"The problem is twofold, Norman," Lex Luthor said. "Some villains... just have a really lame gimmick. The second is that some of the ones with a lame gimmick but with decent powers just don't know how to use their powers correctly."
"Hm," Norman Osborn said. "You're not wrong. Truthfully, even with the Green Goblin, if I had played badly, I would have ended up on the D-List with the rest of them."
"But you didn't," Lex Luthor said. "And because of that, Spider-Man continually has nightmares about you."
"Flattery only gets you so far, Lex," Norman said, chuckling.
Lex grinned. "I'm being serious, though," he said. "A lot of these losers do have the potential. Take the Shocker for example. He designs and maintains his equipment by himself. If it weren't for his lack of ambition, he could do a lot of damage with those shockwave gauntlets of his."
Norman shook his head. "I know what you're getting at with this, and I want the Shocker left out of it. He's one of the few professionals out there, and with what I think you're planning..."
"Fair enough," Lex said. "And good ear. Yes, I'm planning on 'uplifting' a lame villain or two. Giving them better equipment, better training in their powers... With control measures in place of course. They'll do the crime, reap the profit for us, while we come off smelling fresh as a daisy. I've already got a fake 'Tinkerer' ready to take the fall."
Norman nodded. "...Sounds fair. Okay. Making a loser less lame. Who are we planning on?"