot of power .... And his agenda, well, it's not that secret. He wants to get Spider-Man". Writer Christos Gage took over for the Secret Invasion tie-in stories, which end with Osborn taking credit for
22736-509: The book!" Ellis admitted not being very familiar with the character, saying: "All I remember of the Norman Osborn character was from the Spider-Man reprints my parents used to buy me when I was very young, and Norman Osborn was this guy with a weird rippled crewcut who was always sweating and his eyes were always bulging out of his head. That guy as a Donald Rumsfeld -like public governmental figure... [ Joe Quesada ] talked me into writing
22939-442: The character and made it possible for [Spider-Man] to appeal to a wider audience, even if he removed the qualities that had made the strip a surreal standout. Romita was the artist for the Spider-Man newspaper comic strip from its launch on January 3, 1977 through late 1980. He continued in his role as Marvel's art director during this time, anticipating that the strip would not last. Romita had promised Lee that he would continue
23142-456: The character; they collaborated on how the character would be portrayed. According to Ditko: "Stan's synopsis for the Green Goblin had a movie crew, on location, finding an Egyptian -like sarcophagus . Inside was an ancient, mythological demon , the Green Goblin . He naturally came to life. On my own, I changed Stan's mythological demon into a human villain". The Green Goblin debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #14. At this time his identity
23345-414: The comic strip as long as sales continued to grow. The Spider-Man comic strip reached an audience of 500 newspapers, making it one of the most popular adventure comic strips at the time. At the start of the fourth year, the strip's number had begun to stagnate and then decline. After editor-in-chief and art director Stan Lee assumed the positions of publisher and president in 1972, he promoted Romita to
23548-534: The comic-book debut of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster , the future creators of Superman . The two began their careers with the musketeer swashbuckler "Henri Duval", doing the first two installments before turning it over to others and, under the pseudonyms "Leger and Reuths", they created the supernatural -crimefighter adventure Doctor Occult . In 1938, after Wheeler-Nicholson's partner Harry Donenfeld had ousted him, National Allied editor Vin Sullivan pulled
23751-432: The countercultural era. Legal issues and paper shortages led to a decline in underground comix output from its 1972 peak. In 1974 the passage of anti-paraphernalia laws in the US led to the closing of most head shops, which throttled underground comix distribution. Its readership also dried up as the hippie movement itself petered out in the mid-1970s. Wizard originally used the phrase "Bronze Age", in 1995, to denote
23954-464: The country. Some cities passed laws banning comic books entirely. In 1954, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham published his book Seduction of the Innocent , where he discussed what he perceived as sadistic and homosexual undertones in horror comics and superhero comics respectively, and singled out EC Comics due to its success as a publisher of these genres. In response to growing public anxiety,
24157-607: The cover of the subsequent issue #20 (September 1966), and an incidental Hulk and two Captain America stories (in Tales to Astonish #77, March 1966, and Tales of Suspense #76–77, April–May 1966, respectively). While Romita's depiction of Spider-Man would eventually become the company mascot and the definitive look to the general public, the artist had trepidations: I was hoping against it, believe it or not. People laugh when I say this, but I did not want to do Spider-Man. I wanted to stay on Daredevil. The only reason I did Spider-Man
24360-575: The darker tone of some independent publishers such as First Comics , Dark Horse Comics , and (founded in the 1990s) Image Comics . This tendency towards darkness and nihilism was manifested in DC's production of heavily promoted comic book stories such as " A Death in the Family " in the Batman series (in which The Joker brutally murdered Batman's sidekick Robin ), while at Marvel the continuing popularity of
24563-686: The debut of new Captain Marvel Monica Rambeau in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 (1982) and the first appearance of the Hobgoblin in The Amazing Spider-Man #238 (March 1983). He was one of six pencilers on Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #121 (December 1986), and he penciled the nine-page story "I Remember Gwen" in The Amazing Spider-Man #365 (August 1992, the 30th-anniversary issue) and an eight-page backup story starring
24766-544: The defeat of the Skrulls after he kills the Skrull queen Veranke . This allowed the character to be placed into an influential position in the aftermath of Dark Reign . Although the dark turn at the end was always part of the plan for the storyline, Brian Michael Bendis , Secret Invasion 's writer, says that Osborn was picked for the leading role because of the changes implemented by Ellis. Meanwhile, Andy Diggle took over
24969-714: The definitive statement of his arrival by pulling Mary Jane out from behind the oversized potted plant [that blocked the readers' view of her face in issue #25] and placing her on panel in what would instantly become an iconic moment." Other characters that debuted in the Lee-Romita era include the Rhino in #41 (October 1966), the Shocker in #46 (March 1967), the Kingpin in #50 (June 1967), and George Stacy in #56 (January 1968). Romita had based George Stacy on actor Charles Bickford . Lee and Romita's stories focused as much on
25172-577: The early 2000s, Romita contributed to multi-artist jams in commemorative issues. He did a panel in Captain America vol. 3, #50 (February 2002), starring the first Marvel superhero he had drawn; a portion of Iron Man vol. 3, #40 (May 2001), although the hero was not one of the artist's signature characters; a panel for Daredevil vol. 2, #50 (October 2003); and a few pages featuring Karen Page in Daredevil vol. 2, #100 (October 2007), done in
25375-471: The early days of comic books, this practice had all but vanished during the 1940s and 1950s. Comic books were produced by comic book companies rather than by individual creators (EC being a notable exception, a company that not only credited its creative teams but also featured creators' biographies). Even comic books by revered and collectible artists like Carl Barks were not known by their creator's name— Disney comics by Barks were signed " Walt Disney ". In
25578-680: The end, Spider-Man manages to evade this coordinated attack and escape. During the " Secret Invasion " by shape-shifting extraterrestrials, the Skrulls , Osborn shoots and kills the Skrull queen Veranke . He leverages this widely publicized success, positioning himself as the new director of the S.H.I.E.L.D.-like paramilitary force H.A.M.M.E.R. to advance his agenda, while using his public image to start his own Dark Avengers , substituting Moonstone for Ms. Marvel , Bullseye for Hawkeye , Gargan for Spider-Man, Daken for Wolverine and Noh-Varr for Captain Marvel , as well as manipulating Ares and
25781-478: The events of the Civil War storyline. The first was "Brand New Ways To Die" which featured Norman and the Thunderbolts versus Spider-Man and the original Venom. His second appearance explained that following Mephisto 's alteration of Spider-Man's past, Norman's return was significantly altered. He had returned earlier than he had originally, and, due to concern for his son's mental wellbeing after once again being
25984-459: The fight to Norman and while it appears as if he's gaining the upper hand, it turns out that Norman still has some Green Goblin tech beneath the Carnage symbiote and he uses that to electrocute Flash. Flash's injuries prove to be fatal and he dies in Peter's arms. Spider-Man confronts Norman at Times Square as Red Goblin gains the upper hand. Peter manages to hold him off by pointing out that it's not
26187-407: The final confrontation, the Goblin King quickly realizes that Parker is back in control when Spider-Man responds to his nemesis' taunts with his own wisecracks . In the duel that follows, Spider-Man unmasks Osborn, learning that he has undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance, acting as Alchemax's CEO and intending to re-establish himself as businessman Mason Banks, now that his true likeness
26390-444: The final say (but, once ready for printing, it is difficult and expensive to make any major changes), before the comic is sent to the printer. The creative team, the writer and artist(s), may work for a comic book publisher who handles the marketing, advertising, and other logistics. A wholesale distributor, such as Diamond Comic Distributors , the largest in the US, distributes the printed product to retailers. Another aspect of
26593-461: The final showdown with Carnage. American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States , on average 32 pages, containing comics . While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of Action Comics , which included the debut of the superhero Superman . This was followed by
26796-545: The flashback is shown, Kindred states to Norman that he will leave now and will return when Norman is himself again so that they can confront the truth together. As Kindred starts to leave, Norman's Kasady persona states to Kindred that he has a message for him from Norman who states that he is "so proud of him". Kindred takes his leave as Norman's Kasady breaks out in maniacal laughter. After the Grendel symbiote left Norman Osborn's body, Norman regained conscious and escaped during
26999-606: The form of Superior Octopus and J. Jonah Jameson who uses an old Spider-Slayer , however, both are defeated by Norman. Soon afterward, Normie watches as his grandfather throws Liz through a window only to be rescued by Spider-Man which causes Normie to turn on Norman. Norman reveals to Spider-Man he infected some of Peter's friends and family with slivers of the Carnage symbiote which he could send to their brain to kill them. However, it turns out that Flash has figured out Spider-Man's secret identity too and went to May and Mary Jane in order to remove those ticking time bombs. Flash then takes
27202-522: The fracas, the Goblin manages to escape and kidnap Mary Jane, taking Peter's love interest to the George Washington Bridge in order to replay the murder of the last love interest. However, Doctor Octopus intervenes, attacking the Goblin. Spider-Man is able to save Mary Jane after a bolt of lightning sends the two villains into the river. Following some verbal clues from the Goblin, Peter also discovers where he had hidden May, and rescues
27405-460: The help of the Black Cat proceeded to break Osborn out, only to have twelve of his greatest enemies waiting on the outside. Osborn had assembled a team of supervillains . However, Mary Jane Watson had contacted S.H.I.E.L.D. , and the villains were faced not only by Spider-Man, but the combined might of Captain America , Iron Man , Yellowjacket , Daredevil and the Fantastic Four . During
27608-753: The hero and supporting character the Prowler in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #13 (1993). In 1996, Romita announced his semi-retirement, but continued to work on multiple comics projects. Romita both penciled and inked the 10-page backup story "The Kiss"—a flashback in which Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and his girlfriend Gwen Stacy share their first kiss—in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #1 (January 1999). He drew an alternate-universe version of
27811-473: The house style for DC comics, and the first pages of his issues were often done by another artist. The cover art for romance comics was soon done primarily by Romita. He would " swipe "—an artists' term for using existing work as models, a common practice among novices—from movie stills and from the Milton Caniff comic strip Terry and the Pirates . Bernard Sachs and Sy Barry inked some of Romita's romance work, but Romita began inking his own pencils in
28014-483: The introduction of the Comics Code Authority in the wake of Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency , which, ignoring the social problems caused by the wars of 1939–45 and 1950–52, sought to blame those problems solely on comics. While there was only a 9% drop in the number of releases between 1952 and 1953, circulation plummeted by an estimated 30–40%. The cause of the decrease is not entirely clear. Television had begun to provide competition with comic books, but there
28217-628: The late 1940s and early 1950s horror and true-crime comics flourished, many containing graphic violence and gore. Due to such content, moral crusaders became concerned with the impact of comics on the youth, and were blaming comic books for everything from poor grades to juvenile delinquency to drug abuse. This perceived indecency resulted in the collection and public burning of comic books in Spencer, West Virginia and Binghamton, New York in 1948, which received national attention and triggered other public burnings by schools and parent groups across
28420-455: The late 1950s or early 1960s. Romita had hoped a DC editor would eventually offer him a superhero comic, such as a Batman filler issue, but Romita remained on the romance titles. Shortly afterward, however, romance comics began declining in popularity, and by 1965, DC had ceased buying art for new romance comics. The company then only used romance comics from their large inventory of previously unpublished comics or published reprints. Romita
28623-509: The latter as well. It is revealed that Osborn sent Peter a letter before the fight, thanking Peter for giving his life meaning and purpose, but Peter never received the letter due to moving to a different residence. Years after Gwen's death, it is revealed that Osborn had a one-night stand with Gwen, which led to Gwen's pregnancy with his illegitimate twin children . Osborn thus has three motives for killing Gwen; revenge against Spider-Man, to prevent Gwen from talking of their affair and creating
28826-511: The lead character's romantic interest. Romita has stated that in designing Mary Jane, he "used Ann-Margret from the movie Bye Bye Birdie as a guide, using her coloring, the shape of her face, her red hair and her form-fitting short skirts." Mary Jane Watson made her first full appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #42 (November 1966), although she first appeared in #25 (June 1965) with her face obscured and had been mentioned since #15 (August 1964). Peter David wrote in 2010 that Romita "made
29029-489: The line-wide " Dark Reign " and Siege comic book events, in which he served as the main antagonist; during this time, he became the original iteration of Iron Patriot . The character has been in various top villain lists as one of Spider-Man's greatest enemies and one of the greatest comic book villains of all time. The character's popularity has seen him appear on a variety of merchandise, inspire real-world structures (such as theme park attractions) and be referenced in
29232-627: The look of Marvel comics throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Romita was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2002. John Victor Romita was born on January 24, 1930, in Brooklyn , New York City, where he was also raised. The son of Marie and Victor Romita, a baker, he also had three sisters and a brother. Romita was of Italian descent, from Sicily . He began drawing at 5 years old. Romita graduated from Manhattan 's School of Industrial Art in 1947, having attended for three years after spending ninth grade at
29435-433: The major players in volume of sales. By this point, former big-time players Fawcett and Fiction House had ceased publishing. Circulation peaked in 1952 when 3,161 issues of various comics were published with a total circulation of about one billion copies. After 1952, the number of individual releases dropped every year for the rest of the decade, with the biggest falls occurring in 1955–56. The rapid decline followed
29638-419: The nanites in his bloodstream and re-injects himself with a vial of the Goblin Serum to combine it's augmentation with the symbiote's own wide array of abilities to ramp up his effectiveness. While interrogating a captive Jameson for information on Spider-Man, Osborn takes a brief interval from the torture to kill the self-proclaimed Goblin King who tried to raid one of his old storehouses. After Osborn appeared as
29841-824: The new alias of the Goblin King . The Hand ninjas who evaded capture arrive at the sewers and join up with the Goblin Nation . The group reveals in the news that, thanks to Superior Spider-Man's assault, Osborn now owns over half of New York's organized crime. He claims he now owns New York City as the Goblin Kingpin of Crime. With Menace 's help, Osborn later releases Phil Urich from a prison transport and upgrades Urich's Goblin armor and weapons, asking in return only that Urich's only identity from here on shall be Goblin Knight. Osborn trains Goblin Knight, anxious to confront Superior Spider-Man. Osborn later poses as
30044-440: The occasional reprinted story. Even before his final original DC story was published, Romita had already returned to freelance for what had now become Marvel Comics . His first work for Marvel was inking Jack Kirby 's cover and Don Heck 's interior pencils on the superhero -team comic The Avengers #23 (December 1965). Romita directed most of his efforts, however, toward finding advertising storyboard work. He obtained
30247-450: The originals. Comics-art historian Daniel Herman assessed of Romita's Spider-Man work: Romita's transformation of the character redefined the character's look and took the strip in a different direction. It also made him a star artist in the comic book world. The trouble was, Romita took Spidey away from his roots and firmly planted him in the mainstream ... Marvel staffers would joke that Romita "took Spider-Man uptown". Romita reinvented
30450-506: The position of art director in July 1973 after Romita had been in that position unofficially but on staff since 1972. In that capacity through at least the late 1980s, Romita played a major role in defining the look of Marvel Comics and in designing new characters. Among the characters he designed or helped design are the Punisher , Wolverine , Luke Cage , Bullseye , Tigra , and Brother Voodoo . Romita's catlike design for Wolverine
30653-555: The post, he rented an apartment in Brooklyn. When not on duty, Romita could leave the base and go into Manhattan. In mid- to late 1951, he recalled in 2002, "I went uptown one day for lunch. I stopped over at Stan Lee's [office in the Empire State Building , where Timely Comics had by now evolved into Atlas Comics ], and his secretary came out ... and I said, 'Stan doesn't know my name but I've worked for him for over
30856-415: The present, Norman has defeated Spider-Man. In the rest of the flashback, Kindred sent one of his centipedes into Osborn's head in order to save him from himself. Back in the present, Osborn's Carnage form feels a scratching in his head as he tells Kindred to let him be the one to kill Spider-Man. He then turns his target towards Dylan Brock and Normie. Spider-Man gets to his feet and defeats Norman. As more of
31059-559: The process involved in successful comics is the interaction between the readers/fans and the creator(s). Fan art and letters to the editor were commonly printed in the back of the book, until, in the early 21st century, various Internet forums started to replace this tradition. The growth of comic specialty stores helped permit several waves of independently-produced comics, beginning in the mid-1970s. Some early examples of these – generally referred to as "independent" or "alternative" comics – such as Big Apple Comix , continued somewhat in
31262-610: The public opposition to the Korean War ; the character subsequently fell out of active publication for nearly a decade. Additionally, Romita would render one of his first original characters, M-11 the Human Robot, in a five-page standalone science-fiction story in Menace #11 (May 1954). While not envisioned as an ongoing character, M-11 was resurrected decades later as a member of the super-hero team Agents of Atlas . Romita
31465-505: The publication of Robert Crumb 's irregularly published Zap Comix . Frank Stack had published The Adventures of Jesus as far back as 1962, and there had been a trickle of such publications until Crumb's success. What had started as a self-publishing scene soon grew into a minor industry, with Print Mint , Kitchen Sink , Last Gasp and Apex Novelties among the more well-known publishers. These comix were often extremely graphic, and largely distributed in head shops that flourished in
31668-650: The red. That quickly changed, with the book turning a $ 30,000 profit each issue starting with #12. Famous Funnies would eventually run 218 issues, inspire imitators, and largely launch a new mass medium . When the supply of available existing comic strips began to dwindle, early comic books began to include a small amount of new, original material in comic-strip format. Inevitably, a comic book of all-original material, with no comic-strip reprints, debuted. Fledgling publisher Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications, which would evolve into DC Comics , to release New Fun #1 (Feb. 1935). This came out as
31871-447: The reporters from the Daily Bugle . After a battle with Spider-Man and Luke Cage , Osborn is arrested and sent to prison for the first time. However, things were far from over. From behind bars, Osborn again masterminded a plan against Spider-Man. This time, he has MacDonald "Mac" Gargan as Scorpion kidnap May. The plan was for Spider-Man to break Osborn out of prison in exchange for Parker's aunt's life. Peter reluctantly agreed and with
32074-508: The rest of the staff time to evacuate as he fights Peter before revealing his new bond with Carnage, proclaiming himself to be the Red Goblin , driving Spider-Man away with 'Carnage bombs' that injure his leg. Discovering a sound-transmitting spider-tracer planted on him, Osborn uses this to deliver a 'devil's bargain' to Peter; if Peter abandons the Spider-Man identity and never performs any further heroics, Osborn will leave Parker alone, but
32277-417: The return of Zodiac. Osborn's efforts to control the Carnage symbiote initially backfire when he merges with it and finds himself overwhelmed by the urge to kill rather than his own prior plan to direct its power against Spider-Man specifically, but he is able to convince it to let him have control in favor of trying something other than its usual mindless slaughter. As a starting favor, he has the symbiote eject
32480-629: The satirical Mad —a former comic book which was now converted to a magazine format in order to circumvent the Code. DC started a revival in superhero comics in 1956 with the October 1956 revival of its former golden age top-seller The Flash in Showcase #4. Many comics historians peg this as the beginning of the Silver Age of American comic books, although Marvel (at this point still known variously as both Timely and Atlas ) had started reviving some of its old superheroes as early as 1954. The new Flash
32683-431: The second he sees any sign of Spider-Man's return, he will kill everyone in Peter's life. Peter places the Spider-Man top on a flagpole so that Osborn can see it burn but privately vows that he will find a way to defeat Osborn as Peter rather than Spider-Man. Peter is able to contact various allies like Human Torch , Clash , Silk , Miles Morales , and Agent Anti-Venom to watch over his loved ones. When Norman moves against
32886-492: The shock of seeing Harry hospitalized after overdosing on drugs causes Osborn's amnesia to return once more. After the final restoration of his memories, the Goblin kidnaps and takes Gwen Stacy to a bridge. During Spider-Man's rescue attempt, Osborn knocks Gwen off the bridge , resulting in the girl's death. Spider-Man, traumatised and obsessed with revenge, confronts the villain at his lair and beats him near to death. A last-ditch attempt to ram Spider-Man with his glider ends with
33089-671: The six-page "Out of My Mind", in Astonishing #7 (also December 1951), as Romita's first full penciling and inking—although "It!" carries a later job number (9118) than the other tale (8964). Romita went on to draw a wide variety of horror comics , war comics, romance comics and other genres for Atlas. His most prominent work for the company was the short-lived 1950s revival of Timely's hit character Captain America , in Young Men #24–28 (December 1953 – July 1954) and Captain America #76–78 (May–September 1954). Romita had been offered
33292-593: The social and college lives of the characters as they did on Spider-Man's adventures. The stories became more topical, addressing issues such as the Vietnam War , political elections, and student activism . Romita, increasingly called upon to do art corrections and touch-ups, and to interface with artists for ever-busy editor Lee, became Marvel's de facto art director. Cutting back on his Spider-Man workload, Romita began doing only layouts, with finished pencils by Don Heck or Jim Mooney for nearly every issue for
33495-517: The son Norman always wanted". Harry instead backs down, and turns away from his father forever. At Loki's suggestion, Osborn creates a rationale to invade Asgard , claiming the world (which was, at the time, positioned at the outskirts of Broxton, Oklahoma ) poses a national security threat, by sending the U-Foes to attack Volstagg in Chicago, leading to the destruction of Soldier Field . During
33698-458: The stillbirth of the baby. Returning to his former seat of power, Osborn regains control of his business and also buys out the Daily Bugle , humiliating former friend and societal peer J. Jonah Jameson as the latter no longer has control over the newspaper. He also torments Ben Urich and demands a retraction over an exposé of his time as the Goblin, providing faked evidence that he never
33901-415: The story and didn't reveal that the Green Goblin was Norman Osborn. I didn't know there was any doubt about Osborn being the Goblin. I didn't know that Ditko had just been setting Osborn up as a straw dog. I just accepted the fact that it was going to be Norman Osborn when we plotted it. I had been following the last couple of issues and didn't think there was really much mystery about it. Looking back, I doubt
34104-451: The style of the romance comics he had drawn decades earlier. Romita both penciled and inked the cover of Daredevil vol. 2, #94 (February 2007) in that same romance comics style. The following year he drew a variant cover of his signature series, for The Amazing Spider-Man #568 (October 2008), doing so again with #642 (November 2010). A Romita image of Spider-Man and a Hulk image penciled by Rich Buckler and inked by Romita were among
34307-701: The success of Superman in Action Comics prompted editors at National Comics Publications (the future DC Comics) to request more superheroes for its titles. In response, Bob Kane and Bill Finger created Batman , who debuted in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). The period from the late 1930s through roughly the end of the 1940s is referred to by comic book experts as the Golden Age of comic books . It featured extremely large print-runs, with Action Comics and Captain Marvel selling over half
34510-418: The title had a smaller print run than Marvel flagships The Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four , it briefly had the company's highest percentage of sales compared to print-run. It also proved to be a stepping-stone for Romita's signature, years-long penciling run on The Amazing Spider-Man . During this time, a DC editor offered Romita to work on their Metamorpho character, but he declined. Lee wrote
34713-417: The tradition of the earlier underground comics , while others, such as Star Reach , resembled the output of mainstream publishers in format and genre but were published by smaller artist-owned ventures or by a single artist. This so-called " small press " scene (a term derived from the limited quantity of comics printed in each press-run) continued to grow and diversify, with a number of small publishers in
34916-479: The truth of his relation to Osborn after watching a video message at one of the Goblin lairs, aligning with his father to stabilize his own condition using a variation of the Goblin formula at the cost of sanity. All of this was retconned during the Sinister War story-arc, when AI version of Harry Osborn's mind reveals that he masterminded a plan to get revenge of both his father and Peter Parker : he created
35119-459: The twins believe that Peter is the twins' father who abandoned the two and responsible for Gwen's death to which Peter learned the details of Gwen's past with Osborn and the twins from Mary Jane. Peter is able to convince Sarah of Osborn's villainy, the truth of Sarah's paternity and circumstances of Gwen's death, and stabilized the Goblin physiology with a blood transfusion due to Peter's blood type matching Sarah's. Meanwhile, Gabriel personally learns
35322-564: The twins in a lab with the help of Mendel Stromm and he brainwashed Norman and Mary Jane Watson (thanks to Mysterio) into believing Gwen cheated on Peter with Osborn. The twins aged rapidly because of clonation issues (and not because of Osborn's Goblin Serum), but eventually got better just as Harry started to use them as soldiers for his war against Norman and Spider-Man. Osborn attempts to distance himself from his Green Goblin persona after being prescribed medication for his mental state. During
35525-501: The two, Osborn attempts to kill Parker by impaling his nemesis with his goblin glider. When Reilly sacrifices himself to save Parker from Osborn (and immediately deteriorates upon death as all of the Jackal's clones do), Parker makes his discovery of actually being the original. During this same period, Osborn was also responsible for the murder or abduction of Peter & Mary Jane's newborn daughter, after one of his allies apparently caused
35728-534: The various X-Men books led to storylines involving the genocide of superpowered "mutants" in allegorical stories about religious and ethnic persecution. In addition, published formats like the graphic novel and the related trade paperback enabled the comic book to gain some respectability as literature. As a result, these formats are now common in book retail and the collections of US public libraries . John Romita, Sr. John Victor Romita ( / r ə ˈ m iː t ə / ; January 24, 1930 – June 12, 2023)
35931-400: The villain. He thinks he's the hero. He truly believes that he deserves public adulation, and it bugs the hell out of him that so-called 'superheroes' are getting it instead of him. He appeared as a regular character in the Dark Avengers series from issue #1 (March 2009) through issue #16 (June 2010), as well as the mini-series "Siege", which saw Norman being arrested for his crimes, following
36134-406: The wall-crawler seemingly destroys it by hitting it with an exploding gas tank. However, the Carnage symbiote was attached to Norman when Peter destroyed it, which causes a psychic backlash from the trauma of dying that devastates Osborn's own psyche and finally defeats him. Norman is last seen incarcerated at Ravencroft , where due to the mental trauma from his defeat, he now believes that Spider-Man
36337-414: The women looked like emaciated men and he bought it, never criticized, and told me to keep working. He paid me two hundred dollars for it and never published it—and rightfully so". Romita was working at the New York City company Forbes Lithograph in 1949, earning $ 30 a week, when comic book inker Lester Zakarin, a friend from high school whom he ran into on a subway train, offered him either $ 17 or $ 20
36540-427: The writing of Thunderbolts . He introduced new characters to serve as Osborn's black ops team, explaining: To quote the movie Speed , he's 'crazy, not stupid'. He's clearly fiercely intelligent and a natural born leader, with the ego and competitive drive to succeed against all odds. He also just happens to be crazy as a shithouse rat. [...] I think the secret to understanding Norman is that he doesn't realize he's
36743-478: Was Mike Esposito , who initially used the pseudonym "Mickey Demeo" to conceal from his regular employer, rival DC Comics , that he was moonlighting at Marvel. After three issues, Romita inked himself for issues #43–48 (November 1966 – May 1967), before Esposito returned—uncredited for issue #49 (June 1967), then as Mickey Demeo until finally taking credit under his own name with issue #56 (January 1968). Except for one issue (#65) inked by his successor, Jim Mooney ,
36946-404: Was drafted into the U.S. Army . Taking the initiative prior to induction, he showed art samples to the base art director on Governors Island in New York Bay , who arranged for him to be stationed there to do layouts for recruitment posters once Romita had completed basic training at Fort Dix , New Jersey . Romita was promoted to corporal after seven or eight months; now allowed to live off
37149-423: Was a clone, and assuming his father's Green Goblin identity. However, this narrative was rejected by newly promoted editor in chief Bob Harras , and eventually Norman was chosen to be the mastermind. Following the Clone Saga, Green Goblin re-established himself as a supervillain and Spider-Man's nemesis, serving as the main antagonist of several arcs thereafter. Osborn returns in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #75 and
37352-408: Was a cloud with a silver lining, and proved the making of Marvel, allowing the company to concentrate its brightest and best talent on a small number of titles, at a time when its rivals were spreading their creative talents very thin across a huge number of monthly titles. The quality of Marvel's product soared in consequence, and sales soared with it. While the creators of comics were given credit in
37555-464: Was also a rise in conservative values with the election in 1952 of Dwight Eisenhower . The Comics Code Authority, a self-censoring body founded to curb the juvenile delinquency alleged to be due to the crime and horror comics, has often been targeted as the culprit, but sales had begun to drop the year before it was founded. The major publishers were not seriously harmed by the drop in sales, but smaller publishers were killed off: EC (the prime target of
37758-401: Was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics ' The Amazing Spider-Man and for co-creating characters including Mary Jane Watson , the Punisher , Kingpin , Wolverine , and Luke Cage . Romita was the father of John Romita Jr. , also a comic book artist, and the husband of Virginia Romita, who was for many years Marvel's traffic manager. His first comics work
37961-554: Was based on an encyclopedia description he found on wolverines, as vicious short animals with claws. For the Punisher, a rough sketch was provided by writer Gerry Conway , with a skull and crossbones on the chest. Feeling this was too simple, Romita made the skull larger to encompass the Punisher's torso, with his belt buckle resembling teeth. Romita also designed Natasha Romanova 's Black Widow outfit, inspired by Miss Fury . Romita collaborated with The Electric Company and to produce Spidey Super Stories comics, which were aimed at
38164-501: Was because Stan asked me and I felt that I should help out, like a good soldier. I never really felt comfortable on Spider-Man for years. ... I felt obliged to [mimic] Ditko because ... I was convinced, in my own mind, that he was going to come back in two or three issues. ... I couldn't believe that a guy would walk away from a successful book that was the second-highest seller at Marvel. ... After six months, when I realized it wasn't temporary, I finally stopped trying to [mimic] Ditko. ... I
38367-430: Was born in New Haven, Connecticut as the son of wealthy industrialist Amberson Osborn. Amberson, a brilliant student in the fields of science, became an alcoholic after losing control of his manufacturing company and subsequently his entire fortune, and became physically abusive toward the family. Norman quickly came to despise his father, resolving to be a better breadwinner while developing early homicidal tendencies as
38570-470: Was burned out as a penciler after eight years of romance work. I didn't want to pencil any more; in fact, I couldn't work at home any more—I couldn't discipline myself to do it. He said, "Okay," but the first chance he had he shows me this Daredevil story somebody had started and he didn't like it, and he wanted somebody else to do it. [He] showed me Dick Ayers ' splash page for a Daredevil [and] asked me, 'What would you do with this page?' I showed him on
38773-414: Was chosen by writer Lee as the new artist for Amazing Spider-Man . Within a year of Romita becoming the Spider-Man artist, The Amazing Spider-Man rose from Marvel's second-best-selling title to the company's top-seller. Romita brought a new romance style to Spider-Man comics that soon became the new design for the character. In June 1973, Romita was promoted to Marvel's art director and heavily influenced
38976-399: Was derived from folding one sheet of Quarter Imperial paper (15 in × 11 in or 380 mm × 280 mm), to print 4 pages which were each 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 by 11 inches (190 mm × 280 mm). This also meant that the page count had to be some multiple of 4. In recent decades, standard comics have been trimmed at about 6.625 x 10.25 inches. The format of
39179-518: Was doing these nine-panel pages and the thin line, and I was doing Peter Parker without any bone structure—just like Ditko was doing, I thought. Lee later commented that this transition in Romita's style actually worked out for the benefit of the series, as it gradually weaned readers off the Ditko look while ultimately allowing Romita to work in the style he most excelled at. Romita took over The Amazing Spider-Man with issue #39 (August 1966). His first inker on what would become Marvel's flagship series
39382-419: Was formally introduced in issue #37, he too was stated to be a member of the club and friend of Jameson's. Ditko left the series with issue #38, just one issue after Norman Osborn was introduced as the father of Harry Osborn . The first issue without Ditko saw the Green Goblin unmasked. John Romita, Sr. , who replaced Ditko as the title's artist, recalled: Stan wouldn't have been able to stand it if Ditko did
39585-399: Was his. A five issue mini-series followed, written by writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and artist Emma Rios . The mini-series would lead into a dual storyline running in the pages of The New Avengers #17–24 and The Avengers vol. 4 #18–24, in which the character formed a new version of the Dark Avengers and ultimately garnered new powers, having turned himself into a Super-Adaptoid . Norman
39788-555: Was hugely successful, and Norman re-gained the wealth that he had lost during his childhood. However, his wife becomes ill and dies when Harry is barely a year old, the stress of which pushes Norman to work harder, leading him to emotionally neglect Harry. Hoping to gain more control of Oscorp Industries, Osborn accused Stromm of embezzlement and has his partner arrested and shares in his company sold to him. Searching his former mentor's possessions, Norman discovers incomplete notes for an experimental strength/intelligence enhancement formula;
39991-424: Was in France for some time). During this time abroad, believed dead by the general public, he orchestrates several plots, including replacing May Parker with a genetically altered actress, and faking his own son's death (after Mephisto 's manipulations of the timeline); prior to the timeline change, Harry's corpse, at one point, was exhumed and tested. Most significantly, however, he utilizes his fortune to build
40194-692: Was in 1949 as a ghost artist for Timely Comics , the precursor to Marvel, through which Romita met editor-in-chief Stan Lee . In 1951, Romita began drawing horror, war, and romance comics for Atlas Comics (previously Timely), and also drew his first superhero work, a 1950s revival of Captain America . He worked exclusively for DC Comics from 1958 to 1965 and was the artist for many of their romance comics. During these years, Romita further developed his ability to draw beautiful women, which he later became well-known for. Romita joined Marvel in 1965, initially drawing Daredevil comics. In 1966, when Spider-Man artist and co-creator Steve Ditko left Marvel, Romita
40397-454: Was not offered work by the other genre departments, although admitted he did not try to present himself to them either. Romita's last known DC story work was the six-page "My Heart Tricked Me", inked by Sachs, in Girls' Romances #121 (December 1966), though his spot illustrations, some or all of it reprints of earlier work, continued to appear on one-page "beauty tip" and other filler pages, as well as on letters pages, through early 1970, as did
40600-598: Was the primary artist for one of the first series with a black star, "Waku, Prince of the Bantu"—created by writer Don Rico and artist Ogden Whitney in the omnibus title Jungle Tales #1 (September 1954). The ongoing short feature starred an African chieftain in Africa, with no regularly featured Caucasian characters. Romita succeeded Whitney with issue #2 (November 1954). In the mid-1950s, while continuing to freelance for Atlas , Romita did uncredited work for DC Comics . Romita had been recommended to DC's editors by his artist friend Carmine Infantino while serving in
40803-456: Was the supervillain, despite Urich's extensive research. However, he saves his most sadistic treatment for Peter, acting not only as a constant reminder of all the pain he's inflicted on his nemesis over the years, but a looming threat that could strike at any time. This build-up of pressure eventually makes Spider-Man snap by savagely beating the civilian and non-resistant Osborn in front of the latter's CCTV , which, combined with Osborn convincing
41006-463: Was to use Mephisto , but they felt a more down-to-earth character was needed. It was then suggested that the semi- zombified cyborg " Gaunt " be revealed as Harry Osborn (who was killed in The Spectacular Spider-Man #200). Gaunt was a late entry to the controversial storyline, created mainly as a plot device to return Harry to life; the plan for the character included Harry regaining his humanity, taking credit for tricking Peter into thinking he
41209-506: Was unknown, but he proved popular and reappeared in later issues, which made a point of his secret identity. According to both Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr. , who replaced Ditko as the title's artist, Lee always wanted the Green Goblin to be someone Peter Parker knew, while Ditko wanted his civilian identity to be someone who had not yet been introduced. Lee elaborated: "Steve wanted him to turn out to be just some character that we had never seen before. Because, he said, in real life, very often
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