PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS.
OSBORN LOSES COOL IN PUBLIC; BACKHANDS EMPLOYEE.
What a headline. Poor Harry. No, Harry doesn't like pity…especially not when his family comes into the discussion. As far as Harry's concerned, nothing is wrong with his family, or, nothing that's anybody's business, not even his friend Peter's, and he would definitely not appreciate hearing Peter's most sincere opinions on his father.
Peter Parker dreads the morning he'll awaken to answer a ringing doorbell pressed by a smiling Norman Osborn. It has to happen. Maybe, he already knows, and he's just biding his time. Dicking around. Osborn doesn't 'dick around,' every little twitch and sneeze he makes is part of some widely-spanning plan, or a small spiteful jab in Spider-Man's ribs. Peter almost likes it better when the Goblin's mask is on, it's still Osborn hiding, but the Goblin just isn't stable, Norman Osborn isn't stable, but at least the Goblin side doesn't mind letting the crazy show. That's a weird thing to be in favor of. Not 'in favor,' just…homicidal maniac personality aspect, over the shady businessman? Direct mayhem over indirectly tearing his life out of its roots from the inside-out, slowly?
Then, Uncle Ben never did much like huge money-grubbing corporations, and whatever Uncle Ben believed, Peter followed suit. It was the working-class man's fear and hatred of the rich and snide, but that's stupid, Uncle Ben feared noth—
Peter is idealizing his uncle's memory.
Benjamin Parker was a human being. He had fears and he could spit in them as easily as any other man could. He was strong, he was honest and a good father-figure, better than Peter could have asked for, but he was still human. His concerns were down-to-earth, get-bread-on-the-table, ignore-the-bastards-smirking-down-at-you-from-fifty-stories-up.
Who's like that, anymore? Monopolies are illegal, big companies get sued by the 'little folk' all the time—
They're allowed to win.
Why couldn't Peter have made an enemy out of Tony Stark, or something, at least Tony's got standards—so does Osborn, but his standards usually have to do with himself.
Norman Osborn isn't a stylized, ominous, antagonistic figure looming in the background of a Disney film. As hard as Peter's teeth grit as he thinks it, he is a human being, as well. He can be taken down. Osborn oozes dissociative identity disorder like a leaky pipe, but split personalities are never perfectly defined. They bleed into the other and it is rarely beneficiary to either face. Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin are—is—one psychotic guy pretending to be two and it will catch up to him in time.
It's reminders like these that remind Peter Parker of how young he really is at the end of the day. He can't help but respond to certain things like a youth sometimes, falling back onto the safety-net of preconceived notions that will not help him in the real world. No one cares to soften the truth of the matter just because he is young, they're not supposed to know his true age. His biggest flaw, no matter his intelligence…he hasn't graduated high-school. He can't drink. Uncle Ben taught him how to drive but Peter hasn't actually purchased, or rented, his own vehicle. The Spider-Man is far more worldly than he is, he always knows better than Pete—
Oh, god.