If you’ve been around my fanfiction for long enough, you might remember Faith In Humanity, my 30-odd chapter ode to the Spider-Man verse and the original trilogy in particular. Among the main characters was Emily, Harry’s late mother. Back then (this was the ’00s) she didn’t have a surname or much characterisation at all really. She was essentially the founding member of my Dead Fictional Mothers Club. I was fascinated by how heroes and protagonists never had mothers. Why were they always the ones to die?
So imagine how gleeful I was to realise that in the comics she is now not dead! It happened ages ago, but I only heard about it now. It’s funny, she looks exactly how I imagined her.
And the dyamic between her and Norman (he’s red now, whattya know) is pretty much how I always thought it would be. I love this panel here:
She’s finally got a last name, Lyman. Harry has it too now! And all the Osborn-Lymans (Norman 100% does not count) have gotten to be together:
And I don’t know what happens after this particular story. I know Harry, rather understandably, refuses to call her ‘mom’. But hey! She’s alive!
I’ll always love Harry and the Osborn story. This new (uh, new-ish) development is so pleasing to me, you have no idea. (Emily also features quite a lot in the new Spider-Man game, which is also very pleasing to me, although she’s definitely dead in that one.)
Anyway! I put Faith in Humanity up on AO3 today.
September 17, 2018 @ 6:30 am
I’ve always disliked the idea of so many dead or missing moms in fiction; TV shows and movies esp. either ignore her or rarely mention her. And it doesn’t reflect the reality that moms are the ones who usually end up w/ the kids in RL w/ the father (not dead unless in a war) runs off w/ another woman (usually younger) and neglects his kids. Where’s the mother in “My Three Sons”, “Family Affair”, or “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”, just to name a few shows? The companions in Classic Who rarely had parents that were alive; just some off-screen uncle or distant cousin, if that. Very strange. New Who may seem a bit soap opera-ish to some w/ the companions having friends, SOs, and families, but all those people give the show an air of reality it didn’t always posses in the Classic era.
September 17, 2018 @ 10:50 am
I’ve always hated that too! (Lookin’ at you Disney! I love you but you’re a frequent offender.) I love that New Who finally started giving companions families. It’s not always as I would like (Amy’s parents never being mentioned after S5 always bugged me) but I’m so grateful the show started to handle the often-messy reality of family life.
September 17, 2018 @ 12:56 pm
You’re so right abt Disney! Thanks for the comics info. I haven’t kept up w/ them in years, though. We saw Amy and Rory’s parents (we think) at their wedding, but Rory’s father wasn’t played by Mark Williams then. ;) Casting and re-casting can make my head spin.