Overly Devoted Archivist Uncategorized #I gave her a maiden name for a fanfic once #It was David, emily osborn, harry osborn, norman osborn, spiderman 0 Comments

Anonymous: You posted something related to Harry Osborn. You also spoke about his mother. Can you please tell more about her mother.. Some sources say she died when he was a year old, some say she died when he was 9 or 10.. I don’t understand! 

tholluckth:

Well! In the 616 universe, Emily Osborn died shortly after giving birth to Harry, because of assumed complications in the pregnancy or the birth. As for your sources that say that she died when he was around nine or ten, those might (might!) be talking about the Ultimates, but I couldn’t find a reliable source saying one way or the other, and I’m not at home at the moment to sort through my comics to find any references.

But, since the TASM movies seem to be doing an odd mash up of the Ults, we can maybe assume that she died in the movies around the time that she died in the Ults comics. However! I’m not claiming to be an expert here, and if anyone has anything to add, that’d be so great thank you ;3;

I’ve always been fascinated by Emily (I mean, dude. This is the person Norman described as the best woman he’d ever known.) Here’s what I know:

616 continuity: She died when Harry was still very young. As complications from the pregnancy may have weakened her, that’s the core of Norman’s resentment towards Harry- that he killed his mother, the person he loved more than anyone, just by being born. (Incidentally, as fascinating a character detail as that is, it’s almost never brought up.)

Ultimates universe: Nothing of Emily is seen apart from her charred corpse (sigh) but we know from Norman that she’s a drinker and probably an alcoholic. She dies in the very early days of Ultimate Spider-Man…fifth issue maybe? Norman burns his house down with his wife and son inside it, Harry wakes up to hear his mother screaming at him to get out, but he’s too late to save her. She’s brought up once or twice after that, as Harry outright says about his father “He killed my mom.”

Raimiverse: We only hear one line about her, Norman to Harry: “Your mother was beautiful too, they’re all beautiful til they’re snarling after your trust fund like wolves.” So he didn’t think much of her, but then again this Norman doesn’t think much of women in general really. (I really hope someone’s written something somewhere about Norman and his misogynistic traits, because I want to read it.) Emily – a brown haired woman in a black dress – can also be seen in a painting in the Osborn house and in a picture frame at Peter and Harry’s apartment. (Okay, no-one ever said outright it was her, but who else could it be?!)

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark: Apparently Emily is an actual living character in this! Sadly I neither a) live in New York or b) have a ton of money, so I have not seen it.

Webbverse: We haven’t heard anything about her and considering that series’s dismissal of most of the mothers, we probably won’t but I’m assuming she’s dead. Although I’d have loved to know if/why she married Norman knowing their child would inherit a horrible disease. And just more about her in general, really, she’s one of the cogs the entire story of Norman and Harry pivots around and we don’t even know her maiden name!