Norman Osborn becomes the Infraggable Krunk

[flint_marko]

It's revealed in a flashback that Monica Rappaccini gave Norman the powers of the Super-Adaptoid.

In the present, Norman copies the powers of the Red Hulk and hulks out. He battles the Avengers until Quake causes an earthquake in the center of his heart.









Cap later says that Osborn is in a deep coma, his brain is fried, "and his body, well, he has no one to blame but himself."

There's also a mention of having the new Dark Avengers (who were defeated in New Avengers #23, which hasn't come out yet) joining the Thunderbolts Initiative, which is possibly connected to Thunderbolts being renamed Dark Avengers with #175.

Comments

[sherkahn]

A purple Hulk... that was all that was missing.

[long_silence]

Are there yellow, orange and pink Hulks?

[eyz]

Without further redo, I give you...

Orange Hulk!

Blue Hulk!

Yellow Hulk!

and Pink Hulk! (ok... I'm cheating on this one :P)

..wait! Nope, there is one:

[leoboiko]

Bravo!

[cypherfdp]

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090522221707/dexterslab/images/thumb/a/af/Krunk.jpg/671px-Krunk.jpg

[darkknightjrk]

Well...uh...that's certainly not a direction I would have expected for Norman.

[nemryn]

An earthquake in his heart?

Oh, comics.

[glprime]

+1

[mrstatham]

Bendis has had Daisy/Quake do it before. She disabled the super-empowered Magneto (charged with all the mutant stuff floating around after M-Day, I think?) by basically screwing his heart up.

Again, yeah. Comics.

[skjam]

Ah yes, I remember now that the Super-Adaptoid originally was careful to only manifest the powers of some Avengers at a time because trying to use too much power at once would overload it. I suspect that's back in force.

[skjam]

Also, because that cynical guy from the Doctor Octopus post a while back writes the obituary, it will say that Norman Osborn was a "nobody" who didn't accomplish anything important with his life.

[mrstatham]

Would you actually want anyone to say that Norman Osborn accomplished important things? That would mean actually, you know, conceding stuff to him, basically.

[skjam]

No. That was my intended joke, that Norman thinks here how he's going to leave this big legacy...but no, he'll be remembered as a loser who had an inexplicable run of luck.

[crinos]

I thought that it was he could only store the powers of seven people at a time.

What's baffling here is..

[steverodgers5]

Why is the Vision reaching out to touch Norman again, when there's just been a panel that makes it very clear that Norman already has duplicated his power?

I mean he's not gonna get more power from the same type of person touching him again, indeed wasn't that how Spidey was able to figure out how to defeat the last human super-adaptoid in the New Avengers annual that Bendis wrote!?! (i.e That she wouldn't get any more powerful from a whole bunch of Iron man armours attacking her than she would from just the one?)

Re: What's baffling here is..

[icon_uk]

In case Norman might have dumped Visions powerset for someone else's (voluntarily or not)? Vision is wanting to remove that possibility by making sure the power is there to be copied.

[rainspirit]

Page 2, first panel.

The expression that Norman makes when he DOESN'T make the Sins Past O-face.

[flint_marko]

actually page 3, i mixed up the order there

[randyripoff]

Should we just change the phrase "Mary Sue" to "Norman Osborne"?

[flint_marko]

How is he a Mary Sue here? Because has the Super-Adaptoid's powers?

[freezer]

Nah: less "sue" more "Joker."

[blackruzsa]

Norman...
Why all the good villains?
:[

[benuben]

It's like Marvel wanted their own version of Jason Todd becoming mutated blob. It's even sadder, considering DeConnick made so much things for Bendis to work with.

Anyway, who wants to see team up between purple Hulk Norman and magic firemonster Gul Dukat?

[mrstatham]

To be honest, as much as I'm glad Bendis' tenure on Avengers is finally winding down (and he's still putting out great stuff like Scarlet and Takio), I really like what Bendis pushed for with Osborn. He really elevated him to become a huge threat to every hero, and that is a rare, rare kind of development for a guy who started out as just one character's arch-nemesis.

But I really liked it. This story might've squandered what the amazing Osborn mini set up, but at the same time, I think Bendis realises the need for Norman to be put on ice for a little while. The scope of Dark Reign, Siege, and now this have really made him too big to touch, at least for a while, IMO.

[benuben]

Most of the character development was done in Thunderbolts, Bendis just got him into the right place.

Anyway, I loved the idea of Norman Osborn being this kind of threat and I still kind of do, but I have huge problems with execution. Most importantly: I don't buy it. I don't someone like this could be such threat.

I can understand putting Norman on ice (instead of letting some writer finally use him in Spider-Man story), but he could atleast make him go down with bang. If this is the only way he knows, then he sure as hell should not be main Norman Osborn writer.

[lultam]

Don't get me wrong, Ellis's Thunderbolts definitely did a lot of the ground work but Dark Avengers really cemented Norman as one of the big bads in the MU.

[jlbarnett]

personally that's the kind of development I dislike. Especially since at some point he'll be back to going one on one with his original hero, which will no longer make sense.

[mrstatham]

Well, that won't be Bendis' fault. Comics are cyclical, after all. I just think it's nice when someone pushes for some kind of development. Otherwise we wouldn't even have the whole cyclical nature of comics and they'd just go nowhere.

[freezer]

It's revealed in a flashback that Monica Rappaccini gave Norman the powers of the Super-Adaptoid.

And top prize in the WTF Decisions category (non-Guardians of the Universe division) goes to...

[thanekos]

" Rappaccini, Rappaccini, and is this the upshot of your experiment?!

.. cause if it is, thanks! "

[kamino_neko]

On whose part, Ms Rappaccini or Marvel?

[freezer]

Ms. Rappaccini (whom I can only assume she's Misa to Norman's Light Yagami).

Marvel? Meh. This is no worse than when they were trying to turn Sabertooth into Marvel!Joker. Or making Norman the boss of everything in the first place.

[flint_marko]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Rappaccini

[freezer]

Ah, mad scientist! That explains so much.

[ian_karkull]

Well, she dated MODOK for a while, so clearly she's not the best judge of character.

[hybrid2]

Thunderbolt change to Dark Avengers? O_O

But...that's my last montly title!

I have no interest in reading Dark Avenger,least of all if those new DA losers are in it.

....what i'm I going to read?

[flint_marko]

Well Parker's still going to be on it.

[spacebetween]

I doubt all of the Dark Avengers will be on the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers team. I think Luke Cage will still be in charge of who makes it in. I don't see the need to rename the title. Surely if they wanted they can make a new Dark Avengers title.

[ian_karkull]

I have faith in Jeff Parker but yeah, that made me throw up my hands in disgust for a while there.

[jeyl]

Ok, those last three panels made me laugh. I needed that.

[razsolo]

*sigh*

Can someone tell me when we get back an Avengers team who DON'T say things like "he's still alive, that is unbelievably disappointing"?

If you had no idea who these characters were and this was your first exposure to them, exactly how would you know which ones were meant to be the good guys? Because it totally reads like two warring villain factions.

[spacebetween]

Hopefully once Bendis is off the title.

Maybe then Clint will start acting like Clint again and stop being so blood thirsty and critical of villains that want to be heroes. Bendis forgots that Clint was an ex-villain and he led the Thunderbolts.

[flint_marko]

Do you mean Victoria Hand, or someone else?

[ian_karkull]

I highly recommend Secret Avengers then. Remender is writing the only Avengers book that actually feels like an Avengers book.

[spacebetween]

So is it true that H.A.M.M.E.R. is finally disbanded?
How did H.A.M.M.E.R. get A.I.M., Hydra and the Hand to join with them anyway? Or was it just a magical plotline that was never touched upon and just happened.

[icon_uk]

Osborn power!

[spacebetween]

Ahh the magical power of Osborn brings everyone together. If it was say Doom, Loki or Thanos that I could believe, but Osborn for all his wealth and power I can't, probably because for the longest time he just spent his time fighting Spider-Man and no one else too often.

[big_daddy_d]

Thunderbolts being renamed Dark Avengers with #175.

Does this mean Luke will no longer be leading the team?

Huh...

[benuben]

Let me get this straight.
In Osborn miniseries, Kelly Sue DeConnick portrayed Osborn as patient, smart, tactical mastermind who, despite being cold blooded bastard, still has great sense for humor, charm and is always in control, even when things go wrong. I honestly could buy, that someone like him could get followers and be feared so much.

And then... Bendis gives us this. And people complained about Jeph Loeb not understanding word subtle.

BTW, does anyone know what is DeConnick writing now?

Re: Huh...

[long_silence]

I think she's going to be writing the new Captain Marvel series starring Carol.

Re: Huh...

[salinea]

I know right. I do so miss the Osborn from that excellent mini.

Re: Huh...

[cyberghostface]

This is pretty bad but Bendis wrote a good Norman Osborn during his tenure on Dark Avengers.

[eyz]

So now we officially have a Purple Hulk around!

[crinos]

Spidey kills me here.

"Hey Norman! Remember me from that thing at the place?"

[mrstatham]

Bendis has always written a great Spidey, though. Even though his Avengers is incredibly divisive, he always writes a great Spidey. Further contributes to the idea that the one actually starring in Amazing Spider-Man is in a seperate bubble universe where he fucked up royally.

Ye Olde Curmudgeon Grumbles

[filkertom]

I certainly understand the Mary/Gary Sue reference. And the Joker reference. Hey, we have no idea what to do with a story! Let's get Norman Osborn involved somehow. And give him some more powers. A- and a pony or somethin'.

This is one area where I admit I don't give a shit about canon. I never have. Norman Osborn was impaled by his Goblin Glider in Amazing Spider-Man #1223. The End. Everything after was an attempt to milk a character who, all efforts to the contrary, had run its course.

And get off my lawn.

Re: Ye Olde Curmudgeon Grumbles

[icon_uk]

Personally I'd have read the adventures of Norman and his pony... especially if HE viewed it as a magical space pony who could talk, but everyone else just saw a threadbare nag.

Re: Ye Olde Curmudgeon Grumbles

[halloweenjack]

I'm with you. It's not like criminal masterminds are difficult to find, in the MU or any other.

Re: Ye Olde Curmudgeon Grumbles

[nemryn]

No! There will be no pony for Norman! All the ponies shall belong to DOOM!

Oh wow...

[silverzeo]

This MUST be the end of Norman Osborn. He has turned into the purple Hulk and fought the Avengers before slipping into a coma with a bad body, it is not like any other mainstream evil large business owner had a suffer great body damage only to be cured within a couple of years.

Seriously.... Parasite Hulk?

Re: Oh wow...

[cyberghostface]

The guy was impaled through the heart and walked away from the morgue, he'll shake this off in no time.

[cyberghostface]

This is just silly. What was the point of bringing him back after Dark Reign if this is all that he does?

Better to just leave him in the jail cell with the Goblin taunting him.

[lascoden]

Is there a reason Spider-Man is wearing his FF costume?