Green Goblin is probably the most insane of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery and that insanity has infected every person to don the green suit. Norman Osborne is the original Green Goblin but that doesn’t mean he is the only one to gear up and hop on a glider.
Green Goblin has died as many times as, well, Spider-Man has. But he keeps coming back (just like Spidey, and every other beloved hero). But that doesn’t mean that Norman Osborn was always behind the mask. Though whoever wore the ghoulish grimace inevitably could often do little to abate the madness behind the mask. Sure Norman was first, showing up in Amazing Spider-Man #14, and he likely won’t be the last. But let’s start with him.
The wealthy chemical and industrial mogul built himself from the ground up, coming from an abusive family life. Norman first made himself a green costume based on his childhood nightmares of goblins and faced off against Spidey and lost. Norman decided to enhance himself with some Oscorp-made cocktail that boosted his strength but ultimately drove him to madness. Like any good supervillain, he learned Spider-Man’s secret identity and made it his mission to ruin Peter Parker’s life.
Eventually Spidey thought he rid himself of the Green Goblin after tossing Norman onto some live wires drenched in chemicals. Norman woke up amnesic with no memory up to when his son entered high school. But the Goblin was far from gone, and merely resting as a separate consciousness in Osborn’s mind. After resurfacing and taking over Norman, in a later battle he was impaled by his own glider after aiming it at Spider-Man, much like in Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man movie. Harry Osborn, Norman's son, witnessed the death and vowed vengeance on Spider-Man.
Harry had overdosed on psychedelic drugs in the past. Paired with the grief of losing his father, his girlfriend and using the Green Goblin serum, it caused Harry to lose his sanity and adopt the Green Goblin costume. Harry learned Spider-Man’s identity and sought to kill him. Peter, not wanting to hurt his longtime friend, refuses to fight. Harry is knocked unconscious and arrested. A criminal psychologist then hypnotizes Harry to try and extract the Green Goblin from Harry’s mind. In a surprising twist, the psychologist then decides he would look good in green and purple and becomes the third Green Goblin.
Harry is deemed cured and forgets Spider-Man’s identity thanks to a significant bonk to his head. After a few relapses into Goblin life Harry rids himself of the notion of being the Goblin and lives out his life happily ever after. Well, until his memories come back and he loses his mind all over again, kidnaps his own family, rigs a house to explode with both he and Spider-Man in it. He's only shocked back to sanity to rescue his own son from the impending explosion before succumbing to the effects of an advanced Green Goblin serum that turned out to be lethal.
The psychologist described above, Barton raids Harry’s stash of Green Goblin gear and terrorizes the city. Without the Green Goblin serum, though, Barton is no match for Harry when he fights back and Barton is accidentally killed when a bomb intended for Spider-Man blows him up.
Nephew of reporter Ben Urich at the Daily Bugle, Phil stumbles upon a hidden cache of leftover Goblin gear and sustains a zap from the costume that grants him the increased abilities. Phil suffers none of the mania typical of other Goblins and dons the costume as a crime fighter in the wake of Harry’s death. His superhero career has mixed results as others view his actions as dubious, especially paired with the costume’s history. He retires the equipment after it's damaged in a battle with a sentinel. Urich becomes the hobgoblin later on, this time a villain. But he’s killed when Norman, bonded with the Carnage symbiote, tears out his heart after catching him trying to steal more Goblin equipment. Though he didn't stay dead and later on had other roles as the Goblin Knight and later the Goblin King in a run of comics.
Throughout all the iterations, Norman Osborn has been the purest form of the Green Goblin. Norman has also been a symbiote-enhanced goblin dubbed Red Goblin, formed a dark mirror version of the Avengers and wore the Iron Patriot suit. But his fallback has always been the Green Goblin.
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