WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home, now playing in theaters.
In Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man movie, Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn/Green Goblin was cerebral and intimidating, so much so that to this day he has remained as one of Marvel's best villainous depictions. But while he pushed Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker to the brink, wrecking him physically and mentally, he died hands of the wall-crawler. Well, come Spider-Man: No Way Home, Goblin gets a second chance, and as he kicks his ruthlessness up a notch, he gets brutal revenge.
Norman's one of the incursions into the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Pete and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) botch their brainwashing spell, but rather than go on a murder spree, he seeks out Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and Peter's (Tom Holland) help. May pushes Pete to cure him of his split personality and send him back, but it turns out, it was Goblin in Norman's skin, manipulating Peter in an attempt to save his own life.
This leads to a massive brawl with Goblin battering Spidey bloody before using his glider to mortally wound May as she tries to defend her nephew. May perishes in Peter's hands while urging him to remain a hero despite all the darkness surrounding him, but Goblin's damage is already done, with Peter being left traumatized by this death and Goblin's taunts.
Peter doesn't just have the last of his kin taken away -- Goblin transforms his hope, optimism and trust into despair, rage and a lust for murder. It was brutally calculating and almost got the hero to throw his moral compass out of the window. However, just as Peter is about to impale the villain with the glider, Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man stops him. And it was good that he did because the gang ends up curing Goblin and bringing Norman back.
But despite that victory, Peter is left unable to shake Goblin's words that this was his fault, as his selfish desire to hide his identity from the world is what brought these fiends over. And by trying to save them, Pete provides Goblin with the pawns and plan he needs to break Spidey. Ultimately, the shattering of Pete's world comes full circle because, with no choice left, everyone he loves -- including his soulmate, MJ, and bestie, Ned -- gets mind-wiped. This means he essentially loses his life after Goblin weaponizes his mistakes, permanently destroying his world by taking away his family and leaving him with an existential crisis that he won't shake anytime soon.
To see Green Goblin get his revenge, Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in theaters.