InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "He fell off the roof."

cyberghostface (cyberghostface) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-09-13 00:02:00

Entry tags:

char: green goblin/norman osborn, creator: mark buckingham, creator: paul jenkins, title: peter parker spider-man

Norman Osborn's Childhood

I figured with Norman's current status as Official Bastard of the Marvel Universe, it might be time to take a trip down memory lane...

This one comes from Peter Parker Spider-Man #25. I may post the larger story later as it's pretty good IMO.

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	halloweenjack 2009-09-14 09:10 pm UTC (link)
	Which is why I said "the notion that all mental illness". I realize that it's more dramatic to have childhood trauma, but after a few dozen of these stories it turns into "My nightlight burned out early one night, therefore I became the Slashulator." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

cyberghostface
2009-09-14 10:28 pm UTC (link)

It depends on the character, IMO. If you're going to have a long-term major villain present throughout the series, having them simply being "evil" for the heck of it without any fleshed out motivations or backstory just makes it uninteresting.

If a character's just fodder for Spidey to punch around, that's one thing--you don't necessarily need their life story. But when you're dealing with major characters like Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus, it doesn't hurt to expand their character.

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halloweenjack
2009-09-14 10:51 pm UTC (link)

And I agree with what you say in the second para, as well as that it's good to have a decent backstory for your A-list villains, but having to have some sort of Big Dramatic Psychodrama as an explanation for why they turned to a life of crime leads to unfortunate (if dated) incidents like Young Lex Luthor deciding to become a supervillain because the World's Smartest Teen couldn't figure out, or admit to himself, that Superboy wasn't really to blame for making his hair fall out.

You know what one of the best explanations with regards to villainous motivations was, ever? Supposedly, someone asked Willie "The Actor" Sutton, about as close as the real world has ever come to producing a real supervillain, why he robbed banks, and he said*, "Because that's where the money is."

*Probably not really, but it's still a great line.

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