Welcome to the Goblin Hideout's salute to the shared history of Norman Osborn and Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool). By far one of the wackiest, most antagonistic relationships in all of Osborn's sordid affairs, Deadpool has proven to be as irritating to the original Goblin as Spider-Man himself. To get a taste of Osborn's feeling's on Deadpool, check out this panel from Thunderbolts #131...
As an interesting side note, Deadpool has a Jack and the Beanstalk-themed hallucination during his infiltration of Osborn's Avengers Tower. Norman, of course, plays the role of the Giant...
The Thunderbolts eventually 'kill' Deadpool...
One thing is for sure, Deadpool's run-ins with Norman Osborn really stuck with him...in the time that followed Secret Invasion and Dark Reign Deadpool recounted his recent history in a musical! Norman and his gang were featured prominently, here's a few panels from Deadpool's musical in Deadpool (V2) #49.1...Even Spidey gets a dig in on ol' Norman...
Later, in Deadpool Corps #1, Norman Osborn was front and center as Deadpool reflected on the true-villains of the Marvel Universe (and whether or not he is one of them)...is that respect??
Perfect tone-setter for this page, so let's get started!
The irony of the bitter mutual-hatred between Deadpool and Norman Osborn is that when they first met in Deadpool #11, the merc with a mouth actually saved Osborn's life! You'd think that would make them friends forever, but there's a caveat...Deadpool only saved his life because he had been transported back in time (to around the time of Amazing Spider-Man #47) and he did not want to disrupt the timeline. Thus he was forced to repeat Spidey's actions from back then. Sound confusing? Let's go through it a bit more slowly.
After a 'caustic temporal collision', Deadpool and his cohort Blind Alfred (who is actually a woman) are sent whirling through space-time and crash (literally) right on to Peter Parker's front porch...nearly killing Aunt May. Eventually Deadpool's allies, led by his scientific buddy Weasel, are able to send a note to Deadpool (through a wormhole created by the Doorman...long story) that provides him directions on how to return to the present time. He would need to activate his transporter at midnight that night, the only problem was that he had some time to kill and was forced to go undercover as Peter Parker.
So he dons a holographic suit based on Peter's image...
He pretends to be Peter, whilst Blind Alfred takes on the role of Aunt May, and he begins a charade that starts with fooling Anna Watson...and some serious hijinks ensues.
Eventually Deadpool (as Peter Parker) tracks down a younger, clean-cut version of Weasel. The Weasel from back in the day is way different from the one Deadpools knows from his original timeline. For one, his really name is Jack Hammer and two, he seems to have an incredibly promising scientific career ahead of him. Jack Hammer is a relevant to the Norman Osborn aspect as well, we'll get to that eventually...
Here ya go, the infamous 'first meeting' between Norman Osborn and Peter Parker...but wait...did Norman actually meet Deadpool instead of Peter Parker??
Deadpool takes on helluva pummeling from Kraven the Hunter, again, he's battling in place of Spidey here...
Kraven becomes preoccupied with Norman Osborn (to understand why exactly, see here)
And Deadpool saves the day...
This where its gets interesting. Weasel was in competition for a job at Osborn's company and other competitive applicant was none other than Peter Parker! In order to get Jack Hammer to become the modern-day Weasel, Deadpool sabotages his chances at getting that job at Osborn's company. Deadpool basically tells Osborn that Jack is an alcoholic who needs clinical help. This sends Jack Hammer on a path to become Deadpool's scientific ally, Weasel.
Let the celebration begin!
Eventually Deadpool and his crew would make it back to their original timeline and all is well with the universe. Many years would pass before Norman and Deadpool would cross paths and it gets ugly from here.
During the Skrull Invasion (aka the Secret Invasion), Deadpool was tasked by Nick Fury to retrieve data from the Skrulls. In the process of transmitting that information to Fury, Norman Osborn was able to intercept the transmission. This enabled Norman to rise to prominence once he killed the Skrull Queen.
Deadpool was none-too-pleased about that since he was promised a big cash payout from Fury once the data was received. And Norman wasn't done there, in order to silence Deadpool, he sent Tiger Shark and Bob to kill Deadpool...
That attempt to kill Deadpool failed, and the merc was ready to take his beef right to Osborn's front door step. The only problem was Osborn's Thunderbolts were waiting for him...
As an interesting side note, Deadpool has a Jack and the Beanstalk-themed hallucination during his infiltration of Osborn's Avengers Tower. Norman, of course, plays the role of the Giant...
The Thunderbolts eventually 'kill' Deadpool...
But of course, the lovable merc finds a way to get cash from Osborn...
Once Osborn realizes that Deadpool wasn't killed he steps up his game and sends his most lethal assassin, Bullseye, to do the job right!
Eventually Bullseye fails to kill Deadpool and ends up simply paying the merc hush-money to lay low and pretend that he was dead, making it seem as if Bullseye was successful...
Ironically, the next time that Deadpool resurfaces, he inadvertently helps Osborn's agenda. In brief, during Osborn's Dark Reign the X-Men relocate to San Francisco. Deadpool was not invited to join them, but he did want to help...in his own way. He decides to assassinate a man by the name of Ellis Kincaid, who had been publicly denouncing Cyclops for holding his mutant daughter hostage. This was not true, however if Deadpool were to kill Kincaid it would shift public sentiment completely against the X-Men, a benefit Osborn would love to have. Norman is able to exacerbate the situation by staging two inept H.A.M.M.E.R. guards to protect Kincaid. The door was open for Deadpool to unintentionally help Osborn...
However, Osborn was not able to swing public opinion in his favor against the X-Men because Kincaid unveils that Osborn was behind his public tirade the entire time. Not to mention that Deadpool had no intention of killing Kincaid, he was actually creating a scenario (ie, his 'plan' to kill Kincaid) that would allow the X-Men to step in as heroes and look good. In fact, Deadpool actually shot the assassin that Osborn had put in place to kill Kincaid. Job well done!
Let's wrap this up with some comedy...
That's it for now, if ever these two should come in contact with each other again, we'll be sure to add to this page!
