COMICS: Dan Slott Teases Norman Osborn's Return; Artwork From AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #699

Norman Osborn is one of the most iconic Spider-Man villains of all-time, and while Peter Parker currently has his hands full with Doctor Octopus, fans have been keeping their fingers crossed that the man who killed Gwen Stacy would finally return to make Spidey's life a hell. After he seemingly awakened from his coma in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #697, series writer Dan Slott has told Newsarama that he does indeed have plans for the 'Green Goblin' turned 'Iron Patriot'! What are they? Well, he doesn't give anything away, but it sounds like this is going to be good...

"Every time I've gotten a chance to play with Norman Osborn, he's been under someone else's purview. Either while Warren was doing Thunderbolts, or while Brian was doing Dark Avengers. Someone else had ownership of that character, and because of that, I was limited with what I could do with him. I couldn't do anything that would mess up someone's plans."

"If you're a Spider-Man writer, and Norman Osborn's alive, who wouldn't want to play with the Green Goblin? When Brian last left the character, he was in a coma, which is a great place to leave a character, because any writer can go, "And then he wakes up." Not kidding. A coma is a great place to leave a character. It sounds horrible in the real world, but in the world of comics, it's a very polite thing to do. I'm dying to do some Norman Osborn stuff."

"There's that feeling of, "Whoa, we're free and clear on the Norman Osborn side," but you want to have some space. After Brian does this seminal return of Norman story in Avengers with the Super-Adaptoid twists, you don't want to immediately go, "And now he's over in Spider-Man, next month." You want to give it some time to breathe. But I have every intention in the world of using Norman Osborn fiendishly."