Harry Osborn
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Harry Osborn is a fictional character from the Marvel comics universe, both friend and foe to Spider-Man. Harry was the second person to take on the persona of the supervillain the Green Goblin, after the apparent death of the original Goblin, his father Norman Osborn.
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Biography
Harry was born in New York to industrialist Norman Osborn and his wife Emily. Unfortunately, the circumstances of Harry's birth weakened Emily, and she died after several years of illness. Heartbroken, Norman became a cold and unloving father, either dismissing Harry or lashing out at him in fury. Harry would spend the rest of his life trying desperately to earn his father's approval.
When Harry graduated high school, he enrolled in Empire State University. Among the wealthiest students in the school, Harry soon became one of the most popular faces in the school, despite his aloof manner. He soon formed a clique of rich, popular students around him. One of these students was the lovely Gwen Stacy, whom Harry had known since High School. Gwen soon became intrigued with a new student, a bookish, studious fellow named Peter Parker. Harry took a dislike to Parker, as he resented the amount of attention he was getting from Gwen, and he assumed that the reason Peter was so standoffish was because of snobbery. After confronting Parker, however, Harry discovered that Peter was actually distracted due to worry over his ailing aunt. Despite this rocky early start, Harry and Peter became friends, eventually sharing a luxury apartment.
What Harry didn't realize was that Peter was the superhero Spider-Man, and that he had twice battled his father, who had become the Green Goblin in an accident while attempting to create a super-serum. When the Goblin discovered Spider-Man's identity and captured him, he revealed his own identity to Peter. Horrified that his greatest enemy was his best friend's father, Peter's loyalties were torn during their battle. However, Osborn then fell onto an electric transformer and the resulting shock removed all memory of being the Green Goblin. Spider-Man removed the Goblin's costume and equipment, hoping it was the end of the Goblin menace.
However, Norman's memories would resurface from time to time and he would periodically battle Spider-Man, only to lose his memories again when the fight was over. These were difficult times for Harry. Having experimented with drugs since his teenage years, Harry gradually began experimenting with harder substances, which affected his mental stability and relationships with his friends. Spider-Man used this to his advantage on one occasion when, in battle with the Green Goblin, he was able to stop the fight by showing Norman his son's emaciated condition, brought on by an accidental cocaine overdose. The sight shocked Norman so much that it brought him back to sanity for what was to be the last time.
It wasn't long after, though, that stress caused Norman to become the Green Goblin again. Harry's life had fallen apart. His relationship with Peter's friend Mary Jane Watson had come to an end when she dumped him, fed up with his self-destructive lifestyle. A disconsolate Harry attempted turned to drugs and suffered an LSD overdose. He survived, but this tragedy, compounded with imminent bankruptsy, drove the Green Goblin over the edge. He kidnapped Gwen as bait for Spider-Man, and then threw her off the George Washington Bridge. When Peter pulled her back up with his webbing, she was already dead. A vicious battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin ensued, only Peter's self-control keeping him from killing the villain. The Goblin then directed his goblin glider to impale Spider-Man, but the wall-crawler jumped out of the way, and the Goblin was impaled through the chest himself, and seemingly killed. Peter was wracked with guilt and sorrow, but took comfort in the fact that the Green Goblin was finally dead. Image:Amazingspider136.jpg
The new Green Goblin
However, Harry had secretly witnessed the battle. Wanting to protect his father's identity, he stripped Norman's body of the Green Goblin costume and hid it. Blaming Spider-Man for the "murder" of his father, Harry swore vengeance. Having inherited his father's company, Harry managed to get the business back in shape as he planned his revenge. One day, to his shock, he found a Spider-Man costume in Peter's apartment, and realized that his best friend was the man he blamed for his father's death. Using his father's old equipment, Harry confronted Peter as the new Green Goblin.
Not wanting to hurt Harry, Peter avoided fighting his old friend. Eventually Harry was knocked unconscious and taken into police custody. There he raved that he was the true Green Goblin and Peter Parker was Spider-Man, but was dismissed as a lunatic. He was put in the care of criminal psychologist Dr. Bart Hamilton, who extracted the secrets of the Green Goblin from Harry through hypnosis, and buried the knowledge deep with Harry's mind. However, this was not altruistic on Hamilton's part - he then raided one of Harry's hideouts and became the third Green Goblin, hoping to become the new boss of the underworld. However, his power was no match for his enthusiasm, and the power-mad psychologist was killed by a bomb he had planted for Spider-Man. Harry was released and considered a cured man, and he and Peter rekindled their friendship.
For a while, Harry's life was a happy one. His company began turning profits once more, and he developed a romance with Liz Allen, whom he met at the wedding of Betty Brant and Need Leeds. Not long after, the two were married, and eventually they had a son, whom Harry named Normie in memory of the boy's grandfather. Harry also gave his blessing to the marriage of Peter and Mary Jane. However, Harry was forced to act as the Green Goblin a few times during these years, once to defeat Jason Macendale, the Hobgoblin. Harry even wondered if he could use the Goblin persona for a career as a superhero, but Peter convinced him that the Goblin had too much baggage for such a role, and Harry buried the Goblin menace within his mind once more, and focussed on his business and family.
Death
Image:Harryosborndeath.jpg This tranquility was shattered when the aftereffects of the Inferno crisis sundered the barrier between Harry's conscious and subconscious minds. Once again he remembered being the Green Goblin - and his irrational hatred of Spider-Man. His sanity shattered, he declared that their next confrontation would be their final one, and only one of them would be alive at the end. To ensure that he was the victor, Harry researched his father's chemical notes, hoping to recreate the original Goblin's superhuman strength. Harry made his own modifications to the formula, and upon ingesting it, it proved better than he had dreamed. The new Goblin Formula had made him stronger than both Spider-Man and his father. Now a physical match for Spider-Man, Harry planned his final revenge.
Harry took to stalking Peter Parker on his Goblin Glider, taunting him that someday he would destroy him, but he relished keeping Peter in suspense in the meantime. After weeks of this, Peter finally lost his cool and struck at Harry, only to be sent flying when Harry hit back, demonstrating his new strength. He then rocketed away, taunting Spider-Man's inability to stop him.
Not long after, Harry held a prestigious dinner at his townhouse, inviting many of his father's old business associates. However, it was actually a trap, and Harry had planted explosives throughout the townhouse, which he planned to detonate, thus destroying everybody who had slighted the Osborns. Spider-Man, fearing the worst, dropped in to investigate, only to be confronted by Harry as the Green Goblin. The two former friends engaged in an explosive battle, which ended when Harry injected Peter with a drug that left him immobile but still conscious.
However, even as he gloated over his victory, he realized that Mary Jane and his son Normie were also in the townhouse, and that the explosives would detonate in two minutes. Despite protestations that he wasn't a hero, Peter convinced Harry to use his glider to get the two to safety. Once Normie and Mary Jane were safe, Harry's sanity finally returned, and he realized that he had left Peter to die. Harry rescued Peter from the explosion in the nick of time. However, as his friends thanked him, he suddenly collapsed. The Goblin Formula was imperfect, and while it had increased his strength, it was also lethally poisoning him. Paramedics were called, but Harry died en route to the hospital. With his final words, he apologised to Peter, and confirmed that despite everything, they were still best friends.
However, Harry had one last attack to play. Sometime before his final confrontation with Spider-Man Harry had employed the Chameleon to construct LMDs of Peter's parents to play with his emotions. The plot ended with both constructs revealed to be fake with both "dying" and Peter's mind left shattered from the trauma. After nearly killing the Chameleon, Peter found a tape left by the now dead Harry who revealed his role in the plot and mocked Peter on the tape by stating "gotcha!" over and over. This point in Peter's life caused him to go temporarily insane and proved that Harry, when in the grip of insanity, was capable of cruelty comparable to that of his father.
Some time later, it was revealed that Norman Osborn had not in fact died when the glider impaled him, and that he had fled to Europe, hoping to give Harry a chance to prove himself. A year after Harry's death Norman returned to America, nearly driving Spider-Man insane with the Clone Saga and regaining the mantle of the Green Goblin when he finally revealed himself as the mastermind. If anything, Harry's death has made the rivalry between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin even more bitter than before, as both blame the other for culpability.
Powers and abilities
For most of his life, Harry Osborn had no superhuman abilities. When he drank the experimental Goblin Formula, his strength was augmented beyond that of either Spider-Man or the Green Goblin. His durability, agility and intelligence likewise increased, but the extent of these augmentations is unknown.
Harry had all of the Green Goblin's equipment, including the explosive "pumpkin bombs" and the razor-edged boomerang blades. He also rode on a modified version of the Goblin Glider that was even faster and more mobile than the original.
Ultimate Harry Osborn
Image:Ultsm73.jpg In the Ultimate Marvel universe, rich, popular Harry Osborn knows Peter Parker in high school. Despite the difference between them, the two bond; Harry improves Peter's social status, and Peter helps Harry with his homework.
Harry's father, Norman Osborn, is an industrialist, who creates the Oz Formula, an experimental solution intended to turn ordinary humans into superhumans. When a spider injected with the Oz Formula bites Peter, he gains superhuman strength and agility and secretly becomes Spider-Man. Under the pretense of fearing for Peter's health, Norman takes a sample of Peter's blood, and realizes that Oz has made him stronger. Norman then subjects himself to the Oz Formula, becoming a hideous demonic monster: the Green Goblin.
Insane, Norman attacked his family and destroyed his house, killing his wife and almost killing his son. The next day, the Goblin attacked the school but was stopped by Spider-Man. Peter believed that the Goblin had come for him, but Harry said that his father had come to kill him. Harry was then taken into custody and went to live with his uncle.
When Harry later came back, he was once again living with his father and was brainwashed by Miles Warren into believing that his mother had died in a freak accident. He later walked in on a fight between the Green Goblin and Spider-Man, and literally stabbed his own father in the back with a shattered glass window pane, reverting the creature back into his father. Harry was taken into custody again, but this time by S.H.I.E.L.D..
Later, during the events of Ultimate Six in which Norman had once again escaped and teamed up with Spider-Man's old rogues to siege the White House, Harry was used by Nick Fury to negotiate with his father. It almost worked as Harry reached out to his father, but a trigger-happy Iron Man blasted Osborn with his DNA cannon. His genetic structure now rapidly out of control, Norman lashed out in blind fury only to be gunned down by soldiers right in front of Harry.
Traumitized, Harry promised Peter that he would 'kill them all' (referring to everyone Harry knew to be involved in the incident).
Later, Harry returned to school, seemingly back to normal, but Peter is suspicious. He blames Peter for stealing his girlfriend Mary Jane and later tells her that Peter killed his father.
Through the hypnotic therapy he had Harry under for years, Norman Osborn had planted a post-hypnotic suggestion in the form of his henchman, Shaw. 'Shaw' takes Harry to an OsCorp bunker in New Jersey, where there are reserves of the Oz Serum. (It also appears that the bunker has a copy of Doctor Octopus' mechanical arms and in an inside joke, all three versions of the Green Goblin face; the classic, the movie version and the Ultimate one).
Later, Peter (as Spider-Man) confronts Harry, demanding to know why he had told Mary Jane that he killed his father, Shaw then provokes Harry to unleash his hidden abilities. Harry bursts into flame, transforming into the Hobgoblin. 'Shaw' goads the mutated Harry to battle Spider-Man, but after a lengthy battle the Hobgoblin breaks down and begs Peter to kill him. Peter tries to help Harry, when the 'Shaw' persona takes over once again and attacks Peter.
S.H.I.E.L.D. arrives and Harry suicidally attacks so he can be killed, and is promptly put down to Peter's horror. Spider-Man then attacks Nick Fury before leaving. It later turns out that Harry was not killed, just seriously wounded.
It is later revealed that Harry was caught in the same accident that created both The Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus, with Norman grabbing him by the throat. It is unknown if this later caused the transformation, or if it was the Oz bunker, or another reason altogether.
Bendis has said an upcoming arc in Ultimate Spider-Man will be called 'The Death of the Goblin' but would not elaborate on whether or not he meant Harry or his father. [1]
Other media adaptations
Despite his importance in the Spider-Man saga, Harry has made few appearances in most Spider-Man animated series, appearing only in the most recent ones. In the 1994 Spider-Man series, Harry is voiced by Gary Imhoff. In this adaptation, Harry becomes the Green Goblin after his father, the original Goblin, becomes trapped in the Negative Zone. In the 2003 MTV Spider-Man series, which ties in with the movies, Harry is voiced by Ian Ziering.
Live action feature films
In the 2002 Spider-Man movie and its sequel, Harry is played by actor James Franco.
Image:Harry Osborn, Spider-Man 2.jpg In the first film, Harry is one of Peter's high school classmates, who resents the fact that his father seems to understand Peter better than his own son. Early in the movie, Peter becomes Spider-Man and Norman becomes the Green Goblin, but Harry remains unaware that the two are his father and his best friend. At the end of the film, the Green Goblin has died at the end of his own glider (like in the comics), this time after failing to kill Mary Jane. Spider-Man drops Norman's body at his mansion, and Harry sees him. At his father's funeral, a brooding Harry tells Peter that Spider-Man will pay for the death of his father.
In Spider-Man 2, Harry's vendetta against Spider-Man brings him into an alliance with Doctor Octopus. Harry agrees to supply Doc Ock the tritium he needs to create his artificial sun if he will hunt down and deliver Spider-Man to him. After a long battle, Spider-Man surrenders to Doc Ock to protect the civilians who nobly try to defend him. Spider-Man is brought before Harry, who prepares to kill Spider-Man with a dagger. Before he does so, however, he removes Spider-Man's mask, and is shocked to see Peter's face. A dazed Peter regains consciousness, and he convinces Harry to let him go and rescue Mary Jane. At the end of the movie a confused Harry hallucinates, seeing his father's image in a mirror, demanding that Harry avenge him. Harry shatters the mirror, only to find his father's hidden lair, with the Green Goblin equipment within. Whether or not Harry will assume his father's legacy will likely be revealed in future Spider-Man films. (It should be noticed that if you go far enough in the chapter section of the DVD version of Spider-Man 2 called "The Return of The Green Goblin")