While unscrupulous businessman Norman Osborn and his sadistic alter ego The Green Goblin have been most associated as the primary foe of New York City's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Peter Parker is far from the only Marvel superhero on Osborn's radar.
After years of chasing a teenage (and later adult) superhero in colorful spandex through the streets of New York City, Norman Osborn began to improve his tarnished image for the better. Rather than limit his attention to solely Spider-Man, Osborn would begin to have a much more active position in the larger Marvel Universe. With the Green Goblin persona once again being kept at bay due to a prescribed serum, Norman was free once more to spread his evil influence on a corporate level. 2008's Skrull focused Secret Invasion story-line would begin an arc for Norman that the character had not experienced in years.
It is Norman Osborn himself who delivers the killing blow on the Skrull Queen Veranke (who previously held the identity of superhero Jessica Drew a.k.a. Spider-Woman) by way of gunshot, effectively ending the Skrull invasion of Earth. Without a leader to fall behind, the assembled superheroes and supervillains handily deal with the remaining Skrull army. Osborn's public assassination of Queen Veranke, on live TV no less, secures the supervillain the keys to the castle that is national security. With Iron Man and his Avengers failing to protect the Earth from the Skrull invasion, President of the United States Barack Obama promptly appoints Norman Osborn as the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s substitute agency H.A.M.M.E.R.
Osborn's first order of business as head director of H.A.M.M.E.R. is assembling his own team of Dark Avengers to succeed where Tony Stark failed, by safeguarding the planet from major threats. Osborn's initial group is comprised of high risk supervillains Bullseye, son of Wolverine Daken, Moonstone, Venom (Mac Gargan), Ares, Noh-Varr, and disturbed superhero The Sentry, all filling in the roles of respected heroes. As if a supervillain leading his own twisted Avengers team wasn't enough, Osborn maintained a key position as high ranking member of The Cabal, a secretive sect containing several classic Marvel foes including Doctor Doom, Loki, Namor the Submariner, Emma Frost, and The Hood.
However, it's only a matter of time before Osborn's former life creeps up on the H.A.M.M.E.R. director. Osborn's unbridled lust for power and control led to an attack on Earth's New Asgard, located firmly in the sky above Broxton, Oklahoma. Culminating in a massive battle between the Dark Avengers and Captain America's New Avengers, Osborn and his forces are ultimately conquered after a brutal fight. Beaten and humiliated, Norman Osborn, whose own face is painted green to represent the madness of Green Goblin slowly returning, is reduced to an insane shell of his current identity. It is Osborn's one and only true nemesis Spider-Man who delivers the final blow that sends the villain right back to square one.