Classic Green Goblin Bust
Symmetry is a powerful idea in society and in beauty because for some reason it just looks better. Maybe it's because we like things to look complete, or because there is some subtle beauty in the world that we feel, but can't always explain. Whatever the reason, things seem to need an opposite and equal to make them whole, a yin for the yang and a black for white. For the amazing Spider-Man his symmetry comes in the ghastly form of the Green Goblin who serves as his nemesis and most deadly opponent. So intertwined are the characters that the first big budget Spider-Man movie used the Goblin as Spidey's villain and now the yardstick by which future opponents will be measured.
The relationship between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin wasn't originally as closely matched as the movie would have you believe. When Spider-Man was created by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee in the early 60's he faced a bevy of villains before the Goblin made his appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #14. The movie (and the Ultimate Spider-Man series) have changed that to make the Goblin more involved with Spider-Man's origin, but revisionist history aside, we're looking at the classic character from the original Spider-Man comics.
The secret identity has always been a staple in comics, and it was the standard for just about every comics character and Spider-man and the Green Goblin fit into that mold. Marvel had introduced the innovation of no secret identity with the Fantastic Four, and the House of Ideas worked some magic on Spider-Man by another innovative first - a dual unmasking. In issue 39 of Amazing Spider-Man they had both the Goblin and Spider-Man unmasked to each other, so they knew the other's identity. The shocking part to the characters was that they knew each other since Peter Parker (Spider-Man) was a friend of Goblin Norman Osborn's son Harry. That can be an awkward moment, when your best friend's dad is trying to kill you. Now if Peter were making out with Norman's daughter Harriet, the desire for killing him would make more sense coming from Norman.
See the Big Picture
The Green Goblin has been drawn by many artists over the years, and one of the most well-known is John Romita. There is a John Romita drawing Spider-Man today, but he's the son of the John 'Ring-A-Ding' Romita (how did he ever let Stan pin that moniker on him), and the elder Romita is the artist who inspired this bust. John Romita's work followed the legendary Steve Ditko on Spider-Man and John's prior work on romance comics helped bring more life to the character scenes and produced a very sexy Mary Jane Watson to fill the reader's (and Peter's) imaginations.
Choosing an artistic style was the first step in designing this bust, and the second was choosing a more specific version. Rather than picking a generic version of the Goblin from John's run, a specific two-issue story arc was selected to represent both the Goblin and Spider-Man. The issues are Amazing Spider-Man #'s 39 and 40, and they cover the mutual unmasking of Spidey and the Goblin and the battle between them.
 Dynamic Forces has created a pair of matching busts to celebrate not only Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, but also the style of John Romita. The Green Goblin bust matches the Spider-Man bust in scale and style, and both are larger than other Marvel busts produced by Bowen Designs and Diamond Select. The Goblin is eight inches tall, and sits atop a base that looks like a factory, belching out the Goblin's visage from the stacks. The factory represents Norman Osborn's company - Osborn Industries, and the Goblin's face represents evil, pure and simple.
The matched pair of busts share many things in common. Greg Aronowitz performed the design sculpting and painting for the Goblin and Spider-Man. The Goblin has a variant keeping with the theme of symmetry, and it has an unmasked Goblin similar to the unmasked version of Spidey. Both busts are scaled the same and go perfectly well together for display. The standard box is nearly the same as Spidey's box, complete with images of the bust, the companion Spider-Man bust and a look at the variants of each. It also has reproductions of the covers to the two comics that the busts are based on - Amazing Spider-Man #'s 39 and 40. The images are on the sides behind images of the bust, and they make a nice addition to the box for fans of the original artwork, and the box can be placed to hide them if you aren't. It's probably a moot point since you wouldn't buy one if you didn't like the art it interprets!
The variant is limited to 300 pieces while the regular version has 1964 pieces, the year that the Goblin premiered. The industrious Chinese have thoughtfully numbered all the busts on the bottom, just in case you go to a bust bash and your ends up next to someone else's so you'll know which belongs to whom. Those wonderful people have also packed the bust in China's official packing material - Styrofoam. It also comes with that new Goblin smell, free of charge.
More Pictures of the Green Goblin
| Where to buy the Green Goblin: This Green Goblin bust retails in the $99 USD price range, and is available at your local comic book store and at the Dynamic Forces web site, as well as at various online toy and collectibles retailers.
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