Hey guys!
Welcome back to Top 10 Nerd, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
Red Goblin is a new addition to comics, and for some time was a mystery to comic book
fans, leading to a number of theories.
But I’m here to set the record straight, and hit you up with some cool facts about
this new baddie.
As always, I’ll make sure to include a few important facts about him that aren’t so
shocking, but will help people to understand what his deal is.
Because I’m certain some people have never even heard of him!
Also, this will go all the way up to Amazing Spider-Man 800, so if you want to avoid spoilers,
you might want to wait.
Or at least, skip numbers 3, 2, and 1, because they’re the most spoilery.
I literally just read it and I’m still feeling emotional, it was such a good conclusion.
As always, if you finish this and want more, check out our video on Ronin next!
But first, get ready, it’s time for the Top 10 Shocking Facts about Red Goblin!
Also, as a side note, I know the Venom movie is calling them Symbiotes, but I personally
prefer saying symbiote, so I’m gonna.
Sorry not sorry.
Number 10: He’s a Green Goblin/Carnage combo.
For some time after Red Goblin was first revealed, nerds everywhere were trying to figure out
what the heck it was.
But a whole lot of people thought it was sort of pact with Mephisto, thanks to some trickery
from Dan Slott.
The story there is a while back, Dan Slott made a tweet that seemed to be intended as
a message to editor Nick Lowe.
It read: “Sorry.
Email's down.
Time sensitive.
I think there's a site mentioning the Osborn/Mephisto pact.
Can you or Andrea get them to pull that?
We need to fix this NOW.
This sent everyone into hysteria, and confirmed to many that Mephisto was involved.
But it turned out, this was all just a ruse.
I love a good ruse.
Red Goblin was eventually revealed to be Norm with the Carnage symbiote.
He stole the symbiote from its secure location, and ended up bonding with it for the sweet
sweet power.
At first the symbiote took control, but then Norm was like “Hey, you like killing and
torturing people?
I like killing and torturing people!”
And carnage was like “Did we just become best friends?”
And Norman was like “No I hate everyone but if you give me control I’ll kill people”
and Carnage was like “K.”
Number 9: Amazon blew it.
Red Goblin was a bit of a mystery for quite some time, although many people had guessed
his identity.
But then one particular Amazon listing accidentally gave it away.
Running counter to Slott’s red herring that it was Mephisto, the UK Amazon page for volume
9 said, and I quote, “Norman Osborn has finally found a way to become a Goblin again
and is gunning for Spider-Man in the biggest way possible.
His new weapon?
The Carnage Symbiote!”
You had ONE JOB Amazon!
Now granted, a lot of people had already guessed that this was the case, since there aren’t
a whole lot of other bright red dudes in Spider-man, but they definitely dropped the ball on this
one.
Number 8: The Goblin Formula’s back.
If you've been keeping on top of Spidey news, you'll know that some time ago, Peter managed
to cure Osborn of the Goblin formula.
This was during the whole Goblin Nation event, when Norman Osborne was trying to take over
New York as the Goblin King.
The serum antidote, created by Parker Industries, held nanites that not only took away his Green
Goblin powers, but also took away his insanity.
But Norman wasn't a fan of being sane, so he used the symbiote to eject the nanites
from his body.
Unfortunately for the good guys, when he added the Goblin Formula onto the already powerful
Carnage symbiote, he became something new.
And better.
The two evil power sources combined to bring him even more power; all the strengths, but
none of the weaknesses.
Back to the drawing board, Spidey.
Number 7: He’s no longer weak to sound or fire.
Yep, as I so subtly hinted at in the last point, many past weaknesses are no longer
an issue for the Red Goblin.
The symbiotes don’t have a ton of weaknesses anyway, but sonic and fire attacks tended
to hurt them, often causing them to separate from their host.
However, the Carnage Symbiote lost its weakness to sonic attacks when it was exposed to the
power of the Darkhold, and it didn’t stop there.
Once it combined with the Goblin Formula, it also lost its weakness to fire, allowing
Red Goblin to beat the pants off of Human Torch.
Which otherwise would have been super easy for Johnny Storm.
He even pulls a Batman and has his previous fear as part of his costume.
Bruce was afraid of bats, so he wears a cape and mask that make him look like a bat.
Carnage was weak to fire, so in Red Goblin form, he freaking breathes fire.
What a show off.
Number 6: Carnage Bombs.
Another revelation in issue 798 was a new take on the Green Goblin’s bombs.
This time, they’re connected to the symbiote, with Peter calling them “Carnage Bombs”.
And unfortunately, they don’t set off his spider sense.
Why?
Well, since Peter was fused with the venom symbiote, Venom couldn’t be detected by
the spider-sense.
And since the carnage symbiote is the spawn of the venom symbiote, it too couldn’t be
sensed by Spidey.
And since the bombs are made of the carnage symbiote, well, you get the point.
But that’s not all the bombs have going for them.
Since they seem to be semi-sentient and made up of the carnage symbiote, they can bite
and latch onto enemies.
But by far the worst part, that turns these from scary weapons into terrifying weapons
is…
They giggle.
Bleghghgh.
Number 5: He can be cleansed by Anti-Venom.
One thing we learned about Red Goblin throughout the story arc is that he’s insanely strong.
Frankly, kind of overpowered.
He was able to take out the spider family singlehandedly with barely a scratch.
So it was definitely encouraging to see that Anti-Venom’s cleansing ability does seem
to have an effect on the symbiote.
Finally a weakness that’s still a weakness!
This was especially important when Anti-Venom, aka Flash Thompson, realized that the pins
Red Goblin had shot at his victims eventually resulted in incredible suffering.
Red Goblin had planned to use this as a big eff you to Spider-Man, but Flash managed to
extract them from Osborn’s victims with the last of his Anti-Venom powers.
What a guy.
Number 4: He knows Peter’s identity.
It turns out, Osborn had managed to get Peter’s identity out of J. Jonah Jameson, much to
Jameson’s dismay.
Don’t worry, Jonah definitely made up for it, but that’s a story for another day.
But now, Osborn is putting this info to good, or rather evil, use, since he’s now able
to threaten those Peter cares about, which is a huge deal, especially for someone like
Peter.
He learned about this right before Norman went Red Goblin for the first time, and if
he wasn’t shocked to learn Osborn knew his identity, he was even more shocked when Norman
revealed the Carnage Symbiote.
This knowledge has been a significant part of the last few issues, with Norman often
baiting and teasing Spider-Man about his knowledge, threatening MJ and Aunt May.
Number 3: He can infect others.
This is definitely the coolest thing power of the Red Goblin, and I actually had it at
number one at first.
But then when issue 800 came out I had to rewrite the crap out of this list, and it
was stuck at number 3.
Still pretty good.
Osborn managed to get his hands on his grandson Normie, and right at the end of the issue,
transformed him into a mini Red Goblin.
This was like… totally disturbing to me, both Harry’s desperation and the freaky
look of the mini goblin make me feel incredibly uncomfortable.
He later goes on to take the name Goblin Childe, which frankly, isn’t the best name in the
world, but he is a kid after all.
Thankfully, Normie was able to shut down the symbiote after seeing his grandpa try to kill
his mom.
And later, they extracted the symbiote from him, leaving him free of Red Goblin’s influence.
OR WAS HE?
Number 2: He has too much pride for his own good.
In the final battle between Peter and Norman, things were looking rough for spidey.
Fire was everywhere, and while it no longer affected Red Goblin, the venom symbiote was
still weak to it.
In a final gambit, Peter did what he did best: started talking.
He pointed out that Norman didn’t really have the glory of this victory, since he couldn’t
have done any of it without the Carnage symbiote.
This made Norman super conflicted; he wanted to win, but he didn’t want to share the
glory with some slimy red gunk!
But the last straw came when Spider-Man took off the Venom symbiote, offering a one on
one fight, Spider-Man vs. Green Goblin, for all the marbles, with no symbiotes.
And Norm just couldn’t resist.
When he saw that the little punk had gotten rid of HIS symbiote, Norman decided he wasn’t
going to be upstaged, and ripped Carnage off of him.
He was still green goblin under there, so it wasn’t an instant win for Spider-Man,
plus some exploding gas tanks put him on his heels, but eventually, Norman was defeated.
How?
Well…
Number 1: In the end, he was defeated by love.
Yeah, I know, I want to vomit from the corniness, but this story really highlighted the advantages
of being a good guy.
Normally, the fact that good guys care about other people is a hindrance, because baddies
can take advantage.
But this time, it’s the heroes who take advantage of it.
Anti-Venom was able to heal Peter and get him back in the fight.
Later, thanks to Peter’s on again off again bromance of sorts with Eddie Brock, he was
given the Venom symbiote to fight Osborne, hoping that the symbiote combined with his
Spider powers could beat Norm.
Goblin Childe Normie turned on Osborn when he tried to kill his mom, whom he loved.
Harry hit him with a freaking rocket because he was attacking his family.
And in the end, it was thinking about everyone depending on him that gave Peter the drive
to push through the pain, and defeat Green Goblin.
Yes, having loved ones makes you more vulnerable, but it also gives you support, and even more
importantly, it gives you someone to fight for.
Damn, we got deep today.
That’s it for today!
Hope you guys enjoyed, if you did please smack that thumbs up button and subscribe to Top
10 Nerd for more videos!
There was one very notable death in issue 800 that I wanted to include, but it’s a
big spoiler and I ran out of space, so I left it out.
So if you’re wondering why I didn’t include it, that’s why.
Feel free to discuss the storyline in the comment section down below, just don’t do
it if you’re afraid of spoilers!
Also, check out our Top 10 Recently Uploaded playlist if you’re looking to catch up on
missed videos!
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Top 10 nerd.
Later nerds!