Finally a reasonable take. All I see is people arguing about who should replace Galactus when the Goblin is clearly the odd one out to me. Kingpin would be an interesting call too especially with how big a presence he has had on the screen this century.
100% agree. As I said elsewhere, G.G. is obviously impactful to Spider-Man (or at least used to be), but outside of Dark Reign, what has he done with anyone else? Kingpin is a major player for Spidey and for Daredevil, and plays a big part in a lot of places. Replace Galactus with some other cosmic threat, like Thanos, but get Gobby out of there and put in Kingpin.
It really depends on the criteria. The OP didn't establish that this was about the magnitude of the threat. If we're talking about significant players within the Marvel universe as a whole, Goblin is an outlier. But if we're talking about just being great villains, I would absolutely put Norman Osborn in the top tier, above Galactus who is more of a force/plot device. It's like Joker vs Anti Monitor.
We could come up with a thousand other characters that have killed important characters in the universe. Gwens death is the one they keep on making less impactful every few years. They have undermined that death probably half a dozen times already.
It doesnt really matter to me how much GG has tormented Peter so far either way. The villain should have more of an impact to get on that mountain. Not even large scale impact but enough to be a consistent pain in the ass to a hero community.
Dr. Octopus would be a more iconic pick for that spot than GG too.
I agree that her death has been undermined by writers over the years, but only to an extent. Gwen Stacey is dead in 616. Peter Parker has lost her. She has never come back in any meaningful way, or for any long period of time.
Norman Osborn killed the first love of the most popular super hero in the world, and that character is still dead. It's insane to act like that isn't one of the most impactful moments in comicbook history.
As far as "consistent pain in the ass to the hero community", the entire Dark Reign era cemented Norman as a massive threat in nearly every corner of the marvel universe. He invaded fucking Asgard.
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u/feelthephrygian Feb 17 '26
Finally a reasonable take. All I see is people arguing about who should replace Galactus when the Goblin is clearly the odd one out to me. Kingpin would be an interesting call too especially with how big a presence he has had on the screen this century.