The Amazing Spider-Man # 37 (1963)
Norman Osborn’ first proper appearance in the Spider-Man comics. He’s already apparead a few times, but this issue is the first one really focusing on him.
On these two panels, Lee and Ditko are already establishing two mains of Osborn’s character’s traits :
1-He’s a sleazy, corrupted businessman.
2-He’s also a shitty dad.
Despite the fact that Trump has not (to date) flown around on a Halloween-themed hoverboard while wearing a goblin costume and hurling bombs at people, he does have a lot in common with Norman Osborn. Both of them are business tycoons who live in giant towers in New York City.
Both of them also have a thing for blondes who are much younger than them. Trump, despite looking like an embalming accident, is married to a former model 25 years his junior, while Osborn had an affair with Spider-Man’s girlfriend, Gwen Stacy. Both these turns of events are equally inexplicable.
So strong is this blonde obsession, in fact, that it even leads these powerful men to desire (or repeatedly joke about desiring) women they should stay the hell away from. Osborn once impregnated his son’s girlfriend, while Trump’s own family weirdness is somehow even more off-putting. We’re not going to detail every sexual comment he’s made about his daughters here, because 1) there are already enough articles about that, and 2) holy shit there are multiple articles about that.
And finally, one has pumpkin bombs, while the other simply resembles a pumpkin.
But wait. Wacky looks, lavish buildings, younger women, incestuous overtones – we’re describing every millionaire ever here, aren’t we? Sure, but that’s only the beginning.
How Marvel Predicted Trump’s Rise Almost 10 Years Ago
“Green Goblins don’t exist in real life, but Norman Osborns definitely do.” – me in a post two years ago, blissfully unaware of the awfulness to come
The above is Normie Osborn’s near death experience from spidergirl 63. I just felt like posting it since I was just reminded of how the current folks in charge of 616 spiderman decided to make Liz into Harry’s evil ex loyal to Norman.
It just rather clearly illustrates how badly Marvel has mishandled spiderman the last few decades. I mean neither spidergirl nor Ultimate spiderman were perfect titles but even at their worst they were far and away better than anything that’s happened in 616 in decades.
They did WHAT to Liz?!?!?!?!
Also, I love this.
You know how everyone always goes on about how Harry and Norman Osborn have cornrows? It’s been a joke for ages, it was even a joke in the Deadpool comics I think, but –
– maybe they’re just both biracial? There’s nothing to contradict that as far as I know, although I know nothing about hair in general, but…it seems plausible? And – and – this is a young-ish Harry in Spider-Gwen:
He doesn’t really look like a white kid to me.
