How to introduce Norman Osborn to the MCU (thread)

With Phase 4 of the MCU finally starting thanks to the releases of @WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, we now have a clear idea of what Marvel’s plans are for the franchise moving forward.

It appears that the plan for Marvel’s next phase of films and shows is focusing on two things: legacy and villain-centric stories. With characters like Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Natasha Romanoff gone, there’s a void in the MCU that’s waiting to be filled.

We’ve already gotten hints about potential supervillain (and anti-hero) centric teams being set up in the MCU (the Thunderbolts, the Dark Avengers, and the Sinister Six). Teams that could try to fill the void left behind now that the Avengers have disbanded.

Multiple government officials like Thunderbolt Ross, Tyler Hayward, and Valentina Allegra De Fontaine clearly have plans to have their own government controlled superhumans that could do their bidding unlike the Avengers.

And this is where Norman Osborn comes into play. Being one of Spider-Man’s biggest enemies, he is considerably one of the most powerful villains at Marvel. Not through brute strength or enhanced abilities. But, because of his money, intelligence, and advanced technology.

And because of this, he could be one of Marvel’s most important and influential villains, on par with Loki, Thanos, and Killmonger. So this is how Norman Osborn should be introduced in the MCU.

We see him make an appearance in one of NWH’s end credits scenes.

We don’t see his face yet, but we can hear his voice and he says that he has his own plans for an army of Oscorp-controlled superhumans that he could sell to various criminal organizations, like the Ten Rings or AIM. And we get a quick glimpse of the Oscorp building.

And while it would be cool to see that Osborn bought Avengers Tower from Tony, I think it would make more sense that Tony sold the tower to Reed Richards. Tony would most likely know about Osborn’s shady reputation, and wouldn’t be too inclined to sell him the tower.

Anyways, with Tony’s death, and the Avengers’ disbandment after Endgame, Osborn would use this opportunity to essentially replace Tony Stark as the world’s best weapons and tech manufacturer and try to seize power with his own advanced technology.

Stark tech, Pym Particles, the Super Soldier Serum, nanotechnology, Tesseract-powered weaponry, Chitauri technology. Multiple organizations have tried to reverse-engineer this technology for their own nefarious purposes. Oscorp wouldn’t be any different.

Osborn would reverse-engineer this technology to make his own team of “superheroes”: the Dark Avengers, with himself serving as the new Iron Patriot in an attempt to “replace” Iron Man. This could lead to him appearing in Armor Wars.

But, the true prize would Osborn would be his own army of Spider-powered soldiers. With Spider-Man becoming a well known figure in the MCU, Norman could attempt to capture him and harass his DNA to create his own army of Spider-Men.

In order to do that, he’ll need a team of individuals who have had encounters with Spider-Man before. Those who would know his strengths and weaknesses. A team so powerful, even Spider-Man couldn’t defeat them all at once. Enter the Sinster Six.

Osborn could serve as the benefactor of the S6, supplying them with new weapons and tech powerful enough to take down Spider-Man. He could hire them to capture Spider-Man so he can study his powers and use his DNA to create his own Spider-Men.

Maybe in exchange for expunged criminal records, as well as a large assortment of cash.

He could potentially recreate multiple versions of the spider that bit Peter Parker. This could lead to him creating various well known Spider-Characters such as Peter Parker clones Ben Reilly and Kaine. Who would eventually leave Osborn and become heroes just like Peter Parker.

And if said spiders escape, they could end up creating more Spider Characters such as Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales, Silk, and Spider-Woman (though, each bite would give each character their own unique powers).

And with Nick Fury busy in space, Osborn could rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D. in his image, granting him way more power through government connections and contracts. Making him even more dangerous than before.

And because of all of the advanced technology at his disposal, it could be possible that the Power Broker is, in fact, Osborn himself. With Sharon being his main source of acquiring government secrets and top-secret technology.

Also, remember Sonny Burch? The guy determined to receive Hank’s quantum technology to give it to his “mysterious buyers”? Well, what if those buyers were Oscorp? And Norman wanted to use quantum tech to potentially open the doors to various realities?

Now, for the elephant in the room. How do we introduce the Green Goblin into the MCU? Well, it’s simple: the Super Soldier Serum. Osborn could try to make his own version of the serum (the Goblin Formula) that would slowly corrupt his mind and make him mentally unstable.

This would ultimately lead to the creation of the Green Goblin. Giving him enhanced strength, durability, and healing on par with Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes, but having nasty side effects like Emil Blonsky or Red Skull.

And if, let’s say, Ned dies in NWH, Norman could resurrect him using the serum, brainwash and control him similar to Bucky being controlled by HYDRA, and turn him into the Hobgoblin in order to fight Peter and mentally break him.

And that is how I would introduce Norman Osborn to the MCU. That is a lot of storytelling for one character, I admit, but I feel like this would be the best way to make Norman one of the MCU’s biggest and best villains, having that much power and control in the universe.