This is the latest in a series (of indefinite length and regularity) of pieces looking at particular odd/strange/interesting instances of retroactively connecting different comic book characters (for instance, Uncanny X-Men #268 retroactively established that Wolverine knew both Captain America and the Black Widow from World War II). Here is an archive of all of the past pieces.

Today, based on a suggestion by John Trumbull, we take a look at the connection between Sandman and Norman Osborn, or rather, their hairstyles...

NOTE: There's no real good banner image to use for this, so I just went with the issue of Deadpool where Deadpool went back in time to a 1966 issue of Amazing Spider-Man and made fun of the Osborn men's hairstyles.

Okay, so in Amazing Spider-Man #4, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko introduced Sandman...

In Amazing Spider-Man #23, Norman Osborn theoretically was introduced (I am sure it was just a coincidence and that was simply a generic rich guy by Ditko, but who knows?)...

In Amazing Spider-Man #37, Osborn made his first full appearance...

Two issues later, with John Romita now on board on art, Osborn is revealed to be the Green Goblin...

Well, thirty years later, in Spider-Man: Chapter One #0, John Byrne decided that that hair style was too unique for it to be a coincidence that Sandman and Norman Osborn both had it, so he decided to retroactively make them distant cousins...

No one has specifically re-retconned this, but I suspect that it is no longer part of Spider-Man continuity. Maybe Dan Slott can demonstrate it one way or the other some time in the future!

Thanks to John for the suggestion! If YOU have a sugggestion for a future edition of Foundationed Deep, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com!