Despite having his former professor and business partner Mendel Stromm arrested for embezzlement, Norman Osborn of OsCorp only locates a portion of Stromm's serum, and knowing it is incomplete, tests it on one of his employees first, Nels van Adder. Van Adder is driven insane by the formula, which also causes him to undergo a radical transformation into a red-hued, almost demonic being who came to be known as "Proto-Goblin". Blaming Norman for his condition (which in all fairness, was Norman's doing) and killing several people, van Adder begins to harass Osborn and attempts to kill him before being knocked out of an OsCorp window by detectives Arthur and George Stacy, the parents of Gwen Stacy.