I'm gonna be honest, Harry Osborn has been one of my least favorite characters in Spider-Man. I disliked him in the Raimi Trilogy, I didn't like him in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, I didn't care about him in The Spectacular Spider-Man and I felt he was the worst character in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I've never been against the idea behind Harry, that he was Pete's best friend turned greatest enemy but I felt the execution in all continuities was poorly handled.
That's why when Insomniac's Spider-Man 2 came out and I found myself actually caring about Harry. Some of that is due to me actually kinda liking the Research Stations in the first game (though it was silly how often the city was on the verge of disasters with most of them) but more of it comes from Harry in this continuity not being a jackass that makes me wonder why ANYONE would want to be friends with him. I know that is mainly down to him having a rather shit father but to paraphrase Chuck
"Yes, yes I don't doubt htat being raised by a man who was a blood thirsty psychopath who dressed like a reject Wizard of Oz character propably had it's downside. But I think you don't have anyone but yourself to blame for the fact that, well let's be honest with outselves, you're a horrible person who don one likes or respects."
But in this continuity Norman is a caring father who does have a more human and caring side. Devil's Breath was made to try and cure his son which he, by all accounts, had every intention of sharing with the rest of the world (likely for overblown prices so few could actually use it because let's not forget all the other BS Norman has done in this series). And Harry's mom, Emily seems to have been a saint that was too good for this sinful world which is a bit cheesy but no more so than Uncle Ben and Aunt May were.
As a result Harry ISN'T a little shit and instead an likeable person who's first instinct when seeing people in danger is to go and help Spider-Man even before he knows that's his best friend.
As such I grew to, for the first time since I joined this fandom back with The Animated Series actually give a shit about Harry Osborn. I sympathized with him, felt his excitement when he realized he could be a superhero, and I wasn't even slightly annoyed at him when he screwed up and nearly got Tomb Stone killed as both Peter and Miles screwed up just as much. And hey they still saved TS thanks to Harry taking a risk and going into the furnace.
And I felt bad for him when things started to go wrong and it seemed like his best friend was going to let him die just to keep the Venom Symbiote. When he lashed out at Peter I understood why he would do so because he didn't have the full context and was clearly in pain despite likely taking a ton of pain meds.
So at the end I was glad that Miles was able to revive Harry with his powers but now the question stands, what's next for Harry? Contrary to what some think Harry ISN'T brain dead at the end of SM2 but it is likely to happen and the game's have very clearly set-up Norman to become the Green Goblin and making Harry either the Goblin or the Hobgoblin just seems like a lazy retread after what happened with Venom.
So, there seems to be only two possible outcomes, either Harry dies which sets Norman on his path to take revenge on Peter, Miles and likely Cindy OR Harry doesn't die and is able to make a full recovery and is able to save his father from himself. Keep in mind that Norman is already planning revenge against the Spider-Pals because what happened to his son is their fault in his mind. Also something that is often forgotten is that during the Original Comics runs under Lee and Ditko Norman DID love his son and Peter was able to talk sense into the Goblin by talking about his son. And Norman was able to take control from the Goblin persona because the idea of Harry knowing of Norman's crimes was too much for him.
Now personally I think they may go in the direction of Norman dying because it seems that the series has been setting Norman up as a tragic villain and 9 times out of 10 that only ends one way. However, that doesn't mean that Harry has to die. He could recover and his father could still die. Peter saves his best friend but Norman dies.
Thoughts?
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