I forget who, but someone said that the protagonist of Dark Reign is really Norman, which I think is something the better writers at Marvel realize. Sure, he's an evil genius who's now in control of the most powerful military peacekeeping organization on the face of the planet, but he's also WAY OUT OF HIS LEAGUE. Despite putting together his little Cabel, he's not on the level of Doom or Magneto. He spent his time fighting Peter Parker, who can't even shoot energy blasts! Who does not even have a flying car!
And when you start to look at it outside of the Marvel universe, Osborn is kind of an underachiever who's long-term plans never got much further then "fuck with this low-level likeable super-hero who can't even hold down a job." And that's what I think could be (but likely won't) be the best part of Dark Reign, the little shark that by luck and scheme gets tossed in the ocean. The part of the ocean that has really, really big sharks.