harry osborn meme > 1/3 story arcs
american son
harry osborn
Amazing Spider-Man #121
Amazing Spider-Man Family #4
Amazing Spider-Man Extra #1
Amazing Spider-Man #122
Spectacular Spider-Man #181
American Son #1
Please don’t erase Harry’s canonical mental health issues / schizophrenia: the blog
“What should we do with this character, fellow ASM2 writers?”
“Let’s make him a corrupt, spoiled hipster. Who murders an innocent girl. Why the hell not.”
this is bull
i mean can you imagine dane harry drunk drivin go hm god
I hate this bloody movie.
I mean, I don’t hate all of it, there were some good parts, but jesus christ I don’t know who they thought they were writing but it’s certainly not the Harry I know – the schizophrenic drug addict supervillain who couldn’t kill anyone even when he wanted to. Breaking her neck with his bare hands?!?!
Hmmm, my writing brain has turned itself off, so I’m going to attempt to kick it back into gear by talking about why Parksborn – specifically, Parksborn in the original Marvel 616 continuity – is so important to me.
Okay, first of all: Harry. People generally don’t really know much about 616 Harry, and I wish they did, because most of the time he’s amazing. He parents random kids! He loves his friends like hell! He goes around practically throwing jobs and money at people! And so on. When he was resurrected in 2007 he brought a bit of an ‘international playboy’ element along with him, but generally his alignment remains the same – his father is pure evil, his mental health goes up and down, but most of the time he’s one of the good guys.
And he does absolutely beyond all shadow of a doubt love Peter – this is what I mean really when I talk about Parksborn; it doesn’t particularly matter to me what form that love actually takes – just as much as the reverse is true. They aren’t the most important person in each other’s lives – Harry has children (of whom Peter is godfather to at least one), Peter has May and MJ, etc – but they’re incredibly important to each other. Peter is there to help Harry (more or less) through his bad times; Harry is there to inject a bit of fun and cheerfulness into Peter’s life every now and then. Both of them sort of need each other, and it’s not always healthy, but when it is they help each other be the absolute best they can be.
There’s a really nice quote from one of those guidebooks to the Spideyverse that Marvel puts out every so often that I think very nicely sums up the Peter/Harry relationship and its appeal: “[Peter is] convinced that Harry Osborn is truly worth saving.” That conviction’s lasted nearly fifty years! Not bad.
And lastly- this is made all the more remarkable by the fact that it’s a relationship that should never have worked. Ever! They’re two completely different people from completely different walks of life. (Also, Harry was introduced into the comics as basically one of Flash Thompson’s cronies, so on a meta level the friendship should never have worked either.) Harry’s the son of the person who murdered Peter’s girlfriend, fercryingoutloud, most people would never have gotten over that. But this is the thing, I think, that links Peter and Harry most of all – Norman tried to destroy both of them, in different ways, but they pulled through. Both of them basically serve as a walking reminder to the other that evil can be overcome – that’s sure as hell something worth saving.
…….And that, Your Honour, is why I stole and destroyed the last twenty minutes of The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
harry osborn meme > 2/2 character traits
love for his friends/family
“Since I’ve come back I’ve tried to lead a better life, tried to do right by my friends and loved ones.” [Amazing Spider-Man #581]
I’ve been trying for ages to write an(other) post about Harry Osborn and his schizophrenia/bipolar disorder, but it keeps coming down to
- Here is a guy who tried really really hard to live with his mental health issues
- And make up for the stuff he did fuck up
- And not hurt anyone
- And certainly not kill anyone
- Whilst also dealing with his drug addictions, heavy drinking, and the knowledge of what his father did to him and his friends
- He was, on the whole, a pretty good rep for the concept of ‘mental illnesses can fuck up your life but you don’t have to let that define you’
- Plus, he’s never ever killed anyone (not even Peter when he was lying unarmed in front of him) and actually on the whole seems pretty repulsed by killing
- So anyway
- When adapting for his character for another movie and introducing him to a whole new fandom
- They decided to just throw out virtually all of that
- And also make him
- A MURDERER
You’ve found the Context Captions! In this scene, Harry (after an initial bout of thoroughly ineffective supervillainy) decides he doesn’t want Peter to die after all and takes a fatal wound for him
The train passengers that Spider-Man just saved go up unarmed against Doc Ock (who is very, very armed.)
They loved each other so much don’t touch me
1) Aunt May gives her wonderful speech about heroes, but I could only fit one line in the gif 2) Gwen apologises for Peter using her to make MJ jealous
1) This is Ursula! She’s crushing on Peter so much she accidentally sets fire to things when he’s around, and then she overcomes her shyness to bring him cake 2) MORE TRAIN SCENE
1) Everyone knows this scene, probably because it’s still one of the best ones 2) JJJ proves he’s actually got badass principles
1) Otto decides to die to save the city from himself 2) Ursula wants Peter to be happy 3) Betty is Peter’s friend and he should appreciate her more
1) MJ stands up for Peter, 2) the train passengers promise to not reveal Peter’s identity, 3) The love between the central trio is what really makes these movies for me
1) Peter, with no superpowers, runs into a burning building to save people, 2) Peter forgives the guy who helped kill his uncle, 3) Awww poor Otto
1) MJ tries to defend Spider-Man against Ock, 2) The little girl Peter saved doesn’t run away and instead helps him up, 3) This speech of Peter’s is what snaps Otto back to reality
bearsbeetsbattlestar-galactica:
The original Spider-Man trilogy is campy and cheesy and it probably hasn’t really aged well, but I love it so much and will absolutely recommend it to anyone who likes the MCU simply because (as seen above) it is just so thoroughly uncynical and virtually everyone from Peter to Gwen to Aunt May to Peter’s neighbour to random bystander #563 is SUCH A GOOD PERSON
Me personally, I think it has aged well, sheerly because it never deliberately anchored itself to one particular generation/demographic (unlike one particular reboot which I will not name), but rather it was just an incredibly earnest representation of the source material.
What I loved so much about this series is that it never tried to run away from the “comic” aspect of it being a comic book movie. When I say that, I don’t necessarily mean that it was overly hilarious or was filled with zingers like a Joss Whedon production, but it was never afraid to embrace levity and even more camp aspects, and as the OP stated, it was just so incredibly UNcynical.
It took bits and pieces from canon and melded it with modern storytelling that allowed for a fresh and contemporary narrative throughout all 3 films (yes, even Spider-Man 3). It never tried to cut off any of its potential audience, it never tried to appeal to just ONE particular clique through the use of fumbling dialogue and an indie soundtrack, but rather it’s story focused on the people involved. Underneath the costumes and superpowers, these were honest-to-goodness lives that people were living, from trying to hold down a steady job to getting the rent paid, these were stories that anyone could get on board with, which is why I find myself incredibly disappointed when people just dismiss this franchise sheerly because they might not consider it “relevant” anymore.
It’s an incredibly human story, unafraid of depicting moments of weakness, unafraid of showing us that even our idols can fail, but also unafraid of being disarmingly sweet to show that people are often inherently valuable and kind, thus imbuing the series with a simple, yet undeniable humanity that never had to be forced, but rather we just naturally rooted for and gravitated towards.
It was light-heartedness, solemnity, and gravitas all rolled into one, and it is a tone that I have not seen in any vein since Christopher Reeves’ Superman films, and I don’t think I’ll see again in a superhero series to come, which is why I hold the original Spider-Man films in such high regard.
You nailed it, darn you!
I have a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff from these movies (books, DVD extras, that sort of thing) and they all come back to “We loved this story, we loved these characters, we loved this city and we loved the folks we were working with”. Sure, you can’t really count on any part of the blockbuster-making machine to be 100% sincere…but I really like to think they were.
Few things have disappointed me more than the recent backlash towards these movies. Even the universally mocked Spider-Man 3 has a hell of a lot to offer (more than a lot of other superhero films, actually), and if I’m being honest, no other franchise – not even Star Wars, not even Lord of the Rings – has had the sheer effect on me that the original Spider-Mans had. As much as I love the MCU (and I do) it’s never quite nailed the “there’s a hero in all of us” theme that was so integral to the Spider-Man trilogy. Like, you know that headcanon post going round about Brooklyn residents sort of adopting Steve Rogers and standing up against his enemies? An idea like that is what the entire climax of the first Spider-Man hangs on! (I’ve actually seen quite a lot of MCU and ASM headcanons that just make me think “The Spider-Man trilogy already did that. Go watch it!”)
S’like, yeah, these fims are about superheroes, but they’re also about goodness, really. Illustrated in Peter, of course, and illustrated in MJ and Aunt May and Harry’s sacrifice and Otto’s redemption, but (crucially) also illustrated in Ursula, the shy young woman who brings Peter food even though she can barely talk to him without awkwardness, and in the train passengers who put themselves at physical risk protecting Spider-Man from Doc Ock, and in Gwen who’s so sweet and nice she apologises to another woman for something that wasn’t her fault, and in Peter’s landlord who was really far nicer to him than he deserved at that point in time, and…I could go on, but you get the idea. Basically? When I was sixteen – and still, ten years on – I finished watching Spider-Man 2 and I wanted to be like Spider-Man.
But I also wanted to be like Ursula.
harry osborn meme > ½ character traits
generosity
“Hey, anyone need a well-manicured hand?” [Amazing Spider-Man #561]
